Because I’m sure enough won’t be written about this…

I learned Michael Jackson died on Facebook. Someone updated about Jesus Juice and cracked a tasteless joke as was the norm with the late King of Pop. I’m not writing to memorialize him, I am more interested in the social media uproar his death caused as well as my own personal MJ memories.

Back and forth online, people were defending him as a legendary, revered figure because of his record sales and talent. The media seems to be grabbing on to this perspective and when I flipped on MTV (since they actually started playing his- gasp- videos!), the VJ (are they still called that?) repeated he was a legendary artist whose bizarre personal life and legal troubles had eclipsed his earlier accomplishments. The fans that mourned the loss of the musician had to excuse themselves from his messy personal life because how can you mourn the loss of what most assume to be a pedophile? Some stood up to say he was never convicted of any crime but c’mon. If he wasn’t a child molester, he still admitted to wildly unacceptable behavior around children. Some argued you couldn’t mourn the loss of someone who had probably committed heinous acts and seemed indignant that anyone would continue to like his music. They argued you couldn’t separate the artist, the sinner from the art. That’s not true. There are countless works of art, literature and music created by people we have pretty much forgotten. They could have been awful people who did unspeakable things but only their work remains, independent of the creator. I can think Michael Jackson was a freak who touched children but I can still watch the making of Thriller every time it’s on TV and loudly sing Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough’s “Mama Say Mama Sa Mama Ma Coo Sa!” refrain whenever I get the urge.

Thriller was one of the first albums I remember owning (Not the first that was Paul McCartney and boy did I love their duet, “Say, Say, Say“) and I adored it. I remember a babysitter dropping the needle on the record player and wanting to play it on repeat after I heard it the first time. I remember my sister Karrie sitting on my Thriller album and breaking it which made me cry. When the video for Thriller came out, it scared the heck out of me but was the coolest video ever. Zombie Dance! Wedding Zombie Dance! Andy punches!

My love for Michael pretty much died after Thriller (though I liked “Smooth Criminal”) and by the time he morphed into a freak, I was already annoyed with his music. Early 80′s Michael was iconic, he was an era and being a little sad at his passing is nostalgia that I first heard Vincent Price’s laugh at the end of Thriller 25 years ago. Watching his videos tonight, I am saddened that someone who seemed so alive and vibrant crashed and burned so fiercely in a relatively short period of time. I can’t relate to who he was in the past 20 years but damn if his music doesn’t make me feel like I’m 8 years old again.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 11:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.