Michael Jackson?
So...uh...WTF is with all the jabbering about Michael Jackson? I mean, first of all, it's not like we're talking about, say, Kurt Cobain here. But that point aside...is there any possible way the death of any entertainer is important enough to warrant this much space and time on the news channels and in the papers?
What am I missing here?
(And P.S: so we've all decided not to care about the fact that the guy was apparently a pedophile?)
So...uh...WTF is with all the jabbering about Michael Jackson? I mean, first of all, it's not like we're talking about, say, Kurt Cobain here. But that point aside...is there any possible way the death of any entertainer is important enough to warrant this much space and time on the news channels and in the papers?
What am I missing here?
(And P.S: so we've all decided not to care about the fact that the guy was apparently a pedophile?)
posted by Winston Smith at
8:24 PM
6 Comments:
I hope you're joking about the Cobain comparison. Jackson's influence dwarfs him in every conceivable way. I'm not a fan of celebrity corpse humping, but Michael Jackson is probably the most famous musician of the past thirty years. Not in America. World-wide. My wife when the Kazakstan in 2001 and they wanted to know if she liked Michael Jackson. They didnt' ask about Nirvana.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LWATvIMoPtw/SkcuTI6tJBI/AAAAAAAABmo/WlF_GF4VU2c/s1600-h/Death+certificate.jpg
MICHAEL THE NARC-ANGEL
Millions of little members of the worldwide F.F.A. (Future Followers of the Antichrist) have learned how to find a certain part of their lower anatomy and quickly touch it while dancing - thanks to Michael Jackson, the highest paid Lower Anatomy Toucher of all time! Special thanks also go to the Jesus-bashing, Hell-bound Hollywood moguls who were just as quick to see higher profits in lower anatomies! [Just saw this opinion on the web. Other grabby items on MSN, Google, etc. include "Bible Verses Obama Avoids."]
Yeeeah...and Cobain sucks. Nirvana is far and away one of the most overrated things ever to come across the music scene. Jackson, on the other hand, is quite frankly amazing to watch perform. Sure, there's plenty of what he does which isn't that great, and his music apart from his performance is usually pretty mundane pop. However, I challenge you to watch him perform, oh, say Smooth Criminal, and not think "Holy F, that was amazing".
'Cause it is.
Cobain, on the other hand, has no such moment in his life. Were his lyrics somewhat insightful? Sure. Was his musicianship perhaps a smidgen above mediocre? Probably. But he is in no comparison to Jackson. I've never experienced anything Cobain ever did and thought "Holy F that was amazing", 'cause he's just not that remarkable. His influence is basically limited to the style of recording and the audio effects he used ("grunge"). Bands mimicked this sound quality and recording style, but neither his lyrics nor his musicianship could really be said to be that influential. As a guitarist, he is nothing special (in fact, I learned to play Nirvana songs really early in my guitar-playing career because it's something everyone knows and everyone can play them pretty easily). The songs are not written in any particularly brilliant way. The lyrics are insightful in a other-people-around-him-at-the-time-were-dumber sort of way, and he definitely couldn't sing. I won't slight him for representing the against-the-man culture of his time, which is undoubtedly an important role for someone to fill, but other than that, he really wasn't very good at anything.
Also, regarding the pedophile thing, the evidence is pretty slanted against that notion. Jackson was a deranged weirdo, alright, but likely not that kind of deranged, at least according to professional psych evaluations undertaken during his court appearances. Beside that, the people charging him (the kids, included) were all quoted at some point or another referencing their nefarious schemes against him.
So I'm not saying he wasn't a benign freak, just that he probably wasn't a malicious freak.
Don't think I'm some sort of Michale Jackson insane-o-fan, though. I'm not. But I do enjoy music, and I think it's crazy to say that Cobain is in any way comparable to Jackson.
Also, artists deserve respect when they die. I won't say that he deserves perhaps as much as he's getting. I'm not sure if it's blown way out of proportion or not, but I do know that Jackson was the last real artist mainstream music had, and will likely have for a long, long time. What we've got now pales in comparison. Jackson was so impressive that even the average American moron was taken aback by him. That's impressive and hard to come by.
P.S. The man made an iconic dance about zombies for crying out loud. If that doesn't make him awesome, I don't know what more he can do for you.
I accept the force of your argumentum ad zombium, Mystic, but:
Yeah, it's way, way too much coverage. It would be too much coverage if it were Elvis. It would be too much coverage if it were all of the Beatles at once.
Well, or so it seems to me.
As for the relative merits of Jackson and Cobain...well, don't forget the swamp that music was swimming in when Cobain came along.
I don't know enough about music to press the point, but--although I absolutely acknowledge that Jackson had some excellent moments--pop per se just doesn't appeal to me that much.
It is way too much coverage, but the media sucks so much ass when it comes to that sort of thing that I just ignore them now.
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