So Michael Jackson is dead

[ailbhe]

I knew this before I went to bed last night, of course. But what I'm surprised by is that I care. I put on TMF this morning and it's all MJ music videos, of course. We never had MTV or anything similar when I was growing up so I'd never seen most of them before. The video for "Heal the World" made me cry, which is probably partially hormones.

When I was a teenager I briefly tried to fancy Michael Jackson, because teenage girls are supposed to fancy famous people, and I somehow never did. I thought I'd try to develop a crush on Michael Jackson because I felt rather sorry for him and liked a lot of the music I'd heard.

Didn't work. Closest I ever managed to a celebrity crush was Helena Bonham Carter but I really only ever managed crushes on people I knew.

There was a music video on this morning in which MJ was still medium-dark. I think the Thriller album had a picture of him looking like that, with a lion cub. But I'd never seen him moving-while-black before.

His life seems to have been really desperately screwed up the whole way along. Poor guy.

Comments

[glitzfrau]

When I was a teenager I briefly tried to fancy Michael Jackson, because teenage girls are supposed to fancy famous people, and I somehow never did. I thought I'd try to develop a crush on Michael Jackson because I felt rather sorry for him and liked a lot of the music I'd heard.

Ahaha, me too! I tried to work up a seriously steamy fantasy about him, but somehow it never went anywhere.

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

He was so beautiful as a boy and young man. I can't help but look at his life and think how much better it could have been. I hope he can rest in peace now.

[velcro-kitten.livejournal.com]

felt shocked - i almost rang you cos I only heard this morning. Well I hope his children get looked after, poor beings

[the0lady.livejournal.com]

"Billy Jean"-era MJ was the subject of some of my earliest erotic dreams (yeah, I'm old). Poor guy - what a voice, what a talent... What a fucked up life.

[ailbhe]

It really sucked to be a female character in one of his videos, though. Just watched half a dozen. Wow.

[the0lady.livejournal.com]

Granted. It sucked being a woman in pretty much any music video in the eighties; the only thing it sucked less than was being a woman in pretty much any music video now. Lucky for me I grew up in a largely MTV-free backwater.

[ailbhe]

So did I - it's coming as a bit of a shock now that I sometimes see music videos. Which are now porn as far as I can tell.

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

When I heard the news last night, I turned on MTV, which was playing old videos. They showed a clip of the Jackson 5 performing on Dick Clark - he was so *young*. Just heartbreaking to look at that smiling face and think where his life would lead.

[ailbhe]

I saw a couple of Jackson 5 clips today and all my child-rescuing instincts come to the fore.

It's also a bit freaky how much misery and hope the adult videos show. Both. All the time. It's like there's that ok bit of a person in there trying to break through all the fucked-up-ness of it. On international television.

[totkat.livejournal.com]

I feel slightly bad that I think his death is almost a blessing for him and the mess around him. He was ill, mentally unstable etc. and I'm sure his poor kids were almost nothing to do with him. He was a very talented and very mixed up man.

[ailbhe]

I'm kind of hoping that now he's dead the... ripples of pain emanating from him through his social circle and family can start to abate.