f13.net

Both of them!  :ye_gods:  Farrah was very brave throughout her illness.  I still don't know what Michael was.  

Oh.  The Michael Jackson thing MIGHT be a rumour.  Dunno.  Dead or alive, man or something else... he's a mystery to me.

MJ was rushed to the hospital not breathing, but they haven't announced his death yet. Except on TMZ.

Sadly the trending topic on Twitter is "Micheal Jackson". If I was a fan, I think I would know his name.

Conflicting reports.  NBC is reporting coma last I saw.  The cardiac arrest is definite though.

Gah, not Farrah!!!

Michael Jackson should have been struck by lightning and killed the day after he finished making Thriller. Imagine how differently he'd be remembered.

LA Times has Jackson dead. and Farrah... sigh. Time to put that poster back up.

Michael Jackson uploaded himself into the internet.

speaking of teh Interweb... wow this was fast:

(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a62/photohosting1234/Misc_memes_macros/csi_mj_got_enough.png)



note to dawg: shades on shades...

So far it seems he went into coma and then passed. LA times is reporting his death too, but I don't know if it's via TMZ or a source they have.

NBC News reports Jacko pronounced dead. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31552029/ns/entertainment-music/)

Lets twat about it on our facespace.

The king of pop has popped?

Seriously though, RIP.

This. I still get the willies when I find myself enjoying his music because of what he became (or revealed about himself) later in life. Thriller was a fucking awesome album though.

+1 for Off the Wall

Righ and I are waiting for him and a group of doctors and nurses to walk out of the hospital front door doing the Thriller dance.  The King of Pop has always looked a bit undead to me.


I have a feeling he wasn't in to Facetwat.

Extra points if they string MJ up like a marionette and bring him along.

Heh.

Well, at least they will not have to embalm him.

This is... fucking amazing.

Also, I still remember Michael Jackson for his music. Anyone who grew up in the 80s does and doesn't care about freak zombie michael jackson of the last few years. Seriously, guy wrote the best pop music and should be remembered along with all the other greats. Even if he's not dead, I still think of his music when his name comes up.

Yeah, I'm kind of surprised he was actually ABLE to die!  Still, I have a feeling it's not the first time he's died.  

I just heard that he took an overdose of sleeping pills.  I can't quote a source unfortunately because it was just some guy who said it.  

This is why showing Thriller as a tribute was a bad idea:
(http://xs140.xs.to/xs140/09264/mjdead956.jpg) (http://xs.to)

RIP MJ and Farah.

That pic is awesome though.

After Thriller... well there wasn't much worth after that. But Thriller, yeah. Add to that it happened at the time when Mtv actually had music, Thriller video was an event in my house.

he released some great great music... but man did he fall hard.

I went to a boarding school across the road from Neverland ranch, at one point we were invited over to his place, he was a very polite guy, did not come off with "I am a FUCKING ROCKSTAR" attitude at all.  The guy I met that day while in high school, was obviously eccentric, but he came across nothing like the wackjob he later became.

I dunno, sorry to hear he died, it is somewhat cool to think "I shook that dudes hand", but in light of all the pedo stuff.... I can't feel very sorry.

Heh, Breaking News: Michael Jackson Undead

RIP, 50 is still pretty young.

I guess little boys and monkeys around the world are breathing a collective sign of relief.  :pedobear:

But RIP, hopefully we'll remember more of the good tunes and less of the crazy.

In case you never knew how hot Farrah was:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRtNeSOGkvI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh_v8IIRk2s

You haven't played Plants vs Zombies have you? 

Are you implying he was killed by a plant to prevent him from raising 4 more thriller dancers?

This needs to get added to awesome pictures.

Indeed!

On another note.. there's quite a few reports that it may have been a suicide, and the he overdosed on sleeping pills.

Ah, is that the other note that I mentioned three quarter's of an hour ago?   :drillf:

Doh!  I missed that post!

Ok it wasn't sleeping pills it was Viagra he just wanted to play with his kids!   :uhrr:

Various media and Twitter explosions about Jeff Goldblum also dying :-) All resulting from someone's fakeawish.com fake report (http://jeff.goldblum.mediafetcher.com/news/top_stories/actor_new_zealand.php).

Goldblum can't die, I'm pretty sure he's a Q.

And Harrison Ford death rumour, too.  Good Grief!  Of course, they're both in New Zealand making a film together, I think, so maybe a fat sheep fell on them both!  Celebrity death hoaxes abound!

CNN is seriously playing" don't stop till you get enough" right now...and I can't stop laughing.

I guess I'm a minority here, but I never liked any of Jackson's music. And he was a freak/pedo. With no nose. Who used to be black. Color me unsympathetic.

Count me in on the gloat not mourn party please.

I liked some of his music.. basically stuff before BAD, but his bizarre antics and :pedobear: have given me no reason to mourn him. 

It was his destiny!....  :oh_i_see: If you're a huge iconic person, then you end up a crackpot, out of shape, or a recluse. Like Elvis or Marilyn. In this case, Michael was probably all three/.

I believe he is still watching us all poop.

I didn't like one thing he did.  Well, I found the Thriller dance fun but seeing it once was enough.  Like a cute film or something.  I find music like that to be irritating.

I thought Michael Jackson ended up incredibly creepy.  Looks, personality, penchant for little boys, the attention he paid his weenie in front of people... no thanks.  Don't really want to know.  I can get over quirky celebs, sometimes they can be a good laugh.  But not that quirky!  He really turned my stomach.  He is not a person I would have trusted enough to leave alone in a room with my pet rock.  I wonder what will happen to all his money now.  Has he left it all to some bizarre cult charity or maybe to all they little boys he loved so much.   :ye_gods:   Or has the Jackson family cash cow just vomited a bajillion bazillion dollars all over their Jehovah Witness asses.

I like the jackson 5 quite a bit. Pretty groovy band, especially for a bunch of kids. I never once believed he was a pedo though. Weird yes, but probably not a pedo. Just the perfect target to be accused for it.

He had a very large image problem, and possibly a sexual problem. I'm conflicted about his life, but now that's no more. Farrah was always a glowing beauty and also an acting one-hit-wonder. Still, nobody with that short of an acting career has had their poster grace the walls of millions of men for the last 2 decades.

Put more crappy actresses in Playboy and that would change.

If only Megan Fox would jump all over that.

Especially if they airbrush out her stupid tattoo.

I was always a Kelly fan myself! Best face and body of the bunch, and the only one who aged gracefully. Jaclyn Smith is still pretty doable... umm.. unless she's dead too now.  :oh_i_see:

Which one?

All of them.

Where is the love for Ed McMahon.

I will also remember Michael Jackson for his music fondly, but also remember he was a terribly broken person besides that. That's the thing with art, though. You can be a thoroughly horrible person and still make shit that is worthwhile, shit that transcends your personal shitheelness. Even if you don't personally like anything Jackson ever recorded, he was a big-ass musical influence and that is what he will ultimately be remembered most for.

It's like James Brown. Total douchebag of a dude. But fuck if he won't be remembered, and well, for his contributions to music.

Hahahah YES!! You are correct, sir!~

I am really sorry to hear about MJ's death.  Reports now are that it was an accidental overdose of demerol, and there are accusations of "enabling" being tossed around by various family members.

Never mind that I think all of them should take a long, hard look in the mirror before applying that label to others.

Andrew Sullivan ticks me off regularly, but lately I'm feeling a lot of respect for him...his coverage of Iran has been outstanding, and the few paragraphs he devotes to Michael Jackson's death are brutally clear and compassionate:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/06/thinking-about-michael.html (http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/06/thinking-about-michael.html)

The whole cardiac arrest/OD thing are just media smokescreens to hide the real cause of death.

I have it from a very good source that he actually died of food poisoning - he ate a nine year old wiener.

Ma'am. :P

aww, the joke doesn't work then  :grin:

The world loses another Kiddy-Fiddler and is the poorer for it.

No, wait, that's not right.

I know, I ruin everything. :(

ALL THREE DEAD have been referenced in SOME WAY in a Weird Al song (Farah Fawcett is the biggest stretch, but he mentions getting That Farah Fawcett Poster in his eBay song). Yes, I am a huge fucking dork.

I am sad.

This fact suprises me quite a bit.

 :tinfoil:

The guy was odd, there's no way around that, but we'll never know if he was a pedo or not.  You don't need to shed any tears, but given that this is a topic about the guy's death, could you guys at least take the "I don't care/I never liked the guy or his music/he was accused of child molestation and therefore it must be true" douchbaggery to a thread in Politics or something?

This is apparently from a Jacko Pepsi commercial, but it's poignant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5O61yKkdr4

I should've gone to see Jackson live when I could've. He's on the short list now of people I'll never get to see that I regret not doing so.

And her crappy blemish/zit covered trailer park face.

I'm kind of sad that Jackson is dead. He was a poor soul, certainly fit for the loony bin at times, but I always saw him more as a nonsexual being than a child molester. I may be wrong but I don't think he realized what he did wrong while trying to recapture his childhood in the creepiest way possible.

I really can't seem to bring myself to care about this, at all. He hasn't really been relevant for ages. I like his music well enough but I was never a raving fan. Although that being said, I was pretty excited when I got thriller shortly after it came out for my birthday. 
I understand his status and influence but meh, I just want to turn on the news and see real news and cant seem to even think of this as any kind of event even know i know it is.
I would have been ok to just see an item on the news crawler about this. Of course this aint gonna happen and we will be bombarded with tributes and a gafuckenzillion interviews with anyone even remotely associated with him.   

Nuking this entire post - I do not want the jackals getting this thread tossed into politics.

I don't think anyone can ignore that he made (or at least sang) some of the greatest songs in modern history.

And I don't think anyone, other than a liar, would say they did not enjoy any of his songs, especially this one:

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/32/Smooth_criminal_video.jpg)


I was hoping for at least one more album.


Another case of a personal view being used as a catch all for everyone. MJ was and still has been relevant. Every major pop star right now owe most of their style from this man (Looking at you Timberline, Britney, Usher and the rest of the manufactured twits who are performers, not musicians). Regardless of your opinion about their music.

Who is Kelly?

Also, I'm not a liar and I didn't like any of his songs.  The Thriller video was fun to watch.  Once. 

Check out the Amazon Top 10 bestselling albums. Wherever you are I bet it's all MJ now.

Michael Jackson always stood out to me as an example of how badly the music & fame industry can fuck people up. He was an incredibly talented person but he was also clearly mentally ill, and his massive fame and the huge money-making that entailed meant that that mental illness was, afaik, never properly treated. I can't remember which other thread this was discussed (briefly) in, but I remember someone commented that his position probably severely decreased the likelihood of proper treatment, which I think is very true.

Very sad.

I was about to make a post about the only comparable (and equally fucked up but in different ways) pop singer was Madonna. And then I saw Apocrypha's post, and then I went to Amazon and lo and behold what are they pimping with MJ? Madonna.

I am willing to bet that the abuse from his father during childhood had a lot more to do with his emotional state than the fame did.  Being an island didn't help though.  

Off the Wall is a brilliant album.  The man had incredible talent.  

100% this.

Of course he is still relevant when it comes to influence. So are a million other artists to varying degrees. Anyone with any measure of commercial success will have relevance to the people after them. Will there be many that make anywhere near the impresssion that MJ did, no of course not.
What I meant was that he hasn't released anything in ages, the only time he has been in the spotlight was for his oddness/legal troubles.
To me, before he died and is all over the news, he was as relevant as Elvis currently is.  Which is to mean that if I hear their music I will listen and enjoy but other than that I could really care less about what is going on with them.

Then, like, why are you even in this thread?

I disagree that commercial success makes you relevant. It just makes you rich. There are plenty of successful performers who will cease to have any relevance at all the day they cash their last royalty cheque because they are simply derivative. MJ was relevant because you could hear his sound in other people's work and not because he sold a gazillion albums.

I'm almost right there with you, except that I like the stuff he did before Thriller. Thriller might have been an OK album if MTV and everybody the fuck else hadn't overplayed the shit out of it when I was in middle/high school. Seriously, I got MORE than enough of that album in my teens, I never ever need to hear it again. Once his freakishness was on display for the entire world to see, I never ever needed to hear from him again, other than for him to be put in prison for molesting little boys.

My next two weeks will be fucking inundated with Jacko eulogies like he was a goddamn saint. No, he was a freakish pedophile and he deserves none of this adulation.

Call me crazy, but I think this just MIGHT be why there's a huge amount of coverage about his death. ;) Well, that and musicians as popular as he was often are held in very emotional/nostalgic regard for many people.

Oh no doubt. I don't think it was (just) being treated like a god that *made* him a nutter, but I do think it prevented him getting better.

I don't think he ever had a childhood, until his 30's and on.

See, I understand the whole "he was a bad person, a terribly broken, bad person" angle, but saying he deserves no adulation at all is simply crap, because kiddy diddler or no, the man was a huge, huge, HUGE influence musically, and he does deserve to be remembered for that. I'm not saying they should whitewash his issues when covering it, and I am DEFINITELY not saying the media coverage of this is going to go on WAY TOO LONG, but in the arts, you can be a psychotic cannibal and still deserve to be remembered and mourned for your contributions to your art, assuming your contributions are worth remembering. And Michael Jackson's, like it or not, are.

Yep - and Exhibit A in the separation of personality from musical artistic importance is Wagner.

(http://media.caglecartoons.com/preview/%7B3d3fe236-914a-4900-b54a-2426f3a259f7%7D.gif)

To those calling MJ a pedophile: how do you know this for certain? He was exonerated of charges and never have any those charges stuck…

…granted, his behavior and actions were downright creepy, but to assert the allegations as truth is nothing more than playing God…

(http://imgur.com/0Wi9o.jpg)

Man, Wagner was a douchebag!

Also that Batman thing just made me laugh.  :heart:

I think Prince also has to be on the list - really of the 3 I would say Prince is probably the most influential on other people's work - but you're totally right.

And OJ never killed anyone.

(http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/4326/derpy.jpg)

I think an argument could be made that MJ paved the way for Prince to really exist. Not that I think MJ >>>> Prince as far as influence goes, but I do think MJ made Prince, as PRINCE, possible.

HEY Oooooooh!

He made two settlement counter offers in 1993 during his first accusation, then had another trial in what 2003?

Oh and now that he is dead, I expect one or both of the "Corey's" to talk... probably Haim since he seems more desperate for money/attention.  :grin:

Where's theres smoke and all...

Naw, Off the Wall and Prince came out the same year. They probably cross-pollinated a lot in terms of influence of course, but I don't hear a lot of Jackson 5 influence in Prince's stuff and that's really the only way MJ was 'first' on anything.

Michael Jackson's Patent (http://www.google.com/patents?id=MAUgAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0_0)

No, what I mean is that Michael Jackson paved the way for Prince to BE influencial. Not JUST him, and I'm not dismissing Prince's talent here, but I think without Michael Jackson being OMGPOPULAR with Thriller, Purple Rain might not have been so HELO LET ME BE A GIANT INFLUENCE ON A BAJILLION YOUNG MUSICIANS.

Bah, I'm probably not making sense. But I do think Michael Jackson paved the way for people to be READY for shit like Prince.

Oh please.  Let's all dance once again around the hyperbole.

Maaaaaaaaaaaybe. But 1999 sold 3 million copies and came out a month before Thriller, so its hard to say...

I wonder how well Michael Jackson would have done without Quincy Jones.  He didn't seem to do quite as well after Quincy Jones.  I suppose it's a shame that Michael Jackson didn't live long enough to dangle his grandchildren from a balcony, though.  We all have different opinions, I suppose, but I just can't quite wrap my head around his particular brand of weirdness.

Ha ha, the fact I got you to say maybe means I totally win, you stubborn bastard.  :oh_i_see:

This. Quincy Jones, Barry Gordy and MTV are the reasons Michael Jackson are "influential." Just because a generation of retarded no-talent hacks have tried to make their living off copying Jackson's moves does not make his music influential. His music was retreaded disco turned pop, with a whole shitload of showbiz glitz added on. Prince was more musically influential, and Jackson's music influences came from Quincy Fucking Jones.

Michael Jackson could dance. He could sing. I can't say much about his music beyond that.

In that trial, he was found innocent.

Regarding the settlement offers, it could well be that he wanted to keep his creepiness secret, creepiness that did not include boy sex or perhaps other weirdness he did not want exposed to public that would come to light at a trial… …you do not know for sure, so you are making an ASSUMPTION.  Speculation that is paramount to libel/slander…

Granted, he placed himself in scenarios that absolutely guaranteed accusations like this would come about, irrespective of whether they are true or not…

At least OJ got a civil pronouncement…

To me, child molestation is pretty much one of the worst things you can be accused of.  Even if you're completely innocent, just being accused of it seems to follow people around for the rest of their lives (and as we can see here, even after deat).  Like I said, you can't deny the guy was odd, but he was fairly up front about it.  Doesn't make him a child molester.  If the extent of your knowledge about his court cases is that you caught the news on TV every now and then when it was going on, kindly fuck off with that shit.

Yeah, you're Judge Judy and Executioner…

Heh.

I don't think he's gonna be suing anyone.

lol

Edit: Ok, seriously though, you can't have NERD or Timberlake or any sort of pop post Michael Jackson without Michael Jackson. Sure, we can thank Quincy Jones. But shit, Jackson was still kicking ass with Remember the Time and Scream (which is possibly the only good thing Janet ever worked on).

Yes that was apparent.  :oh_i_see:

Aw snap.

This was a much better answer than mine.

I don't know if he's as influential.  It's more that Prince wrote a fuckload of songs and sold them off to lots of people.

Bowie is more influential than the lot of them. But, you know, All 3 of them are STILL ALIVE.

Also, yea, I've never heard anyone say they were influenced by Prince.

Trent Reznor.  :awesome_for_real:

Someone can dig this up when it becomes relevant.


Nothing like ruining jokes for an unspecified time in the future.

Holy Michael,
Mother of Pop,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of your death.

Shamone!!! He Heeee!

Oh you are right he was found innocent, just like OJ, Jayson Williams, Lizzie Borden and John and Patsy Ramsey...

However despite all this, there is a distinction between having done something wrong or illegal and law enforcement being able to prove it.

There was enough circumstancial evidence supporting that he was at best doing something inappropriate even if not proved illegal. The guy was creepy even when painted by the most ardent supporters, what he did we do not know but most sane parents would have their children no where near him and for good reason. He does not need to be convicted for any person or parent to think the guy had a disgusting and abnormal fetish and fascination with Children.

That was my point but you are correct, he was found innocent.

Edit - just read up on the Ramsey's ... maybe they are actually are/were inncocent.  :oh_i_see:

The list is very very very long. Start with Beck's entire Midnite Vultures album.

Bowie is up there too but that's really a generation earlier music-wise.

I laughed OUT LOUD.

Yea, which gives him a lot more time to be influential.

It sure didn't take long for the dead Michael Jackson jokes to appear.  I wonder how long people have been waiting.

For those with a sick, evil sense of humour:  http://www.deadmichaeljacksonjokes.com/  Oh dear!

I was totally just about to post the McJackson.

Prince has been very influential in the funk & RnB circles, he's a serious guitar player though I'm not a huge fan of his music.

Prince being all srs bsns on the guitar (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifp_SVrlurY)

Whats the difference betwwen Michael Jacson and Alex Ferguson. Ferguson will be playing Giggs in August.


OK that made me LOL.

LOL niiiice.

I don't know; I never liked any of his material; the songs, dance, etc. at all. But I've never liked the genre the least bit, and his songs and voice grated on me almost as much as Britney's. I've never got why people think he was such a great act or singer. But, I also don't like most music out there, so there's that.

How old were you in 1980?  That may have something to do with it.  

I grew up with the Jackson 5 and heard Michael on the radio nonstop in my highschool/college years in the early 80's.  Like him or not, he was a cog in the culture in a big way.  Hell, his appearance at the Motown anniversary celebration where he did the moonwalk to Billy Jean blew the lid off the entertainment and live music industry. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VASYhabHkM

Worth linking because it's amazing.

I was 10 in 1980 and I knew Michael Jackson was famous and heard his music through the 1980s, but thought it was overrated. It still doesn't appeal to me, but I can appreciate the artistry.

Also, defining him as of the same time as Madonna (earlier in thread) is a bit strange. Michael Jackson was already a child pop star of the 1970s, whose stardom grew in adulthood. An adult Madonna suddenly sprang onto the pop music scene in the early 1980s. Madonna was pure 80s pop schlock, Jacko was 70s rhythms continued.

Just checked the iTunes store, 9 out of the top 10 selling albums right now are Jackson.

Probably my favorite Jackson song is "Give in to me" from the album "Dangerous. Its a really muscly powerful song, that blends Jackson with the hard rock of Guns and Roses (the Roses guitarist Slash performed on the track). Its amazing that those 2 styles blended so well, and is a testament to his talent, and that of Slash.

He was an amazing talent, that was sucked dry, chewed up and spat out by the machine and by extension, every one of us. He will be missed. May he rest, at last, in peace.

But the chaiiirssss not my son. :awesome_for_real:

Yeah, about that. Even on the album and single, he never said kid, he clearly pronounced it "chid". Was there a story to that?

"child's"

The lyrics to the song are "but the kid is not my son". And Michael Jackson sang "chid is", never "child's". No l-sound involved, ever.

I know, that's why I used "chaaiiirrsss".

Evertime I see this thread I read "Farrah and Michael Jacksons Dad".

Hmmm, weird feelings about all this.

To date myself, I was born in 1983.  In my earlier childhood memories, Michale Jackson was the biggest fucking thing in mine (and everybody elses) life.  Seriously, has there ever been as big of a celebrity as him?  I don't think we've had any ultra celebs like him since the Beatles.  I remember him being more popular than anybody on the fucking planet when I was a kid.  A chance to meet him would be bigger than a chance to meet the president, pope, what ever.  There were all sorts of videos of people fainting at just the sight of him.

I god damned loved his music (again, as a kid).  His music was great, and his videos were amazing.  That might have been the kid in me at the time, but Jesus Christ I loved his videos.  So imaginative.  When I was a kid, my family was way to poor to ever afford cable.  We could get free preview months however, every now and again, and get MTV that way.  We would literally call everybody in the house to come watch when a Michale Jackson video came on, because it was that rare and special.  Weird to say now and look back on it all (again, probably because we were dirt poor, and had to record cable tv on our BETA Max at my cousins house to watch at our house), but that's how it was....

Then I sort of grew out of it.  At the same time I got older, all the pedo shit hit the fan, and all the various weird ass shit that came after that.  I've seriously never listed or watched anything he's done since the early 90's.  When ever I heard a song of his, I actually felt nervous and embarrassed to be listening to it, because of all the freaky shit the guy seemed to be in.

But now, looking back at at it all.....Jesus fuck the guy deserved it.  His music was great.  His performances were great.  I mean, I watched that video above of him preforming Billie Jean when I was a kid, and remember liking it.  But now that I'm older, I REALLY can actually appreciate all the effort that went into making all those moves while singing.  No one does shit like that now.  Seeing him in his prime would be the best concert I'd ever gone to.  And trust me, my dad being a big old timey music buff, drug me to every rock concert that happened to come by us from an early age until high school (the plus side to that being I got to see Pink Floyd on their last tour.  I was in 5th grade, everybody around me was wasted on mushrooms, and some guy puked about a kegs worth of beer all over me.  Interesting times as a kid). 

So yeah, the guy went down hardcore in his later career, but I think I'm going to be listening to some of his shit for awhile now.  It was REALLY good.

On that note, HOLY FUCK, why are some of you even referencing Prince?  The guy was a weirdo icon of the 80's, but his music has no where near the influence and long lastingness (not sure of the right made up word I should have used there) of any of Jackson's songs.  I don't remember much of him being played as a kid, and all the replays I hear on the radio mostly sound shitty when I listen to them now.  There is no god damn comparison, no matter how good some of his songs might have been.




On that note, I love Paulaner Oktoberfest, and have already polished off a 6 pack of it tonight  :awesome_for_real:

You consistently spell it Michale, most of his fans on Twitter spell it Micheal - the trending topic when he died was "Micheal Jackson". I'm not making a spelling complaint, I notice these things because I am required to spell accurately for a living (editor).

I guess it's a sign of him being larger than life. Nobody seems to have paid any attention to what his actual name looked like - he was a spoken-about thing for you, not a written word.


I think they were talking about musical influence. I didn't really like Prince or Michael Jackson, and neither of them had much impact on me or my friends when we were teenagers in the 1980s, but Prince had a phenomenal impact on other musicians. Jacko's impact was all on the public. Prince was everywhere on radio in the late 1980s. You're underestimating him I think.

I remember that. That got a lot of kids in my school into dancing and white-kid breakdancing ensued. Looking at it now, I can't help but see the influence of Elvis splashed all over it. And of course it all spins back to where Elvis learned his moves from.

If it wasn't Michael, I wonder who would have taken p Quincy Jones mantle, if anyone.

Latest news : they think it was an allergic reaction, they found some 6 year old nuts in his mouth...

If I hear one more variation on this joke, someone is getting poked right in the eye.

I wasn't born then; was born in '83. Maybe it was the time, combined with being in Edmonton, I don't know, but the first time (that I can recall) hearing about him was in the late 80s, probably 89ish and I can't think of anyone I knew, as a kid, who liked his music then either. I know a bunch who enjoyed it when I was in high school, though. I've just never liked his music. The link from Schild just underscores it; when I watch it I wince at the sound. It just bothers me. Not as bad as most modern pop crap but hardly anything special.

I won't argue his importance or that millions loved his music; just never was one of them and enjoying his music isn't universal, and his impact on the music industry was never something I saw as a "good thing", given how annoying I found his music.

I think maybe some of us, old and young, might have taken some offense at being labeled "liars" if we don't admit to liking at least some of his music. 

Off the wall and Thriller were awesome, still are.  I lost track around Bad when he became a little too over-the-top.  I'm not sure what you call over-the-top of over-the-top, but that's what happened after Bad. 

The main reason I liked Thriller was because of Vincent Price, not Jackson.

I remember thinking he was okay in comparison to some of the other music of the time, and he could do moves that would send me to the hospital, but really I didn't understand why people were going crazy for him around me.  Then people went even more crazy for worse songs, and it left me completely confused and began my belief that I do not quite fit into the mainstream conciousness.

I think the Thriller album affected our culture more than any album in my lifetime.  I was six when it came out.  I know Quincy Jones was as much responsible for that as Jackson.  But just because it may or may not have influenced other artists doesn't mean it didn't change the culture.  I don't really know how to explain it to people who weren't there.  The video for Thriller opened in theaters.  A music video.  People paid to watch it on the big screen.  It changed the format of MTV, which up until Thriller, was an all Rock format.  That's how big it was.  They had to play it, even though there were virtually no black acts.  I can say for certain that there hasn't been an event related to music that has in any way approached the level of fervor that there was for that album.

The black Michael Jackson was like Luke Skywalker.  He had magic fucking powers and his own line of lunchboxes.  The white Michael Jackson turned to the dark side, and he used his powers for evil.  But the black Michael Jackson, even though I hate this sort of thing, is worthy of our respect.

(http://www.tkfu.com/forums/images/smilies/lsvader.gif)

BEST SELLING ALBUMS OF ALL TIME (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_albums_worldwide)

I'm not a huge Michael Jackson fan.  Like, not at all. There's no doubt the guy changed the music industry, especially if you watched it happen in the time before and after MTV.  Having 100 million albums sold truly represents the rarefied air that Jacko pumped into his hyperbaric chamber.  

Also, the Buggles were spot on.  

I can't get my fucking head wrapped around a category of anything that includes The Beatles and Celine Dion, or Zep with Shania Twain.

Also, Jackson helped MTV push itself directly into mainstream media.  Which was most definitely a very bad thing, seeing what it became. 

I don't think you can blame the terribad that is MTV nowadays on MJ.  I lay that straight on the crap that is Reality TV. 

Thanks for the link.

Having worked in mainstream media, at the receiving end of the emails that are generated from the most-watched TV shows of our time, I am very much aware that the majority of the public is stupid and lacks taste. The mediocre nature of most of the albums on that list reflects this.

But there are six billion people in the world and he only sold 100 million copies of Thriller. Despite all the hype about the whole world loving him, most people in the world were not Michael jackson fans. Most people, me included, are busy tolerating Michael Jackson fans, not being them.

For the record, the only albums on the list I own are:
Nirvana - Nevermind
U2 - The Joshua Tree
Blondie - Parallel Lines
Norah Jones - Come Away With Me

I don't think you can own a Nirvana album and talk about taste.

Schild whiteknighting MJ? this has got to be a troll.

Mostly just dissing Nirvana.

It's a list of sales figures. I listed the albums I own to show my effect as a music consumer on the list. I disagree with what you said, but I'm not going to get into a conversation about whether I still like each album.

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the smell of angst coming off the shelf your CDs are sitting on.

In the same year I bought Nevermind, I co-wrote a parody poem called "I was a teenage angst poet" with my deputy editor on the student newspaper. We threw out all the angst poems from the contributions box and published that instead.

I dunno. That list just proves that best-selling doesn't mean 'best'. God knows I love AC/DC, but Back in Black isn't the second best album of all recorded history. Even if limited by genre, its still not the best metal album. And this is from someone who's mp3 player has every single damned thing AC/DC has done commercially, including some drunken pub recordings.

I don't know if that negates the fact that Thriller sold more than double any other album in history, worldwide.  I think that's the point there.  And it's a good one.

I thought it was obvious, but apparently only a few people got my point.  It's the ONLY album in music history to sell over 100 million copies.  Like Michael or not, that's quite a feat. 

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Thriller is bad, but what happened with it was something bordering on the supernatural.  Its on par with StarWars at the time. It was ubiquitous and legion.

That said, I'm still more upset about Farrah.

Yeah, pretty much.

I was ALMOST five when Thriller came out. It was my first record that was MINE though. I think the comparison to Star Wars is a pretty good one, really. Even if you didn't really get into it (I basically missed the Star Wars train, what with me still being in the womb when the first movie released), it's hard to deny that it touched a looooooot of people, even years after it first appeared.

I have to admit, though, I'm not sure how I feel about my generation's Elvis being Michael Jackson. At least Elvis still had a human looking face when he ate it. :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8Qko5m8oAw

Yeah I had some funky clothes in kindergarten and 1st grade, no white fro (but we got a killer pick of my pastor in his fro from then).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqxo1SKB0z8

Jr High and High School, damn we had some funky clothes with a mix of rap, country, and rock, hell my girlfriend shaved her head and dyed part of it pink like Cyndi, I had parachute pants like Sammy Hagar, but I remember all those dang jackets!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_n7cftdkl0

Hey! MTV had videos!  And MJ helped launch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VTL_5Q9ldU

Damn he always did get a killer guitar rift in some of his songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n78QafdxU-k

Okay that song was on every freaking radio station in 1985/86, since he got country, R&B, and rock together and every station was playing it.

I remember the day Elvis died, we were on vacation and driving in a big old Lincoln station wagon (with the fake wood panels), I was 8 at the time, Mom and Dad looked sad and they kept playing his songs.

I'm 40 now and MJ died, makes me sad to see him gone.

And Farrah was hot, I didn't even know she was sick.  And goodbye Ed, you were great helping Johnny and damn I wish you had brought me a check.

You've got Nirvana and Nora Jones to pick from, and you go with Nirvana?

Born in 77, and I never liked MJ.  That's not to say I particularly disliked his stuff, but I never heard anything he did that interested me.  Of course, I can't deny he was very influential. 

Breaking news: Add Billy Mays to the list.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obit_billy_mays

Oh man, I absolutely hated his commercials.

NOOOOOOOoooooooooooo!!! seriously... wtf?

Wow, if he suffered fatal brain damage due to that landing, US Airways is going to be in bad shape.

That actually really bums me out. I knew MJ prolly wasn't in good shape, but Billy's show was actually great. Le fuck.

Billy Mays seemed like a really great guy.

He had a show?  I thought he just did adverts.

Yes, http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/pitchmen/pitchmen.html (http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/pitchmen/pitchmen.html)

Wow, of all the last words...

Man, Back In Black is "Rock & Roll 101".  If you want to learn how to rock, it's all there.  It is one of those perfect recordings and there is not a bad song on the thing.



P.S.  AC/DC is most certainly not metal.

:headscratch:

This is more upsetting than any news of deaths.   :uhrr:

He's right.  I've managed record shops and I work in a library now.  AC/DC is nearly always filed under hard rock which is a very different thing than being filed under heavy metal. 

They're considered early heavy metal by some, but they call themselves simply 'rock and roll'. 

That must mean Metallica is hard rock too then.

He was on Conan a couple nights ago and I got the same vibe. It was finally good to know he wasn't yelling at me, just projecting.

(http://i41.tinypic.com/wvxqar.jpg)

Who is the fourth person in that? 

MJ, Heath Ledger, Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon

Ahhh, Heath.  Thank you.

Man, does Ed look happy in that.

Interesting Article on MJ (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1196009/Im-better-dead-Im-How-Michael-Jackson-predicted-death-months-ago.html)

Heavily sourced with anonymous sources, so needs to be taken with a grain of salt I would say.

Latest in the "what the hell was really going on?" revelations - mother womb provider of the first two kids confirms to News of the World Jacko isn't their father (http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/381773/Mother-of-Michael-Jackons-children-Debbie-Rowe-confesses-he-was-not-their-father.html).

Debbie said she was "impregnated" like one of the thoroughbred mares she now keeps on her property, adding: "I was just the vessel. It wasn't Michael's sperm.

Next up: Michael Jackson rises from dead, performs worldwide tour.

Except the News of the World is about as credible a source as the Weekly World News. This is the paper that makes The Sun look like a bastion of journalistic integrity.

It used to be that way. It isn't so much anymore. It's an ultra-tabloid tabloid, but it gets actual scoops now. To me as a journalist, News of the World used to be a joke - then I discovered it turning up as a source on credible wire services and after thinking "WTF?" I found out why. Basically now they tell an "enhanced" version of the truth instead of outright fiction, i.e. I'd say they spoke to her and she said she's not the mother, but it's impossible to tell what else is accurate.

Spoilered for semi-tasteless:

haha wow

It's like the end of Star Wars.

Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett the Latest Celebrity Victims of Big Pharma (http://www.naturalnews.com/026511_cancer_chemotherapy_doctors.html)

 :uhrr:

The crazy, it hurts.

Holy crap that's some batshit logical contortionism there.

CD's? WTF are those?  :grin:

Read this on another forum today:
I was talking to a twenty year old on the weekend and we were talking about music. I mentioned that I had a heap of records and a turntable.

The response was "I've never seen one before could I have a look?"

I don't know which is worse the people prescribing cancer or the people prescribing bullshit.

I got linked to the site today, some of their other articles are equally fucking nuts, like the long piece about how the Government, UN and WHO are conspiring to kill all of us for economic gain with flu virus. (http://www.naturalnews.com/026503_pandemic_swine_flu_bioterrorism.html)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqDOsKKhb88


Why do i get the felling that a whole lot of contracts just came due.

(https://shanalogic.com/item_images/1158_fluff-devil_full.jpg)

It's missing Fred Travalena

That would just confuse some of us.  We'd probably just assume it's chagerrich, anyway.

MJ's death certificate:

(http://images.mmorpg.com//images/galleries/formatted/272009/c6ae4499-fa21-476d-8bac-e3870b3610a1.jpg)

This turned up in the OT forum of the boxing site I hang out at. Work safe, just spoilered for hugeness. I found it mildly amusing. Frankly my money is on either Andrew or Action.

Jessie wont win but he will choose who he wants to win and the competition will quietly disappear and thus he will end up being the power behind the power.

Michael Jackson - Give Into Me feat. Slash (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqDOsKKhb88)

It occurred to me that TISM's ode to celebrity deaths, (He'll Never Be An) Old Man River (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-mLIdLZZeI), has a new level with the line "where will I get my next drug action / odds on it will be Michael Jackson".

I am not sure what I just watched.

Like a successor to Devo. I actually kinda liked it.

TISM were an Australian electronic act / performance art / joke group. Other songs of theirs include their insight into Hitler's life ("Defecate On My Face") and an examination of Britney Spear's virginity ("Thou Shalt Not Britney Spear"). Plus they were awesome live. Only saw them once, but they kept up that kind of spectacle up for about an hour.

I'd never heard of those guys, but they have a lot of stuff on Youtube and I'm digging it. I though this video was pretty brilliant:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJLzvPesVxc&feature=related

Kind of looks like what would happen if Monty Python took a shit.

This made me choke laughing.

(http://www.mightygodking.com/images/oldmike.jpg)

History makes fools of us all.  :grin:

...and here is what he would have looked like in 2000 holding a blaster.

(http://www.clisham.com-a.googlepages.com/billydee_01.jpg)

That was my first thought. If the hair was any higher, I would've gone for Morris Day.