It’s obvious I haven’t posted in forever and very infrequently at that. But with the devastating news of the sudden death of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop and the World’s greatest entertainer, it is my duty to say something about the void that has now been left in entertainment.
As a child born in 1980 and anyone born before or around that time, we were able to witness what it truly meant to be a star. Michael Jackson was the biggest star the world had ever seen. No one comes close to the kind of gigantic status and success of this man. My parents had known him as Michael Jackson, talented frontman for the Jackson Five but by the time I was listening to him as a kid, his celebrity was beyond immense. And it was all due to a “little” album called, Thriller, that is considered the biggest selling album of all time. I consider it, and many would agree, the Bible of Pop. If you don’t know pop music or are planning to become a pop star, then Thriller is the sacred musical text you must analyze. Even listening to Thriller now almost sounds futuristic. The music was so incredible and Michael was simply a genius at making a dance record so infectious. He was also the first black artist to be played on MTV. He was barrier breaking. Long before Oprah, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and President Obama, Michael Jackson had a massive universal appeal amongst blacks and whites. When you think of the term "racial transcendence" Michael is the name that comes to mind.
My favorite album by him, which is one of my favorite albums of all time, is the one right before Thriller, called Off the Wall. Off the Wall is a physics-defying soulful masterpiece of pop, soul, and disco. It’s boundless in its utter, spellbinding genius. I can play that album endlessly and never tire.
As I said on my Facebook status, learning of Michael’s death, I feel I’ve lost a part of my childhood. During the 80’s, Michael’s star status had been cemented and there wasn’t a person in the world who didn’t know this man or his music. We were all awed by his gravity-defying dance moves. He looked almost supernatural doing the moonwalk or those spins and turns. Despite all the turmoil and allegations that he’s faced throughout recent years, Michael was still untouchable. We can’t even begin understand what it must been like to have the unattainable heights of celebrity this man had and what it did to him. No matter all the craziness, the strangeness, the rumors, scandals, and mythology, Michael Jackson is a musical legend; the most gifted entertainer this world has ever seen. Just glad I was here to see it.
Thank you for sharing these thoughts.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite music from Michael are three tracks that seemed to never make it on any of his full-blown event albums,: 1. "On the Line", featured in one of Spike Lee's movies "Get on the Bus" 2. "Fall Again" we only have his demo version of this song but his voice sounds so beautiful singing it that it brought me to tears last night and 3. "Morphine" just because it's such an incredible piece of experimental and concept art from one of the most commercial artists.
I love this man and I don't think we gave him the credit due for just how exceptional his later work was. We have had to endure such blood-suckers as Diane Dimind coming on our TVs and saying that whenever he tried to come up with new music or new dance moves it was "same old same old" and it can ring with credibility in the uninformed ear because the media outlets panned "Invincible", but I will stand by most of the tracks on that album, whenever he could get himself into the studio he produced true magnificence.