As you have to have been an isolation booth or under extreme sedation not to have heard about Michael Jackson dying today, I shan’t bore you with details. I can only imagine we are in for a circus of craptacular proportion as every hanger-on involved in his life emerges from the woodwork to make a quick recession buck on their Exclusive! Access! to His! Twisted! Life!
Just contemplating it makes me want to take a long nap.
You know, I didn’t appreciate MJ’s music until late in life, really, because for me books and movies were first. Pop music only came along for me when I started directing theatre in earnest in my early twenties. Oh sure, I’d heard the songs – who hasn’t heard the songs? But pop music was intellectual for me, not emotional. It was in the background. It held a lesser status than soundtrack, because at least soundtrack had a correlation to plot. I didn’t really start rocking out in the privacy of my own home, shrouded in the veil of a walkman, until it was already the dawn of the discman age. So I’m not speaking from deep childhood associations, like TNC, when I speak of him.
But tonight I’m listening to Thriller and thinking about mortality, the way I bet a lot of you are – in my case not just because of MJ but because of some things that are going on personally. And just to pass the time, I’m reading the ongoing internet discussion on the Critical Question raised by these events: Is Michael Jackson A Legendary Talent or a Child Molester Doomed To Hell?
Were you to force on me the question, though, here is what I could say:
I am not interested in armchair jurors’ assessments of virtue here, in either direction. I think we can say, for sure, that something smelled, over there.
I think we can also say for sure that this was a person who had along history of emotional problems and although I also usually hate armchair diagnoses, more than his share of mental illness. Mental illness to which his wide cast of hangers-on and leeches had obviously turned a blind eye or sought to enable before it began to be clear how very, very disturbed he was. He became emblematic of the way that an entertainment career chews you up and spits you out, and he had spent an awful long time in those teeth by the time we all saw the jig was up.
But then I watch old videos of him on YouTube now in sheer wonder at his dancing. Pure embodiments of joy in the world are few and far between, and because of that I think we have to treasure them.
And that’s all I’ve got, on him.
But as I was trawling around reading commentary on this I came across one incredibly astute idea – that the reason so many are upset is because MJ became, for so many people, symbolic of the end of childhood. When a lot of MJ fans were children, he was incandescent, smoothly moonwalking across the stage, aware of every muscle in his neck. When they were adults, he was a potential sexual predator with a face they had difficulty reconciling with the person they once worshipped. Fallen idols we can get used to, but MJ presented such a stark relief because he was so immensely popular, and his fall from grace so far. Sometimes I think the reason so many people find it so upsetting is because it feels like we’ve been forced to watch him fall off a cliff for years now, without any hope that he would land softly.
Wasn’t it just the other day I was talking about human beings as ciphers? I joke, somewhat, here because MJ brought this on himself on some level. When you are a celebrity, and particularly when you court the status of cultural icon in the fervent sort of way that MJ did, you sign up to be a symbol. You are offering yourself as the embodiment of someone else’s dreams, of their Paths Not Taken. You get to play the fantasy they have of themselves – if they were really just someone they wanted to be instead of what they are.
That is a mighty high standard to live up to even when you’re not as utterly ruined as this man was by the ripe old age of 30. I wouldn’t want to try it, I tell you what.
But the thing I want to say is this: there’s no either/or here, guys, and no prize at the end of the referendum. Your thumbs up or thumbs down means almost nothing in the grand scheme of addressing a person’s life. There seems to be this rush to either coronate or crucify someone after death these days, and I don’t quite understand it. In my highest moments of feminist rage it is still puzzling to me. My spidey sense knows there is good and there is evil in the world, but thinks it is incredibly rare to find a person singularly devoted to either.
And so I’m still listening to Thriller on repeat right now, and getting up every once in awhile to dance around my lonely apartment – though not half so elegantly as he did.
There is good and there is evil in the world, but it is incredibly rare to find a person singularly devoted to either.
Amen.
I keep thinking about the impact MJ had on pop culture. Michael was one of the first performers to have massive commercial success and world presence. Would there be celeb endorsements without him? Would athletes like Tiger and Jordan, and rappers like Ice Cube and Ludacris be so welcome in middle-America’s homes had it not been for MJ making “pop” music that appealed to all?
A symbolic death of childhood – that’s it exactly. Thriller was the soundtrack to my childhood.
@ceejeemcbeegee: your point about the path MJ paved for other African American entertainers and athletes spoke to me. I spent the first couple years of my life living in an all white suburb in Ohio. I am ashamed that my mom’s family was racist and made no pretense of hiding it. Thriller came out not long after we moved to CA, and we couldn’t get enough of it. Michael was, amazingly, one of our first exposures to African Americans. My little sister was determined to marry him. My brothers and sister and I would wait up as long as we had to to see Beat It on Friday Night Videos or Night Tracks. The premier of the Thriller video was a major event in my house, complete with dimmed lights and popcorn, On the one hand, his race mattered in the sense that Michael flew in the face of every negative thing we’d be told by my mom’s family. On the other hand, his race didn’t matter at all; he was a ridiculously talented man who made music that we loved who just happened to be black. Maybe it’s silly, but Michael did in fact play a part in expanding our minds. He also made us sing, dance, and feel happy. I can’t reconcile who he became with my memories of who he was, but I mourn, nonetheless, for the loss of someone who was a meaningful part of my childhood.
Word, TallGirl.
Well put Pilgrim.
My heart goes out to the Jackson family.
No parent should have to bury their child. Period.
Sorry, y’all. I don’t mourn pedophiles, no matter how talented. I’ll save my grief for the lives of the children he molested, whose parents allowed them to be preyed on and who were never able to get justice because of the money and the media and the hoopla that surrounded Michael Jackson. I think there’s nothing wrong with crucifying someone for child abuse, whether he’s living or dead.
The childhood admiration I had for MJ died a long time before he did.
Its an interesting dilemma with MJ, but I’ve always tried to appreciate art without judging the artist, Picasso was no saint right? Great beauty oft comes from great filth somehow. Not well expressed by me.
@beckysharper – I was (and am) still pretty much with you on this, but Andrew Sullivan did a pretty interesting post that put things in a broader perspective.
Is someone excusing pedophilia and I missed it?
ETA: Folks, I am not much interested in having a referendum on whether MJ “deserves” crucifixion.
MJ as a great dancer is the aspect that interests me. Great dancers are rarely pop stars. Before him was only Fred Astaire. MJ’s music videos were the equivalent of Fred Astaire’s movie dance scenes. We haven’t got any great dancer/pop stars now.
Really well-said.
@Becky: I’m not sure I’m mourning exactly either, and his death doesn’t change or forgive the fact that he probably molested a lot of children. But doesn’t it strike you that with Michael Jackson, there’s just a whole lot of gray area? I can’t help but think that aside from his significant contributions to music (and his significance as such a monumentally popular black musician, as CeeJee points out), this man had a really pathetic life.
I don’t know what the point I’m trying to make is. Having a sad life doesn’t excuse you from committing crimes against other people, and I know that. But it makes the process of condemning a little bit stranger, I guess.
PilgrimSoul, thank you for summing up my feelings so well. We’re on exactly the same page. (Although I have to admit that I was into MJ’s music at a very early age — I was dancing along to the Thriller video at 3. Like so many other children of the 80s, Thriller was the first album I ever owned.)
I was planning on going to BAM Cinematek’s Up All Night moviefest this weekend, and one of the films scheduled is/was The Wiz (as part of a trio of films starring Diana Ross). I was going to see that one anyway, but I doubt I’ll be able to find a seat now.
I don’t feel a strong personal connection to MJ, even though of course his music was part of my life growing up. Regardless, if I were to dismiss the work of every individual who did something I find utterly reprehensible, I don’t know what I’d listen to, watch, or read.
MJ was, without question, the first celebrity or musician that was a part of my consciousness. I worshipped the Thriller album and wanted to marry the guy until I was about ten years old. Personally, I’ve always felt like Thriller-era Michael and Neverland Ranch-era Michael are two different people, which I know cannot be the case. I think the reason I’m thinking a lot about this is that I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know who he was. Thriller came out before my second birthday, and I played that LP over and over and over. Celebrity deaths usually don’t grab me, but this one has. My mother asked last night why it’s such a big deal, and I had to gently remind her that, while these days he was better known for sexual abuse allegations and plastic surgery, the man was a musical revolutionary and still holds the record for a best-selling album. And then I turned on my iTunes and played “Beat It”.
@Khruschev: Yes, you’re right about there being a lot of nuance to MJ’s life story. Personally, despite the lack of a criminal conviction, I don’t think there’s much gray area about whether he abused children or not. And he came by it honestly; the stories of how Joe Jackson physically and emotionally abused him are horrible. Most abusers who prey on young children were themselves victims of abuse–that’s a common thread running through nearly all abuse narratives. What I was saying is that I simply can’t work up much sympathy for someone who was able to get away with pedophilia, no matter how iconic they are, and, I guess, no matter how tragic their personal story is.
I heard the news of MJ’s death whilst driving to school last night; I nearly swerved off the road. It seems there are just certain people you never expect to expire. What’s more nerve-wracking to me is when people younger than my parents die. It makes me really nervous to think – my parents are older than that guy. Life is fragile, I guess.
I have loved MJ’s music for a long time. I remember watching that “Making of Thriller” video on MTV as a wee lass – where they painted his eyes and stuff? Mesmerizing. And there’s nothing I love dancing to more than “Billie Jean.” On NPR someone was saying they were at this nightclub once, where everyone was too cool to get on the dance floor. But once the DJ started playing MJ, everyone went nuts. There is a sense of reckless, joyful abandon to so many of his songs.
As someone who despises child molesters, I am strangely forgiving of MJ (not that it’s my place to forgive). I get the sense he was set up for this spectacularly weird, tortured adulthood from the time he was so little. It’s no excuse but for me it makes things complicated.
RIP.
I know what you mean, Becky. It’s hard to listen to people celebrate MJ while totally ignoring what he did (not in this post, but on MTV etc). He SHOULD be celebrated, but at the same time… it’s uncomfortable to ignore the elephant in the room. For me, I imagine him as such a troubled, damaged individual that I have sympathy for him as well as the children he hurt.
When it comes to artists/public figures who’ve done terrible things–sometimes I’m able to put aside what they did and still enjoy their work (Michael Jackson is one), and sometimes the bad stuff is all I see. I don’t feel a need to figure out why–I doubt there’s a rational explanation. But it does become problematic when the conversation becomes public. How can you talk about MJ, or even play his music, without risk of condoning/excusing his actions?
@Spark: PhDork makes a good point when she says that if you cut out all the artists who’d done reprehensible things, you’d wind up with a fairly limited selection of stuff to listen to/watch/read. But I think you’re right that if you don’t actively condemn Michael Jackson’s child molestation (or Chris Brown’s aggravated assault, or Phil Spector’s committing murder) then you’re essentially giving that person a pass because they’re talented/artistic/iconic.
Again, unless I am really truly missing something, no one in this thread is failing to actively condemn any child molestation or insisting on giving anyone a pass.
Again, referenda on the value of a person are not terribly interesting to me.
@Becky: It becomes even more complicated when the legal system is involved. Wasn’t Michael acquitted? (Maybe he settled, I can’t remember.) I still believe he’s guilty, but there’s something a bit off about treating someone as guilty when legally they’re not, especially when the person in question is a black man.
It warms my heart to know that I wasn’t the only person dancing to Thriller alone in her apartment.
@Tallgirl: One of my coworkers just admitted that growing up in the Czech Republic, she was never aware of African Americans until MJ burst out on the international music scene.
Heck in the DRC, they used to refer to break dancers as “junspellays”, which was basically their pronunciation of “Just Beat It”.
The man made a global impact.
@PS: But the child molestation charges lurk under any conversation of Michael Jackson. It’s not about crucifying him. It’s about how to talk about someone, and the good he did/represented, without allowing the bad to be swept under the rug, especially in a culture that ignores the reality of sexual abuse.
Spark: I don’t know how many times I will have to say this, but personally, I, this post, these commenters, have not suggested sweeping anything under the rug. People who are implying that talking about this in a nuanced and complicated manner is impossible because he is a child molester are missing the point of this thread. That’s all.
@Spark: In 1993 the DA declined to press charges because the felt the alleged victim was a poor witness (which is not unusual, unfortunately) MJ settled a civil suit with the boy’s family for $22 million. He was tried in 2003 for a different allegation and acquitted of all charges then. That said, MANY sex crimes do not go to trial or end in an acquittal because the victim is young or seems unreliable or the accused is famous or has a seemingly spotless reputation (priests, for example).
@Pilgrim: I thought this thread was about how “there’s no either/or here,” which I agree with. That doesn’t solve the problem of how to talk about him–in fact, it makes it harder. Unless you’re arguing we listen to his music and ignore the man who made it? Would you make the same argument about Chris Brown?
I’m not accusing anyone here of sweeping child abuse under the rug. I’m listening to MJ right now. But last night, Snoop Dogg was on MTV talking about how Michael Jackson remained relevant because he loved children so much. That seems to deserve comment.
@Spark: Oh Snoop…I suppose he’s right in that we can all agree that MJ sure did love children. I’m guessing he didn’t send his sons to MJ’s for sleepovers, though.
I guess I’m not too compelled to evaluate the dude’s life, but I was wondering today, as I waited for my car at the mechanic and watched the endless spew of media diarrhea about MJ’s demise, why does everyone think the book report’s due now? I suppose the obvious answer, as evident by 88% or so of the comments I’ve read (and this well-written–as always–essay), is that his discography triggers nostalgia about childhood/adolescence in many people, people who profess not to care that much (or at least their ambivalence) about the artist, but adore the art. If that’s the case, it doesn’t make sense to me why his death is making such a huge ripple with these folks for this reason: the guy’s been artistically void for like 15 years now. Hasn’t there been plenty of opportunity to evaluate his legacy? Won’t there still be? It’s not like his career was cresting. So what’s the point in rushing to conclusions about the effects of a stagnant body of work like MJ’s if you could make just as sound a judgment (or better)in six months?
Maybe it was a cognitive thing, that folks couldn’t process the end of his career until its source irreparably “dried up”, but I don’t pretend to have a great handle on human grief.
@BeckySharper: But yeah, I some level I get that visceral thing, that even though you’re not condemning his work, he probably fondled little kids and could pay his way out of it, so fuck that guy.
The body is still warm, BearDown, and there’s money to be made. You’ll notice that those 15 years of musical stagnation are not mentioned; instead, it becomes about allegations and rumors and scandals (not to say those things should be ignored). Those who care about–and those who care to profit from–MJ’s death need the twin images of the young, beautiful entertainer at the top of his game, wooing the globe, and of the freakish recluse with his life in shambles, variously horrifying and amusing them. They only really work as foils, and we can romanticize the first and bemoan the second. If there were discussion of how the well ran dry, so to speak, then MJ is just another fading star. There’s no drama, no story there.
@PhDork: Yeah…I don’t know. You have a good point; those vultures are definitely out there. But it’s my impression that a lot of the artistic evaluation since yesterday, esp. on the web, is organic. We take cues from the Media Beast, but I don’t think everyone takes orders from it. But maybe your “body is still warm” comment still applies: some people took the death as a reminder and decided now was as good a time as any to organize their thoughts on the subject.
When a great artist that people have high esteem for is accused or associated with accusations of misconduct on a level society deems to be unacceptable I think its very hard to discuss that artists or his work without factoring in his life. I think its because people have a visceral sort of cringing away at the mention of certain things.
Woody Allen was on Fresh Air the other week and Terry Gross asked him what he thought of people who judge his work differently because they disapprove of his personal life. He said, (basically) people can judge an artist using whatever criteria they want, its not up to the artist to say.
BearDownCBears: I think death does bring a unique finality that causes a wave even if one’s relationship with a person or his/her work has been symbolically dead for some time. When someone with whom I’d chosen to have no contact with for many years passed away, it hit me hard even though I thought I’d already mourned and moved beyond the death of that relationship. Not that I’m comparing the death of a pop icon with the loss of someone I actually knew; rather, my point is that death changes the landscape in a way that irrelevance does not.
As for MJ, I am definitely ambivalent about what his loss means. Perhaps it’s illogical, but I really do think of him as two different people: the Michael who had a tangible impact on my childhood, and the lost, madman he became. I mourn the former without excusing the man who likely hurt children. I recognize, however, that my ability to do this has everything to do with the personal connection I have with his art. If Polanski died, I wouldn’t shed a tear likely because I have no sense of connection whatsoever with his work. Whether that’s a legitimate or “appropriate” distinction is up for debate, but I think it speaks to the fact that the more we feel we know someone, or the greater the connection we feel to someone, the more complicated it becomes to think in blacks and whites about him/her.
Pilgrim,
so many of your observations and insights are right in line with how i feel – thank you for articulating them so nicely on this page – i would question one statement in your commentary – “because MJ brought this on himself on some level. When you are a celebrity, and particularly when you court the status of cultural icon in the fervent sort of way that MJ did, you sign up to be a symbol…”
i truly wonder if this man’s life was ever his own… as a child he was abused and exploited – did he really have a choice?
i don’t know…