As Jacked As It Sounds: 30 Years Later, 'HIStory' Proves Michael Jackson Right

Michael Jackson’s 1995 album, "HIStory: Past, Present, Future Book 1," foreshadowed America's 21st-century sociopolitical issues and celebrity obsession in the wake of a 24-hour news cycle.

It all begins with descending distortion. The opening song on Michael Jackson’s 1995 double album, HIStory: Past, Present, and Future Book 1, starts with skittering distortion and sonic specters, until…you hear a scream. That scream is a harbinger of a man with a message; a musical legend here to exercise his demons while bringing bad tidings to his native country. HIStory is Jackson’s think piece on the world around him.

On its surface, the title HIStory: Past, Present, and Future Book 1 seemed to be a description of the music in and of itself. Disc 1, a collection of his 15 greatest hits, was the representation of Jackson’s past. Disc 2 seemingly represents the present with 15 brand new songs, as well as the future, indicating that he wasn’t done making music.

While there is truth to this, after 30 years, it’s apparent that the “future” portion of the title was a prophecy of issues that would befall the nation after the album’s release. With a team of producers like Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Dallas Austin, David Foster, and most importantly, himself, Jackson’s thesis on how the powers-that-be manipulate the masses with fake news and celebrity obsession to render the society apathetic and numb to the unapologetic greed, historical erasure, and moral bankruptcy of so-called public servants and false prophets makes more sense in 2025.

(Michael Jackson performing “You Are Not Alone” at the 1995 MTV VMAs at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Photo credit: Getty Images)

At the same time, we get insight into Jackson's innermost fear, fury, and weariness, which helps us, as consumers, now sympathize with other famous singers whose spirit gets disintegrated by fame.

I Was Disgusted by All The Injustice

Black musicians infusing socio-political commentary is a time-honored tradition. From Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” and Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” to Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message” and Queen Latifah’s “U.N.I.T.Y.,” it is all but essential for any transcendent, transformative artist to speak on the times.

Jackson continued the tradition of Black artists commenting on social issues, but in his own way, at first. Ever the optimist, Jackson penned idealistic songs of hope and unity, such as The Jacksons’ “Can You Feel It,” “Heal The World,” USA For Africa’s “We Are The World,” and “Another Part of Me.” As he grew older, Jackson made more realistic and pragmatic observations about social issues in “Scream,” featuring Janet Jackson, “They Don’t Care About Us,” “Earth Song,” and “HIStory.”

Jackson began to dabble with righteous indignation on his previous album, 1991's Dangerous, with songs like “Jam” and “Why You Wanna Trip on Me.” But it was the album's lead single, “Black or White,” that kicked off a new side of Jackson as a social commentator. Misinterpreted as a racial unity anthem, “Black or White” was actually a condemnation of white supremacy and their objectification of race mixing.

Songs on HIStory left zero room for allegory. “I'm tired of injustice, I'm tired of the schemes,” are the first lines on “Scream.” On “They Don't Care About Us,” Jackson sings “I'm tired of being a victim of hate/You're raping me of my pride, for God's sake” over thunderous drums. The aurally ambitious title track asks, “How many victims must there be slaughtered in vain across the land?” Jackson was weary of pleading for peace, and he was calling out all who meant harm to society.

It’s no accident that “They Don’t Care About Us” is one of the five Michael Jackson short films to have reached over one billion YouTube views. Its message has become an anthem of protest all over the world in the 21st century. Meanwhile, “Earth Song” is one of the definitive musical statements regarding the planet’s environment since Jackson’s death, with the Grammys honoring the song with an all-star performance in 2010.

A Hounding Media In Hysteria

Jackson's relationship with the media was always complex and tumultuous. Since the mid-1980s, the media have written scathing rhetoric about Jackson, his life, and his music. While he tried to use the press to his advantage, à la P.T. Barnum, the press was relentless and unforgiving.

Jackson alluded to his disdain as far back as 1982’s Thriller. The first verse of the opener, “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” Jackson belts out, “I took my baby to the doctor, with a fever, but nothing he found/By the time this hit the street, they said she had a breakdown!”

The rumor-mongering that fueled Jackson’s paranoia started its documentation there. On his 1987 album, Bad, the closer, “Leave Me Alone,” was a veiled swipe at the news, while the Grammy-winning short film was a not-so-veiled swipe. Even on the Bad outtake, “Price of Fame,” he spoke candidly of the fishbowl in was living, as he sang on the pre-chorus, “Father always told me, ‘You won’t live a quiet life.’”

(Michael Jackson during his “HIStory Teaser” video. Photo credit: screenshot)

Once Jackson got to Dangerous in 1991, he felt he could be a little more direct. On “Why You Wanna Trip on Me,” Jackson exposed the media for spending too much time on his eccentricities, and not enough time covering “world hunger,” “gang violence,” “homeless people,” and “street walkers.”

Following the 1993 accusations against him from Evan and Jordan Chandler, Jackson’s anger at the media reached its peak. Songs like “Scream,” “2Bad,” and “Money” were his unveiled commentary on how the media was a corrupt enterprise. “Money” finds Jackson rapping about the media (and possibly Evan Chandler) will go to great deceitful lengths for the almighty dollar: “If you show me the cash, then I will take it/If you ask me to lie, then I will fake it.”

“Tabloid Junkie” was his most viscerally fury fueled track. Producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis incorporated his beatboxing as the main foundation of the track’s rhythm arrangement, indicating Jackson’s full commitment and dedication to the subject. While his singing on the verses sound nearly unintelligible on first listen, the lyrics are dangerous and damning.

“Who’s the next for you to resurrect?
JFK exposed the CIA,
Truth be told, the grassy knoll,
Is a blackmail story, All your glory.”

The second verse exposes the media's practices of forming narratives on both celebrities and the Black community:

“In the hood
Frame him if you could
Shoot to kill
To blame him if you will
If he dies sympathize
Such false witnesses
Damn self righteousness
In the black
Stab me in the back
In the face
To lie and shame the race
Heroine and Marilyn
As the headline stories of
All your glory”

Jackson's indictment on how celebrity headlines (i.e. Marilyn Monroe's drug overdose) work to distract the public from more important issues as well as garner power for themselves, exemplified by lines like “To buy it is to feed it” and “To read it sanctifies it.”

“Tabloid Junkie” warned of the blurring lines between legitimate journalism and yellow journalism. Sadly, as social media, egotistical politicians spouting “alternative facts,” and AI technology dominate life, Jackson's warnings came to pass.

Am I Invisible Because You Ignore Me

What made HIStory a tricky listen for some people is the messenger. This album, full of indictments on poor people and disenfranchised Blacks, came from a millionaire celebrity whose once dark skin tone was all but gone.

It may be easy for some to dismiss HIStory, particularly tracks like “D.S.” and “This Time Around,” as self-indulgent and self-serving victimhood, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Sure, Jackson was addressing the elephant in the room - the child molestation accusations from Evan and Jordan Chandler against him. But Jackson was, indeed, a victim. A victim of success, a victim of extortion, a victim of the shoddy justice system, a victim of physical and emotional abuse. Who better to deliver this message than someone who’s been through the fire?

HIStory is a canvas for Jackson to appeal to the people and his psyche about the invisibility he feels at this crucial point in his life. The line from “They Don’t Care About Us,” “Am I invisible because you ignore me,” not only speaks to the plight of Black men and women being treated as second-class citizens, but to Jackson’s personal invisibility.

“Stranger in Moscow” and “Childhood” embody Jackson’s unshakable sense of loneliness and judgment. The syncopated beatboxing that starts the former is an aural representation of the glaring eyes on him, but these eyes offer no empathy or connection. That frigid sensation that comes when everyone is paying attention to you but still not for any comforting objective is known well by Jackson, who wrote, “How does it feel when you’re alone and you’re cold inside?”

As musicians reach a level of fame and attention, many express feeling trapped, lonely, and mistreated. Songs like Justin Bieber's “Lonely,” Kanye West's “Pinocchio's Story,” or Kendrick Lamar's “Mortal Man” all illustrate how much fame has affected them and others. Jackson stated that “Childhood,” also the B-side to “Scream,” is his most autobiographical song. The song, featuring sweeping string arrangements from David Foster (who worked on “Earth Song” and “Smile”), features some of Jackson’s best vocals and at his most unfiltered.

Jackson sings about how his love for childlike things stems from the loss of his childhood while training and achieving his dream as a music star since age five. “It’s been my fate to compensate for the childhood I’ve never known,” Jackson sang with powerful falsetto. He explained before and after the song’s release about how much of the world’s turmoil stems from the loss of innocence in children. As a result, we get emotionally stunted adults who are selfish, misguided, and angry, leading to war, crime, and corruption. Unfortunately, because “no one understands me” and viewed his connection with children as “strange eccentricities,” his words in the song, his 1993 Grammy speech, and his 2001 Oxford keynote address were ignored.

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Despite the criticism and the allegations, HIStory would not be denied. The album reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200. “You Are Not Alone” became the first single ever to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was nominated for Album of the Year at the 1996 Grammys, and it’s currently at 8x platinum in America.

Even with its commercial success, particularly overseas, HIStory serves a greater purpose today than it did in 1995. The state of politics and media proves that Jackson was right about many things. While it won’t be heralded as the great prophetic pieces of work like Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions, or Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, HIStory deserves recognition as a masterstroke of social commentary. In “Childhood,” Jackson sang, “Before you judge me, try hard to love me.” As it turns out, the world still loves Michael Jackson.