Special Time Magazine edition on Michael J. Jackson

Time Magazine has released a fascinating piece on MJ. Amid beautiful pictures from before I was born, there are interesting and disturbing pieces about the life and times of MJ (reminds me of JM Coetzee's Life and Times of Michael K). In the article by Richard Corliss, Tommy Mottola says, 'There's nobody before Michael Jackson, and there will never be anybody after Michael Jackson, that can do for video what he did. It put MTV culture into the forefront...he totally defined the video age' (TM 33). There is no other way to capture the kind of influence that MJ had on the cultural scene.

The Time Magazine articles are clearly marked, beginning with the article by John Cloud 'With a dramatic pause, the world mourned the death of a brilliant but troubling idol'. He goes on to capture the death of MJ using theatrical metaphors: the three acts. The shock, the confusion (of death) which he compares quite rightly with Elvis Prestley's death, the Celebrity Tragedy, and lastly the stage when we let the investigators do their job.

This article is however, quite ambivalent, capturing what MJ's death meant to a horde of us fans, but also quite regularly inserting the dissapointing years of MJ's life into the mix, thus making this a more dominant aspect of what the man was.

David Von Drehle's article 'A Little Boy with Outsize Gifts takes charge of His family's band, then leaves it far behind', is the article some of us die-hard fans want to see and read. It is a pithy recount of MJ's early life as a musician, his ambition, as well as his loneliness. It is no woner later in life, he'd find himself fraternizing with little boys, in the hope that he would be able to get what he had lost as a little child. Unfortunately, the social structures do not allow for adults to 'go back'. Once you have crossed over, that's it. MJ was caught between audlthood and childhood.

MJ is quoted as having said, 'There was a park across the street from the Motown studio, and I can remember looking at those kids playing games...i'd just stare at them in wonder-i couldn't imagine such freedom, such a carefree life-and i wish more than anything I had that kind of freedom, that i could just walk away and be just like them'. To have been a child star, stringing out songs such as 'ABC' and not have been affected by it... And to think of how hard their father drove them, is unimaginable. How those boys did it, is something to wonder and marvel at.

But just a side thought: if anyone watched 'Dream Girls', they would know just how manipulative the music industry is. The fact that Jermaine for instance, was dropped out of the band, and later that he performed duets with Whitney, is interesting. Just like the character of Jeniffer Hudson is thrown off the wargon to accommodate the non-talent of the Beyonce character, seems to me in parallel with the Jackson 5 story. Only, in this case, everyone of those boys was talented. I mean, I listen to MJ, true, he is electirfying (i will always admit this), but so were the other boys. I hate that they fell off, just because of some greedy producer's....

Anyway, I was trying to review the Time Magazine special Edition....



I think Richard Lacayo's Piece, 'Deformed by surgery. Warped by Fame. The Sad end of an American Icon.' captures the real effects of what Michael had been and what he died as. It highlights the massive debt he incured throughout his trials, his determination to be a 'neutral' colour (neither black or white: a brother from another planet), and his woes as a possible child molester. Those were the sad years of Mj's life, consisting of betrayals, broken dreams and possible feelings of failure. It's a pity he died feeling the hatred emanating from those who did not believe in his innocence.

There are those of us who believe in second chances, and who know that the world is not always a good place. I still believe quite strongly, that MJ's was a tragic case, because the world did not understand him, and had no place for his eccentricities. It cost him his life.

And so, while he might be in a better place, he is definitely wondering what went wrong. I am too.