Dan Beck

In this interview, Dan Beck discusses the difficulties he experienced as part of Michael Jackson's marketing team during a time when the 'King of Pop' began to go off the rails.
Interview mit Dan Beck indem er die Schwierigkeit als Tei von Michaels Marketing Team beschreibt in einer Zeit wo die Karriere des King of Pop aus den Fugen geriet.

When Michael Jackson declared himself the "King of Pop," Dan Beck fought it. Beck was an executive at Epic Records who was part of Jackson's marketing efforts in the '90s, a time when his bizarre behavior was overshadowing his talent. By the time the HIStory album was released in 1995 (Beck came up with the title), Jackson was both the biggest star on the planet and the most scandalous.
In his decades working in the music industry, Beck pulled the levers that shaped the trends (he takes credit and blame for the Lambada) and made the hits. These days, he's doing some songwriting, most recently for the Gary Lucas & Jann Klose album Stereopticon.
We spoke with Dan about some of his behind-the-scenes adventures in the industry, including how Jackson crowned himself "King of Pop."

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Carl Wiser (Songfacts): You've had a very interesting career. You were working on the Michael Jackson HIStory album at a time when he was clearly coming unhinged, and you were in charge of the marketing. How did you handle that?
Carl Wiser (Songfacts): Sie haben eine sehr interessante Karriere. Sie arbeiteten an Michael Jacksons HIStory-Album zu einem Zeitpunkt wo er aus dem Ruder lief , und Sie sind verantwortlich für das Marketing waren. Wie sind Sie damit umgegangen?

Dan Beck: It was unbelievable, really Carl. Everything changed all the way along. You think you're in charge but you're really not. More and more things would happen and it was just a really, really challenging experience and I was very concerned that the album would come out and it would just be the absolute biggest disaster in the history of the music industry... and it had my name on it.
Dan Beck: Es war unglaublich, wirklich Carl. Alles änderte sich den ganzen Weg entlang. Du denkst, du hast alles in de Hand aber Du hast es nicht wirklich. Mehr und mehr Dinge würden geschehen und es war nur eine sehr, sehr herausfordernde Erfahrung, und ich war sehr besorgt, dass wenn das Album herauskommen würde, es würde nur die absolute größte Katastrophe in der Geschichte der Musikindustrie sein ... und es hatte meine Namen darauf.

When I started working with him on the Dangerous album [released in 1991], we were still thinking about how we could rehabilitate his career. He did the Super Bowl halftime and he did the Oprah interview at the ranch, and there were all kinds of really good things going on, but it just started to slide downward. And it's frightening to work with such a magnificent career and see it crumbling. It was just a sad situation and a very intense time.
Als ich anfing, mit ihm auf dem Dangerous Album [1991 veröffentlicht] zu arbeiten dachten wir immer noch darüber nach wie wir seine Karriere rehabilitieren konnte. Er tat die Super Bowl- Halbzeit-Show und er tat das Oprah-Interview auf der Ranch, und es gab alle Arten von wirklich guten Dingen,, aber es hatte gerade begonnen, nach unten zu gleiten. Und es ist erschreckend, mit einer so großartigen Karriere zu arbeiten und zu sehen es bröckelt. Es war nur eine traurige Situation und eine sehr intensive Zeit.

Carl: In that very last documentary that Jackson did, it becomes clear he's very strong-willed. So, if he would make a decision, he was going to push that through pretty much no matter what. Is that what happened when you were doing the work on these albums?
Carl: In diesem letzten Dokumentarfilm, den Jackson gemacht hat, wird klar, er ist sehr willensstark. Also, wenn er eine Entscheidung traf, dann zog er das durch, so ziemlich egal was da kam. Ist das was passierte als Sie mit ihm an diesen Alben arbeiteten?

Dan: It was a culmination of things. If Michael got things in his head, they became very fixed and he was very focused to move forward. A lot of what we tried to do was to establish a perspective and reasons to do things before he would get positioned on it. He was very open-minded to those kinds of ideas when he didn't have something fixed in his head, and I thought he was a wonderful collaborator in the sense that he always appreciated ideas and was very thoughtful. That's why so many really talented people liked to work with him - from Quincy to the choreographers to the video directors, the big names that were involved through his career - because in that collaborative effort he was just a pleasure to work with.

Dan: Es war eine Ansammlung der Dinge. Wenn Michael es in seinem Kopf hatte wwar es sehr fest und er war sehr konzentriert, um voranzukommen. Vieles, was wir versuchten zu tun war, eine Perspektive zu schaffen und Gründe, die Dinge zu tun bevor sie etabliert wurden. Er war sehr offen für diese Art von Ideen, wenn er nicht etwas in den Kopf fixiert, und ich dachte, er war ein wundervoller Mitarbeiter in dem Sinne, dass er immer geschätzt Ideen hat und war sehr nachdenklich. Das ist, warum so viele wirklich talentierte Leute gern mit ihm zusammen arbeiteten - die Choreografen, die Video Regisseure von Quincy an, die großen Namen, die durch seine Karriere beteiligt waren -, weil in dieser gemeinsamen Anstrengung, er war nur ein Vergnügen, mit ihm zu arbeiten.

Carl: The other thing that really surprises me about the guy is that he was such a wonderful songwriter, and it seems like you need to have some kind of grounded life experience to write these really relatable songs. Jackson was born in a bubble, yet he was still able to write songs that moved ordinary people.
Carl: Die andere Sache, die mich wirklich überrascht hat über den Kerl ist, dass er so eine wunderbarer Songschreiber war, und es scheint Du benötigst eine Art von geerdeter Lebenserfahrung, um diese wirklich relatablen Songs zu schreiben. Jackson wurde in einer Blase geboren, war aber er in der Lage, Songs zu schreiben, die die gewöhnliche Menschen bewegten.

Dan: Very much so. I was around him when he was in the studio, and he was never particularly a musician in the technical sense - he was a guy with ideas in his head and he would interpret them through musicians. But I think so much of songwriting comes from isolation. Even as a child performer he had a lot of isolated time where he wasn't like everybody else, and I think that's why he became such a good writer. He was also a student of the whole business and I think that is part of it too.
here are people who overwhelm you with what they have contributed creatively, whether it's John Lennon or Kris Kristofferson, and I think Michael was inspired that way.

Dan: Sehr sogar. Ich war um ihn herum, als er im Studio war, und er war nie bin Musiker im technischen Sinne - er war ein Mann mit Ideen in seinem Kopf, und er würde sie durch Musiker interpretieren. Aber ich denke, sehr viel von Songwriting stammt von der Isolation. Schon als Kindes-Performer hatte er viel Zeit getrennt von anderen, wo er nicht war wie jeder andere und ich denke, das ist es, warum wurde er so ein guter Songwirter wurde. Er war auch ein Student von der ganzen Sache, und ich denke, das ist auch ein Teil davon.

Es gibt Menschen, die Sie mit dem, was sie kreativ beitragen überwältigen, sei es John Lennon oder Kris Kristofferson und ich denke, Michael war so inspiriert.

Carl: Did you have any musical training?

Dan: I played piano but I was not technically very good. I started trying to write songs - simple chords and that sort of thing - early on, and then I had a passion for writing lyrics and decided to collaborate and write with other people. I wrote a lot of lyrics initially with my own melodies in my head, and if I ever used those with people I generally didn't tell them what my melody was, because my hope was that they would come up with something that exceeded my own idea, and that's usually what happened. But I had a sense of meter that really helped when I collaborated.
But I was not a very good musician and I thought I was going to hold myself back as a writer if I tried to do the music as well.

Dan: You're not looking for the ultimate tag. Maybe you're coming up with something for an advertising campaign for the record or something to give some definition.

People say, "Oh, that's a combination of such-and-such a band and..." Why? Because it just seems that people need some direction - they need something to hang their hat on: "What kind of band is that?" So, we get into these descriptions. I think it's rare that it just really works. Michael Jackson manufactured "King of Pop," and believe me, we were trying to talk him out of it.
Michael Jackson machte sich zum King of Pop und glaube mir wir versuchten es ihm auszureden.

Carl: Why did you try to talk him out of it?
Warum versuchten Sie es ihm auszureden?

Dan: Well, our feeling was that radio was going to just roll their eyes and say, "Screw you!"
Nun unser Gefühl war das das Radio die Augen rollt und sagt"screw you!"

This was around the time of Dangerous, the late '80s and beginning of the '90s, and here was a guy that the tabloids were starting to talk about his skin color, they were starting to talk about the plastic surgery and the Elephant Man and the hyperbaric chamber – I guess those were probably the first four aspects of Michael starting to take hits in the media.
Das war rund um die Dangerous Zeit, die späten 80er und Beginn der 90er und hier war ein Kerl wo die Zeitungen starteten über die Hautfarbe, die plast. Chirugie, den Elefanten-Mann, die Sauerstoffkammer zu schreiben, ich denke das waren die ersten 4 Aspekte, die die Medien hatten.

A lot of people in the media were unhappy with Michael because he didn't talk to them and Frank DiLeo [Jackson's manager] essentially kept him away from the press, I think with good reason because Michael only had so much to say and he also was a very vulnerable guy. He wasn't media savvy in the way of sitting down with a journalist and really having that engaging conversation. He was just too much in a bubble.
Viele der Leute in den Medien waren unglücklich mit Michael, weil er nicht mit ihnen rededte und Frank Dileo hielt ihn von der Presse weg, mit guten Gründen, weil Michael so viel zu sagen hatte und er gleichzeitig so verletztlich war. Er war so sehr in einer Blase.

Frank kept him away, so with all the success that he had there were some media people who were very frustrated that they couldn't talk to him. So, when things started to crack and there were more odd entities in his life, it started to turn negative.
Frank schirmte ihn ab, so mit dem ganzen Erfolg, den er hatte gab es einige Medienleute, die so frustriert waren nicht mit ihm reden zu können. So als die Dinge startetenzu brechen und es gab mehr seltsame Begebenheiten in seinem Leben startete es negativ zu werden.

Well, now, Michael starts to evolve the idea of "King of Pop" and he passes that along to his new manager, Sandy Gallin, who starts presenting this idea that we're going to call Michael "King of Pop." At Epic, we were saying, "Sandy, stop, please. This is going to hurt him and we could have people turn against us."
Were we over-concerned? Probably. We were all trying to make our own lives simpler. In the meantime, if you look back on the whole thing, he did become "King of Pop." I guess in immortality he established it and maybe he was working on that while he was alive.
Nun Michael startete den King of Pop-Titel zu verbreiten und er übertrug es auf seinen neue Manager Sany Gallin, die startete die Idee zu präsentieren das wir Michael den "King of POp" nennen. Bei Epic sagten wir "Sandy hör auf. Das wird ihn verletzten und wir werden Leute gegen uns wenden." Waren wir überbesorgt? Wahrscheinlich. Wir habe alle versucht unser eigenes Leben leichter zu machen. Ich der Zwichenzeit, wenn Du zurückschaust wurde er der King of Pop. Ich denke posthum hat eres etabliert und vielleicht arbeitete er daran zu seinen Lebzeiten."

Carl: Yeah, and Michael Jackson's an artist that you don't need to have out there promoting his new album because it's a news event in and of itself, but most artists aren't like that. And some artists will promote themselves relentlessly, which in the '80s and '90s was this dog and pony show where you'd have to go to all the radio stations and play their silly events and do the meet-and-greets. The Barenaked Ladies would suck it up and do it, hit every town, whereas other acts would just have complete disdain for this [remember the Primitive Radio Gods?]. Did you encounter any acts that were one way or the other and see how it affected their careers?

Dan: Well, we encouraged artists to get involved, to do the stuff they needed to do to ingratiate themselves with the market. You didn't want an act to be out there begging, since that was a bad image. But a hardworking act that knew how to say thank you and was interesting to speak with was a huge plus. We would sit down and evaluate the pros and cons of an artist. We certainly worked with acts who weren't good interviews or weren't good live: "Let's make a great video and keep them off the road!"
We think of Living Colour breaking from the "Cult of Personality" video on MTV. We actually shot a video before that [for "Middle Man"] which floundered, and the band went on the road and built enough momentum going that I was able to go back in and ask my boss if we could try doing another video. So, it was their live thing that actually saved us in terms of marketing, and the video exploded but the fact was it was the band playing New Haven and Albany and Poughkeepsie - that's why the band succeeded.

So, it was really looking for that "thing." Some acts in the meet-and-greets would just overwhelm people with how good they were at it, so we'd do that in every city we could.

-----------------MORE OF THIS INTERVIEW HERE -http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot…1b36c69e201bb08af7ff2970d

UPDATE. Reaktion von Dan Beck auf eine Fan-Reaktion zu den King of Pop-Äußerungen

This is a reply of Dan Beck to my comment on the hypebot article/interview through Facebook accounts :
https://www.facebook.com/dan.beck1

Dan Beck said...
Hi Brandon,
I saw your post in response to the SongFacts interview re-printed in Hypebot. You are abslutely right, and I referenced it wrong in the article. Michael's management wished to perpetuate create a campaign for the title and that's what we were concerned with at the time. The media was turning on Michael, and we thought pushing that titled could strength the media backlash. My comment in this article was too short-cut and not a clear version of the story or what I intended to present.
Ich sah Deinen Post als Antwort auf IV das in Hypebot abgedruckt wurde. Du hast absolut Recht und ich habe mich im Artikel falsch bezogen. Die Medien richteten sich gegen Michael und wir dachten, dass denTitel zu pushen ein Backlash in den Medien verursachen würde. Mein Kommentar im Artikel war zu kurz geschnitten und keine klare Version der Story oder was ich versuchte zu sagen
Ultimately, what I had hoped to convey was that in the end, he was right, and that those of us who fretted over these issues with him, were ultimately over-protective. I always saw that our taking issue was ironic, as he took those risks and succeeded, which is what a legendary entertainer does.
Schließlich was ich versuchte rüberzubringen war das er am Ende Recht hatte und die die mit ihm über das Thema stritten waren über-beschützend. Ich dachte das das Gesprächsthema ironisch war, da er die Risiken nahm und gewann, das ist es was ein legendärer Entertainer tut.
I hope that brings greater clarity to the issue. I have the deepest respect and appreciation for Michael's talent and the enormously challenging life that he lived. I had the honor of working with Michael for several years. I thought the article was going to be one strictly about songwriting, so I perhaps let down my guard when it turned into so many questions about Michael. Unfortunately, anything that is said about MJ sadly seems to be a source of clickbait. I blame myself.
Sincerely,
Dan Beck
Ich hoffe das bringt Klarheit zum Thema. Ich habe den tiefsten Respekt und Anerkennung für Michaels Talent und die enomern Herausforderungen, die er im Leben hatte. Ich hatte die Ehre mit Michael über mehrere Jahre zu arbeiten. Ich dachte der Artikel wird strikt über Songwirting gehen, so habe ich vielleicht die Linie verloren als so viele Fragen über Michael kamen. Leider ist alles was über Michael gesagt wird eine Quelle für .
Ich beschudigte mich selbst.
MfG,
Dan Beck

PS:
I tried to stop the re-printing of this story because of your point.
The "King of Pop" issue was an old story and for it to be a headline now
is ridiculous. I got toalked out of stopping it. That was another
mistake. It's horrible to have that out there. But again, I can only
blame myself.
PS:
Ich habe versucht das Weiterverbreiten der Story zu verhindern wegen Deinem Punkt. Das "King of Pop"-Thema ist so eine alte Story, dies jetzt als Schlagzeile zu machen ist lächerlich. Das war ein anderer Fehler. Aber wiederum, ich kann mich nur selbst
beschuldigen.

Die Quelle ist im 2. Post. More of this interview vor dem Update.