Michael Jackson passed away a decade ago today

And for some reason her death had more of an affect on me than his at the time

 

I just finished watching the first episode of Leaving Neverland on the weekend and to be honest even though I am a pretty big 'love the art, hate the artist' guy it's amazing he's dead.

Ten year anniversary of him not ruining any more lives. It's great.

But yeah, on a personal note, I remember talking to my friend on the phone and I refreshed Pitchfork right when the news started to break and being like 'dude...'

 

Farrah Fawcett, one of the original three of Charlie's Angels, also died 10 years ago today, following a long battle with cancer at age 62. Two days before that, on June 23, 2009, Johnny Carson's perpetual sidekick Ed McMahon died after a long illness at age 86. Together with Mr. Jackson, another case of the "deaths coming in threes" syndrome.

 

What about Ed McMahon's, two days before?

 

When it happened, I went out for a walk and listened through to "Lookin' Through The Window" (I had been working through the J5 discography at the time) plus skipped around through some of his 80s and 90s work.

That night, me and some friends on IRC decided to stay up and listen all the way through to his solo discography together in real-time, making sure to cue each other up to start each album at the right time. The first night, we made it from "Got to be There" to "Off the Wall". (How many worlds separate that last one from "Dear Michael"?) Night two, we got through "Invincible".

In the background, I had MTV on, which had started showing only MJ (the only time I ever remember seeing a music video on MTV).

My first exposure to his music and image was in the mid-late 90s, watching a VHS of Moonwalker from the public library. The alien, disaffected, but earnest character struck a nerve.

These days, though... even before the discourse changed, I found myself focusing much more on his siblings and less on his canon. A few winters ago I realized the Jacksons' Destiny/Triumph/Victory run does more for me right now than his classic era, thanks in no small part to Jackie, and this spring I found myself deeply interested in the lost masterpiece "Get It Together". This winter I discovered Janet's "Rhythm Nation", and I've found that it checks a lot of boxes for me, often moreso than his 90s work. Right now in my listening consciousness MJ is a black hole; attracting lots of things near it together, but no longer visible or perceptible itself.

I wonder what it all means.

 

Great man and a great artist. He's in a better place now, but his music has lived on.

 

When I found out he died, I was at work. Thing I remember is half the team was around my age (I am 46) and talking about how shocked we were, how awesome he was and reminiscing about the glory days of MTV and such.

The other half of the team was much younger (10 years or so) and the talk was more in line with "Good, he was a weirdo and creep anyway!"

Interesting generation gap that day, there was.

 

You're seriously calling this paedophile "a great man" - words fail me. I think the parents of the many young boys he abused might take issue with that description.

 

He wasn't a pedophile, but it certainly seems like he lives rent free in your head.

I'm going to go play some Thriller.

 

Forever tainted by the molestation charges and all the weirdness that surrounded him. The Jackson 5 stuff along with Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad are quite a musical legacy. Post-Bad his stuff gets very samey and dull for me. He seemed to run out of ideas about 20 years before he died.

 

I've no idea what your odd comment means, but this takes naivety to a whole new level. Just be glad you're sharing his music rather than his bed.

 

Nah, you do. You're spending a lot of time on a guy who you supposedly detest.

 

One of my favorite MJ deep cuts, 10 years, wow...

 

I'm surprised so much dislike for Dangerous here. To me it was a much fresher album than Bad. To me, Dangerous was him actually taking on a new decade with the glove off and going all in, and to me he reallly did seem to welcome the new decade and changing styles in fashion. Then he tried to spend the rest of his career recycling those Teddy Riley beats that dated themselves really quickly. But compared to Bad, it was a refreshing new direction and while his personal life was overshadowing the music by then, it was a strong return to form for the man and I think his last great statement as a recording artist.

 

I never cared for his music. Seemed like pure product to me. Way overproduced and just too much, lacking in soul. Not a cool guy. Regardless of his childlike persona, he was a predator.

 

Tell us how you really think...

 

If you take a second to point out well-known facts about a controversial person, that person's most ardent defenders will always make that truly odd claim about living in your head. It's like an animal reflex.

 

Frankly, I was not very moved by Michael Jackson's death. By 2009 Jackson was not really a creatively active artist anymore, his last album with new material dated from 2001. He'd already vanished somewhat from the public conscience, which maybe was for the better, because when he was in the news it was mostly negative stuff.
The death of David Bowie was a much bigger deal for me, Bowie had just released one of the highlights of his career a few days before he died. Blackstar was a masterclass in PR by going out with a bang (as sinister as that may sound).

 

I was sad when MJ died because he was the biggest star of my childhood and I saw him as my first concert as a child. But Bowie and Prince's deaths definitely stuck with me longer because to me those two artists were still going forward (I know many will say Prince stopped making music worth listening to 25 years before he died, but every album had gems on it). I was bummed for MJ, but I cried for Bowie and Prince.

 

[QUOTE="Vinny123, post: 21525269, member: 83278"]I never cared for his music. Seemed like pure product to me. Way overproduced and just too much, lacking in soul. Not a cool guy. Regardless of his childlike persona, he was a predator.[/QUOTE]

This was very much my own perspective until about a year ago. I would have said a lot of his music was musical and deserved its popularity, but also that it lacked depth. I don't think that's true of all of it, though - he was undoubtedly a great interpretive singer and an intermittently powerful songwriter.

 

We don't talk about religion here. If we did I would contest your suggestion that MJ is in a better place.

 

"dem the rules"

 

Though sadly, some of his former little pals might choose hell over Neverland.

 

Damn... that means Jesus Juice hasn't been available since 2009.

 

Brett Barnes, Emmanuel Lewis, Macaulay Culkin, the Cascio brothers, Omer Bhatti, and Ray J - just to name a few - all regard their time there as children with great fondness.