subject: The Musical Life Of Michael Jackson [print this page] Over the past decade, Jackson fell victim to Americas orgiastic cult of celebrity, a gutless opportunism he unwittingly helped spawn. Personal problems and public scrutiny over shadowed the image of pop genius he cultivated during the 1980s
In 2008, Jackson was a recluse and an invalid, shepherded via wheel chair by a phalanx of handlers, seemingly enlivened only by his three young children. But for all the exaggerated reports of weirdness and allegations of sexual deviance, Jackson, or at least the idea of him, remained magnetic. Earlier 2009 he sold out 50 concerts at Londons O2 Arena some 1 million tickets in matter of hours. Whatever the news, his fans believed him still capable of magic.
In considering the meaning of MJ, the difficult is that, over the course of one of historys most public lives, the individual became inseparable from the myth and the myth became inseparable from the media machine that fostered it. In this sense, Jacksons life is both a catalyst and mirror of American cultural habits over the last 30 years, fraught with all the associated triumph and dysfunction and isolation. An entire nation watched him grow up before a live studio audience, foreshadowing the voyeurism/narcissism hardwired into the age of Facebook.
His first no. 1 hit, I want you back, came out on the Motown label in 1970 with his band of brothers, the Jackson 5. Michel was 11 at the time. He followed with several successful solo albums throughout the 70s, but it was 1979s Off the Wall that put him on an unmatchable ascent. From there, he achieved colossal stardom during the Golden Age of Pop, an age he came to define. That Golden Age brought our other remaining pop icons, Madonna and Prince. It also brought MTV, where his video for Billie Jean was one of the first by a black artist to air in regular rotation. From there, Jacksons rise coincided with the channels, his big-budget, radically choreographed concepts like Beat It, Thriller Album, Bad which was directed by Martin Scorsese and Smooth Criminal video forever elevating the production standards for music videos. Along the way, MJ let loose some of the baddest dance moves known to man.
The 80s were Jacksons heyday, and its accurate to view the decade as a simpler time. Celerity journalism hadnt devolved into the lowest common denominator turkey shoot it is now. Rumours of Jacksons eccentricity a pet chimpanzee, a hyperbaric chamber, the Elephant Mans bones were spread playfully by Jackson himself. During this period, pop was in its primacy and Jackson truly was the king. Its an overlooked fact that his music was effortlessly progressive from the disco-pop double time of Dont Stop Til You Get Enough to Eddie Van Halens hard rock riffs on Beat It to the electro-goth of Thriller Album to the astro-soul of Smooth Criminal. Now entwined in the pop music canon, these songs stood out as wildly innovative at their vintage.
Music changed in the 90s: Alternative rock altered the perceptions of mainstream success, and gangsta rap offered criminality as entertainment. Culture in general changed, and we, as consumers, changed with it. By the time of Jacksons second child molestation trial, in 2005 which found the singer not guilty, he had become a punch line. Oversaturated, underempathised, cynical, we were cowed by sensationalism and unproven allegations. Heedless to truth, we wanted the tabloid story, mainly because it was all that was offered. If we danced to his music, it was with an ironic wink. But we still danced.
Even his death is a reflection of our age. The news was first reported on tabloid-style gossip Web site TMZ.com; his name was instantly elevated to twitters top hash-tagged search item; capsule tributes were posted on blogs and websites minutes after his passing.
Michel Jacksons music speaks for itself. Its some of the most infectious, ebullient pop music ever made. Michel Jackson, for whatever reason, failed to speak for himself. His legacy, greater than words or numbers can convey, is entangled within our own media-fed obsessions and assumptions. We will always celebrate his art, but we should also learn from his life.
Why was He so Famous?
Well, lets reverse the question. Why wouldnt he be? He was one of the greatest selling artists of all-time and was admired across the world as the king of Pop. Even in his later years when he was in decline and behaved oddly in public, his music still had legions of fans.
Woman Magnetism
Despite the fact that Jacko had somehow evolved over the years from a handsome young African American boy into a freakishly androgynous Caucasian man, he still had a steady mob of female fans worldwide.
Its not every day that a man could get up in front of a crowd of people, grab a hold of his family jewels, scream at the top of his lungs, and have women by the truckload faint at his feet in utmost adoration. Not only that, how many men do you know who have been married to two different women, over the course of two years (one of which being Elvis daughter, Lisa Marie Presley) He was an all-out lady killer.
