Yesterday, the day before Susan’s birthday (which is today; happy birthday sweetie!), I took the kids to the mall to do a bit of shopping. As I exited the interstate, a local disk jockey interrupted programming to announce that Michael Jackson had collapsed in his home and was being transported to a local hospital. While pulling in to the parking lot, the same disk jockey announced that Jackson was reportedly in a coma. By the time we entered the mall, we saw people standing around flat screen televisions, and saw the news headlines for ourselves.
Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, was dead.
How you reacted to the news (and what you thought of Michael Jackson in general) probably has a lot to do with your age. Throughout the early and mid 1980s, Michael Jackson was the biggest pop star in the world. If you’re my age and a fellow “child of the 80s”, when you hear Michael Jackson’s name that’s probably the era you think of.
When I hear Michael Jackson’s name, I remember Thriller coming out in fifth grade. I remember watching Michael moonwalk for the first time and spending the next several weeks trying to learn how to moonwalk myself. I remember a time when you couldn’t turn on MTV without catching a glimpse of Billie Jean, Beat It, or Thriller. I remember the debut of Thriller, and the debut of “The Making of Thriller”, both on MTV. (I taped them both and watched them often.) I remember We Are The World, which Michael sang on and co-wrote. I remember when his hair caught on fire during the taping of a Pepsi commercial. I remember watching people morph for the first time at the end of the Black and White video.
I remember the jacket. I remember the glove.
Michael Jackson was one of the most famous people on the planet and soon he was one of the richest. They say money can buy anything but happiness, and with his riches Michael bought his own reality. In the early days, Jackson’s quirkiness was odd, but cute and seemingly harmless. According to the tabloids his best friend was a chimpanzee, he slept in an oxygen tent, and he was having his skin bleached to become white. He build Neverland Ranch, a $100 million, 2,800 acre ranch full of amusement park rides, zoo animals and a giant compound. Somewhere down the line, “cute and odd” went from eccentric to downright bizarre. Michael was rarely seen in public without a surgical mask. He married, and divorced, Lisa Marie Presley. When paparazzi wanted photos of his children, he recklessly dangled one of them over the edge of his hotel room balcony. Rumors of sleep overs with children turned to accusations of “improper relations” with children … and at some point in time, Michael bought himself a new head; his hair, his chin, his nose, his skin … all different. When Michael showed up for his court trial, his face was literally a mess with a hole where his nose once was. It was difficult to believe that this was the same person so many girls swooned over just a few short years ago.
Like so many other young superstars, Mike ran into financial troubles later in life. (Who knew owning your own 2,800 acre ranch would be that expensive?) Neverland Ranch and its contents went up for auction. After a break from the public eye, a 50-show comeback tour was planned. Unfortunately, that never happened.
I truly feel sorry for generations younger than mine who only knew Michael Jackson for his crazy antics and bizarre behavior. They will never understand what a great performer Michael Jackson was in his prime. Online, I’ve seen several people say, “I never listened to his music, but …” — that right there dates them. There isn’t a single person my age who never listened to his music, willingly or otherwise. There’s a reason Weird Al parodied Michael Jackson and had hit singles not once but two albums in a row (“Eat It” for Beat It and “Fat” for Bad); Jackson had appeal that crossed racial, age and even language barriers. He was Jackie Robinson, Tiger Woods and Obama all rolled up into one likable dancing machine.
To those who are too young to remember, I realize it’s cool to hate Michael Jackson. Just remember that there was a time when it was cool to like him, to love him, to want to dance and dress like him. As nutty as he ended up, he’s my generation’s Elvis, our John Lennon. The closest thing to this my generation has experienced was probably the death of Kurt Cobain, which happened only 2 1/2 years after the release of Nirvana’s major label debut, Nevermind.
You can say one thing for sure; Jackson sure would have loved all the publicity he’s getting right now.
Rest in peace, Wacko Jacko.
Dance like him? Heck, how about SING like him? My first points of reference for him were The Wiz and Off The Wall, long before Thriller, and man, could he sing. I had really missed the Jackson Five era, but I was actively listening to music by the time Off The Wall came along, and even though it’s easy to look back now and criticize it for being “too much of its time” – i.e. very disco-flavored – just about every song on it got played on radio a LOT. I’m still very much in the minority in that I like OTW better than Thriller to this day. Thriller managed to catch on like it did because MTV’s influence blew away any foregone conclusions anyone might’ve had that this was strictly “black” music. Now it was just good music, period – catchy as hell, and man, could he sing.
Thriller is one of those albums (like Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet) that, even if you never owned a copy, you’re likely to recognize several songs off it.
I didn’t grow up a fan of MJ (my parents being into rock and prog rock, his music didn’t enter my home, save for the occasional glimpse on radio or on TV, off some videos TV show — there wasn’t yet a dedicated equivalent to MTV, that came only in 1986). But like you say it’s impossible to be a child of the 80s and not be aware of the singer. Heck, i remember when knockoff jackets like his (Thriller era) were popular. And indeed, it might have been cool to mock and hate him in the past several years, but he was highly influencial (as noted by some journalists, the current crop of pop entertainers like Justin Timberlake owe a lot to his legacy, much more so than the pop stars of the 90s).
I think he was a really unhappy man who lived in a sad bubble most of his adult life, and failed at compensating for his lost childhood, on top of probably hating himself physically (why else would a handsome black man transform into someone so alien that he became genderless and raceless, at least in appearance? Whether the skin disease rumor was true or not, it doesn’t excuse the plastic surgeries.
His story is truly a cautionary tale of how child stardom (and young adult stardom) can go wrong when not properly monitored. Then again, rare are the true icons who’ve made it with their sanity intact (well, there were the Beatles, but that’s because they were a band). Look at Marilyn Monroe, another icon of her generation who was deeply unhappy with her life, despite seemingly having everything…
So, even though MJ and Farrah Fawcett’s deaths are sad, I also feel relieved for the both of them, since they have stopped suffering. I can picture them both, forever young and beautiful and healthy, free from emotional and physical pain, having the time of their lives in heaven…
Deepak Chopa, who was a close friend of his, wrote a touching tribute for Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-chopra/a-tribute-to-my-friend-mi_b_221268.html
Spot on, Flack.
Funny thing, my wife didn’t really see this as a big deal… I tried to explain to her that this is “our Elvis”.
It’s really a shame that the younger folks of today only really know about MJ for the antics that illustrated what were his latter years.
Never was a “big” fan, personally… never bought an album, but wouldn’t change the station if he popped up on the radio. Can never deny his talent and presence.
Before the British Revolution there was Motown. Motown, though not quite as popular once the British crossed the pond, survived the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kinks, etc.
My peers were 11 when the Jackson Five debuted. I can’t say I went out of my way to buy their 45s but, did I know every word to those songs? You better believe it. Because we grew up with Michael we also appreciated his genius…Thriller. Yes, I did go out of my way to buy the album immediately. I did not like most of the 80s groups but did moonwalk and try to learn the Thriller dance. Paula bought me the Thriller DVD after 13 Going on 30 came out. We’re still going to learn that dance.
If he wanted to be a recluse, peculiar, bizarre….fine. Maybe I would too if I supported my whole family since I was 5.
RIP Michael. Rock on!