Michael Jackson, music god

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/20090703T210000-0500_154696_OBS_MICHAEL_JACKSON__MUSIC_GOD.asp

Mervin Stoddart

Saturday, July 04, 2009

At 5:26 pm Eastern Time on Thursday, June 25, 2009, another music legend the likes of Bob Marley, John Lennon, James Brown and Elvis Presley departed this earth leaving billions of fans in every country on earth to mourn his loss. Born on August 29, 1958, Michael Joseph Jackson, nicknamed the King of Pop, was only 50 years old. I believe he was the god of music.


JACKSON... many evil people will praise him hypocritically now that he has forever escaped their venom
Wyclef Jean honoured him by saying, "Michael Jackson was my music god." The dozens of people who spontaneously began to assemble worldwide, including outside his California home where he reportedly collapsed from cardiac arrest and at the UCLA Medical Centre where he was pronounced dead, quickly grew to scores, then hundreds and thousands, similar to the reaction to the untimely death of Princess Diana on August 31, 1997.

In the case of Princess Diana, people were up late in Jamaica watching the news because it had occurred in Europe with its six-hour time-zone difference, but in the case of Michael Jackson, people stayed up from the 5:30 pm announcement last week Thursday until 5 am the next day and even longer to play his music, post tributes on the internet, cry and deal with their grief in any way possible. In many US cities and towns, including Jackson's Gary, Indiana, childhood home and outside the Apollo Theatre in New York City where he often performed, Michael Jackson's fans gathered first for prayer vigils at news of his hospitalisation, then to cry as his death was announced in a television briefing by his brother Jermaine, later to mourn, and finally to celebrate his life, legend and legacy. All across the US, radio and television stations quit their scheduled broadcasting to play Jackson's music and pay him tribute. For hours unending, not even the same-day death of the very famous Charlie's Angels star Farrah Fawcett could prevent the US media network from focusing entirely on Jackson's passing. In death, Michael Jackson was as ubiquitous as a god.

Phone calls, text messages, emails, social networks, Twitter, and all modern means of communication were jammed with the discussion of Michael Jackson, many expressing doubt or shock that he could really be dead. The Twitter network crashed with Jackson postings. On YouTube several individual Jackson videos got over 15 million views each, and counting, while over 30,000 comments (and counting) were posted on the site of each video. Perhaps the most widely viewed video was that featuring Michael and his then wife Lisa Marie Presley in You Are Not Alone, a song which Michael performed in life but which memorialised himself in death. Inside and outside of workplaces in America managers, supervisors and workers alike halted their work to gasp even momentarily at the shocking news of Jackson's death. It was as if a super human, persona extraordinaire or even a god had died.

Michael Jackson, like so many of the greatest humans who ever lived, was unique. Not even Elvis Presley, the celebrated King of Rock And Roll, reached all of Jackson's achievements such as 750 million album sales worldwide, 13 Grammy awards and 13 number one hits, not to mention Michael's best-selling Thriller, the greatest-selling album of all time at over 100 million copies. Jackson donated over US$100 million to charities, contributed much to the upliftment of African Americans and civil rights and quietly but effectively bridged the gap between blacks and whites in the US and the world. In some ways, Michael Jackson continued the work of Lennon and Marley with his unifying and socio-political commentaries in songs like Black And White and Man In The Mirror. Michael had his all too much publicised idiosyncracies but like Mohammad Ali of boxing fame, Michael Jackson was the greatest of all musical performers and will never be equalled. Greece and Rome had their pantheon of gods for love, wine, war and myriad human entities, and Michael Jackson was the god of music.

Only heartless haters could avoid loving Michael Jackson. His leather jackets, white and silver gloves, white socks, snow boots, moon walk and other contributions to human culture and happiness will be mimicked and sold forever. Although he thanked James Brown for impacting his dancing and performance, Jackson was an inventor and initiator in writing, singing, dancing, music videos and other aspects of entertainment, and was emulated by several modern artistes like Justin Timberlake, who acknowledged such. Even Rihanna echoed the famous "mama se, mama sa/Mama coo sa" lyrics from Jackson's Wanna Be Starting Something, both generating lawsuits that haunted Jackson just like the Christ was harassed by Scribes and Pharisees. Like Jesus Christ, Michael Jackson had been "accused and wrongly abused", as Marley and the Wailers sang in Duppy Conqueror. In some ways, his voice and heart remained those of a child for his entire life and it took divine resolve for Michael Jackson to keep churning out the musical joys with which he blessed humanity, given his childhood travails and the many distractions forced upon him by evil people, many of whom will praise him hypocritically now that he has forever escaped their venom. The King of Pop will live forever, as will the King of Reggae, King of Soul, King of Rock and the undisputed king of the Beatles, John Lennon. But all these musical greats would agree with this writer in crowning the late Mr Michael Jackson the king among kings, yes, the god of music. May Michael's soul rest in peace.

INMerv@hotmail.com