When I was 11 years old I won two tickets for Michael Jackson’s Dangerous tour in Dublin. My dad couldn’t get off work to take me down to the concert so I sold the tickets and bought Sonic the hedgehog for the Sega Master System instead.
Looking back it was kind of a like-for-like swap – I’m sure for many of my peers as well the cult of Michael Jackson was as much a part of childhood as Sega, Pepsi, and Saturday morning cartoons.
He visualised music and galvanised music television through his groundbreaking videos, and his cartoonish persona meant that for many of us our first tapes or LPs were Michael Jackson albums. One of the first times I heard a Beatles song was when Jackson did a cover of”Come Together.”
My mate Stu could do a pretty decent moonwalk back then. Hearing the guitar riff from “Black or White” still makes me smile, as it reminds me of countless summer holiday afternoons spent in his front room practicing.
His musical legacy? He definitely has created one, regardless of what music critics say. The Jackson Five’s “I Want you Back” has got to be one of the most uplifting pieces of pop music ever created. The era most familiar to me was the clatter and bang of the “Bad” album and the less successful “Dangerous.” The quality of his songs, and the man’s vocals, matched with Quincy Jones’ flawless production, made his music addictive. I think he may well have been the greatest entertainer of his age. The impact of his music on breaking down racial barriers in popular culture can’t be underestimated.
It’s sad that a generation has grown up that now only knows Jackson for the allegations that have dogged him since 1993. Apparently google nearly crashed due to the online buzz around his death – how much does the celebrity gossip industry owe its current media domination to figures like him?
When I sold those tickets I thought I’d maybe get to see Michael Jackson when I was older, yet soon after the allegations started his life really went downhill sharper and he was basically finished. Guess I stopped listening to his music regularly when britpop and all that hit the scene too, yet I still find myself looking for Michael Jackson stories two days after he died. Maybe its the need for some twisted nostalgia-comfort fix now that life as an adult is more complex in general, or just another sign that I’m getting older and don’t want to.
Filed under: Music | Tagged: Michael Jackson, Music
I never really listed to his music, but I also remember trying to learn to moonwalk in the primary school. And there used be a lot of jokes going round because of his change of colour. In fact one of the best ever French group of humorists (“les inconnus”) used to do famous sketch about it… The bassline to “thriller” still randomly pops into my mind.
I won’t miss him as much as I miss the megadrive, though. Sonic the Hedgehog is probably one of the best games in the history of video games… I miss the simple epilepsy-inducing magic of 2D.
Lisa has the Megadrive version of Sonic on her PSP. Yeh that is one killer bassline. Had Michae; Jackson songs playing in my head during the worship in church tonight.
Enjoy Scotland! We spent a weekend in Glasgow earlier this month