As I kinda hinted to in my first reaction in the spam thread, this sucks. Really, it does suck. Yes, I know, I didn't know Jackson personally, we didn't hang out all that shit, but it is still a staple of my childhood that is no longer there. Pretty much in my young childhood, two celebrities would get my unadulterated attention when they were on the screen, one of those Michael Jackson, the other was Hulk Hogan. Hell, I tried to push MJ past metallica in the Music Tourney last year on a board full of testosterone filled violence lovers.
It's amazing just listening to most of his tributes on radio the last few days, getting to once again listen to a vast majority of his singles, just how talented the guy was. It's amazing how much of an over all entertainer the guy was. i truly believe that the guy was the last of his kind. NO musicican will command the respect and attention that this guy has in his death. When the most promising act on the hip hop scene is a socialy inept Racist like Kanye West, when pop is reduced to nothing but the best looking youngest blonde on the scene, when Rock music is less about poetry and more about self pity, its a wonder why the industry still exist at all.
Michael Jackson essentially created the genre of pop music, but stayed true to his motown roots. Listen to his early albums, the work that him and Quincy Jones did together is legendary. Off the Wall, Thriller, and to some extents bad, are masterpieces of albums. Also, the man made music videos relevant, and is credited for the early success of networks like BET, MTV, and VH1, simply put, without Michael jackson, those networks wouldn't exist.
It's also amazing to me the reaction that this is getting, as from my own personal experience, a generation gap is rearing its ugly head. Hell even on these forums you can see it. For the most part, people my age and maybe a couple years younger, grew up with the guy. Our image of the man is from Billie Jean, Thriller or Bad. He was the ultra talented musician thhat made kick ass music videos and moved his bodies in ways that would make Elvis Presley stare in awe.
Then y ou get the people that are around 20 and younger. The younger generation that unfortunately only sees Michael Jackson as Wacko Jacko, the media created entity meant to belittle a man that most of those hypocrites worshipped just years earlier. The eccentric personality coupled with his physical changes contributed to this, but it's still no excuse for what happened next.
The false accusations of child molestation, a charge that was so strong that California couldn't get it to stick, twice. I applaud Michael Jackson for being able to stand against the accusations against him, and beat the system twice. If the charges and allegations were true, then the State would have gotten him at least once in my opinion. I fully believe that this situation came about do to Sony wanting his library, overzealous asshole police officers, and of course the people that do God's work, prosecutors, simply wanting to be made famous by association with going against a bizarre celebrity.
As a fan, I stopped having interest in his work around the Free Willy time. After Dangerous, the music became less and less about creating fun, upbeat music, and instead about preaching a message. There's nothing wrong with that, but there's a reason his popularity began to decline from that point. It's like Rage Against the Machine, sometimes you have to simply shut up, and make music, not everyone wants to hear your message. I applaud Jackson for using his label as "Most Popular Man on the Planet" to preach upon, but I also recognize why it didn't work.
In the end, my Generation has lost it's Elvis Presley. I truly believe the last truly great entertainer has died, and alogn with it, the Music Industry will continue to die it's long, miserable death it so richly deserves. I only wish that todays music acts had a shred of the talent that Michael Jackson had in his little toe.
Rest In Peace Michael Jackson.
