Square Eyes

What a shock about Michael Jackson!

I turned on the news, with the sound down and thought all the fuss was about his tour. It was only when, 15 minutes later, I thought it was all a bit overkill for a tour, and, had a suspicion he had been arrested again or died (sadly the latter), and turned up the volume.

I must admit I did love the music and thought he was a one off in that media, but I can't understand the OOT news reports and programme changes to accomodate the demise of the the King of Pop

Is anyone out there mouning and sobbing into their hanky still? Will you be wearing black or a black armband for the rest of your life at the loss of Wacko? Or, like me, think shame but........

I don't know about King of Pop, but he's sold a lot of records, and been a big source of newspaper nonsense for a few decades. I did buy Thriller, and liked the Jackson 5 in the old days. I suppose he's in the big league, along with Elvis, and Freddie Mercury, but unlike the latter who worked right up until the bitter end, and continued to produce fine music right through their career, Jackson just went into crazy-celebrity mode where the music took second place to manic concerns about his appearance and a must-have-everything attitude. So, first rate pop music, but then pop music is way down my list of what I like these days.

this forum is acting up... Can't delete this post.

I can honestly say I don't care about Michael Jackson dying. He meant nothing to me and I care more about posting the fact I don't care about him than I ever did about his life.

I thought I'd share this blog entry I came accross with you in reference to a article in Daily Mail 07th July 2009

'Michael Jackson was a pervert and Americans should stop hero worshipping him, a U.S. Congressman has declared.
New York State Republican Peter King's decision to say what many may not have dared to triggered a furious backlash from the singer's mourning fans yesterday.
Mr King declared that society was glorifying a 'low-life' while ignoring the achievements of teachers, police officers, firefighters, war veterans and volunteers.

Many Americans praised him for taking a stand against the idolatry which has marked an 11-day wave of public grief since the singer's death.
Mr King, 65, was speaking outside a Long Island fire station that has a memorial to firefighters who gave their lives in service.
'This guy was a pervert,' he declared. 'He was a child molester, he was paedophile, and to be giving this much coverage to him day in and day out, what does it say about us as a country?'
Six years ago Jackson admitted in a TV interview he invited children into his bed but denied that he interfered with them. Among the comments flooding the internet, one said: 'Peter King, clean up your act or if you can't say nothing nice, shut your mouth.'
However, a comment backing the politician said: 'Thank you Peter King for saying what many of us are thinking. Finally someone has the guts to say it!'

"Michael Jackson, like OJ Simpson before him, was able to use his great wealth to escape justice. Money not only bought the best lawyers, but bought off families taking him to court. Kudos for Mr King saying what everyone knows, if they're honest with themselves. (Even those self-deluding people who disbelieve the charges of active child molesting must surely agree that for him to 'share his bed' with 13 year old boys is totally inappropriate).

What really dismays me is that this freak has been held up across the western world as some sort of role model. The media-hyped mass hysteria about his death has been compared to that of vacuous non-entity and serial adulteress Diana, the 'Peoples Princess.' What does it say for our society that so many venerate the 'Peoples Pedophile' ?
Will there be similar outpourings of grief when Gary Glitter dies ?"

I thought it was so funny to read this after all the OTT news coverage I still can't understand when other celebs who have bought just as much joy to peoples lives bearely get a mension when they depart.

I wrote the following piece about all the MJ hype on the fantastic Too Much Apple Pie music blog a couple of Sundays ago!

Sunday, 28 June 2009
R.I.P. it up and start again

I see that, following Michael Jackson's death the other day (apologies to anyone reading this who may not be aware of his sad and scarcely-reported demise, by the way), sales of his back catalogue have skyrocketed. Seven of his albums are expected to be riding high in the UK charts this week, for example, including his greatest hits album Number Ones at, funnily enough, number one.

The download charts are similarly top-heavy with Wacko product, with a whopping eight of his albums in the current iTunes top ten best sellers list, while record shops all over the, erm, shop are selling out of his CDs almost as quickly as they're putting them on the shelves.

I liked the "tribute" on the Amazon front page the other day, by the way, that said something like: "Michael Jackson has died. Share your favourite thoughts about the great man in our special guestbook" - but which somehow managed to avoid adding: "Oh, and while you're there why not stock up on his albums from our very competitively-priced store." The temptation must have been great.

Going slightly, but not altogether, off topic, I noticed that the two big rolling news channels in the UK, BBC News 24 and Sky News, both had the legend MICHAEL JACKSON IS DEAD emblazoned across the screen in huge letters just above the news tickers all day on Friday, even when the news of the unfortunate megastar's demise had been in the public domain for almost 24 hours. It was almost as if they couldn't believe their luck in having such a big story to fill their bulletins with all day, or something.

Again, top marks for restraint must go to whoever decides these things for, in their obvious excitement, not adding an exclamation mark or three at the end of the onscreen headline: MICHAEL JACKSON IS DEAD!!! (Or even writing it in textspeak: MICHEAL JACKSEN IZ WEL DEAD INNIT WTF?? LOOLZ!!!???. Gawd help us.)

Anyway, back to the subject in hand. I do wonder just what the thought processes of the people buying all this Michael Jackson stuff are: "Well, I wasn't that fussed about him while he was alive, really, but now that he's dead I think he's great and must own everything he ever recorded immediately!"

I mean, they can't all be people who are too young to remember him first time round; and it's not as if he's been out of the headlines and therefore the public consciousness (whatever that is) all that much in recent years. A lot of the time those headlines weren't exactly positive either. Odd.

It's hardly a unique phenomenon, of course, this massive posthumous rise in sales; similar things happened in the past with John Lennon and Kurt Cobain, to name but two, when sales of their respective back catalogues shot up (sorry, poor choice of words there) as soon as they karked it.

Then, of course, we had Elton John's 1997 update of Candle In The Wind, recorded and released soon after Lady Di died (di-ed) - which I believe went on to become the highest-selling single of all time in the UK. And what a load of mawkish old bollocks that was. But the Candle In The Wind debacle more than anything just goes to show you: death sells. And how. Would you like a bag with that?

Altered Images - Dead Pop Stars mp3

Posted by Kippers at 18:02 3 comments
Labels: dead pop stars, Michael Jackson