This kinda just came out of me in a matter of minutes. Goes to show you how important his loss is to all of us…
Top 5 Reasons That Michael Jackson Was Great
1. He was the most amazing dancer I have ever seen.
2. His voice and soul in his music were undeniably unique and powerful. It touched people of all colors.
3. He sold more records than you can probably imagine
4. He influenced almost every contemporary artist that you can think of in the rock and pop genres.
5. He was the first to make some seriously cool music videos that inspired so many thereafter.
(And who could deny that Michael Jackson made white ankle socks with black shoes look cooler than anyone could ever imagine. Hmmm??)
Top 5 Favorite Memories Of Michael Jackson
1. Billie Jean came out when I was very small, but my parents would tape music videos for me to watch when I was just hanging out. I will never forget that the actual video and song were one of my favorites…ever. It was one of the most unique combinations of sounds and sights to me. To this day, even if I hear it every time I go out to a bar, I will always feel good about that song.
2. I tried to moon walk many many times. Each time-fail. However, fun every single time. Every schoolyard in the 1980’s was filled with little kids trying to moon-walk. I was definitely one of them. Laughing my butt off, and loving it.
3. I can remember “Bad” coming out, and all the cool kids had seen the video premiere on MTV. Some kids didn’t have MTV in their home, but I did. I remember going to school the next day telling most of the girls about the video, and of course the guys thinking I was totally cool. This was the beginning of the story of my life. 21 years later I work in the music industry and still have cool stories like this.
4. It was Christmas 1991 and I was in the 5th grade. My grandmother bought me, my sister, and my cousin all matching outfits from the Gap, but in different colors. Sis was green, I was purple, cous was red. Now we thought these outfits were the COOLEST things on the planet. They were bright colored baggy fleeces with zip up collars, and checkerboard spandex stirrups…
Not only did we think these were cool, but I also had with me my Mayim “Blossom” Bialik style black hat, and black ankle high boots. I decided that we had to bring some life to these outfits and put on a show for our relatives. What a more perfect track to perform to than the newest and coolest single “Black or White” by Michael Jackson! Needless to say, we were a 90’s smash success. Later on that evening we sang on the top of our lungs the words to “Man In The Mirror” while playing Girl Talk and eating way too many Christmas cookies… good times.
4.a Since I said that I would only do 5 memories, I will make this an extension of #4. It was the same year and I satrted dating my very first boyfriend Robert. We met at a Valentine’s Day dance, and we hit it off dancing the “roger rabbit” to “Finally” by Cece Peniston (please visualize this with me wearing overly large early 90’s circular glasses, apalazzo skirt, and a funky Jessie Spano style collared shirt…awesome). A month later Robert wanted to “go steady”. He did so by sending me a mix tape with cute songs from the radio and little snippets of dialogue to buffer each track. During one of his little monologues Robert asked on the tape “Nicole doe you remember dancing with me on Valentine’s Day? Well that’s when I knew we should go-steady. Will you be my gf?” Or something to that effect. Immediately following his question was the track “Remember The Time” by Michael Jackson. Every time I hear that song I go right back to the 5th grade and think about my red-headed boyfriend and my terrible taste in clothing.
5. Fast forward to college. One of my former roommates decided to move off campus. She had a great cottage type house in the woods right behind campus grounds. The property spread all the way out to the Hudson River, (which in acres I have no idea how large that is, but it was BIG). Anyway, on this one particular evening we decided to have a party. At first things were mellow, maybe even a bit too mellow. The minute we popped in our mix the whole party just came alive! We put on “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough”, and before you knew it every single person at the party was dancing, and did not stop through the rest of the night. If you know anything about East Coast college keg parties you would know how hard it is to turn them into a total non-stop dance party. We played as much Michael as we could find that night, and I remember that being the moment in my adult life that I understood how amazing he was as a pop star, and that he wasn’t just some dude who I rocked out to as a kid.
I love these memories, and this is what makes him so special to me and so many people. Mind you these are just memories from the 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s. MJ was around for a lot longer than my time, so I have to say that his affect is probably even more massive than I can comprehend. This is a truly sad day. It’s on the same level as losing greats like John Lennon, and Elvis Presley.
I think the ironic and terrible thing about his passing is that he spent so many of his final years in a very negative limelight. As soon as I heard the news it made sense to me. I have experience losing someone who was around that exact age, and I am sure their reasons for leaving this world were very similar. Anyone that lonely, and that abusive of prescription medication is not going to live a long life. Can you picture MJ being 80? It’s kinda surreal to think about that isn’t it?
I am not trying to say that of course he should have passed, but I think the point here is that it is highly possible that your death will be reflective of your life. In his case it was strange, mysterious, lonely and tragic. I think about the fact that he died of cardiac arrest almost as a metaphor for the way he must have have felt about the love in his life. It sounds like he had a terrible childhood, horrible adolescence, and lonely adulthood. We see that his relationships, whether it be romantic, personal, or estranged, were filled with so much tumult. It’s kind of almost like he he had enough. In this body and in this life he could not live one more day without just straight up, simple secure love. I have read MJ’s bio before, and of course seen the many biopics and documentaries. One can assume that between being beaten and having tremendous religious guilt about his sexuality, that this man had absolutely no chance in hell of ever having a normal life with a normal course. I think many of us love him, but none of us would want to be him.
In addition to what may have been the case of the perpetual broken heart syndrome, we then have a man who literally cut off his nose to spite his own face. I am sure there was apart of him that wanted to perfect this idea of beauty that he had in his head, but on some level he has to have known consciously, or subconsciously that he was destroying his face. Those plastic surgeries were very destructive, and just like young woman who hate their bodies and nearly starve themselves to death, Michael Jackson could have wanted some part of himself to just disappear or to lose all meaning. In most cases with anorexic or bulimic girls, their vanishing sense of self worth is related to their desire to be so thin that they almost disappear, (or die). I believe the surgical masks, sunglasses, shrinking nose, and lightened skin was just a way of erasing any form of identity. Almost a way of cleansing the familial roots that made him look like any part of where he came from. It is no surprise that someone with this level of pain and loneliness was not long for this world.
After seeing someone I love die because of a similar outlook on life, it would be no surprise to me that he died due to prescription drugs. I imagine that it had to be pretty bad. Family spokesperson Brain Oxman just released a statement to the press indicating that “what was going on with Anna-Nicole Smith, was nothing compared to what was happening to Michael Jackson before his passing.” If that doesn’t say something I don’t know what does. We all saw that train wreck crash and burn. I can only imagine what the truth really is.
RIP Michael Jackson. While you always had a controversial existence, your artistic influence will go on and on and never be forgotten. It’s like the world trying to forget the Beatles or Elvis. It just won’t happen. I don’t think it’s really fair to focus on his controversies. At least not today. Maybe one day we can delve into the mysteries of his personal life, but right now is a bit too son. Maybe he did do these bad things, but it doesn’t matter. Today is not the day for that. We can look back in a awhile and discuss all these things down the road, but I think the first week of a person’s passing, especially one who was as prominent as Michael Jackson, should be filled with the most honorable remembrances that we can honestly conjure up. All speculation and nay-saying after that is I suppose up for discussion at another time. In my case I won’t be one to divulge into those particular controversies. I am not sure what to believe about those allegations, but I do know that there was no way that his perceptions on relationships with children were appropriate. That either leaves room for people to completely exploit that fact, or it is possble that he could have honed a certain depravity inside him. Either way, I choose not to find out. In fact, it is ultimately not what the pop star is all about for me.
Shamon MJ! The world will defnitely miss you. I truly hope that you are at complete rest, and that wherever you are it’s a place where you can just be yourself and be at ease.
