Music fans have not responded well to Michael Jackson’s hologram 3D whatever it was visit from the grave on Sunday’s Billboard Music awards.
Jackson’s “Xscape” album is finding favor only on amazon.com, where it’s number 2 this morning in CD sales. But the album is number 5 in digital sales on amazon, and the single “Slave to the Rhythm” is way down the charts.
On iTunes, which is a better bellwether, “Xscape” is number 5. “Slave,” the song that was showcased on the awards, is in the 40s. The Justin Timberlake duet on “Love Never Felt So Good” is in the 20s.
Apparently, the gimmick of Jackson re-animated didn’t have the effect Jackson’s estate was hoping for. The core Jackson fans may be buying multiples of the CD on amazon to keep it afloat chartwise, but in the digital world the larger music audience did not rush to their devices.
And some may be mixing it up with Grace Jones’s 1985 hit “Slave to the Rhythm.” On amazon, the more popular search for a song with that title is Jones’s, not Jackson’s.
