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Here are some things Michael Jackson wasn't: Michael Jackson wasn't God. He wasn't Jesus or Buddha. He wasn't your father, brother or uncle. He wasn't even the Beatles or Elvis Presley.
And here are some things Michael Jackson was:
Michael Jackson was talented. He was popular. He was influential. He wrote and recorded several great songs and was a master showman.
He was also an addict. He was the guy who dangled a baby over a balcony. He was, if not a full-bore pedophile, at least a man who, by his own admission, slept with other parents' children. He was an African-American so brimming with racial self-loathing that he bid his once-gorgeous face be carved into a grotesque visage which made Heath Ledger's Joker look like Robert Redford's Sundance Kid.
He was the suit who opened the Beatles' vaults and invited every well-monied huckster of tennis shoes and cell phones inside to plunder their oeuvre. He was a dilettante who never encountered a whim he wasn't willing to spend bundles to indulge, and who died $400 million in debt.
In the wake of Jackson's (at the time of this writing, still mysterious) death, a lot of grief has been vented over television and in online tweets and status updates. When a beloved pop star dies too early, such emotion is understandable, especially as so much of it comes from folks who were still tots when Jackson released his classic “Thriller” in 1982. For them, Jackson is a nostalgic figure who evokes golden memories of their childhood.
But as the mourning has broken, clouds of misinformation and exaggerated bushwa regarding Jackson's influence on popular music have billowed forth. We've discussed the myths surrounding the so-called “king of pop” in this space before, but it's worth repeating in the wake of so many bad facts flung carelessly by unreliable sources: Michael Jackson didn't invent the moonwalk. (Nor was he taught the dance by Paula Abdul!) Jackson was not the first black artist to have a promo clip played on MTV. And other musicians had made “movie-like” music videos before “Thriller.”
Worse still are the ridiculous claims that Jackson was a pop music “game changer” in the manner of Elvis or the Beatles. Speaking strictly in terms of his music, Jackson never broke new ground like Elvis during the '50s, when he pureed blues, country, pop and gospel.
“Thriller”'s much-vaunted marriage of R&B, pop and rock was at best a response to -- and at worst, a rip-off of -- trends started by other musicians like Smokey Robinson, Prince and even the Beegees.
Michael Jackson wasn't God. But he was worshipped as such by a culture which mistakes sales success for genius, and popularity for greatness. Not only does this deification do a lamentable disservice to less popular but more impactful artists like Willie Dixon and the Velvet Underground, who actually reshaped the sound of American popular music for decades to follow, but it was also terribly cruel to Jackson himself.
If he hadn't been treated like a divine being by so many of the lackeys, sycophants and parasites who comprised his posse, Michael Jackson might still be with us today, healthier and happier than he ever was, and unruined by the awful process by which we make our pop stars God.
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Notes is supported by the Gay and Lesbian Fund, promoting programs that enhance the safety and welfare of children throughout the state.
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Craven Lovelace produces Notes, a daily cultural history of popular music, for KAFM 88.1 Community Radio, kafmradio.org. You can visit cravenlovelace.com for more of his musings on the world of popular culture.
And here are some things Michael Jackson was:
Michael Jackson was talented. He was popular. He was influential. He wrote and recorded several great songs and was a master showman.
He was also an addict. He was the guy who dangled a baby over a balcony. He was, if not a full-bore pedophile, at least a man who, by his own admission, slept with other parents' children. He was an African-American so brimming with racial self-loathing that he bid his once-gorgeous face be carved into a grotesque visage which made Heath Ledger's Joker look like Robert Redford's Sundance Kid.
He was the suit who opened the Beatles' vaults and invited every well-monied huckster of tennis shoes and cell phones inside to plunder their oeuvre. He was a dilettante who never encountered a whim he wasn't willing to spend bundles to indulge, and who died $400 million in debt.
In the wake of Jackson's (at the time of this writing, still mysterious) death, a lot of grief has been vented over television and in online tweets and status updates. When a beloved pop star dies too early, such emotion is understandable, especially as so much of it comes from folks who were still tots when Jackson released his classic “Thriller” in 1982. For them, Jackson is a nostalgic figure who evokes golden memories of their childhood.
But as the mourning has broken, clouds of misinformation and exaggerated bushwa regarding Jackson's influence on popular music have billowed forth. We've discussed the myths surrounding the so-called “king of pop” in this space before, but it's worth repeating in the wake of so many bad facts flung carelessly by unreliable sources: Michael Jackson didn't invent the moonwalk. (Nor was he taught the dance by Paula Abdul!) Jackson was not the first black artist to have a promo clip played on MTV. And other musicians had made “movie-like” music videos before “Thriller.”
Worse still are the ridiculous claims that Jackson was a pop music “game changer” in the manner of Elvis or the Beatles. Speaking strictly in terms of his music, Jackson never broke new ground like Elvis during the '50s, when he pureed blues, country, pop and gospel.
“Thriller”'s much-vaunted marriage of R&B, pop and rock was at best a response to -- and at worst, a rip-off of -- trends started by other musicians like Smokey Robinson, Prince and even the Beegees.
Michael Jackson wasn't God. But he was worshipped as such by a culture which mistakes sales success for genius, and popularity for greatness. Not only does this deification do a lamentable disservice to less popular but more impactful artists like Willie Dixon and the Velvet Underground, who actually reshaped the sound of American popular music for decades to follow, but it was also terribly cruel to Jackson himself.
If he hadn't been treated like a divine being by so many of the lackeys, sycophants and parasites who comprised his posse, Michael Jackson might still be with us today, healthier and happier than he ever was, and unruined by the awful process by which we make our pop stars God.
------------------------------
Notes is supported by the Gay and Lesbian Fund, promoting programs that enhance the safety and welfare of children throughout the state.
-------------------------------
Craven Lovelace produces Notes, a daily cultural history of popular music, for KAFM 88.1 Community Radio, kafmradio.org. You can visit cravenlovelace.com for more of his musings on the world of popular culture.
