A friend and I were waxing nostalgic a couple weeks ago and somehow the topic of Michael Jackson came up.  He commented how easy it was for people to get on the MJ-bashing bandwagon because of recent events, and completely discount his entire career because of it.  The question “Do you like MJ” only has one answer these days, and it’s an indignant “are you kidding?”

But let’s face it, Michael Jackson was a pioneer, and I’m not embarassed to say that I have always liked his music and in fact I’m listening to his “Dangerous” album right now (which is what made me think to write this).

Where were music videos and MTV before “Thriller”?  His style of dance still inspires excitement to watch it.  Despite the fact that he never rapped (can you imagine?) I believe his style of technical, tight-rhythm-oriented music in a way inspired the next generation of rapper.

Granted, the man is a freak, and has been most of his life.  And I don’t approve of the lyrical themes in a lot of his songs.  But you can’t take away from his dance and musical talent.

I remember when I was in grade school in the early eighties.  My recollection is that Michael and Modonna where the top two singers.  You could like both of them because one was a boy and one was a girl.  Of course if you were a boy you were a little embarassed to say you liked Madonna, but Michael was cool.  Then I remember at some point Prince came into the popularity picture as a competitor and it became a question of “do you like Michael?” OR “do you like Prince?”  You couldn’t like both.  As a result, I never much listened to Prince in my younger years.  Kids are weird.  Growing up is weird.

Tagged | Michael Jackson, music, retro

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