Michael Jackson spent decades creating some of the most recognizable pop music ever recorded, but the soundtrack to his private life could be surprisingly different. Former bodyguards Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard said that when Michael rode in the car, he almost always chose classical music instead of listening to the radio or filling the speakers with his own hits.
That taste went much deeper than casual listening. Michael openly discussed studying composition from childhood and named Tchaikovsky as one of his greatest influences. In a 2007 Ebony interview, he explained that The Nutcracker Suite helped shape his thinking about albums because he admired how every section felt important. That idea eventually influenced the ambition behind Thriller.
Michael Jackson’s Favorite Classical Music and the Composers Who Influenced Him
Michael’s fascination with classical music helps explain why his work was often more carefully constructed than the label “pop” suggests. He spoke about melody, arrangement and composition as subjects he had studied for years. Tchaikovsky was especially important, while Michael also publicly expressed admiration for composers including Claude Debussy and Aaron Copland.
Whitfield and Beard said that this preference continued even during Michael’s later years. If an R&B station happened to be playing in the vehicle, he might occasionally let it stay on, but classical music remained the norm. Then one particular song came through the speakers and completely broke that routine. It was Bobby Brown’s “My Prerogative.”
Bobby Brown’s “My Prerogative,” the Rare Pop Song Michael Couldn’t Stop Playing
According to the bodyguards’ account, Michael liked the song so much that he asked them to get him a copy. He then played it repeatedly in the car and sang along from the back seat. Grantland’s review of their memoir even singled out Michael’s fascination with “My Prerogative” as one of the revealing everyday stories contained in the book.
It is a revealing contrast for an artist whose own records changed mainstream pop. Michael Jackson sold millions with songs like “Billie Jean,” “Beat It” and “Thriller,” yet away from the stage he was studying the same composers who had fascinated him since childhood. Listen to the classical selections above, then hear the Bobby Brown song that became one of the rare modern exceptions to Michael’s private soundtrack.