Michael Jackson's death on June 25Th was a surprise if not a total shock. I mean, the man abused his body for his entire adult life. From what I understand, he was addicted to pain-killers since his hair caught on fire back in 1984.
Now that he's dead, his family is screaming that he was murdered. They want to get to the bottom of his untimely demise and they want justice.
Where were they all those years when he was slowly deteriorating? Why didn't anyone try to talk him out of his many nose-jobs and skin bleaching?
But enough about that. There have been many tributes to Jackson over the past couple of weeks, and for good reason. The man changed the music industry. He changed the video industry, and he made the biggest selling album of all time. He's idolized by not only fans, but fellow musicians.
Of course, a lot of people have had a problem with the tributes because of MJ's many demons. The child-molestation accusations, mainly. People have a right to feel that way, I suppose, but the man was never convicted.
The evidence was pretty strong, however, and he did pay 20 million dollars to the family of one of his accusers in order to keep them quiet. Maybe he did that because he was guilty; maybe he did it because he didn't want his reputation tarnished. Either way, he did it and that all but convicted him in the eyes of many.
It's hard to argue the strong evidence and I'll bet his lawyers were glad Jackson was famous because that's probably the only thing that saved him. I'm not saying he was guilty, maybe they really were just innocent sleepovers, but it sure didn't look good.
But then again, in the movie, "There's Something About Mary," Ben Stiller's character was thought to be a Peeping Tom, a solicitor of sex, and a cold-blooded murderer, but they were all just misunderstandings.
Michael certainly was misunderstood, and weird. So was Elvis Presley. I mean, the man had many demons, and if the movies made about him were accurate, those demons weren't just limited to his weight-gain and drug abuse.
Much like Jackson, Elvis Presley's death in 1977 was a surprise but probably not a shock to most people. And I'm sure there were many who thought "The King of Rock" would be the last true entertainment icon of that level, but five years later, "Thriller" was released.
Maybe there will be another icon on the same level as Michael, but I find it hard to believe.
Back in the early 80's, a Michael Jackson could come on the scene and capture the imagination of the entire world and sell 50 million albums.
Today, there are just way too many entertainment options out there for people. And our attention-spans are very short.
In this "on demand" society, people have many ways to entertain themselves. Thanks to Youtube, if you want to watch your favorite artist perform live, you can probably see that. And with I-Pods, and the ability to download music on your computer, you can basically have your own little entertainment world.
Our attention spans are so short and our options so many, I doubt anyone will ever produce anything that will even sniff the same neighborhood as 50,000,000 records.
And with reality tv, it seems like everyone wants to be the show instead of watch the show. Everyone thinks they have talent, and maybe they do, but there are only a few who can be icons.
Michael Jackson is an icon. You, yes you, sitting there making your Youtube singing debut, nice try, but you're no icon.
I know there are many artists that have influenced upcoming musicians over the years, but an icon doesn't just influence other artists, he or she influences their fans. That's what Michael Jackson did.
And a true icon is someone who doesn't just do something different, he or she IS different. Their mere presence and entire being is something that never can possibly be duplicated.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I think we've seen the last of the truly great icons.
i totally agree, T! very few artists nowadays have had as much influence as Michael Jackson did. i think Madonna is the only one who even comes CLOSE, and she's still pretty far off. however, she's not so much weird as she is scandalous. a lot of things she did are still talked about today, but not as much as M.J., no doubt. i agree with that M.J.'s death was a shock but not a surprise; he was very unhealthy both mentally and physically for a long time. according to US Weekly, he apparently had a hard time walking for a long time due to how weak he was. who knows about those magazines anymore, but i think they're right there. he will be truly missed by many. i myself feel a void in the music industry now that he's gone. R.I.P. Michael! :-D
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