What Michael Jackson meant
The "King of Pop" leaves a complicated legacy of unmatched musical success and unshakeable sexual allegations
Pop star Michael Jackson died yesterday.
(EPA/Corbis/John G. Mabanglo)
Michael Jackson “took the world on a journey like no entertainer ever has or ever will,” said Mark Davis in The Dallas Morning News. And his death, at 50, leaves many of us with “mixed feelings.” He gave us “amazing musical gifts”—the Jackson 5 hits (watch Jackson sing "Ben"); “Off the Wall,” an album that “changed music history”; “Thriller,” that unmatchable “burst of pop culture” (watch the "Thriller" music video); “Bad”—but also a “grotesque and tragic” sideshow featuring unshakable child-molestation allegations.
Michael Jackson’s life will always be split into “epochs of before Thriller and after,” said Leonard Pitts in The Miami Herald. With that album, “he redefined the very meaning of success.” But “Thriller” is also his “great tragedy.” He tried to, but never did, top it, yet it made him a star “no one could say no to”—not when he ruined his face with plastic surgery, not when he overspent, “and not when he began sharing his bed—innocently, he always said—with little boys.”
Without his “extravagant eccentricities” and the “sad stains” of alleged abuse, Michael Jackson would be a “B-list has-been,” said Richard Kim in The Nation. “He’d be John Oates.” We loved the Elephant Man bones, his pet chimp Bubbles, his weird oxygen chamber, Neverland Ranch, and his “ambiguous, obsessive” relationship to race and childhood. He was a “human freak,” and we couldn’t get enough.
Look past the “bizarre, freakish spectacle of his rather tragic life,” said Mark Moford in the San Francisco Chronicle, and you get a inkling of Michael Jackson's huge, joy-inducing impact on the world. “Countless millions of people worldwide” have listened, danced, laughed, and loved to his “gift of music.” We may all disagree over politics and religion, “but everyone knows what the moonwalk is.” (watch Jackson debut the moonwalk in 1983)
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15 Comments
Posted by Aaron, Friday, June 26, 2009, 12:04 pm I for one do not care one whit about this freak of nature's life or death. It is something to pity and scorn, not honor and adore... regardless of what it did in its past. And my daughter and unborn son are now a tiny bit safer in this world.
Posted by Drummer Girl, Friday, June 26, 2009, 1:51 pm Even though many people were glad to assume the worst, I always thought that MJ's insistence that his relationships with children were innocent had a ring of truth to it. Children are honest and they love to cuddle. MJ had lots of reasons not to trust most adults, and was probably lonely and touchdeprived. Sharing a bed implies sexual activity, but it ain't necessarily so. When he was acquitted of criminal charges I assumed it was because the judge heard from the kids directly instead of listening to the parents and their profit motive.
Posted by nkdpagan, Friday, June 26, 2009, 4:04 pm I was much more moved by Farrah Fawcetts death than Jacksons...as for his alleged innocents, Drummer Girl, in this capitolist country, you get the best justice system money can buy.
Posted by oldlady, Friday, June 26, 2009, 4:26 pm I regret that I remember the clownish, eerie Michael Jackson more than the younger megastar. Becoming famous at such a young age, apparently without enough real family guidance, warped him as an adult. I feel sorry for the way his life turned out.
Posted by BT, Friday, June 26, 2009, 4:56 pm A sad tragic character. Talented singer and dancer. Terribly flawed value system, business acumen and some serious mental health issues.
Posted by Robin , Friday, June 26, 2009, 6:15 pm He was one of us.
Posted by Robin , Friday, June 26, 2009, 6:17 pm He was one of us. And one way or the other, we are all freaks.
Posted by nsmbi, Friday, June 26, 2009, 7:16 pm R.I.P Mr Jackson...King Of Pop 4eva
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