It's been a while
I know I shouldn't have kept you waiting
But I'm here now
If you got that reference, I want to hug you.
But all jokes aside, It has been YEARS since I updated this book. I've been absent from this site for a while but recently have been very active within the past year. I haven't felt compelled to update this book in particular since I've been back until I decided to vent about a topic that lives rent-free in my mind and never fails to grate my nerves the more imagines I read.
It's been a pet peeve of mine for years and nobody seems to have addressed this yet for some reason. Maybe it's just me being petty but I've got to get this off my chest.
I will be addressing this topic more directly to the fandom I write for so if you don't care for MJ please feel free to move along BUT if you do read or write for any other fandom of a by-gone era(My Queen, Beatles, Rolling Stones, and George Michael ect. buddies) stick around because you might just learn something.
So it's common knowledge that the height of Michael Jackson's popularity was the late 70s to the mid-90s. Albeit, he's still the most popular artist /celebrity of all time, even in death, but there's no denying that he was larger than life in the 80s a decade that is now 40 years behind us.
That means that most, if not all MJ fics will take place at least 20 years in the past unless they are what we Moonwalkers call a "Mature era" fic which almost always takes place in the mid-aughts or an AU.
By this logic, all those fics that are set in the 70s, 80s, and 90s should all be indicative of that particular time period and reflective of Michael's life at that time but haven't we all had a time where we are bopping along, reading a fanfic that takes place in the Jacksons era where the main girl and Michael are cuddled up watching "Aladin" or "Beauty and the Beast", a Thriller era fanfic where the girl eats microwaveable food. That Dangerous era fanfic where Michael and the love interest meet on Facebook.
Yeah.
Maybe this went over some of you all's heads or maybe you don't find anything wrong with it but I do. It's a deal-breaker for me that makes me stop taking a fic I thought was decent seriously. What is wrong with all the scenarios I named above?
Well.....
1) Jacksons Era is mid to late 70s. "Beauty and the Beast" and "Aladin" are Disney renaissance movies that were released in the early 1990s. Unless Michael and Y/N are time travelers, this would be historically impossible. They are better off watching "Robin Hood" or "Jungle Book" or even catching a Tuesday Night Movie of the Week.(Those were actually very good btw, you all should watch some on Youtube)
2) Microwave ovens were very rare in households until the mid to late 80s, thus the availability and abundance of processed, high-sodium microwavable food we know of today would likely be unheard of. Also, unless the main girl is very wealthy, she likely would be heating up her leftovers on the stove or in the oven like others in the pre-microwave era.
3) This one is pretty self-explanatory. Facebook was not a thing in the 90s. In fact, the internet was not really even a thing until the mid-late 90s and was very limited in comparison to the world wide web we know today.
It seems that it's so common to read an MJ fic that takes place in one decade but has the slang, fashion and technology of the current era we live in. What is this called, you ask?
An Anachronism.
An Anachronism is defined as the act of attributing a custom, event, or object to a period to which it does not belong and this crime happens way too much in MJ fics for my liking.
I don't know about you all, but half the excitement of reading or writing a fic that takes place in a by-gone era is getting to recapture and likely experience the journey in the time period the main character lives in. Reading a fic that takes place in the late 70s where the characters are in their early twenties is like becoming a peer of my fathers or Michael's, likewise for the late 80s and early 90s when my mom was my age.
As a person who loves retrospective pop culture and history, people start killing my vibe when they pop up in fanfics with Yeezys, youtube pranks, and all the other frivolities of this modern era. Let me run wild and free in the technicolor 80s without having to worry about Instagram and cellphones for a few hours please, sir.
I mean, it's like some people just completely forget that Michael Joseph Jackson was a literal Boomer. Born in 1958. The prime of his adulthood was the early 80s to mid-90s. Today, the dude would be old enough for most senior discounts.
Just let that sink in.
Now I know that the fanbase on this website is significantly younger than others.
The medium age of MJ writers on this site seems to be about 15-17 which makes me have nearly a solid decade on some of you all and while I'm not drastically older, I realize that most of you all do not remember life without smartphones, youtube or social media.
It makes me feel a bit old AND scared.
And yeah, while many of you are youngins, that does not mean that you must be constricted to writing in a modern time period. If you are serious about making your fic as accurate and authentic as possible, PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT EVERYTHING IS TRUE TO THE TIME PERIOD.
How do you do this?
RESEARCH.
I can not stress enough that it is the mother of all writing. I will have it etched on my tombstone if you all haven't gotten the picture by now.
Just because you didn't live through a certain decade or were very young during the height of it does not make you incapable of writing about it. There are just a few tips and methods I use when writing stories or imagines that take place in a by-gone era to avoid that eyesore that is an anachronism.
1) Do basic research about the decade. Look up the trends, the cost of living, who was president at the time, the legal drinking age in certain states, defining moments of the decade or year you are looking to write about. It sets the backdrop for your story and even fuels motivation or behavior in characters. If a fic is set in the mid to late 1980s, chances are your characters may think twice about jumping into bed with any ole person as the AIDs epidemic was coming into the public conscious at the time. A prime example of how a particular time period can radically shape your stories or your character's motivation.
2) Get a playlist. I don't know about you but when I know I'm writing about a particular era, I automatically rack my brains for songs and sound indicative of that period. If I'm writing about the late 70s, I'll likely put the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack on. Early 90s Dangerous era? No problem-it's New Jack Swing all day, baby!" It really helps you get in the mood and vibe of that era and just think, you're listening to songs that were on the radio at that time and that your characters would likely be listening to.
3) Please research the fashion and beauty trends. Another one that gets under my skin. Let me say it louder for the people in the back. PLEASE STOP DRESSING YOUR CHARACTERS IN MODERN CLOTHES WITH MODERN MAKE-UP AND HAIR IF THE FIC DOES NOT TAKE PLACE IN THE MODERN ERA.
I'll be reading an MJ imagine where Y/N is going on a date with Michael in 1988 and is dressed like a tumble girl or wearing a fashion Nova dress with a glitter cut crease cat-eye and remmy bundles.
Um, sis, do you not know how women dressed and styled their hair in the late 80s and early 90s??
These are just a FEW examples as trust and believe many of these carried into the early 90s until the trends of the decade took over. Hell, some women who came of age during this period are still rocking this look.
I get that a lot of this is not considered attractive in modern times but you all don't realize, this would have been a PYT back in the day. Let Y/N wear her Salt N Peppa bob, gold hoop earrings, and bubble skirt in peace, damn it!
(And yes, some of these are exaggerations and not EVERYONE was rocking that style but a modern woman would likely be on trend)
Leave the fashion Nova in 2020.
4) Consider the past. In this case, the past-past. If you main girl is in their mid to late 20s in mid to late tail-end of the 80s, they were likely born between the late 50s and early 60s. Very different times than the ones we live in now to say the least so depending on your character's race, background and upbringing, certain historical factors may have affected them in their childhood and shaped them to be who they are today.
Maybe their father fought in Vietnam or the Korean war, maybe their family was a victim or racist acts during the civil rights movement. Put certain things in perspective. This doesn't mean that your characters have to be front in center in particular events( a la Forrest Gump) but they can still be impacted by historical events, in the most subtle way of catching JFK's assassination on TV or reading about Watergate coverage in the newspaper. You can also achieve a historical CenterPoint by having your characters live through historical events. "Mad Men", a show I'm obsessed with does a good job of having characters live through and be impacted by present historical events of the 60s withoutbeing obnoxious about it, which leads to my next point.
5) Be subtle about it. Just because your fanfic takes place in a by-gone era does not be you have to overdo it by reminding the reader every few minutes. A prime example of this would be harping on the fad of a particular decade, overusing slang and pop-cultural references. It no longer feels like your character is actually living in that era when you make it sooo obvious. It's more like you just dropped them in that time period and they don't know how to act.
I get that it can be super exciting to write about a different era but over-saturating us with the stereotypical essence of that era almost makes it read like parody or satire making fun of the time rather than a fic that also takes place in that time. And just as now, how there are people out there that don't follow every single trend or are rather selective and subtle about which ones they do follow, you are always going to have characters that are not SO 70s, 80s, etc. I would really prefer if none of your characters were caricatures of the period.
Just keep it simple with the right technology and fashion and light slang and you will be fine.
So, did I miss anything? Are you guilty of this? Does this bother anyone else? Thoughts comments and concerns are always welcome!!