Michael Jackson Long Live The King

My first encounter with Michael Jackson came in the late 1970’s when my friend’s brother put “Off The Wall” on the record player. I won’t say that I was immediately bowled over by his music, but I did like it much better than most of the other post-disco stuff that was on the radio in those days, and some of the melodies were amazing. I couldn’t keep “Rock with You” or “Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough” out of my head, even though I told myself I wanted to. Next came “Thriller”, and the only word for that was “ubiquitous”. It was everywhere. The songs, the videos, the press, and everyone were caught up in it. Even my longhaired stoner friends and I liked it, and we were brought up on the 1970’s singer/songwriter stuff and hard rock of bands like Led Zeppelin and Van Halen. He had that certain “something” you can’t define easily with words without running at the mouth, and he went on to dominate the 1980’s and into the 1990’s with his music and persona. He was our Elvis. And while he succumbed in an eerily similar way as the King, he influenced everything culturally the process. Music, dancing, fashion, and the video worlds were all influenced by him, and continue to be influenced by him.
In the late ‘seventies, there was “black” music and “white” music. Top 40 radio and to a larger extent disco were exceptions to the rule, but outside of the club scene, that was the case. Jackson changed this. My chain-smoking friend’s older brother played “Off The Wall” endlessly, while my pot-smoking friends and I eventually bought up “Thriller”. We weren’t the only ones. “Thriller” is still the best-selling record by anyone, and that means middle class, conservative white kids like me bought it. It opened up some huge doors. Although Prince is a contemporary of Jackson, it is hard to argue against the fact that “Thriller” opened up doors for him to make “Purple Rain”. One of my memories was my friends telling me in 1980 about Rolling Stones fans throwing bottles at Prince when he opened for them. Four years later, many of those fans were buying up “Purple Rain”. It is also not hard to believe that Jackson helped pave the way for white fans to enjoy black music. It was white kids who helped propel MC Hammer and Boys 2 Men to prominence in the late 1980’s and also who made hip-hop such a huge selling sensation it continues to be today. You can trace that all to Jackson. While “Thriller” was artistically not a huge jump, it caught the world’s attention at the perfect time. The rest is history.
Another way Jackson changed the world was through video. While as a medium video is not as huge as it once was, it was a precursor to the internet, where music seems to be retreating these days. MTV was gaining popularity when Jackson came around, and the argument can be made that that MTV helped Jackson as much as he helped it. Either way, his well-produced videos succeeded in expanding on the listener’s musical experience, as opposed to the medium basically being a three-minute ad for a record. Jackson’s videos, especially “Thriller” added elements that weren’t in the song, and added nuances that made fans yearn for his new videos as much as his new songs. It did have the unfortunate effect of making videos the star, where photogenic artists like Milli Vanilli became stars of videos where they didn’t really sing or perform. Many others went on similar formulas, and the result was some MTV stars that couldn’t really sing write or perform. Jackson was never guilty of this. His videos added a cinematic touch to his songs, and added dancers and elaborate effects, as opposed to lip-synching and simple storytelling other artists favored. It also opened up other avenues for Jackson to influence.
MTV taking off turned the whole world on not only to music, but also the fashion and performance the videos featured. The dance moves and the fashion weren’t just for the big cities anymore. Now everyone in the world was turned on to these things. The whole world was now part of the Michael Jackson craze, with the videos leading the way. They not only helped sell records, they created a creative new medium for fans to enjoy music, and made it accessible to all. Not long after “Thriller” took off, it pushed the envelope for fashion around the world. Now you could walk into a department store anywhere and find clothes and music that were once only found in the New Yorks of the world. Now it was universal.
Nobody, not even Elvis has had the effect on popular culture that Jackson has. He created a revolution in music, where what was once considered “black” music is now enjoyed by all. Nowadays, I see my white servers singing to Usher songs, while the Mexican cooks are cranking the hip-hop in the kitchen. We haven’t got to the point where the African Americans are buying up Matchbox Twenty albums, but the revolution Jackson started with “Off The Wall” and “Thriller” endures. He created a similar but shorter-lived revolution in video, where he forced musicans to push the envelope and turn videos from shallow lip-synching ads to a necessary component to newly released popular music. The hugeness of video was a precursor to the internet, which replaced video as a medium of choice for music lovers. There will never be another Jackson or Elvis. The music world is way too overly-balkanized to allow it. There are now many little clans that have their favorite style of music and do not step too far out of it. There are still big stars out there, but their influence will never match that of Jackson. Madonna who is almost as influential as Jackson is aging, and there is nobody coming up that has the talent and charisma to capture society’s zeitgeist the way Jackson did.