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Michael Jackson · S3 E7
The Grammy Snub
One nomination. The insult that created Thriller.
February 27, 1980, Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. Michael Jackson wins Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough," and it is the only Grammy Off the Wall will ever receive.
Can You Feel It, The Jacksons (1981). From the Triumph album, featuring a music video that Michael co-conceived with some of the most ambitious visual effects of the early 1980s. He is rehearsing for the visual revolution that Thriller will bring.
Can You Feel It, The Jacksons (1981)
Michael and Jackie Jackson co-wrote "Can You Feel It" for the Triumph album, and the vision is unmistakably Michael's. The production is massive: layered harmonies, orchestral swells, a message of unity that sounds like it is being broadcast to the entire planet. The music video pushed visual boundaries with cosmic imagery, rainbow beams of light, and the brothers rendered as larger-than-life figures.
Sources
Triumph album credits, Epic Records 1980
Can You Feel It music video production, co-directed by Robert Abel and Bruce Gowers
“"It bothered me. I said to myself, 'Wait till next time.' I was determined that the next album would not be so easy to dismiss."”
— Michael Jackson, "Moonwalk" (1988)
The Turning Point
Most artists would celebrate one Grammy and ten million albums sold. Michael treats Off the Wall as a failure. He begins planning an album so undeniable that every category, every barrier, every preconception will have to break.
TAP TO REVEAL: Why was Off the Wall shut out of the major Grammy categories?
This Place Hotel, The Jacksons
Originally titled "Heartbreak Hotel" but renamed to avoid confusion with Elvis Presley's classic, this is the darkest, most complex song Michael had written to date. From The Jacksons' Triumph album (1980), it is driven by a sinister bass line and paranoid lyrics about betrayal and isolation. Forget the polished joy of Off the Wall. This is a preview of the artist who will soon create "Billie Jean" and "Thriller."
At the 1980 Grammy Awards, Michael Jackson won Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. For which song?
Michael Jackson leaves the Grammy ceremony and tells anyone who will listen that his next album will be the biggest-selling record of all time. No one believes him.
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