The Good Life

During the 1960’s amongst segregation, social turmoil, the peace and civil rights movements, the counter-culture revolution, and the summers of love in the United States something else was going on. Music was changing rapidly and with it came radical new transition not heard before on radio or television. Myself being born during the latter part of that decade and having older siblings it was impossible to miss. From The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, and countless others, music had definitely changed to a harder side and a new era had dawned. With it also came a variety of “pop” musicians along with the infamous Motown Sound from which many black performers came into the spotlight of fame during a time when all they had known was taking a backseat in mainstream America. Of these new “black” groups, one known as the Jackson-Five emerged that would go on to perform multiple hits, sell millions of records, perform before dignitaries such as Queen Elizabeth and eventually dissolve with frontman member Michael Jackson having a place in the sun most celebrities could never fathom.

In 1979, Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall album was released which can arguably be noted as his departure from the Motown days. The album had a new sound that deviated from Jackson’s previous works but again had tunes that were catchy and had no difficulty receiving airplay throughout the world. It also produced four top-ten hits and within a few short years came the Thriller album which is still setting records in sales and remains as the best selling record of all time. During the age of “Thriller”, Jackson began changing radically from his appearance to his behavior and was no longer the little black boy with endless energy that had graced the stages of the world. Although Jackson denied having cosmetic surgery in numerous interviews, one thing is for sure, his physical features began changing dramatically from this point on. Despite fame unachieved by none before, Jackson went on to be plagued with tabloid articles reporting on his bazaar behaviors as well as legal allegations of child sex abuse that always seemed to work out in the artist’s favor after undisclosed settlements were supposedly agreed upon. One might argue that Jackson never had a childhood and perhaps this is what led to some of his peculiarities. Another argument might be that his very album titles themselves were a mockery of society noting his behavior or as some psychoanalyst might claim, “a cry out for help”…..Off the Wall…Thriller…Bad…Dangerous…HIStory…Invincible….

Nevertheless, Michael Jackson the King of Pop was pronounced dead yesterday, June 25, 2009, at UCLA Medical Center 15:15pst following over one hour of resuscitative efforts with the cause of death not yet released. The child star that grew up before us and set unparalleled records in the music industry is no more and the end of an era has passed. You will be missed Michael. Farewell.