Wild Cherry vs Michael Jackson & Janet
A Pytski mashup from 2008. Michael Jackson goes back to funk, and takes his sister Janet Jackson along. But Wild Cherry comes back in to result in an epic battle of the brave.
Wild Cherry’s entire premise was a white rock band being told to play funky music — and doing exactly that. Michael Jackson’s entire career was rooted in funk and R&B before it became something bigger. “Scream” was his most explicit return to that angry, raw energy. Put them together and you get two sides of the same argument: one band trying to get in, one superstar trying to get out. Both screaming.
Play that funky music, stop questioning me, makes me wanna scream!
Ingredients
This mashup / mix is a blend of these tunes:
Wild Cherry
Play That Funky Music (White Boy)
Year: 1976
Album: Wild Cherry
Genre: Funk rock
About Play That Funky Music (White Boy)
Written by Rob Parissi and released in 1976, “Play That Funky Music” was born in a bar. Parissi’s band was playing to a predominantly black audience when someone shouted at them to “play some funky music” — the song practically wrote itself. It reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks and became one of the most recognisable funk rock tracks ever recorded. Wild Cherry were essentially a one-hit wonder, but what a hit. The riff is indestructible.
Michael Jackson
Scream (duet with Janet Jackson)
Year: 1995
Album: HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I
Genre: Dance-pop, R&B, pop, funk
About Scream
Released in June 1995 as the lead single from HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I, “Scream” was Michael and Janet Jackson’s joint statement of fury at the media storm surrounding Michael’s life at the time. Written and produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the song is the angriest thing in MJ’s catalogue. The music video — shot in sleek black and white on a futuristic spacecraft — was estimated to have cost $7 million, making it the most expensive music video ever produced at the time. It won the Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form in 1996. Underneath all the rage is a funk-driven groove that would have felt at home in 1976.
Leave a Reply