Pop Goes the King
The "King of Pop" is dead.
But while the man may have mattered, his self-anointed royalty is just another example of the superficiality of our pop culture and its rotating cadre of paper-thin ambassadors.
Michael Jackson was yet another personality prized more for his ability to generate massive revenue than for meaningfully impacting peoples' lives. But yes, much of his music can still cause a body to move or transport one back to wistful youth; "ABC", "Got to Be There", "I Want You Back": blowing the world away on Ed Sullivan; crackling and popping on our Fold N' Play's; making our AM radio's twitch, buzz and jump; "Billie Jean" and "Thriller" arguably cultural touchstones, inspiring legions to mimic MJ's schmaltzy military fetishism and walking on the moon long after NASA deemed it financially unfeasible.
And yes, we look back on the innocent boy himself, pop prodigy, revelatory mini-dynamo, sporting all the moves, wielding the pure tones and the perfected 'fro of a truly singular talent, a velve-pre-teen idol, a bona fide Motown miracle.
And then over time we watch silently as the smiling strangers take the kid by the hand and lead him down a path a certain dysfunction, where money and fame are substituted for affection and affirmation.
A life of candy ensures decay.
Michael Jackson, the King of Pop is dead. And it's really not a big deal in itself, since scientific studies have proven that over time people do indeed die, whether by natural or unnatural causes. But as the super famous live unnatural lives, their similarly unnatural deaths seem, well, natural.
And while leading what must have been an extremely unhealthy life the real tragedy of it all is that perhaps it could have been saved, had he not gone down that damning path of fame. His handlers (read: parents) might have been able to prevent a life of exploitation and untethered eccentricity were they not themselves besotted by ambition and greed and yoked their children to a life of servitude disguised as gleeful performing.
At every opportunity for the young man to disembark from the one way fame train he was caught by the collar and pulled back on. Eventually he did this to himself, unconsciously mimicking his handlers' subliminal suggestions to eschew normalcy for commerce.
And he is not alone. So bombarded are we with comparable examples of what is supposed to constitute Success, where the only worthwhile life is lived in public, new generations are raised thinking "This is life's imperative. You only live if you're seen." Like the light inside the refrigerator.
The fame pandemic leaves a trail of broken bodies and fractured dreams, so much landfill for ever newly laid pavement. The funeral will be the best business in years, not since Anna Nicole. In lieu of humble admissions of culpability and/or introspective mourning, to hail the money-making/sexual deviant/pop icon with what will no doubt be garish, televised spectacles of calculated, high-profile grief, the "I'm A Celebrity, Hear Me Keen" reality show will be a ratings bonanza.
But by all means dismiss and underpay the teacher, the cop, the people who handle our endless refuse and when they die, give them no more than a backward glance, an absent "oh, yeah -- they kicked. Did you see the new iPhone?". It is such misappropriation of concern that leads to an unnatural life and its naturally unnatural death.
In fact the measure of one's existence should not be in dollars and cents, nor is life unimportant if not observed 24/7 by millions of paying subscribers. The recent spate of showbiz deaths only points to the fact that life, no matter how opulent or in debt, no matter how famous, infamous or unobserved is short and not always sweet. Why even Farrah, riddled with cancer, had the business acumen to maximize her commercial appeal to the end, filming her slow, tortuous demise when she might just have easily fought her fight in dignified privacy. Corporations and all who subscribe to their profiteering approach, seem to think that if they churn out cheaper and cheaper products and ever disposable cultural totems they will ironically, as the song in a certain film says, live forever.
Michael Jackson was another soul in torment who had his talent exploited, his singularity mass produced, his place in the natural order disrupted by greedy, insatiable masters. The king, it seems, was really just a pawn.
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Such a great talent yet such a sad story.
EXCELLENT!!!
This is the first time responding to a piece on the Huffington Post. Don't misinterpret this as ignorance. Just the business of creating a username and password, etc. takes time I don’t usually give myself.
I was astounded to find Steven Weber, aka Jack Rudolph, is not only a good writer, but obviously a better actor than he’s given recognition for if these are his true thoughts.
Though I would agree maybe it could have waited a few more days. But maybe it couldn’t.
But my most disturbing reaction stems from reading posts. The piece, in reality, had little to do with Michael Jackson. His person is interchangeable to the aforementioned industry, even though his fans would disagree and rightly so. We’re all replaceable in a sense. Our lover one might leave us for someone else; a younger worker may be pining for our job with great haste. Such is the fate of mankind - totally inexplicable behavior.
Sigh !
The last genious bites the dust , and now, we are all ,stuck with the mediocres........
Michael Jackson embraced his fame, he fed his fame, he fanned the flames of fame. Jackson lived in a bubble that he created. To many times when an icon acts out of the accepted norm we blame those around them. It must have been his handlers, or it was his parents, he can't be blamed. Jackson pegged the weird meter and he loved it. The excentric behavior was his own, and because of it his fame grew into different proportions. He was extremely talented. To be sure he was used and abused by those riding the Jackson gravy train, but he was far from innocent. Fawcett for her own reasons detailed her struggle with cancer. Maybe because she could show the world what it is like it might have helped others, I don't know. I have watched my own family members deal with and lose the fight against cancer. I don't feel that she exploited it for fame. Maybe those who write blogs about others who suffer are exploiters themselves. Fame and all its trappings are dealt with differently by different people.
"A life of candy ensures decay"....a great line, Steve. It says it all.
Guess I should stop brushing with toothpaste then...
Society creates broken people (read society), society creates a distortion of life (read society, read life) and we find it amazing that people adhere to the milk they were suckled on...really? America is not really trying to fix dysfunction, for if it were it would start per individual. America does not value individual life. If Michael’s parents made him, what made his parents, and what made that entity or those entities, and so on and so on. We know the problem but we have not the will to fix it. We tinker around the edges and pass it off to future generations. The problem is an absence of love in this society. The problem is a distortion of value in this society. The average human is weak in the face of the enticements that put food on their table, and style on their backs. Sellout happens all day long for the mighty dollar -- sellout of principle, of entire lives. MTV Cribs, lifestyles of the rich and famous, get rich or die trying, Corinthian Leather as trick to dupe, money as God, market as God, valuation as monetary worth...who are you kidding? The society greases the hole, bends the back, and does the deed. There is no pity in the naked city. People get it in the end (literally). Michael Jackson was victimized by an environment of perversion of value. He never had a chance. There is no idol worship, only recognition of great talent gone too soon.
...and for any who think this hyperbole, or sensationalism, or bombast, I give you the man’s own words:
Anything for money (even sell their soul to the devil)
Leave me alone (just stop doggin’ me around)
They don’t really care about us (Don’t you black or white me)
Mike’s gift was more than entertainment it was confirmation of the benefits of hard work and excellence in being, and also confirmation that the more you accomplish, the more the haters, imitators, and perpetrators come out of the woodwork like bloodsucking zombies in a Thriller video. (See the attacks on the distinguished Judge Sotomayor for proof. See the attack on the president and his wife for more proof; people who followed the prescribed path yet still get no merit in certain quarters. You have to be doubly strong in this environment lest you succumb to the madness.) People hate you if you fail and they hate you if you succeed. Then these same people want to sit back and arrogantly ask why someone is confused or tormented. His message of love was loud and clear, and his burden and struggle were tangible for any who have been in the belly of this beast that perversely values dollars over humans. Witness the posturing for the man’s children.
Mike is free of the madness. I salute his life. I celebrate his freedom. His death was inevitable. He can no longer be bothered by the trouble of this world. May his family find comfort.
The pop culture is toxic.
Why yes, it seems to be...my comment was talking about the broader culture that the pop culture resides within. My comment was taking us back to those thrilling days of scant representation in media and Black-explotation films, and all the other insidious things that inform a life and make it go -- Pop! My two comments above were all about general perversion versus specific pop culture distortions of humanity. Yes the game is ugly but what of the host for the game. That is what I am checking out. That is what has me trippin'.
I see I'm not the only one kind of dismayed by the hysterics accompanying another celebrity burn out. This whole episode is giving me flashbacks to the grandiose noises made when Elvis died and look at what a cash cow he became for his family after his death - at a time when his career was fading. It's sad MJ died as he had kids and maybe, just maybe, he could have pulled himself together for those 50 concerts he signed to do, but like the poet Coleridge, I think he killed his gifts with drugs and his personal demons I'm sure had something to do with it too. But we all have our challenges, our personal demons that we must take on - no excuses. As for his generous spirit, I remember hearing of an incident: Sean Lennon asked MJ if he could purchase 1 song Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds from MJ: 1 Million Bucks, 1 Song that Sean had inspired his father to write. MJ wouldn't sell 1 single song to Sean Lennon, not ONE. I would have GIVEN it to him. MJ was super rich. He could have afforded to sacrifice one song from his portfolio, but he was STINGY. And all of his charity gestures were accompanied by enormous fanfare. He was just MAN. Take him off that pedestal.
Yes Yes Yes to that! Loving pop music doesn't have to mean celebrity worship. I hadn't heard that one -- it would have been Julian who inspired Lucy by the way, not Sean, but it rings true. MJ also wouldn't allow the Beastie Boys to release a version of "I'm Down" because His Highness was offended by the Beasties. His whole owning the Beatles and Sly Stone's songs and his attitudes about them were more worthy of Donald Trump than an artist. He wasn't innocent at all when it came to rubbing his hubris.
It was Julian Lennon, John's son with Cynthia, who supposedly inspired Lucy in the Sky. Sean Lennon, the son of John and Yoko Ono, wasn't born until 1975 -- many years after Lucy In the Sky With DIamonds was written.
Okay, so let me get this straight, one black guy is shrewd in business, yet hands thousands to his good friends at the drop of a hat (literally), and he's greedy?
What, pray tell, of the hundreds of black artists who couldn't even play their own songs, and couldn't do nothing but get ripped off?
Don't forget, please remember.
We have a winner for most absurd playing of the race card ever!
All great talent is exploited - then there are those in this celebrity culture trying to make a living out of EXPLOITING THEMSELVES. Michael Jackson had talent people WENT AFTER, while others have no talent, nobody goes after them. Michael Jackson did not exploit himself, he didn't need to.
I am sure if, god forbid, Jodie Foster , child star turned ok, Oscar winner, died today, people like you would be bawling over because of : blah blah blah.
Maybe for you, Michael Jackson was too too too Celebrity for you. But remember, Michael Jackson, the singer, was around long before John Lennon decided to go solo, or Elvis Presely decided to make a comeback with his single "Suspicious Minds", and before most bloggers on this site were a household name.
Michael Jackson brought joy to peoples lives in Brazil, Prague, Albania, Russia, Indonesia, China, Phillipines, India, Europe, Aftrica, Latin America, and for awhile in America.
Americans, always good at spitting on true talent and rewarding atrocities.
Your grasp of pop music chronology is laughable. But it's true, and sad, that Michael Jackson is unbelievably popular around the globe (a period during which the world's repertoire of musical styles has become a lot less distinctive and interesting, by the way). Much as it's true, and sad, that the biggest American television show in Europe was for years (still?) Baywatch. Ahh, we Americans just don't appreciate what is so wonderful about our own culture.
In fact the "repertoire of musical styles" were destroyed By the Beatles. The Beatles and their coporate handlers who relegated: Ella, Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Nelson Riddle, Garland, Sarah Vaughn and others to the LP dust bins. Yeah, that great Jazz that was destroyed by the Beatles. The Beatles who learned everything from Chuck Berry, and Chuck Berry, whose greatest influence was Nat King Cole, and probably Michael Jackson. Nothing sad about that.
And the Beatles were there before Michael Jackson was. Witness his canny purchase of their music catalog. Another difference, John Lennon was murdered. Jackson bought into his own self-perpetuating fame/mythology and no one near him seemed to have the sense to give him a little healthy balance when he was young and vulnerable. Mary Pickford the silent film great had a similar problem: she had worked since she was a child and that was all she knew. When her career dried up in the 30's, she spent the next, long decades gradually drinking herself to death because she could find no other practical use of her talents and business acumen. Balance is key to one's survival.
"Jackson bought into his own self-perpetuating "
This assumes you read his mind. I don't assume that Elvis Presley, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe or Lennon were delusional. What does John Lennon being murdered have anything to do with it? Look who murdered him, someone that people glorify and make movies of. Very few true artist find balance, if they did then they'd be alive and we'd all be dead.
"But remember, Michael Jackson, the singer, was around long before John Lennon decided to go solo, or Elvis Presely decided to make a comeback with his single "Suspicious Minds", and before most bloggers on this site were a household name. "
Uhh, I don't know where you get your information, but clearly it is not from an accurate source. MJ and the Jackson 5 signed with Mowtown in 1968, the same year Lennon went solo and Elvis recorded Suspicious Minds.
Yes MJ sang in school productions and talent shows prior to '68, but in the music biz talent shows and elementary school musicals don't count.
John Lennon's solo career began in 1969 w/ the release of Live Peace in Toronto 69. Michael Jackson didn't go solo until 1971 with "Got to be There," by which time Lennon had released two additional solo albums and several singles. In fact, "I Want You Back", the first Jackson Five single, was released in October 1969, well after Lennon's first solo efforts. Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds" was released in December 1969.
I love pop music and I can play it and think about it all day, and have been playing it and thinking about it for 35 years. It is an essentially democratic art form in that many total unknowns have recorded at least one song that is as good as the best song by somebody who is irrationally deemed to be vastly superior to all the other artists, such as has been done with Michael Jackson throughout the majority of his life (and surely, surely Michael Jackson would have made more great music than he did if he only hadn't been so ridiculously overrated). If 1% of the people who bought into the King of Pop myth would actually do a little listening (and reading and viewing and living, yeah) outside of their comfort zones, outside of what the giganto media conglomerates that made a monster out of the willingly-complicit Michael Jackson tell them is interesting (and no surprise, what they tell you is interesting is what they are selling), we would have a vastly improved culture, vastly improved politics and vastly improved life. Instead we get everybody buying the same few albums and acting like one hyped up entertainer is vastly more talented than all the other incredible career performers and brilliant, unforgettable one-shots. But he wasn't. So mourn yourselves for not having figured out that there's life and greatness all around.
Elvis, the King, was a talent that was exploited by his manager...
and there were others...
but the music and talents of both will live on, continuing to inspire and enhance the world for years and generations to come... in a sense, they, or at least their music and their talent, become immortal. And the world is blessed and better off for their contribution. Michael, RIP. and show them angels your stuff!
Back again. The spirit underlying this article still disturbs me. When people from 6-60 yrs from all over the world of all races and nationalities come out to mourn, to celebrate and to dance to the same music, it is not a trivial event. There is precious little that we agree about and do together as a species that is joyful and positive. Call this a practice run, but the convergence of technology in the Iran protests and now this, gives me much reason for hope. We could collaborate as a species to solve our problems and to lift ourselves up.
WE ARE THE CHILDREN
IT DOES NOT MATTER WHETHER WE ARE BLACK OR WHITE
The greed machine used Michael?
The Child Man used the greed machine to plant a seed that will outlast the greed machine!
you sound delusional
and how do you know that will be the result?
the greed machine may destroy us all but then again I could be wrong
ashes to ashes, dust to dust , both individually and colllectively
Its not like he cured cancer or found life on other planets. Millions of people all over the world dig Led Zepplin too, ya know.
Of course, millions also like Celiene Dion too, which just goes to show that there's no accounting for taste :)
Great article. The real culprits are the enablers (as he said: parents), a crass and voraciously capitalistic industry as well as society in general where human dignity is ignored always at the expense of income reports, cash flow and balance sheets; a world populace so desperate for heros and "meaning" that legions of obsessive fans live out their vicarious fantasies through the avenue of celebrity and idol worship!
MJ was a fabulous talent no doubt, I am certain that he is better off now.
Astute, precise, and concise...
in 58' a boy was born
today i watch a planet mourn
the passing of a lonely man
who lived his life like Peter Pan
once ruled the world
with a velvet hand
They called him Michael,
"The King of Pop"
we danced to the music
until we dropped
but yesterday when his heart finally stopped
everyone seemed "shocked"
i don't know why
people can't understand
that the end is always like it began
when you grow-up believing
you're only here to be pleasing
all the Grammies on the shelf
will never help you love yourself
there aren't enough masks or disguises
to hide the pain that finally leads to demises
I hope he finally finds peace
and beholds his own beauty
and dances with the angels
who love him truly
bravo
I don't know Shakespeare, and he was no friend of mine, not even my contemporary, but you sir, are not Shakespeare.
And you, sir, are no Rush Limbaugh.
Thanks for your kind offering of love.
that was amazing
I disagree with derisive and disrespectful tone of this article, and especially its title. I think it is outrageously insensitive.
And I disagree that pop culture is somehow below the "real" culture, so it is OK to mock pop culture personalities just because they got bigger following than, let's say a violin player.
And I disagree with dismissing Michael's parents as driven by greed only.
Whatever happened, happened. And we are lucky to have had Michael Jackson.
R.I.P. Michael.
if you can't see the correlation between how michael was handled by his father as a child and how he ended up - you are blind.
It is possible to make the points Mr. Weber wants to make without the snark.
I found it discomfitting also.
There is a better way to make his point without denigrating MJ.
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