Hi guys,

I was watching special Dateline on NBC today; The Rolling stone magazine editor said Michael Jackson is/was most famous artist all the time in America even more famous than Elvis Presley.

I think personally he is the 2^nd most famous person in the world all the time after Bruce Lee.

What do you guys think who is the most famous/known person in the world all the time?

famous ta taha chaina notorious chain HITLER nai ho

Mr. hyde i pretty much stop reading your comment on the third fourth line when you wrote "Michael Jackson has a name recognition all over the world while Elvis Presley's fame pretty much ends at the US borders." because you pretty much don't know at all.  I can show you crazy fans of elvis in Nepal.

And of course hitler cannot be termend famous. Thats why the poll his name wasn't there anywhere . He was mostly infamous.


Another flawed argument and question ,  OF ALL TIME  ko sodhyo bhanera ahile jackson bha bhanera ufrine. To get proper answer of this question you should ask people of all time going back to thousands of years. Question chahi " of all time " bhanne ani opinioin chahi ahile bharkhar ko manche ko line.    Make some poll after ten years and you will get completely different picture.


   Don't you all guys know PROBABLITY.   It depends on what you sample and where you sample. This is called conditional probablity.  History ko yo point of time  when he is dead  jackson famous . Wait for ten years and do the same sampling it will be someone else.  As I said You can't compare  ERA'S .

If MJ is  " king of pop"  then  Elvis is  " King of rock and roll" .  You guys born in eightees and ninetees don't know how big rock and roll was. Elvis has sold over a billion records.  MJ is far far away behind by about 300-400 millions. Even behind beatles.

According to RIAA certifications from 1955 to 1996... The Top  Albums (sales) that went GOLD or Better were: 1. Elvis Presley (80 albums) 2. Barbara Streisand (46 albums) 3. The Beatles (39 albums) 4. The Rolling Stones (38 albums) 5. Neil Diamond (37 albums) Michael Jackson was not in the top 14  ( Just compare 80 gold or platinum album with 14) The Top Pop Singles (sales) that went Gold and better were: 1. Elvis Presley (24 Gold & 28 Platinum) 2. The Beatles (18 Gold & 6 Platinum) 3. Whitney Houston (14 Gold & 6 Platinum) 4. Janet jackson (16 Gold & 3 Platinum) 5. Elton John (13 Gold & 6 Platinum) The KING of Rock and Roll - Elvis Presley...and I don't think ANYONE is going to surpass 80 ALBUMS that have gone a minimum of GOLD..Not the Beatles, Not Michael Jackson,

No Quiero!
You still haven't figured out the difference between the words 'famous' and 'popular'. Now you talk about album sales and stuff. The question is not about who is the best-selling artist, it is rather who has more name recognition. Elvis Presley album sales numbers are flawed as mentioned on the comments by the bloggers regarding the sales tally on the same article you pasted figures from. Most comments indicate The Beatles (not an individual person) outsold everyone else with album unit sales of 1.3 Billion. After the "British Invasion" following the Ed Sullivan show, the American media and record companies desperately needed a home-grown answer to the Beatles and they reluctantly settled on blue-eyed white boy called Elvis. RIAA claims Elvis sold a billion albums but they cannot prove it and a lot of the figure was achieved by selling each record at $2.98 instead of the RIAA standard min price of $3.00. FYI again, there was a correction issued by RIAA in 1999 and lists Elvis fourth after the Beatles, Garth Brooks, and Led Zeppelin in terms of album sales in America. Then the Elvis fans launched "Project Increase" to bump up the sales figures of Elvis record sales; Now how pathetic is that? Read link here on Project Increase. This episode proves Elvis' questionable popularity in America itself let alone the rest of the world.
I am appalled there are still people who listen to Elvis Presley songs in Nepal rather than his contemporaries Beatles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Cream, Led Zeppelin or Hendrix. It is fair to say that Elvis is not as relevant now in pop culture as the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, or Hendrix are because unlike Elvis the latter artists songs are still featured as movie soundtracks or TV commercials which make them known to new audiences of this generation. Some kids in Nepal try to be different from people who listen to U2, Radiohead, Clapton by listening to Elvis.

Now watch MJ kicking Elvis' butt and make sure you read the comments which shall shed some lights on who is more famous:

1. First kura ta Billion album sold. Aba tyasma ali ali tolerance rakhyo bhane pani it still should be very large compared to jackson.

2.  You can deny the album sold but  how would you deny  80 GOLD AND PLATINUM ALBUM of elvis compared to 14 GOLD AND PLATINUM ALBUM OF JACKSON.   14 is not even remotely near 80 . That would itself mean the difference will be huge.

3. Maile bhani hale ni  thread start garne ko questioin wrong cha bhanera .

OF ALL TIME ..........Bhane pachi opinions should be collected from the people of all time (which is not possible)   and not from people from one time frame. Question chahi OF ALL TIME  bhanne ani opinion chahi ahile 80s tira janmeka haru sanga line.  

Get hold of your English teacher from Primary school and clarify the difference between 'famous' and 'popular'.

Who was more over rated Elvis or Michael Jackson?

Read for yourself here

I told you it wrong time to give a link which is just 7-8 hours old when michael has just died. It will never show proper representations.

Similarly this link,  CLICK HERE

It was taken in 2007 and majority of people said  Elvis. But I think even this does not represent the fair representations.



I have stick to my word that  when somebody says   OF ALL TIME,........the opinions should be taken from the people of all time and not from one point of time. We at this point of time can never know the true answer.  As in probablity you when you take samples, you just don't take samples from one place and time.  You take samples from different places in different time to get better picture.

Michael (king of pop) vs Elvis (king of rock and roll) can only be known may be in 2030. Wether majority of newer generations like michael or Elvis.

Ten Reasons Why Elvis Presley is Overrated

Read full story

Mr hyde........I have been telling that question is flawed. ............  ON WHAT ACCOUNT SOMEONE IS FAMOUS.


---  If you think that WHEN MORE PEOPLE KNOW SOMEBODY THEN IT MEANS THAT PEOPLE IS MORE FAMOUS.  THEN,



IN THAT SENSE SOMEBODY LIKE LEONARDO DA VINCI IS PROBABLY 100 TIMES MORE FAMOUS THAN  MICHAEL JACKSON .

 Da vinci was born in   1452 . This is 2009.  IMAGINE  how many generations have passed now. SORRY BISAL THOSE PEOPLE ARE GENERATIONS OLDER THAN YOUR GRANDMA AND KNOW DA VINCI BUT NOT JACKSON. People from each generations are born and know da vinci.  COUNT  the number of people from each generations . and hundreds of millions of people living today.   Michael jackson name will be nowhere to be seen.

JUST BECAUSE PEOPLE FROM DA VINCI ERA IS DEAD THEN YOU CANT JUST IGNORE THEIR NUMBERS. Similarly count the number of people from Elvis Era and this era. 

This question requires several qualifications before it can be answered in a reasonable way.  Noting how well known a person is/was at specific times of his/her life does not make much sense for an overall comparison with other personalities who lived at different times and under entirely different circumstances.

I reckon Jesus and Buddha....they are known by people of all era and time.period!

Without a doubt, the most famous person who lived after the WW II till date has to be Michael Jackson.

Read what an esteemed publication like The New York Times has to say on fame and Michael.

After Jackson, Fame May Never Be the Same
By DAVID SEGAL
Published: June 27, 2009

An excerpt from the article mentions
"..Fame on the level that Mr. Jackson achieved is all but impossible for pop culture heroes today, and quite likely it will never be possible again.."

Read full article here

Of course Michael Jackson is the most famous pop singer in the world. This is the reason why they call him King of Pop.

Read this article too..anyone questioning Michael Jackson's popularity??

http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/michael-jackson

Akarshan Nobody is denying michael jackson popularity . But I think you should go and read the meaning of  popular and famous given by mr hyde.

 Popularlity measure garne adhar k. There is no hard and fast rule of measuring popularity.  In music industry one of the method of measuring popularity is the number of sale of records.  And in that sense Michael jackson lags behind elvis and beatles by 400-500 million copies. Another thing is Elvis has 80 gold and platinum album.    Michaeal has just 14.  Thats huge difference.

Being famous is differnet thing which means widespread and being known by many people. But when you measure somebody famous for all the time then you have to count the number of people who knows them.  Imagine somebody born hundreds of years before. Some one like Da Vinci, Alaxender, Columbus, Abraham lincoln. . Count the number of  persons from their generations.  Generations after generations  people know them. Michaeal jackson is relatively new in this case as well.

I am not buying when anybody says that michael jackson is the most well known person in the world OF ALL THE TIME.    It is something that is immesurable.

No quiero, Michael Jackson is to king of pop and Elvis is to king of Rock and roll for your kind information. They are dominant in their own field. "Michaelmania" is goanna last for ever dude. I guess you are no one to comapare them coz they all hold popularity in their own field. See Michael jackson even married Elvis's daughter. So suggestion for you stop bullying. I see you not denying Jackson popularity but i think  you are also no one to tell them that he is either famous or popular. It's all up to them. Let them decide themself. 

No queiro,

Actually, I wasn't trying to imply that you denied MJ's popularity. I just wanted to say that MJ's popularity shouldn't be underestimated and the article does a real nice job in briefly describing his popularity.

Well, the author of this topic regards famous and known as interchangeable words. I don't have knowledge about the number of album sales and gold and blah blah. I was arguing in favour of MJ as having the most name recognition or being most widely known if we consider/compare all the single points in history and with no empirical observation but from my gut feeling. MJ revolutionized the entertainment industry in the 80's. Besides music, he innovated/promoted various dance moves which wowed the people all around the world..Bollywood which influences Billions of people went crazy for Michael Jackson and I can show you several dances that try to copy MJ..Also, even these days dancers try to imitate some fragments of his move. So, you are only comparing MJ with Elvis regarding album sales? And also, more advanced media during MJ time should have helped him more widely known on the planet than Elvis.

You are absolutely true about foolishness of comparing people of different eras. And of course, if we count heads of all living or dead people, Jesus/Mohammad/Buddha or even Leonardo Da Vinci will far surpass either Elvis or Michael Jackson.

Aakarshan, I agree. But we have to accpept there have been numerous copy of elvis verision in bollywood too. If you go to sixtees and seventees a lot of elvis and beatles song have been copied. 


MJ songs were mainly copied during the eightees and ninetees when MJ was hit.

I myself is a big fan of MJ songs. But I was only alluring to the fact that it was posted as the most famous person of all time, which I believe something that cannot be measured.

Just to let you know there have been copy of elvis songs in bollywood  too, I am giving one example.

This is a song called " tera mujse hai pehle ka nata kohi".





The song is copied from elvis song  " Yellow rose of texas".

I completely agree with you about that sth like most of all time can't be measured and we should settle on Elvis and Michael (also Buddha, Jesus and Mohammad for that matter) being one of the most famous people on the planet. Well, I just thought Michael Jackson is a more popular household name than Elvis, and it's credit goes to the better media on MJ's time too. Elvis' album might have better sales, but I would say more people knew about Michael Jackson (because of his dance too, as dance penetrates language barrier easily than songs)..About album sales/hits, for eg, 1 billion people in India might know about MJ and 500 million but might buy only 1 million copy, whereas 300 million people in US (who both know MJ and Elvis) might buy 30 million copies of Elvis and 20 million copies of MJ..these are imaginary figures and I just used them to point out flaw in your logic..album sales tell little about being widely known..