The obligatory Wacko Jacko post-mortem blog post

I couldn’t resist appropriating the above picture from the Waiting Room’s latest episode (though I don't think this week's podcast is online yet). It’s true, that from the media and the ridiculous display of orchestrated grief-porn that was his memorial service (Charlie Brooker described it as “the 9/11 of odd”), you’d have thought the man was a saint. In fact DC from the waiting room and myself had a bit of an argument about this over at Song, By Toad and though there is a good argument that the man himself was a monster, I still maintain my right to enjoy the great music he made when he was at his peak (just don’t mention Elvis).

This piece in the Independent by John Niven (via boingboing) begins with a good point - that the more tawdry aspects of his life have been completely whitewashed by all the hysterical media reaction. But Niven goes just a little bit far here, provocatively suggesting that saying there were “different Michaels” is akin to saying there were “different Hitlers” which is a bit disproportionate, and making a few lazy generalisations that just don't stand up to scrutiny.

Personally, I can happily compartmentalise the music from the man, perhaps because as a young fan of his music before the allegations etc I enjoyed it completely innocently and listening to those tunes takes me back to that time in my life and I can still find the same simple enjoyment from them (I must point out I am certainly am no fan of any of his music past the Bad album). Tunes like Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough, Billie Jean, Beat It and Thriller can still make me want to sing and dance along the same way they always did and I don't want to hear any crap from Prince fans ;-)

But although Niven’s article does leave a bad taste in the mouth, I think it is fair to say, as Matthew Toad also said, that there is little to mourn in his death as this was one utterly fucked up individual - on so many levels. Tart, over at Loveshack, Baby, even brings a whole new angle into things - that of the negative effect Jacko’s ego and greed had on the entire music industry. But then, she is a Prince fan.

Let's admit it though, we are all fascinated by this very fucked up man and his strange family background. There's so many details still to emerge, not to mention his "children" finally stepping into the public eye. We're not going to hear the end of this for a very very long time...

Also:

Read Sean's poem 'After Michael Jackson Died' over at Said The Gramophone

Read Signal Vs Noise - The risks Michael Jackson took on Thriller

Enfant Bastard - Michael Jackson

Comments

[Tart]

Oh! I'm written off as a Prince fan, now?!? I'd hoped you would acknowledge my Marxist/socialist tendencies first, haha xoxo

And yes, there will be much fallout, for years, on this issue. But what remains is that musicians with real musical talent and ability are consistently overlooked by MJ fans (!)

Take that, young Milo! <3

[Milo]

Fair point Tart, I guess I should give Prince a proper listen one of these days.. ;-)

[last year's girl]

I found it interesting that, in the wake of the death announcement, half my friends went into mourning while the other half started on the tasteless jokes. I think, for people my age... well, I was born the year Thriller came out; I didn't have any big brothers or sisters and my parents weren't interested in his music. I knew the songs, sure, and I liked them, but by the time my "pop culture awareness", for want of a better term, was fully formed Michael Jackson the pop star had transformed into Wacko Jacko with the changing skin and the child molester allegations. So that always coloured my perception, despite my best efforts to separate the man from the music. If I was a little older, then perhaps the loss of Michael Jackson would have been my "Elvis moment".

[Milo]

Thanks Lis, that's interesting - also I think if I'd been born into the internet age my music taste would probably have got a lot more sophisticated a lot faster so I might not have had that period where I unselfconsciously enjoyed pop music like Jacko and er.. Queen (cough). Or perhaps I was just born with dodgy taste ;-)