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Aside from sharing the same first name they all saw huge heights of fame in the 80s and 90s few others in their careers had seen before.

Who's is the bigger cultural icon though, both in their own time and to this day?

Jackson, followed by Jordan, Tyson is a distant third.

Jackson


Jordan





























Tyson

Everyone listens to music, not everyone follows sports.

Jackson was by far the biggest "cultural icon", it's not close.


Jackson
Jordan
Tyson

Jackson is probably the biggest single music artist in history. There may be a few bands that can rival him, but no single individual can.

Jordan isn't close to being the biggest athlete in history (probably Pele, though he may have already been supplanted by Messi/Ronaldo), and in any case more people listen to music than care about sports. You can go your whole life without ever seeing a single clip of Jordan, but you can't avoid hearing Jackson songs.

Jackson is probably the biggest cultural icon in history after Jesus Christ. There is no entertainer or athlete that really comes even remotely close to what Jackson was.

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It's MJ.

Obligatory Jackson and Jordan

Nobody over 30 would even entertain the possibility that Jordan or Tyson were bigger cultural icons than Michael Jackson.

Not a hard question whatsoever. Obviously Jackson was by far the biggest icon. Jordan was a far distant second, and Tyson shouldn't even be in this conversation. Now, if you had included Ali instead of Tyson (yeah, I know his name isn't Mike), then Jordan and Ali would be fighting for second place - still a far distance behind Jackson.

as sad as it is the answer is jackson.

jordan was great but music is and always will be more popular than basketball

MINDKCUF wrote:as sad as it is the answer is jackson.

jordan was great but music is and always will be more popular than basketball

To be fair Jordan was a bigger icon than virtually all musicians of that era. He did transcend the sport. If we're looking at the 90s I can really only confidently say that Jackson, Madonna, the spice girls and the Backstreet Boys were bigger icons than him. I might be missing some others, but I think everyone else is pretty much debatable.

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this topic was done before...all three mikes on this exact topic, and i'm pretty sure within the past half year or so

i had to look to see if this wasn't that very thread...lol

Mike Hunt

I'm going with Jordan slightly over Jackson.

At Jackson's peak, he was obviously a bigger icon. It's hard to explain just don't how huge he was in the early 80's.

Jackson faded somewhat steadily though while Jordan still has his shoes and highlights played on a regular basis. Plus at Jordan's peak he was damn near in every commercial peak.

Jackson= absurdly high peak, decent longevity
Jordan = very high peak, great longvity

We had an assembly at school to watch Thriller. During the school day. I'm not making this up. That guy was on a different level.

Jackson so easily that it doesn't need to be discussed.

SharpyShuffle wrote:Jackson is probably the biggest single music artist in history. There may be a few bands that can rival him, but no single individual can.

Jordan isn't close to being the biggest athlete in history (probably Pele, though he may have already been supplanted by Messi/Ronaldo), and in any case more people listen to music than care about sports. You can go your whole life without ever seeing a single clip of Jordan, but you can't avoid hearing Jackson songs.

Sir Paul McCartney would like a word with you.