Michael Jackson passed away a decade ago today

"breathe for me, Michael..."

 

Now THAT would've been entertainment!

 

10 yrs already. Crazy! Amazing talent...

 

My god has it been that long. He will be missed. And regardless of the recent *controversy* I am still looking for a Thriller CD-38p or whatever the first pressing of Thriller on CD was called. Rest In Peace Micheal, we didn’t deserve you

 

I still remember my friend and I were in an afternoon showing of the sci-fi film District 9. After it was over, I believe someone said "Michael Jackson died", and I think my sister texted me about it soon after.

 

Still listen to Michael Jackson but can't help feeling conflicted that I do.He and Witney Houston,George Michael and Prince all had their problems and stopped producing great work long before their passing.Sad.

 

I was in hospital at the time (had been for a while). I'll never forget that one of the nurses on night duty told me the news when she woke me up to do the usual checks/administer drugs etc. I was never a huge fan but it was a shocking moment nevertheless.

I can't believe that was 10 years ago. And yet so much has happened to me in the meantime that it also seems like a lifetime ago...

 

"Hey Babu!"

 

Thanks for posting this. MJ was an amazing dancer/singer.

 

I was at home watching CNN when the news broke. I was shocked and so sad for him and his family. He died alone but I hope he had optimism with rehearsing his upcoming tour.

Michael is my daughter's go to in the car right now. She says a few of her friends are also fans. They are eight. Their exposure came through the Despicable Me film and they take off from there because their parents know all the music.

Michael was a good singer and performer but his later music is terrible. His singing voice is terrible and he reverts very quickly to emotional breathiness along with the shouts and grunting that mimics do. It's a lot. Many of his song lyrics reflect the thoughts of a paranoid and angry 14 year old boy who is constantly attacked by women. Considering he had mostly co-writers this shows these lyrics were the ones he wanted. Unfortunately, even though I talk to my daughter about the lyrics, that sentiment is not shared in the car. Later Michael gets played constantly.

As to how Michael was in his life, my daughter can learn about that later and make her decision. To her, he is not a person, just a voice on a song.

 

Both of you are correct that it shouldn't have been a surprise, but admittedly it was. I think Whitney was in the same boat where we knew it was a strong possibility, but when it happened it came out of nowhere. Michael was a bigger shock since while he looked a disaster, it seemed like he'd had his affairs better sorted compared to Houston whose downfall was more public

 

I dunno. Yes, the never-ending rumor will always be an albatross, but I feel like his music stays on the radio and stays popular. I *still* hear Beat It, Rock With You, The Way You Make Me Feel, Billie Jean and a couple others on the radio even after "Leaving Neverland" His music is like teflon and it seems like most people have been able to separate it from the man.

 

I guess that depends on the individual. Personally, I have no issues whatsoever divorcing the art from the artist but I know some struggle with great difficulty in doing so. More than half of my music collection would need to be sold off if I started only listening to artists whose dirty laundry or most terrible acts have not (yet) come to light.

In fact, something that's usually not discussed is how he took Paul McCartney's advice and used it against him by buying from under his nose the publishing rights to the whole Beatles catalog. Still burns me up when I recall the story but again, it has no impact whatsoever on my enjoyment of MJ's music.

All I see/hear is a remarkable once-in-a-lifetime talent with amazing songwriting, singing, dancing abilities whose work I enjoy. I'm no die-hard fan and only listen to him occasionally but when I do, I'm quickly reminded why he had such an impact.

 

It was a different era, when mem were men and sheep ran scared.

I lost interest in Jackson after Thriller. Trying too hard to remain on top with decreasing concentration on songcraft.

That said, even at his peak he wouldn't have been at the top of my favorites list.

 

I still own a couple MJ albums in my collection, but I do think the fundamental difference between him vs. Page, Wyman, even Bowie and Steven Tyler, etc... is that he literally built a theme park and haven for children to visit, when there's a strong likelihood he had sinister ulterior motives. Bowie and Tyler were coked out 70s rock stars having trysts with groupies, and while Wyman and Page were accused of worse, it wasn't like they were using their money to build places for kids to sleep over. I dunno, it's such a rabbit hole with Jackson, but I do think the idea of him having his own personal amusement park gives up a creepier vibe than what some of the others who've allegedly had sex with underage groupies (and groupies are different than 8 year old boys) have been accused of.

 

Michael Jackson was artistically long dead before 2009. Everything post Dangerous is seriously mediocre.
Live, he was just awful, The Bood On The Dance Floor stadium tour remains one of the very worst show i ever witnessed.

 

It's a difficult thing to be able to separate an artists' personal life from his work.
It's like John Lennon (yes, he was never accused of molesting children); as much as I love him, there's a whole lot of stories about what an a** he was, and pretty crappy stuff that he did.
George Harrison slept with Ringo's wife, for crying out loud.

Now, I am NOT comparing these things to what Jackson was accused off; the point I'm trying to make is, as much as you can respect or like someone's music or art, a lot of times it's hard for people to objectively look at their music one way, and look at the personal stuff another way. I guess it depends on the listeners 'values', what they consider to be terrible, someone else may not blink an eye at. Michael Jackson is one of the most polarizing figures in music history, in my estimation.

 

I quite liked HIStory and Invincible. Both far too long, but there were still glimpses of his genius.

 

I must disagree.

Prince and George Michael were both well past their prime when they died, a byproduct of dying 30 years after your peak in popularity, but both still had some solid songs in the later years. Art Official Age was an unexpectedly good album for Prince about 18 months before he died... sure its not Sign O' The Times, but outside of "Blackstar", how many vet artists released something five-star in the last years of their lives? George Michael was much more sporadic with releases, but "White Light" was an excellent single about four years before he died (ironically a song about how prayers have kept him alive and going) and "December Song" is a tearjerker if there ever was one. Whitney's voice was gone before her body was, and Michael barely released anything in the years before he died, but I don't agree with Prince or GM just because both artists were about 30 years past their peak when they died.

 

There's also a "grey" area too when it comes to the typical debauchery and excess of the '70's when not only were drugs everywhere, no one was checking ID's backstage. This doesn't make what they might have done morally right, but "underage" in one jurisdiction is "of legal consent" in another.
As you point out, Michael fashioned a whole lifestyle centered around his obsession.

 

Michael Jackson has a mixed legacy. He was a very very bad man.

And the only one to blame is Michael Jackson. It didn’t have to be this way.

 

Well, one thing Bad struck me as is harder-sounding. At the time, it was probably the right move to stay current but there's no question that Thriller's beautifully played music by real musicians certainly sounds so much better than Bad with its almost entirely artificial digital edgy sound. Dangerous was more of the same. I prefer the smoother more organic sound of OTW and Thriller.

Bad is an album with terrific heights (Smooth Criminal, Man In The Mirror) but also some tracks I find forgettable. Of course, this varies from person to person but in my view, tracks like Liberian Girl and The Way You Make Me Feel were a bore to me. In fact, MJ himself was sick of the latter track and actually temporarily retired it. Bad does feature one of my favorite track of his, ever ; the underrated Leave Me Alone.

Danegrous is an album that suffered the same fate as Guns 'n Roses' UYI albums ; some terrific gems but plenty of filler. It's almost 77 min long, whereas his previous 3 albums had been 42-43 min. That's 35 min of extra stuff. A strong 8-track album's better in my view than a medicore 14. My guess is he felt the pressure of needing to come up with good stuff so he figured packing the album is bound to result in some accepted hits.

The amount of time between his releases also increased. Between OTW and Thriller, 2.5 years. Bad came out after 5 years! Dangerous, 4 years after that. That's basically 2 albums in a span of 11.5 years after Thriller was released. Quite a long time.

 

This is right. It was depraved to be having sex with willing 13 year old groupies hanging out backstage after a concert, but I feel its different than Michael inviting families to his amusement park and then (allegedly) having his way with the little boy while his handlers are treating the rest of the family to something else.

It really says something about MJ's popularity with kids that he got away in broad daylight for so many years. Could you imagine the scandal if someone overheard a mom telling a friend "Timmy spent the night over at Sting's house" or some other successful male artist of the day, yet with Michael it was seen as second nature and him an "ok" guardian to keep your kids with because he had that inoffensive asexual image that made people feel safe.

 

Because of his missed childhood , he was more or less a 12 year old himself in a certain way. It is possible that indeed there was nothing wrong in his world in having little boys sleeping over.

 

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