Why We’ll Miss Michael
Last Sunday morning on Meet the Press, host David Gregory asked Presidential advisor David Axelrod whether or not Obama planned to make any public statement about Michael Jackson's death. Axelrod explained that the President had reached out to the Jackson family privately. What current pop star's death will merit discussion about an Oval Office response? Probably not Lady Gaga's.
There is much that will be missed about Michael Jackson, but the Axelrod/Gregory exchange made me think about something specific underlying our collective grief: MJ was the last pop star we will all share. He was the last one to garner so much genre-, race, and class-transcending popularity that it feels appropriate for his death to register as a tragedy of Presidential importance. We have lost a common bond.
Changes in the music industry will ensure that bond stays broken. Due to increased genre fragmentation, the proliferation of illegal downloading, and the ongoing extinction of brick-and-mortar record stores, music simply doesn't sell like it did during Jackson's '80s heyday. For instance, last year's biggest selling album was Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III, which moved 2.88 million copies in the U.S. Josh Groban's Noel was 2007's top seller. It sold 3.7 million. By comparison, 1982's Thriller sold 28 million copies. Five years later Bad sold eight million. 1991's Dangerous, at seven million, was considered a mild sales disappointment.
But it wasn't business that made Jackson a cross-cultural icon--it was, of course, his music. At their best (think of "Billie Jean" or "Bad"), the songs were as catchy as the flu and funkier than a Bonnaroo port-a-potty. Their playful melodies made them approachable enough for the parents while their innovative production and stealthily paranoid sentiments made them radical enough for the kids. If you didn't like Michael Jackson, the problem wasn't with him.
Now, though, with the music world splintered into different radio formats, and blogs and websites making it easier for people to burrow into the hermetic hole of stuff they already enjoy, it's hard to imagine anyone again approaching Jacksonian levels of appeal. The conditions just aren't there.
I think that's unfortunate. Having a pop star we can all watch and talk about and listen to makes music feel more vital. Michael Jackson was living proof that music meant something--to me, to you, to everyone. That proof is gone now. And now we are all living a little further apart from one another.
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Alfredo
I was living in Brooklyn. 1970. I had a lot of different, multi-cultural friends at the local YWCA by Atlantic Avenue. Well, my friends and I were 10 years old and from then till 12 years old we skated in that YWCA skating rink to many Jackson 5 songs. We loved him then and we still love him now. My girlfriends and I used to manage that skating rink, catching kids before they fell skating. Be boppin' along to, ABC, is easy as, 1 2 3. Happy days I'll never forget.
Later, when I worked at Sony Music in the art department from 1990 till 1997, I was lucky enough to work on Michael's, with the other graphic artists, Dangerous album and ads. I now feel sad that I never got a chance to go see him in concert back then. My mom, yesterday, wanted to get some of his videos, so I brought her to Best Buy and there he was, on the shelf, the Budapest Dangerous concert on video. We watched it and it totally blew me away! I finally got to see what that album created live. I was exhausted just watching him. I'm 48 now so I pretty much grew up with Michael. I'm also a dancer as well as my mother and we both respect and understand the moves he did were simply amazing. I haven't danced in a while and tried a Michael move and pulled a hip muscle. We laughed, mom and me. I haven't done those moves in a very long time. And he was recently makin' those moves still at 50! Just amazing!
Now, watching everything about Michael, I cry, I feel sad for him, it's such a tragedy. My Mom and I pray for him and his family. He was always an inspiration showing people you can make it no matter how poor you start out. I grew up poor too and worked at becoming an artist, striving hard. Michael worked hard and he and his family succeeded. Never give up. That's what his story means to me. What the Jackson family has said to my mind and my heart. Michael had so many good messages in his songs as well. He cared about a lot of issues. He told a lot of stories.
Never understood some of the crazy fans he and his brothers had that nearly killed them, grabbing at Michael and the other Jackons. Michael and the brothers all seemed to handle it with class and style, never complained openly. Very cool people. Very cool family. May he now be able to rest his weary soul and his family be able to get through their grief.
I heard the family will possible make a tribute concert. I hope they do. If that helps them, in their heart and soul, I hope they do.
Peace
Kim
:)
Sexy young man
Extremely talented
Unique
Heart felt
Ruthlessly falsely accused
Sensitive
emotional
Hot
And will always be remembered by so very many. Peace
http://we-miss-michael-jackson.blogspot.com/