On the drive up to San Francisco this weekend, my friend and I occasionally tuned into a Michael Jackson Tribute station on Sirus—literally invented this week to do nothing but play his songs and talk all things MJ.
At one point one of the DJ’s remarked to the other how Michael Jackson is noted in the Guinness Book of World Records, as “the best musician of all time.” When she said that, my friend and I exchanged obligatory ‘WTF?’ looks, and each asked the obvious question: how the eff do you quantify ‘best’ (especially in a reference book so objective and reliant on fact as Guinness)?
Obviously Michael Jackson was an incredible artist whose influence on pop culture is immeasurable, but do selected record achievements like the ones below constitute him as the best musician of all time?
-”Thriller” is the biggest selling album ever, with over 50 million copies sold worldwide.
-Most No. 1 Hits in the 1980’s
-The “Bad” world tour brought in a record gross revenue of over $124 million
-”The Making Of Thriller” is the biggest selling video to be released by an artist.
-Billboard “Hot 100″ Singles Chart, Most No. 1 Hits by a Male Artist (13)
-World Music Awards, Best Selling Pop Male Artist of the Millennium
Hearing the DJ ask that question made me think not about awards, but about what awards symbolize. What does it mean to be the best? To be No. 1? We live in a society obsessed with who is the “best” in his/her respective fields. Who is the best painter to ever live? The best President? The best writer? The best filmmaker? The best slam dunker? Who is the best pop star? By giving out awards and creating little lists, we think it helps organize who is the best and brightest in our world, one intuitive number at a time.
But somewhere, there is someone(s) out there who thinks MJ wasn’t the best. He/she/they think Elvis/Tupac/Kenny G/someone you’ve never heard of was. And you know what?
They’re just as right as anyone else.
Because the truth is, there is no truth when it comes to No. 1.
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