It was 4:00PM on Thursday, June 25, 2009. I was reading an article on the Drudge Report about Michael Jackson being rushed to the hospital. Then the page refreshed. The King of Pop had died. I went to Facebook and watched as the news exploded across everyone's status updates. Some people were sad. Other people were pretentious and snickered about how everyone else posted something about it. Regardless of what was said, the news of his death blew up the blogs, Facebook, and Twitter.
The effects could be seen on iTunes as well where Jackson dominated every list possible. At one point he held No. 1-9 of the top ten albums with an additional 11 albums further down the list. On the songs chart, Michael Jackson or Jackson 5 songs took up a whopping 40% of the list with "Man In The Mirror" (oddly enough) the top seller. It currently sits at No. 2. Of course, its no surprise that the video "Thriller" has had a firm hold on the top spot for music videos and only Taylor Swift has broken his dominance over the entire top ten.
There are very few people on planet Earth whose death could have caused such a commotion the way Michael Jackson's did. I commented on the star's 50th birthday that no amount of scandal or overdone plastic surgery could seem to tarnish his legacy. He might have been the weirdest man alive but, his body of work spoke for itself and was louder than his detractors. He was the last great universal pop star, the last artist who united people across generations, races, and nations in a way that is impossible now due to the fragmentation of pop culture. There will never be another Elvis. There will never be another Beatles. There will never be another Michael Jackson.
4 comments:
It's like the first article YOU actually wrote about it! lol.
Did you hear about all the music that he has in the vaults? I swear some of these artisits know that if they are dead their earthly problems will cease and their posterity will benefit from their death. I don't know if that's insensitive to say but it definitely seems applicable here.
Oh Hunter. You WOULD read the Drudge Report. And thanks for calling me pretentious.
Justin Timberlake ended up getting all the music that was in the vaults and he's been releasing it the past five years. And yes, Cam, I would read the Drudge Report. At least I don't watch Fox anymore, right?
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