HOMELY PLANET

So I've caught a lot of flak from my last missive in which I trumpet Michael Jackson's importance.  Friends of mine came out of the woodwork and beat me up, saying that I was exaggerating, that he cannot be put on the mantle of musical greats, since at best he was a great dancer/singer and "music video innovator," and that his pathetic slide in freakshow works as some kind of negative stock against his true contributions.

Fair enough.  I was steaming drunk when I posted it and may have been guilty of hyperbole.  I've been thinking it over the last couple of days and I go back and forth.

I never thought I'd be put in the position of defending Michael Jackson - someone who has elicited derisive sneers from me for much of my life - and I do agree with much of what the detractors are saying. 

BUT...

I gotta say that I detect a whole lotta condescending priveleged white guy scoffs in these comments, that they are overthought and, dare I say, elitist.  To say that Brian Wilson is greater than Michael Jackson raises eyebrows for sure.  Wilson is indeed a genius and has influenced countless artists, but go ANYWHERE in the third world and mention his name and I fucking guarantee you will be met with blank stares.  Mention Jackson, and most will not only know who he is - they will like his music.  This is especially true among poor brown and black people.  I bet John Lennon doesn't even turn up on most of their radar screens.  And this is the majority of the Earth's population.  So how important does that really make him, when really, today, he's not as known or admired as you may think?

To answer Angry Steve, Jackson HAS been massively influential.  He wrote the book on modern pop - from boy band schlock to R and B to what you might call "dance music."   Who has he exactly influenced, you ask?  Timberlake, Usher, Babyface, R. Kelly, Britney Spears to name a few.  Sure, a lot of it is commercial and awful, but it's very popular.  I know that's not necessarily the barometer of good, but we can't ignore it either.  Can you write off his influence just because you DON'T LIKE his music, because it's not COOL enough for you?

That's fine, but what needs to be realized is that Jackson was truly international, and aside from Bob Marley, he was the first black artists to go global, to be embraced by everybody.  He paved the way for hip-hop's now global appeal, so you can't divorce him from its success.  For a while he was more famous than any human had ever been before.  He was huger than huge.  It was almost sick.  But you can't deny that despite his own bizarre racial self-loathing that he indeed broke down barriers.   It can be argued that Jackson made it possible for a Tiger Woods or even a Barak Obama to happen.  

Michael Jackson had planned a comeback tour - which was obviously going to be a disaster of Hindenburgian proportions - and yet 750,000 thousand tickets had already been sold.  750,000.  That's a fucking heaping jolly shitload.

So yeah, he mattered to people.   A lot of people.  They might not be the kind people you consider or like, but they live all over this globe and have opinions on music, just like you and me.