Michael Jackson: Beyond Great

I'm starting to believe that's a destination; the next step in life once you get that title.

It seems we're living in a world where people build you up just so they can break you down. No one has ever really come back to the level that got them there in the first place.

So I ask you, was there a stage left big enough for Mike to moonwalk on that would have satisfied the hunger of someone who is beyond great? Honestly, I don't think so. I said it plenty of times to every artist I've worked with: if I were to produce a record that sold over 40 million, you people would never see me again in that light. Cause, after all the applause, award winning and love comes the hate, in all forms, sizes and shapes, and you can only ignore it for so long before the competitor in you is awakened. After a while, that hate starts making you think it's possible to outdo what's already been done. Mike had already achieved something that no one else could. That was his destiny.

When the media first started reporting on his death I was in New York. The minute I heard the news I was on the plane LA. As soon as I touched down the coverage started blowing up, and in all those reports they talked about "Thriller" being the biggest-selling album ever, then jumped right to, "But after that, he could never seem to top that and his legal problems, etc, etc."

First off, no one; I repeat NO ONE, has topped that and never will!!! Even in death he's done something no other artist has done before: He broke records by being the first artist eva to sell 2.5 million downloaded songs, and counting! As of today, he owns the entire top nine positions on Billboard's Top Pop Catalog Albums chart. No artist living today can match that.

But back to my original point: This being a world-stopping moment, I got a chance to view this world I live in for what it really is. I've felt that pressure cooker that the public puts you through when you've achieved a certain level of success and no one gives you props for what you've already done. Instead, they say, "So, whatchu got for us now? What's next?"

Don't let that small mindset take away from what a great artist has already given us. No one can touch what he did. We were blessed to have someone with his incredible talent living among us. God put Mike here to do what he did and wasn't gonna allow the devil and his helpers to destroy something so beautiful. He put him on the biggest stage of all. The whole world loved Mike, and Mike gave that love for his fans back tenfold. No one, not even President Obama, can top that.

Quincy Jones said it all the other day in his tribute to Mike on a blog post for the Los Angeles Times.

"This blessed artist commanded the stage with the grace of an antelope, shattered recording industry records and broke down cultural boundaries around the world, yet remained the gentlest of souls. Michael Jackson was a different kind of entertainer. A man-child in many ways, he was beyond professional and dedicated. Evoking Fred Astaire, Sammy Davis Jr. and James Brown all at once, he'd work for hours, perfecting every kick, gesture and movement so that they came together precisely the way they were intended to. Together we shared the '80s, achieving heights that I can humbly say may never be reached again and reshaped the music business forever."

Beyond great is the place Mike holds in our hearts for eternity. It was part of God's plan.

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Comments

[indievoter76]

Thank you for the article Jermaine.

[Bulbul]

Well Jermaine, thanks for not chucking my post....
Charlie Gibson, next day morning said of Jackson, being the most famous person in the world....

[Bulbul]

Some of us agree, so make yourself visible and keep on writing....
Otherwise this online post is becoming a tabloid journal at its worst !
Outside it is different, today I went to Target and purchased two of the DVD available for $ 9.99....each.
It would be a treasure.

[xtherocksx]

MJ's Moonwalk during the Motown 25 performance of Billie Jean is the most electrifying moment in televised pop music history. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F166o1QO6Y8 - Michael Jackson Tribute Video!

[ModernTimes1]

You wanna see genuine moonwalk? Watch Marcel Marceau.

[dedepotts]

I think one of Michael's most lasting influences will be on the world of dance. I love this story on Entertainment Weekly http://www.ew.com/ew/package/0,,20288349_20289412,00.html

[Chubbster]

From the video of the final rehearsal MJ's dancing has not evolved in 20 years, still stuck in robot movements and crotch grabs.

[ModernTimes1]

Hmmm. And I could never understand this childish preoccupation with pseudo Hussar uniforms which belong to the third rate Nutcracker production.

[MrButtons]

I liked his music until the song he did with Shaq.

[renatam]

You gotta love pappa Joe Jackson and his sons...finally able to piggyback and commoditize Michael - completely.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07052009/news/nationalnews/the_jacksons_thrive_177713.htm

[amelie2]

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS POST.........I personally don't believe any of the tabloids and I could not believe all the garbage people were spewing in the media and the lack of respect they had for the family that was grieving for their brother and the children that were grieving for their father. No wonder our society is in trouble, when we cannot show an ounce of compassion for someone who clearly was tormented and for his children who now have lost the only parent they knew. Shame on you people.

[amelie2]

People there in lies the problem we are facing as a society today. He spent these 4 years trying to rebuild his life and care for his children. So what he was addicted to plastic surgery that is his perogative. What about Kenny Rogers and Joan Rivers and Mickey Rourke. For all we know he might've been trying to correct some bad plastic surgery like Priscilla Presley. Who cares. Can we not look beyond that fact? Are we so bad or so unhappy with our own lives that we have to put someone down the very day that he dies. What about his children and the family? Who of you would go to a funeral of an acquaintance and start bad mouthing that person in front of their family and children. Have we no compassion. What did he do that was so horrible? He was addicted to drugs, so have we no compassion for him as to what brought him to that point of being so tormented that he had to turn to drugs, or do we look at every alchoholic and drug addict with the same lack of compassion. Just because he was rich that made it worst?

[-0013]

Give me a break.

[qtis]

The very sad thing about some of the things I'm reading is if Michael Jackson was white man he would be the greatest of all time without question (which he still is). He would've been innocent until proven guilty, His record breaking career would be the bar in the entertainment industry. All of the world would be forced to recognize his greatness. If it doesn't apply to you you shouldn't be offended. It's a shame that though we have an african american president we still have so very far to go in terms of race relations. This is the most disrespected president I've ever seen in my life (not in relation to Michael).

[Balzac]

"This is the most disrespected president I've ever seen in my life..."

I guess you haven't been following politics before President Obama was elected.

George Bush is the most disrespected president you've ever seen in your life, and that disrespect was justified. That disrespect for Bush helped set the stage for President Obama's victory.

Barack Obama is well respected and widely respected. Were you expecting pyramids to be constructed in his honor? It's not too late to begin.

[ModernTimes1]

Oh, not the race bating card. For shame.

[Solja]

White people say that all the time, never willing to own up to reality. Black folks RECOGNIZE rac!$m like it's a family member, because it is part of our lives.

I hope you teach your children better because "you people" have continued your hatred of people of color for too many years. Slavery is over, homey. We got this now.

[SolarPowerGuy]

Say anything you want about Michael Jackson's accomplishments in writing and selling pop music. Yeah, he was a chart-topper.

The fact of the matter is: it was still pop music. And no amount of browbeating will convince those of us who don't care for pop to suddenly wake up and love it. That dislike never had anything to do with the man's unusual personal life, and the media circus which accompanied it.

[emilyringstrom]

HuffPost's Pick

The(Ancient) Romans had Man all worked out... As long as people are entertained and are fed(in this case with nasty rumours, etc), they are content. But alas, Man is also easily bored, and, just like a child, needs to have new things to marvel at - bigger, greater, all the more weird and what not(why else would so many reality shows stand a chance of surviving, if they didn't feed us with spectacles, with deceit, morbidity and high drama?).
Unfortunately, Michael Jackson was too tender a soul, to survive this mentality, this nastiness in Man, mentally, which in turn, slowly killed him physically. A sensitive child who grew up to be a broken man, who couldn't cope with his own greatness, and leave be. Because he too, wanted to outdo himself, I believe, which of course was...I won't say impossible, but almost insurmountable to say the least.
I think that what he could have done, was to reinvent himself, rather than outdo himself, and in turn would have kept us, the public, guessing. Perhaps it wouldn't have sold as many records, but it would have made him stand somewhat above it all. Had he cared a little less...
I find it a bit hard to swallow, to see how the media still mistreats him and the memory of him. A man is innocent until proven guilty, unless you're famous, it seems.

[Ironhelix]

well said

[Solja]

Or unless you're black, because they did the same thing to OJ. At the end, his own stupidity gave them reason, cover even, to do to him what they tried feverishly to do to him before, lock him away for the rest of his life.

[emilyringstrom]

I'm not so sure you can compare the two, Solja. I don't think it's a matter of race, in this particular case. It's just human nature(the ugliness of the same), and the wish to pull down, to tear down, anyone who seems to big, to high up, to "good to be true". People didn't understand or "get" Michael because of his excentricities, and therefore assumed that the boy(Jordan Chandler) was telling the truth. "He had to have been guilty. He was so darn weird anyway..." seem to be the general consensus.
I'm still fairly sure OJ did murder his ex wife. Only the LAPD did a marvellous job at messing up the evidence, crime scene and what not, which in turn gave him a "get-out-of-jail" card... He has repeatedly hinted at his own guilt, and then came that book "If I did it" (or whatever the title was)! There's not much that speaks in his favor, I'm afraid.
It is however most true, generally speaking, and something I would never deny, that minorities get treated most unfairly by the legal system in the US. Noone can dispute that!
(There is, however, a danger in seeing that in anything, and everything. Sometimes, it's a matter of guilt. Period.)

[RBN]

Michael is the best entertainer. Nobody was bigger or has been as big as him.

[juliaizen]

Jermaine - How about having Usher as the stand-in for Michael, in the show Michael was going to perform, in Las Vegas?

[ModernTimes1]

MJ was a giant in urban pop genre, but a dwarf to any other genre.
His counter- tenor-ish quasi castr.ato singing had zero influence on folk, jazz, rock or contemporary classical music.

[Mort]

would that be bargain counter-tenor?

[ModernTimes1]

LOL, Mort.