i understand that michael jackson was a cultural icon, and i understand that he death is a tragic end to a life that touched millions. what i don't understand, though, is people my age who are truly upset about his passing.
i like the ABC, i like off the wall and thriller, but the person who recorded those hits was a superstar unknown to my generation. I would say the last of the good Michael Jackson was Bad, in 1987. I was two years old in 1987. Michael Jackson did not shape my cultural landscape at the age of two.
Maybe it was because my parents were more into the Beatles and the Grateful Dead than MJ, but I did not really get him until high school when I head the Off the Wall album. It was then that I first got his songs stuck in my head, and couldn't keep my head from bobbing when I heard the songs. By that time, the man who made those songs and the man living as Michael Jackson were two very different people.
I get that Jackson made a huge impact on recorded music, music videos, and performance. He was no longer influencing the music world to the same extent, though. While his death was tragic, especially as the circumstances surrounding it become more well know, it did not affect me that much. His legacy was all that impacted me before, and nothing about that has changed with his death.
