Michael Jackson... The Man Who Rocked The Desert

A parallel stream of many Michael Jackson related memories ran through my mind as I witnessed the ongoing influx of news-reports which marked the death of one of the world's biggest entertainers.

Of course, I instantly realized that this was probably the case with millions of people around the world... As condolence messages began pouring in the forms of texts, emails and 'status updates' to major news channels and websites from all four corners of the world.

Clearly, the Middle East was no exception... It was so interesting to monitor the comments of all my Facebook and Twitter friends... People who I have known, lived, studied or worked with across the Arab world and beyond.

Jackson was, without question, truly universal in the sense that he broke all barriers of culture, language and geography; people hummed his songs from the US to Japan no matter what their native tongue was.

I still remember that all along the 80's and early 90's, Saudi record stores (including the then popular "Billboard's" and "Stallions" outlets) didn't sell (in public that is) any Michael Jackson material, claiming that his albums were banned in the country (many claimed he made anti-Arab statements, but these were never proven and MJ himself appeared on Arab channel, MBC, in the mid-90s and declared his love for his fans in the region).

Yet, in secret, there was no question that the King of Pop rocked the place... His music was still made available through the black-market, through friends of friends and VHS recordings of MTV, which were exchanged and sold extensively (this was of course, long before the introduction of satellite television, while the idea of internet downloads was probably still not conceived at the time).

Even in countries where there was no such ban, such as in Lebanon or Egypt, the mere mention of The King of Pop's name was frowned upon in most social circles (this was years before his child molestation charges, which made those circles much bigger and perhaps more understandable); many of 'the elders' were worried that listening to Jacko would corrupt morals and turn their kids to Wackos... Yet the youth didn't care.

Those days witnessed the glorious era for both 'brand America' and the up and coming youngsters in the Middle East. Michael Jackson was the biggest icon in that inspirational era, where many people were still very much impressed with everything that came from the US (though they may have not admitted in public).

Back then, long before the Iraq War and George W. Bush became President, American goods were just too good to resist. Calls for boycott for political/religious reasons were minimal. In film, you had The Terminator and Rocky Balboa; in music there was MJ, Madonna, then MC Hammer, Snoop and many others. When it came to fast-food, there was KFC, Hardee's then Pizza Hut and McDonald's.

While other iconic symbols obviously included Levi's jeans and 'Hulk Hogan' of the World Wrestling Federation (now known as WWE).

Yet, Michael Jackson's music seemed to be the stand out on its own... Unlike most of the other examples, it continuously defied the marketing concept of the 'product lifecycle'. Even today, it just wouldn't die, as many people still listen to it and enjoy it.

On Facebook, my school colleague Fahad, who now lives in the US, mentioned that he is remembering when he used to practice the Moonwalk in front of the mirror as a kid, while Sami -- a friend who left us years ago to go study and work in the US, but now is back in Saudi Arabia, immediately began posting clips of his favorite music videos, such as '"Smooth Criminal" and "Bad."

However, just as I was wondering if I could find any negative comments regarding the incident, a friend of mine called me from Dubai complaining about all the hype Jackson's death is getting; he is arguing that the man wasn't a Princess Diana socially, or even a Bob Marley musically. Nevertheless, he uses a statement which I immediately recognized as the 'punch line' I was looking for, he said:

"Despite everything, I have to admit that Michael Jackson's music was the soundtrack of our generation's life".

A Yemeni performing Bille Jean with a local twist -- video available from YouTube.

Perhaps this video of a young Yemeni dancing to Billie Jean in a way that mixes the local fighting techniques of using a 'Khangar' (tradtional Yemeni dagger) with the twists and turns of the King of Pop, would demonstrate just how much this man has managed to rock the desert.

Follow Faisal J. Abbas on Twitter: www.twitter.com/faisal_abbas

Comments

[Scar1]

Let everyone in the whole wide world help by donating $1.00 to pay off Micheals so called debt. Send a dollar to the family from all over the world with a note of appreciation and love. And slap that in the Media's face!!!!! from Scar1.

This is the power of God. They think they know but, God knows all. Download his music and send a message to all those media consultant creeps!!!!!!!!11111

And wonderful the kids go to GRANDMA so there. And those that helped in giving him pain killers-got to hell. And all the leaches and people who over the years tortured him go to hell. Since the family is too nice to say it, Scar1 will.

[HypeFreeZone]

"Despite everything, I have to admit that Michael Jackson's music was the soundtrack of our generation's life".

This says it all.

Thank you.

[Hammoud]

Many facebook eulogies from Arab and Muslim cybergeorgraphy pointed out that Michael had adopted Islam. Regardless of the factual accuracy of that statement, it does indicate a need which Arabs and Muslims have - especially the cyber generation, to express their craving for Muslim public personalities who communicate globally, and whose words and actions represent what they feel are the benevolent, peaceful and universal teachings of the faith.

[KhaldoonSaid]

Jackson created a different type of music which appealed to the masses, regardless of their nationalit­y/language­/religion or musical taste, and he excelled in it. You can see this in the thousands of clones who would imitate his singing and dancing, even his looks. Whatever happened later on in his life does not erase the fact that he did what he did in absolute passion, which I can't say about %90 of today's artists.

[KhaldoonSaid]

If I may add to Jackson's effect on the Arab youth, I knew a person Jordan who is absolutely NOT fluent in English, who could barely construct a single sentence. He used to sing all of Jackson's songs with the correct accent, and he never understood a single word. When asked how he did that, he said "When you repeat a song 80 times a day, it becomes you. This was 16 years ago, and I used to think that this guy is a parrot. Now that I see things better, I can see he found his passion in Jackson’s music, and the language barrier just became invisible, just like those who love operas in languages they don't understand.
I used to listen to Jackson in my early teens (among other pop artists), then switched tastes in music genres and followed heavy metal. In the circle of heavy metal, it's dominant that the members will listen to only metal artists (regardless of the reason behind that). I couldn’t say I listened to pop music, but I was never shy to mention that I listened to Jackson. All of the other "metalheads" would agree that although they don’t listen to Jackson (because he's "pop" and they're "heavy"), his music and singing and stage acts deserve respect. I discovered that it's forgivable to mention you were a Jackson student once, which is absolutely a rarity in the metal world. I’m sure you “metalheads” who are reading this are nodding in approval.