posted
I kinda think he had a bit of a shit run all the way from the cradle. I mean the guy was never allowed to have a life, had a severly arrested personality, got dragged through the courts, was (probably) mentaly disturbed to some extent and had the wierd skin thing (if it was an illness).
-------------------- I have plenty of experience in biology. I bought a Tamagotchi in 1998... And... it's still alive.
Registered: Apr 2005
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Saltah'na
Chinese Canadian, or 75% Commie Bastard.
Member # 33
posted
quote:Originally posted by AndrewR:
quote:Originally posted by Saltah'na: It was the Mala Noche.....
Huh? What do you mean buy that sentence?
Watch the series and you'll understand the reference.....
-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
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Saltah'na
Chinese Canadian, or 75% Commie Bastard.
Member # 33
posted
CSI Miami.
-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I cant say I'm thrilled about his death, neither is it particularly sad. When it comes right down to it the guy was just a singer who had one big album in the 80's, not to mention he was very likely a sexual deviant. He was not a saint in any way, he did not change the face of music as we know it, and his bizarre addiction to plastic surgery didn't do him any favours either. He didn't cure cancer or learn to divide by zero, he was just a pop singer with a penchant for young boys. From day one he didn't have a chance of a normal life, at least now he's not worrying anyone else.
-------------------- www.kennyscrap.com - where I download crap I make.
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
Actually, he did change the face of music- before Billy Jean MYV played no black artists- MJ's record company threatened to pull all their artists off MTV if they did not play it. Thriller became impossibly huge as a result- it went Platinum over 50 times, making it one of, if not the largest selling album of all time. MTV became the thing to watch for a generation- just to see videos so well made as Jackson's.
No jackson- no giant success for MTV.
Various other artists had to scramble to make music videos and music with more of a dance beat and videos themselves had to be more cinematic and high-production affairs.
And then there's the immense cultural influence he had- kids wearing that red leather jacket, urban dancing getting into the mainstream, a better blend of R&B and rock came to pop music. At the top of his carrer, he was bigger than the Baetles.
Really, he changed everything.
It's not an excuse for the weirdness that followed but give the creepy manaquin his due.
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
There are two kinds of "important" in media: you can be the best ever, or you can be totally revolutionary. Take I Love Lucy. It's really not that great a show, though it's still pretty entertaining. Yet it was the first multi-camera sitcom, and single-handedly created the concept of the rerun. Or Star Trek: The Next Generation. Hardly the best sci-fi show ever, even at its high points; at it's low points it was garbage. But it paved the way for the entire syndicated sci-fi industry for the next two decades.
Michael Jackson is not the best pop singer/dancer ever, by any means, though his greatest hits are worth having if you like that sort of music. But he did change music and dance worldwide, more than any other single individual I can think of in history. Yes, after him everyone was like him, so he doesn't stand out as much from our perspective. But everyone's like him now because to some degree they all copied him.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I lived through the 80s at the height of his success and I never really got it either. Of course, I never liked his music so I probably wasn't paying that much attention.
WizArtist II
"How can you have a yellow alert in Spacedock? "
Member # 1425
posted
I heard this joke a day or so ago.
"The Lego corporation is melting down Michael Jackson's body, which was mostly plastic at this point, into their famous 'building blocks'.....this will allow children to play with HIM for a change...."
-------------------- There are 10 types of people in the world...those that understand Binary and those that don't.
Registered: Nov 2004
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
Meh, I chuckled.
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
posted
For the best visual stuff stuff on MJ, go to www.b3ta.com and check out their Michael Jackson image challenge. The best for me is the mock BBC News webpage, closely follwed by the moonwalking pall-bearers.
I think MTV would have been a hit with or without Jackson, it was running just fine without him beforehand, and is still going now. As for changing fashion, I didn't see anyone else trying to turn themselves into a white Diana Ross and wearing one spangly glove, on TV or on the streets of Central Scotland where I live.
Maybe his music influenced a generation for all I know, but it will be the generation specifically into his style of pop pap and not anyone else's genre. I certainly didn't like his solo stuff when I was growing up in the eighties, and no one I knew well did either. Performers might want his multi-platinum money, but that would be the extent of it.
-------------------- www.kennyscrap.com - where I download crap I make.
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
It's turned into a never ending stream of shitty reality series, but it's still going. All TV is going through an upheaval right now due to the internet and user generated content. You can reach billions of people by posting on YouTube for nothing, and it costs them a fortune to put on a crappy show that might reach a million or two if they're lucky. My Flickr page gets more hits than some TV channels right now.
-------------------- www.kennyscrap.com - where I download crap I make.
Registered: Jun 2003
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