Jum-on
None of us were around for MJ's heyday (my fondest memories of the guy revolve, unfortunately, around the widely-televised 'Black or White' benefit concert, and the abysmal Dangerous. Come on, I was five). Maybe that's why I've been so blown away by what I've been reading about him since his death. I'm not sure I ever had any sort of hold on just how huge the guy was in the 80's, when his skin was only a few shades lighter than it should've been, his nose still looked like a nose, and it didn't really matter how many plastic surgeries he had, anyway, because he was that good (Greg, I know we talked about MJ's songwriting credits a while back. Turns out Jackson wrote most of his hits--including 'Billie Jean', which Quincy Jones apparently disliked--in their entirety).
Basically, what I'm trying to say is it's good to see the old Michael Jackson. It's good to see everyone seeing the old Michael Jackson. I've read in a few places about the shame of his never having his own Prince-style revival, but I'm not sure his persona could've supported such a comeback. I'm not sure what, aside from his death, could have brought him back. Even today and yesterday, his obituaries have been heavily shaded by what he later became--the sickly, creepy man-child of our adolescence--and with good reason. Prince was never tried on molestation charges.
Anyway, I just ran across this video of Jackson a few months after the 'Billie Jean' single was released, and I had to share it. It's incredible (it's also the debut of the Moonwalk). I watched it, and the light bulb went on: there's the superstar. Sorry, JT, you'll never come close to topping this.
I think you're right in saying only death (or maybe a felony conviction) could have brought him this much attention. It's too easy for me to believe that whatever else he did, Jackson probably damaged an indeterminate number of children and got away with it because he was a person of means. A combination of childhood stardom and abuse might have made him what he was -the (presumed) part of him I'm talking about- but if that helps explain what happened later, it excuses nothing. I dunno--we might have a moral obligation to consider MJ the superstar firmly within the context of those tragedies, at least those of us who think the allegations are credible.
ReplyDelete(A few minutes removed now, I'm not sure I agree at all with my last sentence.)
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I agree, either, but I get some of the sentiment. As Jody Rossen points out in his Slate obit (which is awesome, and just went up here: http://www.slate.com/id/2221482/), crazy-Michael and performer-Michael were impossible to separate. I don't think we're so much morally obligated to privilege one part of the man as we are to consider the whole man. It doesn't make it any easier that Jackson often came off as a victim, too. He needed to be stopped; he also needed help. In spite of the fact that millions of people were watching him, he didn't get either.
ReplyDeleteWith the fracturing of pop into smaller and smaller demographic-targeted subsets it's hard to think of any pop star still gripping the imagination of the public like Jackson did for such a large of years. Anyone covering Jackson for major media outlets WAS a child of the '80s, probably grew up with Thriller on repeat, and the sudden death of someone like that is creates a perfect maelstorm of a story, especially for a country so deferent to its celebrities despite their flaws, as eternally damning as they may be. One of the more intensely fucked-up things about MJ as the years went on and he entered my conscious despite no earnest attachment to his music was how his public behavior became intensely more bizarre even as our celebrity culture became more and more whitewashed and mediated by shrewd PR agents, rehab schemes, etc. Dude seemed to revel in his weirdness, in doing the unexplainable and then offering incomprehensible explanations for it. I agree with Greg that MJ is a creep, and that only a life-cut-short story, with journalists who grew up with him covering it, could explain why this death "matters" in any way.
ReplyDeleteHey hey, I've been right with you guys on the MJ-as-creep thing, and I don't claim to be able to make any claims about why his death matters--if we're being honest, yeah, his death is mostly a good excuse to forget Wacko Jacko for a while--but to say that only "life-cut-short" stories from "journalists who grew up with him" (I know you're talking about the 80's, but didn't we grow up with him, too?) are worth telling seems a little overkill to me. I think one of our biggest blessings and curses when it comes to talking about MJ is that we never really fell under his spell. He's been washed up and mired in controversy ever since we can remember. I don't want to come off like an MJ apologist--I'm not, and to clarify myself, I don't think responsibility for his crimes, convicted or otherwise, can be pawned off on "celebrity culture"--but I think now is as good a time as any to let ourselves be wowed by what he did before we were born.
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