The name two generations across international boundaries and barriers of language associated music with. A singer, an entertainer, a businessman, the ‘King of Pop’. When I think about Michael Jackson my mind is flooded with images of a ‘white’ face, long black locks, flicks falling over his eyes, thick lashes, red lips, a thin lanky figure, pants just short of the ankles, white socks and black shoes tapping the dance floor and spinning on his toes. Although he may have been traumatised in his childhood by a violent father, though his life may be plagued by a zillion sex scandals and accusations of child molestation, though he may have been surrounded by controversy about his plastic surgery and his obsession with himself, though media may claim that he has scant regard to how to world perceives him, though I’d like to describe his life as self destructive, I, or for that matter no sane person, can never discount what he did to taking music international. We may have had the Beetles and the Abbas, but the contribution by one single westerner like Michael Jackson is overwhelming. His music enjoyed unparalleled popularity across all continents, something nobody before him enjoyed. Imagine being one of seven children with no god father in the music industry and then making it so big. It isn’t possible unless one has the mettle and that he most certainly did. No one can point a finger at him the way they’d point at Anu Malik, for lifting tunes. Every song of Michael Jackson’s, every dance sequence and the moonwalk are all his original contributions. As far as the accusations of his being oblivious and unmindful of people’s perception of his behaviour is concerned, I think the media victimised him to a large extent too. He chose to live far away from New York in his amusement park resort Neverland. He chose to continue to nurture the child within him, never refraining to succumb to his childish desires; be it taking a ride on the merry-go-round or climbing a tree or his continual belief that he was Peter Pan himself. Despite all these dark spots on this behaviour, his fame is unmatched. So much so that the news of his death spurred an worldwide Internet slowdown. Online activity heated up both Twitter and Google. Both sites registered a reduction in speed. Google recorded Michael Jackson as most searched item today. The TMZ website, where the news of Michael Jackson’s death news broke, crashed. The circumstances surrounding his death may remain controversial right now, but he will continue to live in his numerous songs some of which I will never forget:
- Blood on the Dance Floor
- Man in the Mirror
- Black or White
- Remember the Time
- Stranger in Moscow
- Bad
- Heal the world
- They don’t care about us
- Billie Jean
- Earth Song
- Dont stop till you get enough
- Beat It
- The way you make me feel
- Shake your body
May his soul rest in peace
The content stated here is the outcome of a highly evolved, hyperactive and underutilised brain. The apparatus is also known to have had occasional ephemeral surges of being overly judgemental and opinionated.
