Celebrities May Not Die in Peace: Michael Jackson

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A couple days have passed and the number one story still is that Michael Jackson is dead. Discount the fact that most people have suspected this for the last several years.

The other day I mentioned that people kept saying that he was so great and had changed music forever. After a day of watching coverage of his autopsy, I first would like to say that not producing any music for eight years (and a decade before that) should revoke the title "King of [insert musical genre]". Next, I can't think of many musicians that emulate his style. Boy bands, and their derivative solo acts, did to a degree, but they are not particularly popular currently and I feel that they tend to take the beat and tone, but they usually lack the style that Jackson had. It doesn't help that Jackson did ensemble dance pieces, which I can't think of any artist doing today. You get bits and pieces of it in some songs, like the Disturbia video, but most videos today are used for making the artist look "cool" not to help paint the visual image of the song, which is what Jackson did.

So how did he have such a great effect on music if no one follows his example?

-X

Requiem In Pacem: Michael Jackson

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So I've read some of the post-Michael Jackson... crap for lack of a better term.

I look at it as a good thing. Mr. Jackson was clearly insane. My points of reference include a handsome man constant having his face cut up, having no friends that weren't either being paid or hadn't hit puberty, and being accused of having sexual intercourse with several of those prepubescent friends.

Note I am not assuming guilt of that last point, my powers of doubt know no limits, if I think about it enough. My point in this is that perhaps this is for the best.

Clearly a lot of people care about him, as noted by 30% of tweets being about his death, and there is nothing worst then a person you care about being sick and being unable to do anything about it. Under normal circumstances the family would be able to get them help, but Mr. Jackson, like most celebrities, had enough money and power to prevent that until he spent most of it defending himself from the court cases.

After the cases his popularity dropped dramatically, because public opinion and the verdict don’t necessarily match, he started running out of money (or he sold his house for fun), and there had been reports about his health failing.

One person on Fark.com was debating when how long it would be until people forgot the bad part and only remember his music. The problem I have with that is I don’t think I’ll ever think of Michael Jackson and think “music”. Currently, it goes “child molester”, “unnecessary plastic surgery”, “Thriller”. Also while I keep seeing things saying how he did all of these great things for music, no one will say specifically what he did, which songs, what videos, etc. It just seems like people want to say good things about him and don’t know how to articulate it.

That said, Rest in Peace

-X