or is anyone else sick of hearing about Michael Jackson's death? Sad, yes. I feel for his three kids who have been raised in seclusion and now find themselves orphaned (and destitute, if you believe the reports). But why does this story need 24 hour coverage? Why did MSNBC need to preempt Rachel Maddow last night to rehash the story of his life over and over again?
Maybe I'm just too young to get it. I was born in 1982. I was a child of the 80s, and I had an older sister who watched MTV all the time so I was well aware of who Micheal Jackson was, we still have a tape of his Thriller video. I remember watching over and over again as a kid. I also remember the pictures of him sleeping in the hyperbolic chamber, Bubbles, Macaulay Culkin at Neverland and all the other weird stuff. By the time I was 10 he was more of a sideshow carnival act (freak) than ground breaking musical entertainer. He was also, a child molester. So why the out pouring of love? Why is everyone struggling to say only nice things about a guy who, for the last 20 years, everyone has regarded as little more than a pariah on society? Am I missing something here? Am I just too close minded to see his wonderfulness?
I think I just don't get it. I don't appreciate enough how he was ground breaking with his videos on MTV. (Because MTV doesn't even play videos anymore, I think its kind of a mute point). I don't get how revolutionary his dance moves were because growing up every kid I knew could do the moonwalk (much like any other dance craze). As far as him breaking ground for other black artists... I remember the first time I showed my nephews the video of Thriller. They were 8 and 6. "That's not Micheal Jackson!" they insisted, "That guy is black. Micheal Jackson is white."
Can we just bury the poor guy and move the heck on?
1 comment:
I was born in 1982, too! I feel the same way, except that I don't watch any TV, so I didn't really hear about it until 24 hours after it happened (24 hours! holy cow! LOL), and haven't really heard anything since, except my hubby mentioned that he saw a documentary of his life, and how he was beaten if he didn't perform as a kid, which is just horribly, horribly sad to think of all those people watching those kids on stage, not knowing the truth of their lives. Which makes his death just tragic to me, as well as his life. (wow that was a runon sentence) But I guess in elegy I should show my 4yo a video, at least. :)
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