Michael Jackson’s unexpected passing marked the end of an era of musical superstars, and left the world without their King of Pop. John Mayer, a blues and rock singer-songwriter from the other side of the music world, said on Twitter: “A major strand of our cultural DNA has left us.” The King may be gone, but his legacy lives on as surely as his music does.

By Paige Foong

Although the 21st century has seen the rise of new stars like Usher and Justin Timberlake, who coincidentally cite Michael Jackson as their greatest influence, none have come close to Jackson’s supremacy or record sales during his lifetime. Even Jackson’s closest competitor, Madonna, is nowhere near.

As with other icons like Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe, Jackson’s unexpected and untimely passing sent the media and the world into a massive hysteria like never before. Every corner of the world – Europe, China, India, the United States, Africa, Russia, Singapore and even the Middle East – mourned for the death of their beloved King. Tough questions were raised, and the finger pointing game began: Who or what killed Michael Jackson?

The official word is that Jackson suffered a cardiac arrest at his holiday home in Los Angeles on Jun 25 and was pronounced dead at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center 2 hours later despite efforts by paramedics on the scene. News of his sudden death commandeered the radio airwaves and led to an upsurge in Internet traffic; CNN reported that they received over 20 million page views within the hour for their cover on his death, while Twitter was so busy that users were unable to log into their accounts.

The mania caused by his death came as a surprise for many, as the last time Jackson hit the headlines was nothing of his groundbreaking album sales or his sleek moonwalk moves that was synonymous with him during the 80’s, but of his eccentricities and odd demeanour went by the name Wacko Jacko.

With Jackson’s demise, all that was weird and strange about him seemed to have died as well, leaving behind the genius of his music and talent that the world fell in love with in the first place. Billboard reported sales of more than 110,000 copies of Jackson’s albums two days after news of his death broke out, while Amazon saw his CD sales increase sevenfold from the previous day’s volume which landed him a spot on the 10 best-selling albums on Amazon. Since then, his total CD sales across all major retailers globally make him the best-selling artiste of 2009. Ironically, he was King again.

Jude Lee, 24, the bassist of local alternative rock band West Grand Boulevard, has mixed reactions on the sudden media attention and public interest in Jackson. While he is glad that people are finally recognising his musical achievements again, Lee feels that there are hypocritical people out there who previously never listened to Jackson’s music but only became “a huge fan” after his death.

But the biggest question still looms. Prior to the fateful day, Jackson had been seen practicing hard and well for his comeback tour “This Is It” and seemed to be perfectly healthy, albeit a long history with various drugs and prescriptions. Could it be that Jackson had died of a drug overdose, just like how his ex-father-in-law, King of Rock ‘n’ Roll Elvis Presley did? Why was it that he was allowed by his doctors to put up the physically demanding comeback tour if he had a medical history and a weak constitution?

Celebrity website TMZ.com, which also broke the news of Jackson’s death, reported that Jackson used the names of his entourage to secure extra prescription drugs for his own consumption. Numerous reports have also surfaced claiming that Jackson had indeed died of a drug overdose, with his history of personally administering various doses of painkillers and relaxants. However Jackson’s dermatologist Arnold Klein claims that Jackson danced in Klein’s office just three days before his death, and seemed to be in perfectly good shape.

But like millions of Jackson’s fans in the world, Singapore Idol alumni Gayle Nerva, 20, who was a fan of the performer since she was 2 years old, remains indifferent to Jackson’s rumored drug problems because “it would not change the fact he is a legendary icon who changed the movement of music”.

A King’s Funeral

Amidst shoddy rumours, hasty preparations and security issues, Jackson was finally laid to rest on Jul 7, following an extravagant and emotional tribute befitting of a king. A reported number of up to 1 billion people watched the live public memorial service; perhaps as their own way of saying their final goodbyes to the man who defined an era and the man whose music is still heard in the core of every contemporary music radio station today.

During the service, fellow A-listers like Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey and Lionel Ritchie paid their own tributes to him with a heartfelt delivery of songs. But the nearly two-hour memorial had boiled down to 20 moving seconds when Jackson’s daughter, Paris-Michael Jackson, took the microphone to address the crowd. While Jackson was the Jackson 5, the King of Pop or Wacko Jacko to the world, he was also someone else’s father. And in her thin and tender voice, Paris said: “Ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine … I just wanted to say I love him so much.”

Perhaps you have grown overwhelmed, or even frustrated, of the excessive Jackson media coverage and countless tributes, but this is mere proof of Jackson’s legacy and unprecedented star power that the world almost forgot. No one, even the harshest of his critics, can deny Jackson’s superstardom and his place among the exclusive pantheon of music giants like Elvis Presley and The Beatles. As Newsweek rightfully laments, “Before Michael Jackson came Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and the Beatles; after him has come absolutely no one, however brilliant or however popular, who couldn’t be ignored by vast segments of an ever-more-fragmented audience.”

Short of Barack Obama’s win, 2009 will be always be remembered as the year the world lost its last, and possibly most-beloved music legend.