Being a weeklie podcaste from Madison, Wisconsin featuring several remarkable curiosities therein occurring being a compendium of live music from divers artistes
Auf Wiedersehen Michael Jackson
June 26th, 2009
Surely you know that Michael Jackson has died. I am fortunate not to have cable TV and to not watch TV much at all because I’m sure I couldn’t escape stories about his death, what a great loss it was, blah blah blah. Jonathan Rosenbaum noted that the world according to TV news stopped yesterday and remains motionless today, as per a friend of mine. The Internet is full of it too but those articles can be avoided.
Unfortunately when I think of Michael Jackson, I think of the grown man who brought young boys into his bed; I think of how he sang “It don’t matter if you’re black or white” as his nose went from being broad and flat to barely being there at all and his skin gradually got whiter and whiter.
Of course neither paedophilia nor hypocrisy has any bearing on whether his songs were any good or not. James Brown had a thing for beating his wives but his music is still great. But surely I am in a minority when I say Thriller was shite. I was on a very different musical path in 1982 and never understood the appeal of that album or of Jackson himself. That album and the attendant crap that went along with it symbolized all that I hated about early 1980s pop music – the palette of synthesizers sounds which ranged from annoying to intolerable and repulsive drum machine sounds. Add to that Jackson’s unappealing image and the way nearly everyone fell onto the bandwagon.
The Jackson 5 made some good bubble gun pop and Off the Wall has some catchy tunes on it but I don’t think he recorded anything worthwhile after that. To be sure, his music was highly popular and influential. However, it only influenced me to avoid it.
Hopefully now The Beatles back catalog will be returned to Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono where it belongs.
Related posts:
Why you hatin' on Michael?
You Wanna Be Startin Something?
I got to spend most of the morning listening to my mouth-breather co-workers talking about this 'tragedy'. One of them thinks that he was " just a big kid, that's why he had boys in his bed".
I kind of agree with you. I'm sick and tired of the coverage of MJ. Now I have a softspot of his music and I can sympathize with you. I have a love of his first three albums whilst the others were absolute crap. And now showing the news covering his death like its Deja Vu all over again and I'm thinking to myself 'Alright! We Get It! He's still Dead. Move on to another story, Move on to another story For God's Sake!' Now I'm not saying I hate his music, I'm saying is alright alright just calm down and move on. And because of the coverage in the mainstream media it makes me want to puke my guts out. Alright so move on to another news story that might deal with GM or people surfing on the beach.