^^^ Sure it's tough for every artist to adjust in the last 30 years but how many of them end up as an adult sleeping with little children. That shit is too bizzarre. He was at one time a great entertainer, he became something else.
Definitely not excusing what he's done, just saying that celebrities in the spotlight live in pressure cookers none of us can begin to imagine.
Unlike “The Beatles” who happily put their catalog on iTunes without a fight... Wait, they didn’t... Because they haven’t gotten a deal they like yeah... Or Yoko Ono who licenses every damned thing that can flip a profit... Like baby bottles that are now adorned with drawings John made for his son! In the great scheme of things, I put Michael Jackson buying a catalog so he can profit from them far more acceptable than a mother taking drawings her dead husband made for their sun and smacking them on baby junk.
Alex speaks the truth. I miss the Ramones. As for Michael Jackson, his passing is no more meaningful to me than that of any other human being who happened to die today. His elaborate and expensive videos from the 80's were fun to watch, but there really isn't anything else that he did, Motown or otherwise, that I even remotely enjoyed. I'll avoid radio and TV as long as I have to to avoid the Michael Jackson tributes. Someone please tell me when it's over.
Are you talking about the video with all the prisoners dancing...cause that's hella funny, especially when you find out who is playing the girl....lol. Thriller..not my favorite. Billie Jean and Beat It...a bit overplayed (but I still like them)...but the earlier stuff, that stuff just doesn't get old. I'm not sure if there is anything after the Thriller album that I liked. He probably got the heart attack when he found out Farrah passed away. Saying what has he contributed in the last 20 years...well, what have any of us contributed in our last 10 years, or in our life for that matter. I'm sure there's only a hand full of us have enriched someone's life.
People seem to be forgetting that he paid a little boy $60 million to keep quiet. Now if i had been accused of touching kids, i'd fight it all the way. not send the victim a fat cheque. What did he do apart from have a sweet voice as a kid and move well. He did'nt invent soul. He spent money in such a vulgar fashion, on such tacky shite, i don't know how anyone could be endeared to the man. It's funny, when i see the thriller video now all i see is a load of expensive hype for a alright pop song. When someone was compairing him to the Ramones or the Stooges and saying what have they done, blah, blah, blah........they invented punkrock, that's what. Plus, don't knock the Velvets, without them we'd have no alternative scene what so ever. This lot may have done loads of drugs and stuff, but they never nonced kids. Apparently he did'nt die from a heart attack anyway. He was found in a childrens ward, having a stroke.
Wow - a lot of anger in there matey. I'm not gonna defend MJ, but things have to be looked at in perspective, and looking BACK at Thriller now and saying it's just alright is not what made it and him what they are/were. Like your comments on the Ramones or the Stooges (both of whom were nothing more than rock bands that happened to be major influences on punk, but that's another thread), with out perceptive, they are nothing more than a couple boys with geetars making noise. And, I have been in super stressful situations with ex's making big deals about nothing, that if I had $60million to make it all go away, I'd happily do it. (I should state for the record, that these situations never had anything to do with little children or anything really bad, I just picked a couple drama queens who made shit up or misinterpreted.)
Since I was the one who brought that up, let me clarify that: I never said the Ramones, Iggy/Stooges or Velvets sucked. Far from it. But to me at some point all of those groups just started running on autopilot and did nothing new or noteworthy. So when someone says what Michael Jackson has done in the last 20 years, my response was look at those bands and you can say the exact same thing. Ditto with practically all artists and entertainers. There's a peak, and then the stuff afterwards (in the case of bands) are excuses to tour or sell merch. I like the Rolling Stones but have no fantasies about them in 2009, 1999 or even 1989. I am old enough to remember seeing pathetic fat Elvis on TV acting like a loon and wonder what the hype was, but then I grew up and realized his early work was great. Bowie is great! Ever hear that “Tin Machine” junk? Uggh. And I’m also old enough to remember when “Off the Wall” came out and in my 10-year-old head, that beat/tune is embedded with that forever. What’s also frustrating is some folks are so pigeon-holed in “I’m punk! Pop sucks!” you’re limiting yourself. I’ve met tons of artists/bands over the years and fans are usually more narrow minded about taste than the artist themselves. Oh yeah, and this... You know what, I think he was screwed up in his later life (basically starting in the 1990s) but I don’t think he molested or harmed any kid. Why? Frankly after that trial and the media circus, there would have been some crack in the supposed “coverup”... But there never was one. And I doubt that will ever come up. Whatever. If you think respecting someone who others like is lame, pity yourself because there’s talent behind his work; what the heck kind of talent came up with “Boom Boom Pow”? A robot in a studio?
Wow - a lot of anger in there matey. I'm not gonna defend MJ, but things have to be looked at in perspective, and looking BACK at Thriller now and saying it's just alright is not what made it and him what they are/were. Like your comments on the Ramones or the Stooges (both of whom were nothing more than rock bands that happened to be major influences on punk, but that's another thread), with out perceptive, they are nothing more than a couple boys with geetars making noise. And, I have been in super stressful situations with ex's making big deals about nothing, that if I had $60million to make it all go away, I'd happily do it. (I should state for the record, that these situations never had anything to do with little children or anything really bad, I just picked a couple drama queens who made shit up or misinterpreted.) [/quote] see, i don't think you would. to me, it was another OJ. Pay enough to victim or team of lawyer's to make it go away. As we've seen, you have to be standing over the body with a gun in your hand, a la Phil Specter. So i just don't buy it. I just could'nt excuse someone that, even if i was their biggest fan.
MJ was messed up big time, a victim of abuse as a child, a massive star since he was 10...it obviously had a huge psychological effect. I'm not going to excuse the baby dangling, the weird interviews about it being okay for kids to sleep in the same bed as him etc etc. But whenever I saw interviews with him I always got he over-riding feeling of a hugely damaged guy who preferred living in a dream world of theme parks and pet chimps to escape the real world.
So when someone says what Michael Jackson has done in the last 20 years, my response was look at those bands and you can say the exact same thing. Ditto with practically all artists and entertainers. There's a peak, and then the stuff afterwards (in the case of bands) are excuses to tour or sell merch. I like the Rolling Stones but have no fantasies about them in 2009, 1999 or even 1989. I am old enough to remember seeing pathetic fat Elvis on TV acting like a loon and wonder what the hype was, but then I grew up and realized his early work was great. Bowie is great! Ever hear that “Tin Machine” junk? Uggh. And I’m also old enough to remember when “Off the Wall” came out and in my 10-year-old head, that beat/tune is embedded with that forever. What’s also frustrating is some folks are so pigeon-holed in “I’m punk! Pop sucks!” you’re limiting yourself. I’ve met tons of artists/bands over the years and fans are usually more narrow minded about taste than the artist themselves. I'm fully aware that artist's become less relevant as their star fades. But he just kept on flogging the same horse. Like i said, he could sing and dance(although his jokes were really bad), but he was still living off being a six year old performer and that's where the freak show started. I like decent music, wether it be alternative, pop or whatever. I just don't think he produced very good music(i know it all about taste). When ever he had a new tune out, you get some bloated, expensive video(that was usually him doing the same dance moves he'd been doing for twenty years), pretending to be interested in a grown woman.......trash.
The reason I DON'T think he did anything to any kids, is if I was the parent and TRULY believed something happened to my kid, there would be NO SETTLEMENT! I would rake that out until there was nothing left, NO amount of money would stop me. I'd not have been satisfied until he was called out 100% GUILTY with hard evidence. I think he just felt pressured to give in to stop it all, he wasn't exactly a "fighter." It just was all so convenient for those parents, and the kids go along with it because they're scared or pressured or honestly just don't care. Also he wasn't some mastermind, I think there would have been A LOT more tangible evidence. Anyway, it can be/has been debated on and on and on. I understand being sick of all the coverage already, I AM!
There have been a few points in my life, where I would have very happily paid what I could to make it go away. I couldn't so I trudged through it all, I am pleased that I did, I am glad I had the strength and I learned shitloads. But there are people out there who would rather not, I can only assume MJ is one of those people. I have always felt his was a case of being a misunderstood maladjusted person being taken advantage of. I don't want to stick the man on a pedestal or rate him higher than I did yesterday, because I don't, but I have always felt bad for the guy. He was obviously fucked in the head wasn't firmly planted on Planet Earth or anywhere in this solar system, but none the less, I never believed he operated with malicious intent, he just didn't "get it." And everyone knows OJ did it, I don't think the 2 cases are comparable.
You see, your believing the little faye voiced man in the interviews. My wife deals with a lot of celebs and from what i heard, MJ was a very different animal away from the cameras. Likes to have his own way and quite calculating. Anyway, your right, there will be so much media crap over this and mass hysteria from his mental fans, that i'm gonna leave this now, as i know i'm ranting. and i can't believe he totally eclipsed Farrah........RIP Farrah
Dude, it's not HIM that I disbelieve or believe, it's the parents of the kids. They had PLENTY of money, why did they need to "settle" for any amount? If someone touched my kid, again I don't care HOW much money was offered, I'd have pursued them in court until it was DONE. It's not him I'm listening to and saying "he's innocent!" It's the otherside, those parents and kids, that I'm listening to and saying "BULLSHIT!" If I only, ONLY, heard his side, I would be 50/50 on it and say it's very plausible, but the way those parents reacted wasn't "Someone molested my child and I want JUSTICE" it was "GIMME SOME MONEY!" Anyway, in the end I think we have to agree to disagree about this. No big deal.
I know, i know. But i think your a much better person than those kids parents and i'm the same, i'd make sure the prick never saw the light of day. Anyway, he's dead, we're not. If you were a fan, have some good memory's and a mourn. if you were'nt a fan, carry on as usual.
I like how he dies and he's a hero again and everyone cares, as opposed to the freakish pervert that has existed in the past 20 years. I'll go with the eh, m'eh, and add a who cares.
It's pretty obvious to me that Michael developed bipolar disorder or another type of mental illness that manifests itself in the late-twenties/early thirties. His fragility increased dramatically around that time; his obsession with plastic surgery to "change" who he was, the desire to revert to childhood was all compounded by having enough money to actually create that fictive world in which he lived. Holding a mask over his mouth in crowds and rushing to a limo that would whisk him back to Neverland, his handlers greedily ingratiated themselves into the King of Pop's service. As they purposefully shielded him from any outside influence (with the exception of Elizabeth Taylor who still lives ultimately divorced after her 8th marriage), the fragile mind of Michael began to distrust the public. After all, if you can't trust the people you KNOW, the people you don't know will undoubtedly abuse you to the full extent of their depravities. Michael thought if you touched kids with the gloved hand, it didn't count as abuse. Because he was crazy.
My sources in Heaven tell me that, when Farrah arrived, God offered to grant her one wish. Farrah, bless her, said she'd like God to make the world "A safer place for children".
