Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Michael Jackson Taking Aim at Industry That Made Him King of Pop

Aired July 08, 2002 - 07:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Michael Jackson is taking aim at the industry that made him the king of pop. Jackson claims the recording industry is a racist conspiracy. And he has joined forces with African-American leaders to investigate whether artists are being financially exploited.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL JACKSON, RECORDING ARTIST: The record companies really, really do conspire against the artists. They steal, they cheat, they do whatever they can, especially the black artists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Jackson accuses the head of his current music label, Sony's Tommy Mottola, of being "mean and racist." Sony called Jackson's charges, "ludicrous and spiteful."

Christopher John Farley, senior editor for "Time" magazine, has written extensively about the music industry. He joins us now -- good morning -- nice to have you with us.

CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY, SENIOR EDITOR, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Thank you.

ZAHN: I think we need to start off by saying that Al Sharpton, the guy that was to the left of Michael Jackson, is now saying this morning that he was taken back and surprised by what Michael Jackson had to say. And he called Sony, "a staunch supporter of black musical artists." What is going on here, and why was he standing behind Michael Jackson when he let this verbal assault go?

FARLEY: Well, Sharpton backed off Jackson's claims that Mottola specifically was racist or that Sony specifically had problems with black people. But it did hold to the claim that perhaps the music industry itself still had a lot of problems, and that's what, I think, he was up there with Jackson trying to promote the fact that the record industry perhaps has problems in the way it deals with artists.

And that's a call that a lot of people have been taking up in recent months, and not just Michael Jackson, not just black artists, but Don Henley of the Eagles, Courtney Love of Hole, a lot of artists like that have been coming forward and saying, hey, we have problems with the way that the industry deals with artists. Artists are getting ripped off. This is a problem that's been happening in the music industry for a long time.

I think Michael Jackson was giving some voice (ph) there. I think one problem with Michael Jackson being the messenger is people take a look at Michael Jackson, and go like, Michael Jackson calling racism? I mean, he doesn't look black to us. He looks beige. What's the problem here? And if you meet Tommy Mottola, you know, he's probably a couple of shades darker than Michael Jackson. So it really sort of surprises people that he would be trying to carry this banner now.

ZAHN: Is there evidence to any of the claims that both white artists and black artists are making about Sony?

FARLEY: Well, I think, again, it's probably a mistake to talk individually about companies, but probably more -- it makes more sense to talk about the history of the music industry. And certainly, over -- historically, Marvin Gaye had money problems. Jimmy Hendrix had money problems. TLC and Toni Braxton famously declared bankruptcy. Courtney Love and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) other artists complained about the fact that sometimes artists make less than 35 cents an album.

And I think a lot of people look at artists complaining and go, OK, you are multimillionaires. Why are you worrying about this? But you know, if you look at the bigger picture, you know, less than 5 percent of albums each year go -- 5 percent of all of the albums released each year go gold or platinum. So 95 percent of artists really aren't making a whole lot of money and aren't living the high life, aren't getting rich off of what they are making, and that's a problem for them.

ZAHN: Well, what kind of messenger, then, is Michael Jackson?

FARLEY: Well, I think...

ZAHN: Did anybody take what he said over the weekend seriously?

FARLEY: Well, it's kind of like the record industry this year has come up (ph) to Titanic. It's having a lot of problems with MP3s. It's having a lot of problems with records not really selling that well. And Michael Jackson is kind of like the first-class passenger on the Titanic complaining about the size of the lifeboat. Meanwhile, the people in fourth class are maybe going down with the ship.

And so, I think that's why his specific claims aren't being taken seriously, but the larger issue is very serious. I think artists don't have -- there is not a big, overall recording artists union to represent their rights. Artists don't have -- recording artists in general don't have pension plans. They don't have health care plans. And that's a problem for individual artists, who aren't selling as many albums or haven't sold as many albums as Michael Jackson has in the past.

ZAHN: We've just got 10 seconds left. There are people out there who are saying, give me a break, Michael Jackson. This is all about your latest album not selling well, and you've got to blame it on somebody, so why not just blame it on Sony? Is that what this is about?

FARLEY: Well, that could be part of it, and certainly his last album called "Invincible," a lot of people were calling it "invisible," because of how quickly it sort of tanked at the record stores. And I think when you have a record that tanks that badly, you want to look for other fall guys. But the larger issue about the problems in the music industry in general is an issue, I think, we'll be hearing a lot about more about in the months to come.

ZAHN: Did Al Sharpton look foolish standing there? And then, after the fact saying, I was surprised by what he had to say?

FARLEY: I think it looked foolish when you don't respond right away, and the next day, you say, hey, I had a problem with some of what he had to say, after people call you up and go, OK, do you believe this? I think you should probably state what you have to say right away, so that people understand where you're coming from.

ZAHN: Christopher Farley, as always, good to see you.

FARLEY: Thank you.

ZAHN: Thanks for dropping by AMERICAN MORNING -- appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.