Taking Sides: Michael Jackson "Leave Me Alone" vs. Britney Spears "Piece of Me"

Both good altough not the best on their respective albums. I prefer Britney's video on that one (and as crazy as it may sound, especially for someone who was an absolute MJ fan as a kid, I think I prefer Blackout to Bad !)

Blackout?

Blackout indeed

the Leave Me Alone video destroys any Britney vid. but 'Piece Of Me' deserves credit for not being a flat out whinefest like the Jacko track (great as it is).

Britney's song at least acknowledges why people would be after her (and flirts with that interest), whereas MJ just seems to have a persecution complex

I thought "Piece of Me" was whiny, until a few listens taught me that, far from whiny, she doesn't deny a single thing of which she's accused! Great stuff.

she manages to turn paranoia into sexual availability.

yeah, MJ's video is "artistically" better but britney's is more... I dunno, "moving", to me... I wonder why as there ain't much in it... As for MJ's, I think I don't like the aesthetic of it (I put it in the same category as peter gabriel's sledgehammer which I hated as a kid). Don't remember it perfectly, though...

PoM lyrics are great. And her delivery is also great (especially when she comes back to the lyrics of the first verse but with a voice that goes up).

"Leave Me Alone" is upbeat and catchy enough to offset the sentiment, and came out at a time when his controversies still seemed kind of benign and eccentric at worst. "Piece Of Me" is an inert mess that unsuccessfully tries to put a happy/defiant face on an ugly situation that probably shouldn't be pop song fodder at this point.

Also kind of arbitrary to pit these 2 songs together since both artists have a dozen other songs that address the paranoia and confusion of fame just as directly.

when is it ever appropriate?

I'm not unsympathetic to your argument, but she released the album more than two months after her childcare nonsense.

"Lucky" vs. "Man in the Mirror"

I mean more that it was all in good fun to address the controversies surrounding her in song a couple years ago, when it generally boiled down to people not believing she was a virgin or thinking the guy she married was a bum. But now her situation is so exhaustingly bleak that going into a vocal booth and making winky references to it seems like the last thing she should be doing, and I don't think I'd want to listen to it even outside that context anyway.

Also kind of arbitrary to pit these 2 songs together since both artists have a dozen other songs that address the paranoia and confusion of fame just as directly

do they? That's interesting....I'm afraid I lack the list-making mentality, so can think of no others. I wonder if perhaps the other songs that address the issue so directly were made by people who are not quite as famous as Michael and Britney? I can't help but think that this fact would serve to dilute the potency of the message.

OK maybe not just as directly, i exaggerated. but there are definitely a few on the last couple Britney albums before Blackout, and all over MJ's albums from Dangerous onward.

Well, there may be other songs dealing with this topic from both artists before but were they singles ?
Anyway, this comparison seems pretty fair to me... as I made it a few months ago in the blackout thread !

They're both shit.

ahah. But you don't like ANY MJ song, if I'm right, so... (and I suppose it's the same for Britney).

I like "Toxic" by Britney, to be fair.

MJ hasn't really ever done anything that's blown my skirt up, `cept for maybe "Can You Feel It?" which is technically the Jacksons.

i love that you post on every thread with Britney in the title

he's not alone.

xpost

so the perfect (and only) poll for you regarding these two is :
"can you feel it" vs "toxic", the link between these songs being... you !

"Leave Me Alone" is upbeat and catchy enough to offset the sentiment, and came out at a time when his controversies still seemed kind of benign and eccentric at worst. "Piece Of Me" is an inert mess that unsuccessfully tries to put a happy/defiant face on an ugly situation that probably shouldn't be pop song fodder at this point.

-- Alex in Baltimore, Wednesday, February 6, 2008 8:28 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Link

This is OTM. I used to walk around singing "Leave Me Alone" all the time when I was a kid and didn't even know what it was really about. "Piece of Me" is just kind of stilted.

THAT'S CUZ YOU FOOLS AREN'T EVEN ATTEMPTING TO SING ROBO-BRITNEY

I sing 'Piece of Me' all the time. :-P

do you personalize the lyrics? "Oh my god that Mordy's shameless" really rolls off the tongue.

I rewrite them as the confessions of a narcissist – "I WANNA PIECE OF ME"

it's hard to argue against one of music's great angry weirdos, michael is so seething and bizarre all the time...and i like the song too, it's sort of a robotic, industrial version of a stevie wonder clavinet vamp superstition thing except it sounds like instead of humans it's being played by those robot arms machines that weld cars in auto factories. the drums sound like (detroit) pistons.

britney just sounds aimless and scattered in comparison to the strangest man who ever lived.

also as music "piece of me" blows

it's not even one of the 4-5 best songs on blackout. the chorus is so zzzzzzzzzzzz

For angry robo-androgyne voices, I'll take "Get Naked (I Got a Plan)."

"Leave Me Alone". For the video alone, really.

Then again, I also love "Sledgehammer", "And She Was", "Steam" and the rest of that entire postmodernist animation video genre.

But Michael doesn't sound like an angry robo-androgyne, he sounds like an angry weirdo.

Let's roll the tape:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CbH04pY7alA

I'd forgotten how good a song "Leave Me Alone" is instrumentally! The Stevie Wonder clavinet reminder was right on.

'just stop doggin' me around' 'till we reach our highest ground'

This reminds me that there aren't many songs on Bad that I actually like (the title song being horrible). I like the idea of a cold robotic paranoid album (almost) entirely composed by MJ but the actual result is pretty meh retrospectively (and I think that's because of this album that my MJ phase faded).
Let's start a Bad poll !

err... how do you make a poll thread ?

"More..." -> "New Poll"

Thanx !

aww, it's like watching my first born stat to walk...

ahah. yeah, "petit a petit, on devient moins petit" !

um, why is this even being contested. "Piece of Me" obv.

well jeez u just took the fun out of the whole day

lolololol

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"Leave Me Alone" is upbeat and catchy enough to offset the sentiment, and came out at a time when his controversies still seemed kind of benign and eccentric at worst. "Piece Of Me" is an inert mess that unsuccessfully tries to put a happy/defiant face on an ugly situation that probably shouldn't be pop song fodder at this point.

-- Alex in Baltimore, Wednesday, February 6, 2008 8:28 AM

it's precisely for these reasons that "leave me alone" is completely inert and whiny to my ears, and "piece of me" is so compelling.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

predictable, i suppose. surprising given the general sway of comments though.

The inarticulate went for Britney, as ever shall be.