It has been about a week since Michael Jackson’s untimely death. I thought that I would be able to just brush it all aside and move on. But there seems to be this collective mourning happening that is hard to ignore. Not to mention the songs that keep playing over and over in my head all week. I think it’s because everyone I pass on the street is also humming Michael Jackson songs.
The day that Michael Jackson passed was quite a phenomenon. I was sitting at my desk checking my twitter page when I saw his name start to pop up in more then one twitter trending topic. No trending topic ever gets that many spots. This was four hours after Farrah Fawcett’s name had come up announcing that she had passed away. That didn’t surprise me as I had heard she was battling with cancer.
So of course, I clicked on his name and there was so much mass confusion happening about whether or not he had passed or not. After about an hour it was finally confirmed, Michael had indeed passed. So I went on with my work not really feeling much of anything one way or the other about his death. When I got home, there was this urge to turn on the TV and see what the mainstream media had to say. WOW! I had not idea that the world was so impacted by this man. It was insane.
I listened to Michael Jackson back in the 80′s and then I moved on. Honestly the past few years I really had lost respect for him. I had only seen pictures of him that were unrecognizable, heard about some kind of lawsuit for child molestation, most recently that he was in financial trouble so he decided to go on tour again. I honestly could care less about about Michael Jackson but could appreciate his early music.
A part of me actually became angry that he was getting so much attention. I thought back to 2 months ago when my grandfather passed and how no one outside our family of about 20 people even noticed or seemed to care. It made me realize that we all come into this world, play our part, and leave. Some of us with a bang and some just quietly without a trace. Michael Jackson left with a huge legacy behind him much life Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. They will forever live on in the collective memory of humankind. My grandfather however will live on in the memory of a few.
I went to a gathering the day after Michael’s death and of course it was impossible for us all to not talk about what his death meant to us. It turns out that he had touched all of our lives in some way or another. It was a common bond we all shared. As we spoke about his death, I warmed up and actually felt a little sad.
One discussion that came up that really stuck with me this past week was the concept that there is a shift happening right now in our culture. It used to be that there were only a few celebrities and people like Michael Jackson that actually made themselves into a household brand. However, today anyone can build a personal brand. There aren’t as many people like MJ who are getting all of our attention. Our attention is being more spread and we are conecting more with our peers. (Or at least we hope.)
We talked about how there had been so much energy for so long directed towards Michael Jackson and that with his death last week it came to a huge climax. That energy burst and is now being released to transform into something else. Maybe in the destiny of humankind MJ did us a favour. Maybe he died an untimely death so that we could release that pent up energy. It will be interesting to see what comes out of that energy. If there is no Michael Jackson in our lives anymore where will we as a collecive put that energy?
I felt the same with my grandfathers death. He lived a long life into his 80′s unlike MJ but in the end of his life the quality of it was deteriorating and his energy and the energy of my family was being spread too thin. And that was only 5 people. Imagine the transformation of millions of people worldwide.
What was your experience with Michael Jackson’s death? What do you think will transpire out of Michael Jackson’s death?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi
I never was a great Mike fan….country is my bag.I feel sorry for the kids.What will their lives be like? yea they wont need money but the confusion and things that are said about their father on TV-true or false.Yes he was a great musician.BUT let him rest in peace and go on with life.Let his family alone to grieve and go on with life
well thats all I got to say bout that
love ya
This was really lovely, Stacie. So well put. I really like the idea of our consciousness – around celebrity, hopefully – changing as a result of the end of Michael Jackson. Very few of those household names remain, and the media I hope will catch onto the new bountiful sustainable and optimistic topics that are out there to think about. Really enjoyed this post and might re-post it somehow.
i was impressed by this post. i just saw it on the net and this made me feel good. believe me, i was not a huge fan before, although i liked and loved some of his songs. im just 19years old, i never got the chance to watch him at his prime, i only saw videos, then the next thing i knew, he was on the TV because of child molestation cases brought against him. [sorry for my grammar, im an asian, english is not our national language so bear with me please
] the day he died, i was shocked, i was lie “hey, how about his upcoming concerts blah blah”.. but i wasnt really that affected. days passed, every news is about him, the mall plays his music, the cabs, everywhere! he was the talk of the town.. that made me think about my childhood memories of Michael Jackson.. the glove, the shimmery glittery pants, the cool moves, moonwalk, robot dance,, everything.. that made me sad. he was the greatest entertainer i have ever seen in my entire life and now he’s gone, what a big loss! he defined music, singing, dancing. he was a humanitarian, he loved the planet and the children more than anything else. months have gone and im still regretting NOT loving michael before. after reading a lot of books, websites, etc, i CAN TRULY SAY, michael was innocent of all the charges and he was a victim of money-hungry people and the tabloid media., he was child-like and very loving person. i really feel sorry for his kind soul that sometimes i wanna cry my heart out and talk to him and apologize for what the whole world put him through. he was a great and loving man. IM SORRY my reply was too long, its just that, i want everyone to feel and realize that MICHAEL JACKSON was god’s gift to the world.
Jin, Thank you for you comment on my blog about Michael Jackson. I appreciate your kind words and insight. Peace, Stacie