HYPEWe live in a time where we’ve heard more of Michael Jackson’s bedroom shenanigans than of his musical genius and stage flair.
This is the generation of today, fuelled on Youtube and illegal music filesharing, defined by pop starlets who pale in comparison to the sheer force that was the King. They thrill in their own right, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake and the rest, but Michael was so much bigger than that, so much larger than life, the little boy from Gary, Indiana rising above his traumatic childhood, transcending genres and cultures to define the world in his time. This is the Michael that the Youtube generation knows not about.
By Keann Chong & Eunice Lai
Boy Wonder
This is Michael Jackson the Entertainer, the child prodigy signed to Motown at the age of 10, sweeping airwaves with the Jackson 5 and having 4 solo albums under his belt before the age of 17. This is Michael Jackson the visionary, realising at that same age, that unless he got off the Motown conveyor belt that refused to let him write and perform his own songs, he would only ever be a product, never a person. Armed with this knowledge, Jackson left Motown in 1975, signing on to CBS Records (now Epic Records) and striking up a friendship with critically acclaimed music producer Quincy Jones a few years later. We all know what happens next.
Finally let loose to explore his own creative inklings and guided by Jones’ steady hand, Jackson exploded onto the music scene in 1979 with Off The Wall, sending shockwaves through a community that knew he would be successful, but never expected he would be quite that big. In the next 30 years, Jackson would go rampaging through the music world, producing chart-topping album after chart-topping album, claiming award after award including 18 Grammys and 13 Guinness World Records. If Off The Wall put him on the map, Thriller gave him the map, and it wouldn’t be far amiss to say that Jackson was the main reason why R&B, pop and hip hop music developed the way it did after the ’80s.
Jackson had redefined what was perceived as popular music. Deriving what many would later call “contemporary R&B” from a series of genres including soul, funk, jazz and slow rock for his crossover hits, Jackson was influencing a generation of soon-to-be artists that included names like Usher and Britney Spears, as well as his youngest sister, Janet. They would grow up watching him on MTV, captivated just like the rest of the world. “Performing with Michael was like a childhood dream come true,” JC Chasez of the now defunct *NSYNC said on an interview with CNN.com. “It was kind of like my life had come full-circle at that point. First you dream about being able to dance like him and the next thing you know you’re standing next to him while you’re dancing.”
It’s impossible to watch Jackson perform and not want to dance. It was not so much about iconic moves like the moonwalk, but rather it was about the sheer spontaneity and joyfulness of his stage charm. Jackson made dance look so easy, so natural, he made us believe that we all could. “I tried to do the Michael triple spin (and) dislocated my knee trying to do it,” hip hop instructor Kar-el Green said. “That’s what got me to start dancing. Now, I teach it for a living,”
Perhaps one of the greatest legacies that Jackson left behind was to MTV. Before 1983, MTV was a rock-exclusive music channel that rarely, if ever, gave airtime to African-American artists, until Michael Jackson happened. His videos for songs like “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” were too irresistible not to be played, let alone the global pop culture icon that the 14-minute long “Thriller” video became. MTV, almost sheepishly, switched to pop after that, saving its ratings and starting the era of the music video, now seen everywhere from Japan to Bollywood.
It seems like the Youtube generation may get to experience Michael Jackson for themselves after all. An interesting revolution has been happening online since he passed on, with fans tearfully digging up his music videos – these are videos that thousands of teens worldwide are starting to key in searches for – and putting them on the net. Michael Jackson lives on in his music, perhaps a fitting resolution to a man that often only wanted to escape the media, not his fans. “Michael Jackson transcended culture. He transcended love, man. He changed the barrier of life and the way we looked at things,” Usher said.
Man in the Mirror
If records meant anything, the one Michael Jackson holds in the Guinness Book of World Records for the “Most Charities Supported by a Pop Star” represents what we love most about him.
There’s no doubt Michael Jackson’s music influenced generations, and his strong belief in humanity has certainly driven his attempt to “Heal The World”. From poignant ballads of reflection like “Man in the Mirror” to the 1985 collaboration “We are the World” with Lionel Richie to help raise funds for politically unstable, drought-hit Ethiopia, his lyrical talent and commitment was unmistakable.
In 1992, the entertainer set up a charity organisation, Heal The World Foundation (HTWF), which focused on addressing global issues of abuse, hunger, and homelessness.
Eng Yvonne, a 21-year-old Art, Design & Media Student of Nanyang Technological University, although a huge Michael Jackson supporter, is far from the crazed Michael Jackson fan, and sees the King of Pop as purely human.
“I see the Michael that genuinely cares about humanitarian work and gives a lot of money to charity organisations,” Yvonne points out, adding that he’d made great efforts to incorporate conviction into his career. Even during difficult times, helping the needy was on his mind. According to BBC News, the superstar, at the age of 25, suffered serious burns to his scalp after his hair caught fire in an accident while filming a Pepsi Cola commercial.
However, Michael Jackson never kept the compensation from Pepsi. Instead, he generously donated the US$1.5million (about S$2.2 million) to a burn centre in California, which was then named after him – The Michael Jackson Burn Centre.
Black and White
According to The Washington Post, Michael Jackson also “broke down the racial barriers” in and out of the music industry.
Back in the 1980s, African Americans were disadvantaged when it came to getting airplay on American radio stations that played “white” music most of the time. However, when Michael Jackson’s Thriller album was released in 1982, it became a global sensation that radio stations simply couldn’t ignore – and not long after, MTV caught the fever.
Indeed, the highly enamoured entertainer was a key player in paving the way for new black artistes to step out when he created a huge platform for black music. According to Joycelyn Wilson, a professor of African-American studies at Morehouse College, who is also a specialist in popular culture and hip hop studies, the King of Pop has also “influenced a new generation of black musicians” like Kanye West, Usher, and Ne-Yo, who have been topping the charts in recent years.
Samuel Prakash, 19, a final-year Mechatronics Engineering student from Nanyang Polytechnic, says, “Michael Jackson revolutionised and brought out a trend in R&B and hip hop music, which are the genres of these three musicians. Even their appearances are somewhat influenced by MJ – Ne-Yo with his hat, Usher with his dance moves.”
There was also “Black or White”, which was composed to promote racial unity. In its music video, Michael danced with various groups of people from different race and cultures. Its message was powerful and showed his enduring belief in world peace and harmony. Attempting to replace this King of Pop might just be impossible – if we even bother to try. Though having passed on – we hate to bring this up again – but we’ll miss him, his eccentricity and his immense talent terribly.