Reflections on Michael

So I have been thinking about Michael Jackson.  Have you?   Granted, I haven't been thinking about him as much as the brilliant creator of this video.... (h/t Instapundit)

...but I have been doing some thinking.  The more interesting things about Michael are, of course, the ones that pique our voyeuristic curiosity: the scandals, the eccentric lifestyle, and his physical and emotional deterioration in the wake of it all.

But I'm trying to concentrate on the music, which some have been lauding as timeless and important for giving America its first black mega-superstar, paving the way for the Michael Jordan's and Barack Obama's.   (An aside: wasn't O.J. the first black superstar that everyone agreed on?  that is, before events led to him being the one that no one agreed on...)    Others have offered contrarian takes on Michael's musical legacy.  I don't agree with the linked post that MJ's post-Jackson 5 music was worthless; but I would say that there's very little post-Thriller that I'd ever want to hear again.  And now, when I listen even to Off the Wall and Thriller, I wind up undecided about whether these are actually good albums.   It seems to me there are four types of songs.

• Bad songs - that there's just no excuse for ever liking.  ("The Girl Is Mine")
• Good songs - that are just undeniably riveting (I'd put "Wanna Be Startin Something" and "Billie Jean" here) 
• Familiar songs - that I'm not sure would stand-up today to "first-time" scrutiny, but they trigger old memories and you think of them fondly (for me, "The Way You Make Me Feel" from Bad belongs in this category).
• Too-Familiar songs - songs that may have been good once, but any actual musical pleasure was drained out of them when they became cultural wallpaper.  (Here I've got "Beat It" and "Man in the Mirror")

I know, to the generation that wasn't moonwalking in 1983, some of what I consider too familiar, might actually sound fresh.   I suppose this is what I'm confessing.  While I'm a pretty good student of pop music history, I realize that my ears can be more objective assessing the Presley canon, the works of Jimi, etc., than they can Michael -- simply because he so saturated my early teen years.   So I'll take a pass on guessing whether anyone will want to hear these records in another thirty years.

But I will give you a few random notes from thinking about Michael this last week:

Michael sang my favorite lyric of the 1970s.  From "Blame It on the Boogie" -- "I'm full of funky fever/ A fire burns inside me/ Boogie's got me in a super-trance!"    Come on, that does sum up the decade, doesn't it?

Best non-Thriller MJ track - for me, it's "Black or White."  I think most music historians will remember that album (Dangerous) as when Michael ceased to actually be the King of Pop.  It was considered culturally significant at the time that, during the Christmas 91 season that Michael should have dominated, his record was bumped from #1 in the sales charts by an upstart Seattle band called Nirvana.  But still, that was a catchy little tune.  And the video gave us the morph!  That was just as cool as the moonwalk IMHO.

My favorite Jackson 5 tune that you might not know - "Who's Lovin' You," originally done by Smokey Robinson but introduced to me via.... Does anyone else remember this?  That's right, 1987's flash-in-the-pan-supreme Terence Trent D'Arby.

The moment Jackson's career really died - When the first molestation scandal occurred in 1993, it really seemed our junk celebrity culture was careening toward some  two-thousand-zero-zero apocalypse.  It was revealed that the plaintiff in this case said there was a distinguishing mark on Jackson's genitalia.  I remember thinking that this was an appropriate Perfect Storm for then-young decade.  It just seemed to make sense that we'd wind up with our most famous celebrity having his penis examined by a jury to see if it matched a rendering by a police sketch artist.  Now, the ironic thing was that -- while the out-of-court settlement spared Jackson that embarrassment -- a couple year's later Bill Clinton picked up this plot-line to ensure the decade would be remembered appropriately.  In any case, it was clear by 1993 that Michael was now freak celebrity and not a music artist of any meaningful sort.

Best Use of a J5 Sample - There is only one right answer to this.  It's gotta be Naughty By Nature's "OPP".

A Michael Cover You Haven't Heard Before - Check out this version of "Billie Jean" (MP3 here) by a Turkish band called Dolapdere Big Gang, given to me by a friend of a good libertarian organization in Istanbul. 

Comments

[LarryK]

Batman - Good post. I'd forgotten about MJ's role in kick-starting the 90s' "distinguishing characteristic" theme. I'm also ambivalent about MJ's music, even during his Off the Wall/Thriller peak years. Since you linked to an earlier PJM story, I was curious what you thought of this PJM offering...

http://pajamasmedia.com/edgelings/2009/07/03/the-mash-up-of-michael-jackson/

Generally balanced and with some insights, IMO, although not entirely thought through (for ex, the author says he agrees that MJ was am amalgam of borrowed influences during the Thriller days, but also that he was amazingly original, and then ends by saying he was an amalgam again...)

[BATMAN]

Thx and yeah, I generally agree with the post. They make the interesting point about most musical acts having a 5-year period of actual accomplishment. I don't know that this is entirely fair to come of music's big ones (the 5-year periods for Dylan and the Stones would miss Blood on the Tracks and Exile in Main Street), but it's generally true. It's what makes it hard to compile those "greatest band ever" lists. The NY Dolls were fortunate to explode after two LPs (at least, until the unfortunate reunion last year). Do remember the greatness of The Who from 1965-1971, or should the last three and half decades be taken into account? Anyway, I think that Victor David Hansen had it right that Michael's real contribution was proving that -- for the last 15 years or so -- you can be famous for being famous.