He made "Thriller"... "Thriller". (A Tribute To The Legend... Michael Jackson)

Member Name: Blair_Waldorf

Product:	A Tribute To The Legend... Michael Jackson
Date:	08/08/09 (120 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: He changed the face of music, back catalogue is immense, did so much for charity

Disadvantages: He was written off as a freak by so many, even though he led a sad life from age 5 onwards.

If you were to ask me what started my obsession with music, my answer would simply be "Michael Jackson". I am the youngest of four, and growing up with three siblings that idolised the King of Pop was always going to have a profound effect on me. The first album I ever purchased was "Bad" and I distinctly remember taping all of his music videos off VH1 and having "Bad" and "Dangerous" posters on the walls of the bedroom I shared with my equally as obsessed older sister. We loved the guy and would argue about who loved him the most. I was more partial to the "Beat It" side of things, whilst my sister preferred the gentler side apparent on songs like "Human Nature". Undoubtedly two amazing songs from the biggest selling album of all time... "Thriller".

Today my life revolves around music, I never leave the house without my iPod, my entire life is on that thing. Seeing live music is my favourite thing to do. I was only a small child when I suddenly felt a massive connection to music, and it was his music that set things into motion. One thing about Michael Jackson's music is that it's timeless. He's one of few musical artists that has been there in my life from the very beginning to now. His music will randomly pop up on my iPod and I am more than happy to jam along to the likes of "Billie Jean" "Wanna be startin' somethin'", "Bad" or any of the other musical masterpieces he created. It all sounds just as fabulous today as it did back then. "Thriller" came out in 1982 and to date has sold somewhere in the vicinity of 109 million copies worldwide, thus making it the biggest selling album of all time. Considering the way music is obtained in this day and age, it's not unrealistic to assume this is a record that will never be broken. In my opinion (and I'm clearly not alone in thinking this) the music that he produced with Quincy Jones will forever be some of the best music that's ever been put on record.

When I found out the King of Pop was dead, all I felt was utter shock which soon turned to devastation, an emotion I certainly did not expect to feel. The way the world mourns the death of a celebrity is somewhat dumbfounding to me, how can you possibly feel so much sadness over the death of someone you didn't even know personally? I admit to rolling my eyes at the public outpouring when Princess Diana died, the whole world went psycho and I didn't even pretend to get it. But for the first time, I felt it. I felt like a piece of my childhood had died, as ridiculous as that sounds, I just couldn't stop thinking about it. Michael Jackson was just always there, we grew up obsessed with him, listened to his music constantly and idolised him for his innovative ways. I grew up listening to this guy's music from a very early age, he was my first ever music fandom and it's been something that's stuck with me over the years. To know he was no longer alive was depressing, but it wasn't just that he'd died; it was knowing he died after living such a sad life. He was 50 years old, on the brink of a comeback, yet he never got to prove the haters wrong.

When I watch performances of the Jackson 5 I am actually in awe of the magnetism that little boy had. His voice is so big for someone so little. He's just a kid and yet he has the charisma, swagger and rhythm of someone much, much older. I'm literally amazed; it's no shock that this clearly gifted boy grew up to become the one and only Michael Jackson.

Michael Jackson suffered through a very complicated and tragic life. He was catapulted into the limelight from the age of 5 and was deprived of a childhood, something that would affect him for the rest of his life. I truly believe that everything that his father put him through (physical and emotional abuse) left him with many emotional scars, which essentially led him to become what he became. His extreme shyness toward women set off rumours of homosexuality, but imagine being a small child sharing a bedroom with your older brothers or father who were busy engaging in sex with groupies... wouldn't that leave you with a few emotional scars too? It's pretty common knowledge that he had women throwing themselves at him from a very early age, something that made him incredibly shy and nervous. Any normal hormonal boy/man would revel in the fact that gorgeous women were handing it to him on a plate, but Michael was never into that. He seemed more interested in forming friendships with animals, which many considered plain weird, but he also felt a connection to the one group of people that wouldn't judge him... children.

To me, Michael was a hero on stage, so passionate, fierce and just insanely talented. I watched his live performances with nothing but awe, how on earth does he do it?! His fluid and perfectly timed dance moves were just one of the many things he will be remembered for. But off stage he seemed so painfully shy it was almost impossible to believe it was the same man doing the moonwalk and grabbing his crotch at any given moment. It was definitely apparent that on stage he was a natural, when he got up there he set the stage on fire, it was almost poetic. No other musical artist in the world has the same stage presence as him. Up there, he was legendary. His dance moves were iconic, to this day I still occasionally watch the Motown 25 performance of "Billie Jean" and when he does that epic dance move for the first time, I can almost feel the hair on the back of my neck stand. You know what I'm talking about, only the moonwalk! Something that became apart of popular culture and will always be attached to one of the greatest entertainers of all time.

One topic a lot of people need to educate themselves on is the fact that Jackson suffered from the rare skin disease called vitiligo. This disease causes depigmentation in patches of skin, at first patches aren't too noticeable, but can grow larger in size over time. At first many came to the conclusion that Michael was simply ashamed of being black and bleached his skin with the intention of becoming white. Having done some research it's clear for anyone to see, Michael suffered from this disease. In the early years he wore make up to hide the patches, and rumours even circulated that the infamous white glove was simply worn to hide the patches on his hand. After a while the pale patches grew larger and more prominent than his natural tone. He went through a procedure to remove the pigmentation from his skin to even it all out, hence why his skin became so pale in the latter years. I think it's really important for people to know this, as most people share the belief that he was ashamed of his heritage and this added to the "Wacko Jacko" persona the tabloids were more than happy to place focus on.

It's not too bold of a statement to say that Michael's physical appearance was no longer considered normal, actually far from it, but once again, it all links back to his childhood. His father, Joe Jackson constantly made fun of his appearance, his nose in particular, taunting his own son for being "ugly". For a parent to constantly put his own son down is sickening and these insults can be linked to Michael's obsession with getting surgery on his nose. It's so easy to write Michael Jackson off as a weirdo, or a freak. He was a walking punch line for so many years, but there are countless underlying issues as to why he became the way he was. The following extract, taken from his biography "Moonwalker" pretty much sums it all up...

"My appearance began to really change when I was about fourteen. I grew quite a bit in height. People who didn't know me would come into a room expecting to be introduced to cute little Michael Jackson and they'd walk right past me. I would say, "I'm Michael," and they would look doubtful. Michael was a cute little kid: I was a gangly adolescent heading toward five feet ten inches. I was not the person they expected or even wanted to see. Adolescence is hard enough, but imagine having your own natural insecurities about the changes your body is undergoing heightened by the negative reactions of others. They seemed so surprised that I could change, that my body was undergoing the same natural change everyone's does.

It was tough. Everyone had called me cute for a long time, but along with all the other changes, my skin broke out in a terrible case of acne. I looked in the mirror one morning and it was like, "OH NO!" I seemed to have a pimple for every oil gland. And the more I was bothered by it, the worse it got. I didn't realize it then, but my diet of greasy processed food didn't help either.

I became subconsciously scarred by this experience with my skin. I got very shy and became embarrassed to meet people because my complexion was so bad. It really seemed that the more I looked in the mirror, the worse the pimples got. My appearance began to depress me. So I know that a case of acne can have a devastating effect on a person. The effect on me was so bad that it messed up my whole personality. I couldn't look at people when I talked to them. I'd look down, or away. I felt I didn't have anything to be proud of and I didn't even want to go out. I didn't do anything."

I don't think anyone can truly imagine having to endure puberty under the spotlight and be made fun of for the things that every teenager goes through. If you're still thinking Michael was an ugly freak at the time of his passing, try to understand what led him to do that to himself. He had issues with his appearance, but regularly got taunted for the very things he was self conscious about. These insecurities were so deep rooted that nothing anyone could say would stop him from constantly wanting to change the way he looked, it obviously became an obsession. In certain interviews he talked about the physical and emotional abuse he received at the hands of his father, which may also explain his want and need to prevent himself from growing into a man that resembled his abuser - his father. I will admit, even as a fan that his appearance was horrifying, and it saddened me that pre surgery he was so handsome, but when I think about the taunts he received, I can understand why he did it.

His childhood was taken away from him, which explains why he was so childlike in his nature in later years, a permanent state of longing to relive those years he lost out on. His life was far from easy regardless of the fact that he had all the materialistic things he could possibly want and legions of fans that would defend him to their deaths, it didn't change the fact that he was incredibly lonely.

The more I learnt about Michael, the more I felt sorry for him. He had everything in the world. Fame, fortune, talent, vision and yet he was incredibly lonely. A quote from 1984 that stuck out in my mind was "Even at home I'm lonely. It's so hard to make friends. I sometimes walk around the neighbourhood just hoping to find someone to talk to". He was constantly surrounded by people, yet he was completely alone. Michael never had the chance to be a kid, play in the park, goof around, make friends your own age and generally do the things that children do. He was too busy being the cash cow his father forced him to become. He so clearly adored making music and performing, but he never got to live a normal life we so take for granted. From age 5 onwards everything changed. Imagine not even being able to do something as mundane as go to the supermarket to pick up milk in fear of paparazzi and crowds of people gathering around? I can't even think about what that life must have been like. Being so famous would also stop you from making true, genuine friends. After his death how many stories have leaked out from supposed friends? How do you differentiate the people wanting to be genuine friends with you, from those who simply want a scoop to sell to the tabloids? This part of me understands why he felt connected to children, the one group of people that wouldn't judge him or sell him out. And don't talk about those kids that accused him of molestation, look into the cases and it's glaringly obvious the parents had a lot more to do with it, which just proves my point.

I'm a person of a minority and I really admired the work Michael had done to break racial boundaries. He was the first black artist to really appeal to all races on a wider scale. He did so much for race relations all over the world and Michael Jackson was instrumental in paving the way for black artists to become mainstream, he was performing during a time where black artists weren't even played on MTV, but that's another barrier he broke down after "Billie Jean" was the first music video by a black artist to be shown on the station. For a black artist to become the most famous musician in the world that appealed to all races when racial hatred was still rampant says it all, this man was simply born to entertain the world and people saw past the colour of his skin and saw what was really there, pure talent.

One thing that you cannot deny about Michael is that he led the way for musicians after him. It's because of him the music video is what it is today. So many of Michael's music videos were mini movies, something that was completely unheard of before Michael had a vision for his now famous video "Thriller". Though made in 1984, it still ranks as one of the best music videos of all time and it's not hard to see why, he was a true visionary and his originality will always live on.

The most controversial aspect of Michael's life was the accusation of child molesting. At the time of the first trial I was only 8 years old and a die hard fan so refused to believe my hero would engage in something so appalling. What makes the situation even more controversial is the fact that Jackson paid off the accuser, which many saw as an admission of guilt. To be honest, I've never thought he was guilty, ever. I simply think this man was permanently stuck in a state of childhood, unable to move on he simply wanted to spend time with the people he most connected to - children. There are definitely aspects of this situation that aren't right, but I truly believe his heart was in the right place. If Evan Chandler (the father of Jordan, the child who accused Jackson in 1993) really wanted justice, he would have fought the case to the very end instead of being bought off. I'm not a parent yet, but I know with all of my heart, if someone regardless of who they were, abused my child in any way, shape or form, I would want justice, no amount of money could make me think otherwise. Whoever could do such a thing belongs behind bars, which basically leads me to believe the Chandlers were after nothing but money. It might seem to you that I'm being biased, after all I'm a fan, but honestly, it was essential to the fan inside me to do my research so I could make an informed decision on whether or not I thought he was guilty. I won't go into too much detail of the case, but in my opinion, he was innocent, nothing really adds up. Firstly, Evan Chandler was caught on tape saying "If I go through with this, I win big time. There's no way I lose. I will get everything I want and they will be destroyed forever...Michael's career will be over.". The words of a parent after justice? Hardly. Secondly, more than 200 people who visited the Neverland ranch were interviewed and not one of them could corroborate Chandler's story. Why would a paedophile stop at one child when literally hundreds of children were known to visit the ranch? Thirdly, Jordan Chandler claimed to have seen Michael naked and gave a detailed description of his genitalia, which was later found to be inaccurate. People close to Michael claim he only paid off the Chandlers because he simply couldn't take the accusations and the pressure was getting to him. No one but Jordan Chandler knows what went on, and it's unlikely we'll ever find out the truth. Looking at the evidence (or lack thereof) I truly believe Michael was innocent. If anything, he was naïve and chose to see the good in people. He obviously didn't see anything wrong with sharing his bed with young boys, and I will not defend his decision to do this as its completely inappropriate but unfortunately his naivety paved the way for the accusations, which would lead to his downfall.

This man changed the face of music, sure his life was bizarre, but beneath it all was genuine talent, passion, charisma and a true visionary. It speaks volumes that regardless of the fact that he was accused of a truly heinous crime and turned into something that looked far from normal, his fans stuck by him through thick and thin. It's comforting to know that he died knowing how loyal and dedicated his fans were having sold out his "This Is It" tour almost instantly. I would even go as far as to say he had the most dedicated fans of any celebrity on the planet. One thing you cannot deny about Michael is that he truly loved his fans and was always so gracious to them.

A lot of people have commented on how his death has turned into a media circus and it needs to stop, well even as a fan I can admit, it's been a tumultuous ride, but what people need to remember is that this was the most famous man on earth and has been for so long. You could go to a remote part of the world, and they all knew who Michael Jackson was. M.I.A. talked about growing up in Sri Lanka and the only artist from the Western world they knew of was Michael Jackson, she went on to talk about how the entire village dressed up as him and constantly swapped tapes of his music. My mum knows nothing about music, period. But the fact that she knows a Michael Jackson song as soon as it begins really says it all. No matter what you say, he really was the first artist of this calibre. It was always going to be a huge deal when he passed away, and the fact that he died at 50 only made it worse. People are sick of it, sure, but come on... this was Michael Jackson, a legend. You might dislike him for his personal life or whatever, but you cannot deny the work that he did for music and his continuous charitable donations. He was a hero to the people that loved him, we don't need to hear about how many drugs he was addicted to, we just want to mourn the passing of the man we admired for so many years. I wasn't around when Elvis died, nor had I been born by the time Lennon was assassinated, but now I know what it feels like.

What was it about this charismatic entertainer that captured the imagination of millions all over the world? Why this guy? Out of all the entertainers in the world, what made Michael Jackson a true icon and visionary, that will forever be etched in popular culture until the end of time? As a fan, I can only say is he had it all, his hard work, raw talent, determination and vision took him to the top.

There are plenty of people out there that couldn't possibly care any less about Michael Jackson, you don't care and you love to tell us about it. For us - the fans, it was different. For so many of us, he changed our lives. I went through a really rough period during my childhood, and when I think back to it, I don't remember the array of ugly emotions I was going through, periods of feeling lost, depressed and lonely. All I remember is Michael Jackson's music blaring from underneath my brother's bedroom door, every day, like clockwork. It always lifted my spirits. That was the first time music did something to really change my life, hence why I hold Michael up in such high regard. He meant something to us. I understand that a lot of you just don't get it, and that's fine, but please respect the fact that he meant something completely different to us, you might ridicule us for being devastated at the news of his passing, but do we care... no, not really.

Michael is actually in the Guinness book of world records for being the celebrity that has donated the most amount of money to charity. He may have spent money on extravagant purchases, but he earned that money and had the right to do whatever he wanted with it, and the fact he gave so much of it to charity spoke volumes about the kind of person he was.

You might think I'm being overdramatic, mourning the death of someone I didn't know, but it's not just that. I feel even worse about his death because as much as you want to deny it, he did so much for charity. He obviously cared so much for the world and did what he could and yet the world treated him like shit. He had serious psychological issues and acted what some would call "weirdly". He became a joke. Most of it was his own doing, but did he really deserve to be treated this way? Especially when he seemed to be such kind, gentle man. One thing that I loved about him, is that he rarely ever talked bad about anybody. Michael talked about how he was hurt that Eminem took the piss out of him in his music video, but then went on to talk about how Emimen was such a talented artist... always the class act.

The world has lost it's last truly iconic star, no other living artist comes close to being what he was, and there was only one MJ. You can hate on this man as much as you want, you can call him whatever names you want, but you simply cannot deny the huge amounts of work he did for charity and the fact that he was one of the most original, innovative entertainers of all time. He will always live on through his amazing music, if you know anything about music, you'll agree with me. Michael Jackson has a back catalogue of truly astounding music that I know children today are listening to, and I cannot wait to teach my kids the dance to "Thriller" ;)

Being an MJ fan is hard, I get ridiculed and it's not cool to mourn for him because a lot of you just don't care and think he was a freak or a weirdo and constantly moan about how the media attention regarding his death is over the top, but you know what, I'm not ashamed to admit I was, am and always will be a huge fan. R.I.P. MJ...To me you'll always live on through your amazing work, on and off the stage. Legend.

Ps. I couldn't help but quote Dave Chappelle in the title...

Summary: A write up of my thoughts about the late King of Pop.