A smooth, sensual, disco inspired ballad, Michael Jackson's Rock With You was his
biggest single up till this point and solidified Jackson as a rising musical
powerhouse irrespective of his earlier childhood success.
Brought with you was a clear attempt to reinvent the artist,
not only shifting public perceptions of the singer away from his former
teenybopper image, but also to give the audience a glimpse
of Michael Jackson as a man and seductive lover.
Considered to be one of the last hits
of the disco era, the single, along with Jackson's accompanying album,
achieved mainstream success, unprecedented for a black artist
at the time, the single is significant as it is
Michael Jackson's first attempt at genre blending, which later became so
instrumental in his rise to mainstream superstardom.
This is the story behind the inspiration,
production and commercial reaction to one of pop history's most iconic musical
releases, Michael Jackson's 1979 hit Rock With You.
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the inspiration.
After Michael Jackson had starred in The Wiz in 1978,
he approached the film's musical director, Quincy Jones, to ask if he knew of any
producers to help with future solo projects.
As a result of this conversation, Jones suggested himself and they agreed
to work together as a member of the Jacksons.
Michael was keen to branch out on his own and explore creatively with his own music.
His father, Joe, was not keen on the project as he felt it
would distract him from what should be his main focus, the group,
but was persuaded with the promise that it wouldn't interfere with Michael's
commitments to his brothers and the family business at 20 years old.
This was Michael Jackson's opportunity
to reinvent himself from his Motown bubblegum pop image
by revealing his developments as an artist, his own distinct sound away
from his brothers and other popular artists at the time
as a Motown artist and then progressing into Tranby disco and funk.
Michael Jackson was frustrated with the music industry and how they were
quick to label and box in artists, limiting their audience to a particular
niche, saying at the time, I hate labels because it should be just music.
Call it disco. Call it anything.
It's music to me.
Jackson also saw firsthand how these
limitations placed on him were all too often racially motivated.
They categorize, they get a little bit too
racial about things when it should all be together.
Our main goal in music is to integrate
every race to one through music, and we're doing that.
The production.
During the production of Off the Wall,
Quincy Jones encouraged Jackson to write his own music, but also reached out
to various known songwriters within the industry for a potential hit.
Rod Temperton, keyboardist and primary songwriter in the group Heat Wave,
wrote their 1977 hit Boogie Nights, which caught the attention of Jones,
who enlisted Temperton to write songs for Jackson.
Jones was keen for Jackson to push himself
to show maturity in the record and reveal a more sensual side of him as an artist.
Rock With You was originally written by Burton for Karen Carpenter,
who was at the time recording her ill-Fated solo record,
wanting to move away from the Carpenters sound she had become synonymous with.
She gravitated towards more disco in Up-Tempo numbers.
The original title for the song was I Want to Eat You Up.
And although Karen was keen to explore more mature lyrics, she rejected the song
for being too sexually suggestive when the song was later presented to Jackson.
He agreed to record it, but the title was quickly changed to rock
with you to fit Jackson's wholesome heartthrob image.
The song is on the surface about dancing, but the sexual subtext is clear.
Jackson wants his girl to relax and let the music take over her body.
But when they share that beat of love,
it's not likely to happen on the dance floor.
At the time when Rock was used as a verb
in a song title, it typically meant to play or enjoy rock
music, for example, KISS's rock and roll all night.
However, Jackson's interpretation
appropriated it as another way to describe dancing while implying something more.
Terms like boogie and groove are often
used in this context, but weren't incorporated into the song
because how closely they relate to disco, which could potentially limit Jackson
to a narrower audience using the word rock,
was Jackson's first attempt at crossing the boundaries of genre,
positioning himself as a mainstream crossover superstar.
The video,
although all of Michael Jackson's music videos are now referred to as short films,
the short films for Off the Wall are more classic music videos as they are
performance clips rather than scripted stories working in a preemptive era.
Michael Short film for Rock With You was
the second of three short films produced for recordings from Off the Wall.
Bruce Gower's, the video pioneer and director behind
Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, created a smoky space tunnel in an L.A.
soundstage for a glimmering Michael Jackson to shine
in a sequined jumpsuit and matching boots against the set of bedazzling lasers.
Michael danced joyously while the lights illuminated his outfit from behind.
Although Jackson's slick presentation
looks a million dollars, Gower's recalls the tight budget they had to work with.
In those days.
They were done for peanuts, absolute peanuts.
I think about all we could afford was the laser.
This one was probably about 3000 dollars.
If you look at it, there's nothing there but a laser.
And Michael Jackson,
the music video was filmed on a small
soundstage in L.A. called the 800 Stage, which Gower was able to get cheap because
they were also shooting the music video for She's Out Of My Life.
That same day, budget restraints also extended
to the videos editing because in those days, editing costs money.
Gower's recounted it was about 350 dollars per machine per hour.
If you were using to play vaccin one record, that was a lot of money.
Everything was rented. Trust me.
The cameras, the stage, the backdrop, the smoke.
However, the video's simplicity allow Jackson's star power to shine through
despite his modest demeanor on set, as Bruce Gowa remembers when we did this.
This was the start of his solo career.
He was very timid, very quiet, very unassuming, really nice.
He was an absolute pro. .
Even in those days,
the release,
the second single from Michael Jackson's Off the Wall album, hit the shelves.
On November the 3rd, 1979.
It became Michael Jackson's third No.
One on the Billboard Hot 100 and spend
four consecutive weeks at the top starting January 19th, 1980.
The song was also the fourth biggest
single of 1980, a decade whose pop singles chart would soon be dominated by Jackson.
Rock With You was also considered one of the last hits of the disco era
when disco was supposed to be sleeping with the fishes.
Michael Jackson landed a laid back
romantic disco song proving that Jackson, who was well suited for the dance beats
of disco and was able to work in the genre even when it was well past its prime.
But what separates Rock with you is
that it almost acknowledges the winding down of the era.
It was more smoothed out than even
the tracks that accompanied it on Off-the-wall
perform during the Jackson's Destiny triumphant victory concerts,
as well as during Jackson's solo Bad, Dangerous and History Tours.
Rock with you had become,
up until this point, Michael Jackson's biggest solo success.
In 2000, the song was ranked number 82
on Rolling Stone and MTV's list of the 100 greatest pop songs.
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