The Obligatory Michael Jackson Post

Come on, you knew it was coming.

For what it’s worth (and my opinion is never worth much) I am not shocked at the death of the King of Pop. It seems only fitting that he died a young, tragic death. It’s suitable for celebrity icons, and let’s be honest, had he made it to old age he would simply have been a modern day Howard Hughes, frittering away his life in self inflicted obscurity making bizarre demands on those who served him. Instead he made it about half way to old age in self inflicted obscurity making said demands.

But this isn’t about his passing.

I was never a huge Michael Jackson Fan. I was born too late to experience the phenomenon of the Jackson 5 (17 years to the day after Jackson himself was born, we share the same birthdate). In fact, I despised Thriller when it came out (although it is to date the only MJ album/cd in my collection, purchased long after it reached best selling status). I was 7 years old and the only girl in my first grade class who didn’t have a Michael Jackson folder for school worksheets. Mine was Duran Duran…yes, even at age 6 I was cutting edge, going against the mainstream…although, I think the choice of Duran Duran folder was not so much a result of my impeccable taste in music as it was my sister’s influence when mom handed her $10 and said “take your little sister to the store to get school supplies”. I distinctly remember standing in front of the display of folders, a pyramid of Michael Jacksons staring back at me, and my sister, at age 15, saying quite firmly ” I am NOT buying you a Michael Jackson folder. You’re getting Duran Duran.” Had there been a Rick Springfield option my sister would have purchased the folder, Trapper Keeper, Data Center and matching pencil box, but alas that was not available. Dr. Noah Drake may have been the resident stud on General Hospital but he had not trickled down into mainstream school supply culture.

But I digress…back to MJ. I was never a huge fan, but didn’t actively dislike his music the way I campaigned against my friends’ worship of NKOTB when we were in the eighth grade. I actually enjoyed “Dangerous” and would probably have purchased it if I didn’t spend all of my hard earned money on Andrew Lloyd Webber musical soundtracks and Mozart cassettes.

Despite never being a huge fan, I can appreciate his music. I recently read a post on Facebook where someone said, not in exactly these words, that before we mourn the death of the King of Pop we should stop to appreciate Chuck Berry, a person whom without there would have been no Elvis, no Beatles, no MoTown, and most certainly no Michael Jackson. And although I do not dispute this idea, I think the author of the statement missed the point of why we are mourning Jackson’s death.

Chuck Berry may have started it all, but he did not grow up in front of us. His career began after he reached adulthood, and he was not the international sensation that Michael was marketed as. Chuck Berry chose a career in music. When you stop to examine the details of Michael’s life, you have to realize that it was never his choice to be the King of Pop. He was on stage at 5 years old and never looked back. His dad beat the crap out of him, which never, ever leads to a well adjusted adult. Couple the abuse with a stolen childhood, a life of performing and probably limited social development, it’s a wonder he even functioned at all as an adult. Let’s be honest…we know that when children are plucked from preschool to become international performers, the end result is never good. Yeah, there are the Jodie Fosters who go on to graduate from Yale and be completely normal adults. But for every Jodie Foster there is a Lindsay Lohan, Drew Barrymore, Britney Spears, the Culkin family, and the entire cast of Diff’rent Strokes. In general, a childhood spent out of school, on movie sets or in TV studios or on tour is not healthy for a child’s psychosocial development. Compound that with the fact that the child is usually doing this as a money making vehicle for the parent and not as a willing participant, it’s no wonder they turn out moderately screwed up.

If you listen to interviews with Michael Jackson that were conducted in the early 1980s you hear him state with earnest that he is most at home on stage, performing, singing and dancing. It is clear that he really is not sure how to function outside of that world. His energy and passion were for music and dance, and when he channeled that energy the result was impressive choreography and original, catchy music that is fun to sing along to. If you weren’t old enough to remember his moonwalking performance on the Motown Anniversary show then you will never truly be able to appreciate where MichaelMania came from. That was the pivotal point in his career when he was no longer “little Michael from the Jackson 5″ but a bankable solo artist doing something incredibly different. Girls saw him as a young man and everything changed and he became a sort of latter day sex symbol. As Jackson entered adulthood and was out of the emotional and financial control of his father, he also was entering a point in his life where he could make his own choices regarding his music and career. In terms of his music, it was all good. His videos were ground breaking. I never liked the Thriller Video but the fact that a music video in 1983 warranted a documentary about the making of said video should indicate how important it was to pop culture. The choreography in “Beat It” was like a modern West Side Story and “Billie Jean” was so stylized and unique compared to other videos of the time.

However, freedom from Dad and a childhood spent performing in front of millions came at a price. Michael cruised through the 1980s, establishing himself as the King of Pop. Sometime around age 30 he went off the rails. I’m no psychologist but it is pretty obvious to me that he was suffering from a delayed childhood. It’s a perfectly logical explanation for the clothing choices, the plastic surgeries, and the Neverland Ranch. Think back to yourself at age 10. You probably thought the coolest thing ever would be to live in a place like Disney World and wear your Halloween Costume every day of the year. Michael probably wanted that too, and at age 30 he could afford to do it. If you never endure a childhood and adolescence and all of it’s highs and lows, you might think you can experience it whenever it’s convenient. But when physical aging manifests itself it becomes a lot harder to masquerade as the eternal teenager – and a good plastic surgeon can fix that.

As for the child molestation charges, I firmly believe he never touched a child. I think he had issues and wanted kids around him because those were things he was denied as a youngster himself. Sleep overs, birthday parties, field trips – he never got that growing up. But he certainly had enough money that he could do it now.
People will try to argue that he never would have offered a large financial settlement to the family that was accusing him of molesting their child if it wasn’t true. People view the settlement as an admission of guilt.
Let me explain something to you – it is infinitely easier to settle out of court than it is to prove your innocence. I was a high school teacher in my former life. Twice I have witnessed school districts cave to parents who were simply looking to work the system. It is inherently cheaper to pay the demanding parent the amount they seek than it is to fight it in court, wasting money, time, and human resources. Parents can accuse a teacher of sexual misconduct and the teacher will simply resign rather than allow himself to be dragged through the mud by a soulless lawyer who seeks only to gain his client financial compensation for..well, for nothing. Parents can accuse a teacher of negligence when their child chooses to break a rule, despite the teacher doing everything reasonable to prevent the accident. Then they will sue the school and the school will pay them the amount they are requesting because it’s easier and cheaper in the long run.

In fact, you can sue someone for virtually anything and often times the result is a settlement, even if no party is at fault or able to prove negligence. We live in a litigious society where nobody is safe from false accusations and legal settlements. Michael Jackson was never a child molester. Child molesters do not do it once, get caught, pay off their victims, and then go back to writing hit music. People who do this sort of thing are compulsive and cannot stop.

Although I never considered myself a fan of his music, I can list probably 10 of his songs that I thoroughly enjoy. His dancing was phenomenal before he discovered his crotch ( I never really understood the crotch grabbing as a dance move) and although his latter videos relied more on heavy production budgets and digital effects, the videos from Thriller are far superior in substance and style to anything coming out of the music industry in this century. I am not sad to see him pass, because I believe his best work was behind him and that age and America’s fickle taste in popular music would have prevented him from reaching the level of appreciation that was granted him in the last century. I can only imagine how his eccentricities would have increased exponentially with every decade that passed. There is a sense of shock at his loss, primarily because 50 is so young, and we don’t expect a generally healthy person to drop dead. But his death seems appropriate given his life, and I will forever appreciate the impact of his early work and the importance it had in shaping popular culture during the latter decades of the twentieth century.

For those of you who say “good riddance” to the passing of Michael Jackson because you believe he committed crimes of which he was never proven guilty, well shame on you for being so naive. Wait until you are accused of something that you did not do and end up forking over money or quitting your job in order to preserve your dignity. Perhaps then you will understand.