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Michael Jackson R.I.P.

Michael Jackson 1958-2009...My Thoughts...

Everyone: I was stunned like many of Michael Jackson's death.

I will remember him for all he accomplished with the Jackson 5 in the 70s and then him peaking with Thriller in the early 80s-arguably the best concept album of all time.

His life changed with the child abuse allegations in 1993 at first and then again earlier in this decade along with the botched plastic surgeries as one example that made his life in a fishbowl somewhat of a tabloid hell.

I look back and notice like many that the last 20 years of his life was definitely a hell of sorts-for MJ money was NOT buying him happiness.

I want to remember him for the talent he was-NOT the tabloid target he became.

He left us some memorable music that will live on for all.

Michael Jackson was one of a kind. Thoughts by LI MIKE
 
Wow, his father is not right in the head. Perhaps, Michael Jackson was not the one was Whacko after all. I am starting to change my mind after seeing the ridicilous interview.
 
MJ was wacko, but many geniuses are. I really get the sense from those who were close to him that he had a good heart and that scores big marks in my book. Sad that the success he achieved likely contributed to his unusual behavior and his mistrust of so many around him which it may turn out, lead to his early demise. We'll know soon.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
MJ was wacko, but many geniuses are. I really get the sense from those who were close to him that he had a good heart and that scores big marks in my book. Sad that the success he achieved likely contributed to his unusual behavior and his mistrust of so many around him which it may turn out, lead to his early demise. We'll know soon.
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Success isn't what causes problems, people do. No one would leave him alone. That has nothing to do with success, and everything to do with treatment of someone who has succeeded.
 
I'm not sure you can wrap your head around how much of an effect this man had on culture and society. He was one of the most influential -- while not necessarily powerful -- human beings in history. When a person of that magnitude suddenly dies, it's a major historical event so I'm not surprised about the coverage it received and the record breaking viewership on TV+Internet.

It's not like they're covering Lindsay Lohan going for a burger: that and the accompanying barrage of reality TV are the reason why I cancelled cable and began watching only quality shows on demand via iTunes.

MJ got his final spotlight and may he rest in peace.
 
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The only person loving all this Michael Jackson coverage is Gov Mark Sanford :p
 
Urban Shocker said:
What influence?
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Aside from his undisputed influence on music, Michael Jackson started the celebrity philanthropy movement. Many others followed in his footsteps, using their fame to promote causes around the world that would have gone otherwise unnoticed.

In America, he made it ok for TV to show black performers which opened doors for blacks in other arenas such as politics. Barrack Obama would not have been possible without Michael Jackson. That sounds like an astonishing claim, and I don't pretend that MJ was the only front on this movement, but he was a definite major participant.

I cannot explain in detail all the interconnected influential touches MJ had on the world without writing a book here. Despite what you may have thought of him as a singer, performer, humanitarian or simply a human, an intelligent person can look back in history and view the ripples of change propagating through time with Michael Jackson's appearance on the world stage as the shockwave at its center.

If you've been ignoring him for the past 40+ years, please get yourself up to speed by trying to find a reasonable answer as to why he has garnered unprecedented attention and so many followers -- both fans and performers influenced by him. I don't think it was because he was pretty.
 
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He didn't invent any new musical forms, famous people were giving to charity and promoting pet causes long before he did, black entertainers were on American TV before he was, and the civil rights movement had been actively advocating for the expansion of basic civil liberties for African-Americans for many years.
 
His mastery of the music video and use of hard rock guitar in "Beat It" made him the ultimate crossover artist of the early Eighties, at a time when the airwaves were nearly as segregated as they had been in the pre-rock era.
 
Just as there were "music videos" before Michael Jackson (a band filmed performing) and then there were MUSIC VIDEOS (with cinematic production value) beginning with Michael Jackson.... there was celebrity philanthropy before MJ, but he truly made it popular with "Heal The World", influencing the creation of LiveAid, Bono from U2 (according to the artist himself) who then went on to become a major factor in peace in Ireland. These are the ripples in history that I mention. One barrier broken, one trend started, one video created defined others after him. Michael Jackson went on to becoming -- according to the Guiness Book of World Records" the celebrity who has donated to the most charities in his lifetime.

UrbanShocker: He did invent new musical forms. He demonstrated how music, dance and theatrics are so intricately interlinked and influenced a whole new generation after him. Again, the popularity of his music cannot be disputed: he has the best selling record of all time and now in death is breaking new records, one of which is occupying all Top 10 spots in the Billboard 100.
 
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there was celebrity philanthropy before MJ, but he truly made it popular with "Heal The World", influencing the creation of LiveAid,
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Heal the world was released in 1991. Live Aid took place in 1985.
In 1984, a number of UK artists banded together and produced "Do they know it's Christmas"....this then influenced Canadian artists to produce a charity release, followed by the US.

You should check your sources.
 
MetroMan said:
He did invent new musical forms.
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Mostly, he was a talented MOR entertainer who adapted existing forms and had the good fortune to work with Quincy Jones. After his death, Jones called him the consummate entertainer and I think that sums up the territory he occupied perfectly. Inventing new musical forms would have involved giving us something like jazz, or blues, or rock for the first time ... which is something at a different level.

But there's no doubt he demonstrated how music, dance and theatrics are so intricately interlinked ... just as song-and-dance man Bill 'Bojangles' Robertson did in the early 1900s for his generation, and future entertainers will for theirs.
 
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