I first heard Micheal Jackson was dead from someone's facebook status update. Thinking it had to be a joke, I went to Google News, which only told me he was suffering from a heart attack.
At some point yesterday, he was dead. Declared dead, confirmed dead. He was dead.
Last night, BET was playing Micheal Jackson videos. For lack of better things to watch, my husband and I watched Micheal dance one last time, for as you well know, now that he's really dead, the music video is truly dead.
The music video has been dead for awhile. It died at some point at the dawn of the new century, when MTV and VH1 ceased to actually play videos and moved on to playing the dumbest, stupidest reality TV shows. Micheal Jackson made the music video into an art form. Have you seen "Thriller?" MTV was made into what it was supposed to be by that video. Jackson's videos all had plots in them. There was always a story in there, usually having to do with what the song was babbling about. His dancing was always perfect and went along with the music. I have seen many Micheal Jackson videos (I know I have not seen them all, as this morning when VH1 and MTV finally played some, I did see a few I had never seen before). However, I have seen many. I've seen them mostly on "Pop Up Video" which is one of my all time favorite things in the word to watch, as I could watch music videos all day long and having random tid bits of information is just all the better.
Last night, as I watched the "mini-movie" that "You Rock My World" and I began thinking, "There is a lot of Micheal Jackson in Justin Timberlake." I did not realize at the time, that video was from 2001, so it might have been the other way around, but as I watched this mini-movie music video, I realized the music video was dead.
When you think about it, what is the last music video you've been excited to see? When was the last time you stopped what you were doing in order to watch a music video? When was the last time you actually saw ALL of a music video? When was the last time a music video debuted on prime time television?
I think I might have been in first grade or second grade, when the Dangerous Album came out and "Black or White" premiered on prime time TV...I think on TGIF Friday maybe? I do not exactly remember, but I do remember everyone at school being excited to see it on TV that night, and one just had to watch. I do not remember much about watching it, I do remember it was the most popular song at the talent show that year. Of course, I had no idea what the song was about or why it was such a big deal until I saw the video when I was in junior high or high school on "Pop Up Video."
I also remember being shocked when I found out Micheal Jackson was black, as throughout my childhood as far as I knew he was a funny looking white guy. I think it was my mom who pointed out that the black child who was the lead singer of The Jackson 5 was the same Micheal Jackson who had the little nose and white face. I also really figured this out more when I watched the movie/long tv show/drama thing about the Jacksons.
As I entered junior high and the boy bands all started coming out, I remember thinking Micheal Jackson wasn't cool. I did like his song, "You Are Not Alone," which to this day is the only Micheal Jackson song I own, as it was nominated for a Grammy, thus on the Grammy CD I own. That was the music video with Lisa Maire Prestly and I couldn't figure out how they had made it when Jackson was showing so much skin.
There will always be an elephant in the room when we think of Micheal Jackson, because his crazy, mixed up personal life over shadowed his talent as a performer. However, that talent is perserved in the countless music videos he made. His crazy personality does show through in most of the videos, so he is not totally lost.
What is totally lost is the music video. The last music video I watched in full was Britney's "Have U Seen Amy." It casused a buzz because of its "dirty" chorus, which I guess I'm stupid becasue I don't get it. I also didn't really get the video. Most of todays videos I don't get. Most of them are tasteless and stupid. None of them are truely sexy or artful. While I have a hard time taking Michael Jackson as sexy, his videos are artful and thought provoking. There might be sexy, artful videos out there, but I'll never seen them because MTV, VH1 and the various other "music" channels don't play music videos, as they do not think people want to watch music videos. I used to not be able to live without MTV and VH1 for the music videos. Now, if I did not have these channels, I wouldn't notice, as I do not watch them any more. I think a lot of people feel as I do.
I believe Micheal Jackson changed music, he used music videos to do this. I don't think he would have become what he did, professionally, without music videos. He gave us the form of the music video that was copied for years. He created stories in his videos, they were not just him standing around singing, there was always a theme.
Some poeple out there think he's getting too much attention and he shouldn't get it due to the elephant in the room. Farah Fawcett died on the same day as Micheal. However, we all knew she was going to die, as she's been fighting cancer for awhile now and it was rumored she was getting worse. Micheal came out of left field and caught us all off guard. If you look at the two of them, I'm going to have to say that Jackson had more of an impact than Fawcett. She gave us a hair cut, one season of Charlie's Angels and a poster. Jackson gave us countless music videos, years of high jinks, and music that shaped a whole generation (and then some) lives. Everyone's got a memory linked to a Micheal Jackson song. I can't say I've got much linked to Fawcett other than the fact my mother told me she couldn't get her hair to do that Farah Fawcett cut. I'm not saying Fawcett should not be mourned, I'm just saying the world's reaction to Micheal Jackson's death is expected. At least, Fawcett will be at rest and her passing will be more peaceful with the world's glare focused on Jackson, who always lived for flash.
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