When Michael Jackson’s death was confirmed on Thursday afternoon, MTV gave over its scheduled programming to a marathon retrospective of the music videos which had made him so famous. It was a fitting tribute for a life that ought to have ended less ignominiously. In his final years Jackson had become a tragically disoriented figure, able to command only a fraction of the sales he had come to expect. After nearly two decades of prurient tabloid coverage, the insecurities and embarrassments of his private life – skin lightening, cosmetic surgery, bizarre intimacies with children – were almost as well known as his music.
This was a far cry from the five-year-old prodigy who first caught the public’s attention as a member of The Jackson Five – a band of brothers whose precocious musicality seemed to promise long careers. From the outset, it was clear that Michael had something extra, but nobody could have predicted what lay ahead. As a soloist, Jackson remade popular music, constantly opening out new territory with his strange and infectious blend of rock music, rhythm and blues and funk; yipping, squealing, cooing, moonwalking and crotch-grabbing his way towards a brand new style. He danced with marvellous, intuitive grace, always poised, it seemed, for some unpredictable new move. After a series of number 1 hits – he would eventually accumulate 13 – his album Thriller sold an unprecedented 50 million copies worldwide and set the gold standard for music video. By the mid-’80s he was the undisputed ‘King of Pop’ and a major influence on a whole new generation of musicians, black and white.
But there was another Jackson, too. Weirdly introspective and other-worldly. A child without a childhood, desperately chasing something that had been displaced by his musical career, while knowing it could never be retrieved. At times he seemed to relish the public’s fascination with his eccentricity – the sequined glove and aviator shades, the epicene hairstyle and ever-lightening skin, the chimp, oxygen tank and germ mask. But when the publicity took on a life of its own, focusing more and more on his jittery asexuality, his obsessive interest in amusement parks and children, his inexplicable makeovers – he started to buckle under the pressure. Long before current paparazzi obsessions with Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, Jackson was standard tabloid fodder across the globe.
Celebrity took a heavy toll over the years. Marriage to Elvis Presley’s daughter redoubled the public’s fascination with him but seemed to bring him neither stability nor peace. In time his music became an occasional distraction from the endless rumours about his private life. A massive out-of-court settlement for alleged child molestation, lavish expenditure and poor money management left him heavily in debt. When he died, Jackson was in the middle of trying to clear these debts by organizing a 50-date tour in London. It would probably have been his professional swansong. Like the actress and model Farah Fawcett, who died from cancer on the same day, Jackson had been through too much not to know that while he might briefly rekindle happier memories, he could never return to the glorious early days of his career. Like Elvis, his one-time father-in-law, he died too young, hollowed out by the pressures of always living in the public eye. But whatever his failings, it should be remembered that he sold three quarters of a billion albums during a forty-five year career, and delighted large audiences across the world. He will be widely missed.
Another king will arise.
He was what he was because of his childhood experiences. Love your children. Never abuse them. He is now resting in peace, free from all pain.
“From a young age Jackson was physically and emotionally abused by his father, enduring incessant rehearsals, whippings and name-calling. Jackson’s abuse as a child affected him throughout his grown life.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson)
The way I see it, Michael Jackson made one egregious mistake and that was reading and believing his own ‘Press Headlines’… The World Media is a controversial prison, where no man has ever escaped…
That last sentence is brilliant! Is it your own? Can I steal it? ;)
“the world media ,, and it’s controversial prison where no man has ever escaped”…
if yuh din know ,, “the world media” ,,, print and electronic is being made so by humans against humans ,, those in the media ,, who seek accolades ,, at the expense of others ,, is the 360 of a global curse !..
populus vult decipi et decipiatur !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(please excuse my english)There are a very few writers who could give you the real story on the King of Pop. When most writers write about him, they all sound the same, they talk about him being the greatest entertainer of all time, they talk about him wanting to be white, his troubled life and his relationship with kids. Michael Jackson is the most misinterpreted celebrity of all time also, his life was very unorthodox, however i think this was mainly due to his over exposure to the media and also the misinterpretations that cloud people’s judgement. If u want to know the man infront of the mirror people need to listen to the people most close to him for starters i would recommend watching ‘Living with Michael Jackson by Martin Bashir, The footage you were never meant to see and his interview with Oprah Winfrey.” MJ was never ashamed of being black, i cannot remember one moment in time which i can recall him stating such. Micheal Jackson was a proud African American, why would he want to be similar to the people that were the majority of his fans? does that make any sense? What people don’t understand is that Michael was diagnosed with vitiligo, have anyone ever seen a person with vitiligo before, it is surely not a sight to see, even some of his friends told the media he was ashamed to look at himself when going in the pool. This disease reduces pigmentation and white patches can be seen on the skin, the disease is often confused with leprosy. Michael then decided to bleach the darker skin to bring his complexion to a uniform tone. I think if he stayed in that condition, he would of been scorned by his fans and the media, since he had the money to do this, it was done. By saying he bleached without giving the correct reason is an ignorant statement. The other aspect i wish to address is his changing facial appearance, i believe the cause of this too, does not have any association with wanting to be white, the reason was inside of him all the time….it was his self esteem, his father called him ugly, so who more do u need affirmation from to convince you that you are, people would torment him, MJ said in an interview that he would sometimes walk the street at night looking for someone to talk to, he was lonely and this was none of his fault. He changed his nose, but i like him with the big one and the small one. If the world has not seen a superstar of such magnitude would you expect that person to be like everyone else? To say Micheal Jackson changed his features to sell more albums or make money is incorrect, micheal jackson threw away money!, i think he definitely would of sold more if his life was not ruined his accusations and by such statements by Martin Bashir – the journalist which exposed the world to such lies for his own profit, he is a practitioner of yellow journalism. Bruce Lee once said that the hardest thing to do was to is to express oneself honestly. MJ did just that, although he expressed himself in a way that may seen not like the right thing to do, to us…he was never criminal. People make bad news because bad news sell, good news doesn’t sell. I don’t think i should touch the child molestation cases, anyone with proper sense can figure that out, MJ didn’t have the heart to pull that off! probably bush set that up to take your attention on the war on iraq…MJ was more than entertainer…since a child he said “everything that i sing, i mean and i don’t sing it if i don’t mean it”,”feel the beat” Man in the Mirror was not entertainment, he meant it and if you think that it was, u surely missed the point. People who write about Michael will always sound the same as long as they focus on his achievements and accusations, its the same old story. Its not if you’re black or white, its if you’re wrong or you’re right.
“The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.” – George Bernard Shaw
Micheal was in debt but far from bankrupt…he’s about 500M in debt his greatest asset is a 50% share in an MTV catalog which includes songs by the Beatles and other artists it was valued between 390M and 1B in 2007, and then of course we have other assets that will be auctioned at even higher prices given the fact now that he’s dead.