Thursday, June 25, 2009

The Kid Is Not My Son

Well, I started this week by snootily declaring that I don't like to write about tawdry gossip, but now I see I have been covering Chris Brown/Rhianna, Mark Sanford, and now the death of Michael Jackson: Michael Jackson Suffers Massive Heart Attack

Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon and paramedics were unable to revive him. We’re told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back.

Michael is survived by three children: Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince “Blanket” Michael Jackson II.

Jetting around the 'net, I see that the Youtube video almost everyone is linking to is "I Want You Back," whose title and bouncy spirit seem doubly poignant today. Jackson wasn't just consumed by fame. His life charts one of the basic changes in American pop culture from breezy low-budget fun to an over exposed, drug addled "spectacle" dependant on $$, rather than inspiration to survive.

Still, Jackson's legacy is a strong one. I could listen to the rhythm guitars on "Thriller" and never hear better chicken-scratching. And tell me you can walk into a mall, hear the opening beats of "Billie Jean," and not want to reach for your red fedora! Jackson is gone (mercifully for him, I think), but his best music will reasonate for a long time.

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