How MJ Engineered His Sound and Look   Michael Jackson
biographer Randall Sullivan (Russell Young); Untouchable
(Grove/Atlantic, Inc.)  (Special to The Root) -- What many
people didn't understand about Michael Jackson was how hard he
tried to get it right. His early training had turned him into an
artist who pushed himself and everyone around him to correct
even the slightest imperfection in a performance. Michael's
attitude in the studio was, "I am here to be the best in the
world, to be better than best, in fact, and you had better try
to do the same if you want to work with me." He would not
tolerate shortcomings. That approach was what carried him to the
overwhelming success he achieved with Thriller, and it was also
what left him stuck there. He devoted more than four years to
his follow-up album, Bad, determined, as he said at the time, to
make the record "as perfect as humanly possible." He was
confused when critics complained that it was as if he had tried
to apply a thousand coats of aural lacquer to