So we all know MJ’s dead right? No-one’s surprised at this anymore surely.
This is just intended as a quick post on the man, his life and his legacy. I did say quick post, but we’ll see!
Firstly we can’t get away from the fact that the guy had some issues. I don’t think you get called Wacko without doing something to make people come up with the name in the first place. There are so many rumours about him, but I’m not going to go on about guilty or not guilty, should he or shouldn’t he etc. Yes he changed his appearance sooo many times, but if he had a problem with how he looked he certainly had the money to do something about it. Whether or not he needed to is irrelevant, it was his choice.
I’ve never been one to shout, scream or cry at an artist just because they’re in front of me at a concert or at a public appearance, and I really personally can’t understand anybody that does, but he certainly had that effect on many many people.
The one thing we can’t get away from when all this media frenzy goes away is his musical legacy. He didn’t release much of note in the last few years in my opinion, but even though I’m not a great fan I can appreciate that he changed pop music.
Name me a male solo artist that danced while they sang before him… No? There weren’t any. They just stood there singing into the mic. Now they all dance. I’m pretty sure he made the pop video a vital part of the hit process too.
At least four or five songs were released from his albums and for most of the time they were all hits. No-one else did this before him and not many manage it now.
We all know the Thriller album is the best selling album of all time, but do we realise it will more than likely always be the best selling album of all time? With people now downloading albums off the internet freely (legally or not) it will be incredible if any artist ever inspires as many people to buy their album.
So I think he really did change pop music forever and I don’t think you can argue with that regardless of whether or not you were a fan.
Thanks for reading and I would like to say that a lot of the musical points came from an excellent Paul Gambuccini show on BBC radio.

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