The Manufactured Controversy Around Michael Jackson’s 12 Unreleased Songs

Michael Jackson recorded 12 songs with his longtime producer Bryan Loren that were never released to the public. According to multiple sources, the songs have been collecting dust in the archives of the estate run by MJ’s family. Recently cassette recordings of these songs were found in the bottom of a box somewhere and now an auction house wants to sell the recordings to the highest bidder. The estate wants to block the sale, noting that the original copyright belongs to them so even if someone were to buy the cassettes, they wouldn’t be able to release them. The controversy is likely to drive the auction value even higher, and the auction house is planning to go ahead with the listing anyway. The question of whether the recordings will ever be heard by the public is still uncertain—so for now there is no news for Michael fans about whether the songs will be released.

The interesting thing about this story, aside from the fact that there have been unreleased songs sitting around somewhere for this long, is how easy it would have been for this whole story and “controversy” to be manufactured. The estate could have a part in the profits of the sale, the songs could be released any time and the price could be driven up just through the backstory of the disagreement. This isn’t meant to be a cynical take on the whole story, but I do find myself sometimes using this thinking process to see the story behind the story. Often, that’s more illuminating than the main headline everyone is watching anyway.