Michael Mania

There are certain moments in history and people's lives when "something" happens or "something" takes hold of the world at large or "someone" becomes the epicenter of pop culture. Granted, age has a lot to to with its effect (Would you REALLY care about the Beatles in the early 60's as a 74-year-old?, Would you understand the full ramifications of Star Wars in the 70's as a 2-year-old?), but for the general population, it becomes all-surrounding. I'm talking about Elvis, The Beatles, Titanic, Country Music in the early 90's,once in a lifetime events when the entire world seems to be focused on that one thing. Okay, maybe not Country Music in the early 90's, but damn, it was everywhere! Is Miley Cyrus one of those events? I couldn't tell you. Marketing has evolved so much that I am unable to determine whether the "event" (Miley) is real or manufactured. Mainly, with regards to Miley, I could give a shit.

Michael Jackson, in the early 80's, was one of those events! I was 12-years-old when Thriller was released and there was no escaping it. Now, what separated that album or defined it as a Monster Album wasn't the obvious:Number of albums sold, Number of hit Singles, Number of Weeks at #1, etc. What defined it was the "collateral damage" it caused. What I mean is that it defined your life (in small ways, granted) in that you couldn't walk down your town's Main Street and not see some sort of Michael Jackson poster or flag or cut-out promo album cover glaring out of a rather large percentage of the store windows. Even the clothing stores had sequins gloves displayed and red zippered jackets (Were you a Beat It jacket fan or a Thriller jacket fan? Myself, I liked the Thriller one better, didn't like all the Beat It zippers.) enticing you out front. If you lived through it, you remember the stickers, the folders, the T-shirts, the socks, the pencils, the lunchboxes, the soap-on-a-rope (I'll leave it to you to figure out which one I'm being facetious about.). I remember the first time I saw a guy at a Burger King with a Thriler jacket on and I looked at him like he was a celebrity (Eyes wide: "Did you see his Thriller JACKET??? It was like the REAL one!").

I'm also talking about the "other" songs on the album that landed up dominating the radio that year. Not Beat It or Billy Jean, but rather Human Nature or Baby, Be Mine. Today, I rarely hear people talk about a great song like Human Nature, but at the time it was another big hit (at least in Chicago it was). The event was knowing every poster out there (the one with the yellow sweater vest and silver jewelry, the one with the brown leather jacket and purplish background, his hands hooked in his jeans pocket,etc.), trying to learn the moonwalk, learning the Thriller dance routine, all of that.

Now, I'm not now gonna say that I was the biggest MJ fan there was now that he's passed, I was a Prince guy (Beatles vs. Elvis? Beatles. Brady Bunch vs. Partridge Family? Brady Bunch. Prince vs. Michael? Prince.), but I always bought his albums upon release. Sure, they became a little more unspecial as time went on, but no artist really escapes that pitfall (What was the last Prince album that I love love loved? Probably something from the late 90's). A Michael Jackson release was still something to relish even at its diminishing returns rate.

With all that said, there were, of course things that I didn't like. And I'm not talking about all that legal circus stuff, I'm not even going there. If there was one thing in his musical career that I did NOT like was his more recent (post-Bad) cheesy, terrible, schmaltzy, lame, lame, LAME ballads. Not like "You are not Alone" (written by the great R. Kelly, I believe), but rather "Have you Seen my Childhood?" (I think that's the title) or "Heal the World". I could totally be wrong on those song titles, but you know the ones I talking about. The sucky ones!

All in all, he will be greatly missed and it's STILL a shock to me in my quiet moments of reflection. I've been listening to a lot of his stuff recently (as we all have) and besides his inordinate amount of vocal talent, I am constantly impressed at the production value of his music. His shit sounds GREAT! Tight, clean, funky, dynamic.

Sorry the ramblings are long, I'm a bit long-winded when it comes to my musical writings. It's what I love.