From the Associated Press:
LOS ANGELES — Michael Jackson, the sensationally gifted child star who rose to become the “King of Pop” and the biggest celebrity in the world only to fall from his throne in a freakish series of scandals, died Thursday. He was 50.
2 comments:
[the music grad student list has been chatting about this so i'm cut-and-pasting the email i sent to that list here...]
i was in 8th grade when thriller came out - prime male adolescent anxiety years - and i remember having, but more often observing, mixed feelings about MJ and the record. (keep in mind that it was not abnormal for kids i knew to knock the rolling fucking STONES because mick was "a fag.") so MJ was problematic for a lot of the dudes on the bus, but i think we all REALLY loved at least one of the songs on the record. predictably, for the most insecure boys, it was "beat it," because you know, it had eddie van halen on it. i much preferred "billie jean," and then when "wanna be starting something" got released, i thought that was fierce as shit, even if it sounded like he was saying "you're a vegetable, you're a vegetable"...which it turned out he was, though i didn't know that until later. i also didn't realize for a few years that some of those songs that had already burrowed into my brain by the time "thriller" came out - "rock with you," "don't stop til you get enough," and "off the wall" - were MJ songs.
i actually didn't like "thriller" the song, and had a strong instinctive negative reaction to the video. it just seemed like stupid, barnum-and-bailey shit for the suckers, and i think i actually really did fret (in a very inarticulate way) over the implications for the industry (does this mean everyone's going to have to do this shit?). "the girl is mine" was way too fluffy for me, and "p.y.t." was a merely adequate dancefloor placeholder.
the first weirdness i remember in MJ's celebrity life was definitely the Pepsi Hair Fire of Jan. 1984 - it seemed a strangely inevitable incident - almost like lady di's car crash or cobain's suicide. but it was also so damn *strange* and in retrospect it almost seemed to set the tone for the rest of his travails. has anyone else's hair caught on fire on the set? anyway, then he was hanging out with brooke shields, which was just like, wha?, and then the Victory Tour, which seemed so overblown and schmaltzy, and then "we are the world" which was a weird event and a total crap song, and then the captain EO shit, and by the time "bad" came out, michael all angry and whitened up on the cover, i had checked out of the MJ hotel. still, it's true, no one can sing like michael can, no one can dance like michael can, and that makes him forever unfuckwithable. R.I.P., michael. and condolences, don and the rest o y'all -
When I think of the incredibly talented little boy who sang and danced up a storm with his brothers, and how he came to such a sad ending...why he tried to be white, married a white, had a child by a surrogate mom, disfigured the face
God gave him...how did it come to all this??? I agree, may his screwed up and disfigured body R.I.P. but I doubt his soul will be able to do so. I cry when I see the old videos. Such a high price he paid for fame and fortune.
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