The King of Pop
(I wrote this over on Facebook, but I figured I'd bring it over here as well)
Yesterday the world lost a great talent. Regardless of how else you feel about the man, this fact cannot be denied. It also cannot be denied that we lost a troubled man, one who, while acquitted in the court of law or excused in a back room with a checkbook, quite possibly engaged in indiscretions with young children. One of these facts does not excuse the other, but just as importantly, one of these facts does not render the other irrelevant.
Michael Jackson was--and is--the King of Pop, and was almost certainly the last of his kind. He didn't make black music. He didn't make white music. He was one of the few performers who truly made POP music, the kind that was popular with nearly everyone. Michael Jackson was not just an American phenomenon, but a world phenomenon, selling out shows all over the globe. He also had multigenerational appeal. Consider that, in the 50 years of his life, he spent over 40 in--or actively trying to avoid--the public eye. And his style in song and dance was imitated, even mocked and parodied, but countless others.
The fact that the Internet nearly exploded is, to me, a confluence of several factors. One is that everyone is on Facebook or Twitter ALL the time. When TMZ broke the news, it spread like wildfire, leading first to mass confusion (is he dead? Isn't he?) and then endless outpourings of emotions and tributes.
The sudden nature of this contributed to the disbelief and emotional whiplash. Unlike with Farah Fawcett, who we lost in the same day, this situation was not foreseeable--either because no one saw it or because those closest to him made a conscious effort to keep it shielded.
The broad appeal I mentioned before obviously fed into this phenomenon. But what's more, I think it can't be discounted what he meant to my generation, a generation that makes up a plurality if not a majority of those tweeting and facebooking memorials. I've said before that as late-Gen-Xer/Early Millennial, I don't lay full claim to the '80s or the '90s, but instead consider my decade to be the mid-'80s through the mid-'90s, a time that was Michael Jackson's heyday and saw either the singles from or the releases of the albums Thriller, Bad, and Dangerous. We remember the debuts of Black or White and Remember the Time during prime time television (both on Sunday nights after the Simpsons, if I recall correctly). We remember--and may even have been among--the throngs of fans screaming, crying, and fainting at the anticipation of the sight of him.
Speaking again for my generation, this is arguably the most impactful loss of a superstar. We knew and mourned the loss of Luther Vandross, James Brown, and Barry White, but by and large, those men belonged to our parents, or at least older siblings, and we came to love them through osmosis. The same was the case with two other more recent deaths--Farah Fawcett and Ed McMahon. Sadly, several young stars which were "ours"--Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac, Kurt Cobain, Aaliyah, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes left us far too soon to have the longevity that Jackson enjoyed.
This is by no means to lay sole claim to the man's life and career. To the contrary, part of the mass appeal is that for every story like this one of those born in my time frame, there are many more reaching forward a few years and back decades more.
I'm not going to pretend to be in deep mourning about the death of Michael Jackson. I did not know him personally, nor did I know anyone who knew him personally so this loss is not a personal one. That said, I am certainly not unaffected. This may be the most meaningful loss of an entertainment celebrity I have encountered.
A few additional observations in the hours (yes, if you can believe it, still less than 24 hours) following the loss of Michael Jackson. One that saddens me is that some have foregone what I tend to consider a basic tenet of human decency: Respect for the dead. I'm not saying anyone has to pretend to like him, or even pretend to care. But it would seem to me it would be a common courtesy and a show of respect for those who do care to steer clear of the "I hope the child molester rots in hell" talk for at least a little bit. It may absolutely be how you feel, and that's ok. But it would seem to me the decent thing to do would be to stand down, at least in the immediate minutes and hours.
The second obseration iis how connected we all are, in the online sense, and as a corollary, how quickly one can get "tired" of the outpourings online. I'm not going to invalidate that feeling of tiredness, because it's very real but consider these things: While you're seeing it 500 times on your facebook newsfeed, remember that each piece of that annoying wall of endless MJ is ONE person expressing their individual feelings. Is one person annoying in expressing themselves because many others have done the same? The latter is a somewhat sad commentary on the times we live in: In another 24 hours, chances are most of us will have moved on to the next thing and while we won't have forgotten, we'll see another shiny object that attracts our attention. This too shall pass.
Yesterday the world lost a great talent. Regardless of how else you feel about the man, this fact cannot be denied. It also cannot be denied that we lost a troubled man, one who, while acquitted in the court of law or excused in a back room with a checkbook, quite possibly engaged in indiscretions with young children. One of these facts does not excuse the other, but just as importantly, one of these facts does not render the other irrelevant.
Michael Jackson was--and is--the King of Pop, and was almost certainly the last of his kind. He didn't make black music. He didn't make white music. He was one of the few performers who truly made POP music, the kind that was popular with nearly everyone. Michael Jackson was not just an American phenomenon, but a world phenomenon, selling out shows all over the globe. He also had multigenerational appeal. Consider that, in the 50 years of his life, he spent over 40 in--or actively trying to avoid--the public eye. And his style in song and dance was imitated, even mocked and parodied, but countless others.
The fact that the Internet nearly exploded is, to me, a confluence of several factors. One is that everyone is on Facebook or Twitter ALL the time. When TMZ broke the news, it spread like wildfire, leading first to mass confusion (is he dead? Isn't he?) and then endless outpourings of emotions and tributes.
The sudden nature of this contributed to the disbelief and emotional whiplash. Unlike with Farah Fawcett, who we lost in the same day, this situation was not foreseeable--either because no one saw it or because those closest to him made a conscious effort to keep it shielded.
The broad appeal I mentioned before obviously fed into this phenomenon. But what's more, I think it can't be discounted what he meant to my generation, a generation that makes up a plurality if not a majority of those tweeting and facebooking memorials. I've said before that as late-Gen-Xer/Early Millennial, I don't lay full claim to the '80s or the '90s, but instead consider my decade to be the mid-'80s through the mid-'90s, a time that was Michael Jackson's heyday and saw either the singles from or the releases of the albums Thriller, Bad, and Dangerous. We remember the debuts of Black or White and Remember the Time during prime time television (both on Sunday nights after the Simpsons, if I recall correctly). We remember--and may even have been among--the throngs of fans screaming, crying, and fainting at the anticipation of the sight of him.
Speaking again for my generation, this is arguably the most impactful loss of a superstar. We knew and mourned the loss of Luther Vandross, James Brown, and Barry White, but by and large, those men belonged to our parents, or at least older siblings, and we came to love them through osmosis. The same was the case with two other more recent deaths--Farah Fawcett and Ed McMahon. Sadly, several young stars which were "ours"--Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac, Kurt Cobain, Aaliyah, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes left us far too soon to have the longevity that Jackson enjoyed.
This is by no means to lay sole claim to the man's life and career. To the contrary, part of the mass appeal is that for every story like this one of those born in my time frame, there are many more reaching forward a few years and back decades more.
I'm not going to pretend to be in deep mourning about the death of Michael Jackson. I did not know him personally, nor did I know anyone who knew him personally so this loss is not a personal one. That said, I am certainly not unaffected. This may be the most meaningful loss of an entertainment celebrity I have encountered.
A few additional observations in the hours (yes, if you can believe it, still less than 24 hours) following the loss of Michael Jackson. One that saddens me is that some have foregone what I tend to consider a basic tenet of human decency: Respect for the dead. I'm not saying anyone has to pretend to like him, or even pretend to care. But it would seem to me it would be a common courtesy and a show of respect for those who do care to steer clear of the "I hope the child molester rots in hell" talk for at least a little bit. It may absolutely be how you feel, and that's ok. But it would seem to me the decent thing to do would be to stand down, at least in the immediate minutes and hours.
The second obseration iis how connected we all are, in the online sense, and as a corollary, how quickly one can get "tired" of the outpourings online. I'm not going to invalidate that feeling of tiredness, because it's very real but consider these things: While you're seeing it 500 times on your facebook newsfeed, remember that each piece of that annoying wall of endless MJ is ONE person expressing their individual feelings. Is one person annoying in expressing themselves because many others have done the same? The latter is a somewhat sad commentary on the times we live in: In another 24 hours, chances are most of us will have moved on to the next thing and while we won't have forgotten, we'll see another shiny object that attracts our attention. This too shall pass.