RIP Michael Jackson
Out of context: Reply #393
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- TheBlueOne0
Fine. I'll post something. I'm 41. I was 15 when Thriller came out. I was an angry, white, suburban adolescent. I hated the mainstream by default. Micheal Jackson was the biggest possible thing in the mainstream at the time. He was fucking everywhere, blasting out of every car. Everywhere. Posters in every mall. Hot chicks dancing to his crappy album. So therefore I hated him. Sure he was iconic, iconic to me of dumbed down, mass sheep herd crappola music.
I was this punk/rock/metal kid and there wasn't much farther from that in the mid 1980's in terms of musical style and marketing than Michael Jackson, except for what? Depeche Mode maybe?
But then, wait, why the fuck is there an actual, pretty righteous Eddie Van Halen solo on "Beat It". Ok, that tune was, you know...OK. Kinda.
As I grew up I can never say I liked Michael Jackson, but I began to appreciate his artistry in both music and dance. When someone pointed out how much he got his moves from James Brown, and well James Brown was a righteous motherfucker, and well, Micheal became a little more OK, acceptable.
And then he just got on a crazy train and never got off, and it's real easy to make jokes, and yes, good ones at his expense. But like all good jokes, there's always the true sad pathos underneath the sheen of comedy on top. As I got older I felt for the guy as a misunderstood loner in a lot of ways. He was also a great artist in his field, and I guess one shrewd motherfucker. No one buys up the rights to the Beatles catalog under Paul McCartney's nose after being the guys friend for a decade without being some part a ruthless dick.
And then he dies yesterday. I'm not about to go mourning the dude in the streets, nor spend more than ten minutes watching whatever tribute comes on the TV about this guy with the spineless masses yelling "We love you michael." Whatever.
See, when I was a teenager, he was my enemy, symbolically speaking. But he made a good one. And that's a good thing to have. And it's a real revelation that the guy who I took as an icon of establishment thinking, as representative of the most mundane souless mass pop instinct, was in reality one deeply fucked up and damaged individual, far more than I or my friends ever were despite thinking (as all teenagers do I reckon) we were the be all and end all antihero fucktwits of the walk.
So, RIP MJ. You were far more interesting and all far too human than I ever suspected. Respect.