Michael Jackson's Death Was Tragic, But He Was Little More Than an Icon of Mediocrity

Wasn't a great dancer? Not a great dancer? Are we speaking of the same Michael Jackson?! I'm not talking about the British general Michael Jackson who told Wes Clark, "I'm not going to start World War 3!"

I'm talking about the Moonwalker, a man who defied all known laws of physics! Not a great dancer, yes, if by that you mean THE GREATEST DANCER EVER!

Was he a freak? Yes.
Mediocre musician? Arguably.
Child molester? Maybe, but in my America, every man is innocent until proven gulty.

But not a great dancer?! Baby, lay down the crack pipe and watch the Thriller video!

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Wow! You went to Berklee?! The music school where you don't even need talent to get in? The one where they offer remedial courses to teach you the basics of your principal instrument? Yeah, I guess a degree from the old beantown hack-factory qualifies you to say who's a genius ... while giants of the industry praise MJ and the best of the best adore him ... what do they know, anyway?

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Even worse than the conspiracy theorist propaganda you people regularly post, for at least those articles have a recognizable agenda. This is just utter stupidity, not to mention pretentiousness. Go back to transcribing your G# octatonics and your Fb dominants and subdominants while the rest of us enjoy music that has a soul.

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How can you claim that Generation X lost its first big star with Michael Jackson's death? I'll give you a few hints: Seattle, flannel shirts . . . ring any bells?

Also, I think it's really cute how you ignore Michael Jackson's black fans.

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... that you are totally irrelevant. Nuts. Uninformed. Clueless. Too bad, cause you have truly missed out on one of this country's national treasures. Every artist worth their breath has been humbled by this legend and has learned much. Too bad you are so removed from reality that you are missing out on the gift this child/man called MJ had to share with the planet, forever.

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Your article is spot-on and courageous at that, but expect the monkeys to fling feces at you all day for it. Americans do not like to be reminded of how they cultivate admiration for low common denominators and how they love to revel is marketable commodities while labeling them with superlatives like "oh, the talent"!!!
Our market driven economy has no choice but to substitute Sh*t for Shinola in order to push merchandise to the masses...
Americans despise quality and brand it "elitist."

You are correct, but good luck making a case of it. Some things are better left unsaid.

Kudos, just the same.

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Firstly, age. How old are you? 2nd, in what county were you raised?

I am a deft defier of most anything mainstream but your article is nothing but an insult to the magnitude of what he created. I am aged 33. I was brought up trusting in the mainstream and obiding by it. It wasnt until my late 20's that I realized the mainstream media is a joke. I see you are trying to make a parallel between that and pop culture but u cant. They are two different breeds. Yes of course they play on each other but u cant deny a talent that has a profound influence on most of the world. Made people happy. Very simple, they liked his music because it was pop and mainstream. What is wrong with that? Basically, you are trying to compare artists from other genres and saying they are more talented because of standardized rules. Even though pop music may not be as musically sophisticated as jazz or classical, you must acknowledge it for the sheer power that it has over the masses. Michael Jackson has great music. I could even say, the music of my life. He was exploited early on as a child and never experienced a normal life. He, in fact, was a victim of exploitation into mainstream society. But you know what? Why can't we just forget all that shit and dwell upon the amazing songs he created? He was a huge influence in American Pop culture and even though I put that kind of superficiality down now, at age 33. I can't deny that all of his songs hit home for me in a way that no others do. Well some others of course do but he had the most. Why would you want to downplay the happiness he gave the world? Maybe his talent was not as sophisticated in the way that YOU think it should be musically, but it had a power of its own nonetheless to be reckoned with. Who are you to write this article on Alternet?

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Good lord, now we have music afficianado's graduating form the Berklee School of Music that have it all figured out? If this stupid sight would focus on the problems out there instead of telling us what to think I just might consider giving contributions (right now it seems like 20% real news to this kind of crap ratio). Give me a break .... please. I have ZERO college experience in music but I've produced and directed, written and arranged music for people all over the world. Michael Jackson has always been an inspiration for me. Don't let this bogus hack of a writer/opinion editorialist fool you. The man was a genius. And don't buy that Quincy Jones did it all for him crap either. Read Jones' autobiography and you'll know the truth. Jackson was songwriter, a uniter, but more than anything else an AMAZING entertainer (and in the book, by the way, it points out all his "craziness" as well.... I love the part where he literally tries to TAKE OVER We are the World... yes he had his bad points). I'd like to see this piece of crap writer try to put on any show that excites the way Michael's did. I'm betting this guy's idea of a great show is people eating cheese and crackers with cheap champagne to three cello's and a guy hitting a garbage can... with a barrage of modern art slapped all over the place. That sounds cool to me too and I know we all have the right to express our tastes, likes and dislikes, but it doesn't give you, alternet, or anybody the right to pretend to be an "expert" on what Michael Jackson's death meant to the world. Sometimes it is, like you so like to point out for your progressive political points, "the will of the masses." You are outnumbered and judging by the bad aftertastes of this horrible, horrible article extremely outclassed.

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I can state without hesitation that your opinion is firmly based in a racist outlook. You used this as a forum to equate this legend with Buckwheat, to bring up Blackface, to stab at Affirmative Action, to claim that Black students are across the board being given a pass in America's schools. Any other bigoted remarks you'd like to get off your chest? Maybe another great Black musician will pass to give you more opportunity for that. But hopefully not. And I won't waste another moment considering your pitiful remarks even if it does happen.

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My opinion and the opinion of the rest of the world including Fred Astaire was Jackson was a truly great dancer.Did he have some terrible problems?He sure did.It does not change the rest of him.
John Coltrane? I had the pleasure of listening to him in person. A genius but also a hopeless junkie who ruined his health and died young.
Sarah Palin? You are the one who reminds me of Sarah Palin. You are self absorbed, blind, ignorant and certainly tone deaf.

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I agree with the majority of this article. I can see why people like him - but I never did- his screams and weird moans always made me queasy. His dance moves were designed by others - the moonwalk guy was on NPR the other day. and that dance urked me too I could just never understand why people went gaga for him when there is so much Real, Good, quality music to choose from. But POP is POP because the majority likes it. Brittany, Menudo, Boys 2 Men that is where his is "king of".

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I forgot to mention that you are obviously not seeing a very important point here. I feel your writing is against the mainstream news. Well you cant expect much from them. They are going to talk about whatever is making them money dont even hesitate to think otherwise. I caught the last couple minutes on Amy Goodmans show last week about MJ and maybe you should go listen to that before you go posting something like this on Alternet which is wasting all our time.

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Okay, this article was no masterpiece either, and a bachelor's degree isn't a Nobel prize. But it was sure nice to hear something other than the endless outpouring of superlatives and hyper-fannery that's been drenching the media since his death. Let's face it -- this is a guy whose singing peaked when he was an uncannily gifted ten-year-old. After that, he replaced it with showmanship, squeaks, and stylized gasping.

The huge frenzy of memorializing Michael J has bewildered me. Until his death, we weren't interested in him any more -- his music wasn't played, and his name came up only in terms of pedophilia and psychological oddness. The people now hailing him as a genius were treating him like a bucket of warm spit two weeks ago. Sanford and Ensign ain't the only hypocrites among us.

As to the "tragedy" of his death -- I think his life may have been a genuine tragedy, but his death was just sad. Hard-drug abuse is dangerous, whether you have prescriptions or not.

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Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez should have thought twice about mentioning her degree; this is sure to infuriate most of the Michael Jackson lovers who couldn't care less about it, and will further see this as some stuck-up elitism. Even though she is correct...The point about these cathartic American mourning periods is that America loves its spouts of collective amnesia and self-flagellation. We're smack in the middle of one, and the trend, at the moment, is about self-congratulating for having grown up, and loved, to the sounds Jackson's booty-shaking "genius" in our youth. We want our nostalgia, and we're all to happy to gloss over pesky reminders that Jackson was the creepiest of weirdos, if it saves us from having to dump our CD collections. Nobody knew how to feel about this guy anymore, until he died -- and now, he can be sanctified, canonized, to the relief of the many...

The collective Etch a Sketch at work -- we make-up a low-expectation definition of Genius to glorify ourselves, then we rewrite over the ugly parts with our grief and admiration.
Of course, if Jackson were a musical Genius, then what of all the truly great musicians past and present? Cultural idolatry is a multi-tier system - that's the only way business can function. The same thing occurred a century ago in the art market. Does it mean we should all lower our definition of Genius to please the populist self-indulgence?

America gets to hang on to its precious memories after all, and perhaps, will even be spared having to wonder why so many of us resonated with this whitening, cross-gender, kiddie-fiddling, emasculated pop-music aphrodisiac of a "man"...
Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez may want to think twice about writing more articles that shine too much spotlight on our national mental illnesses.

PS: I don't have music degree to brag about, but I worked with Michael Jackson - I guess us lowly experts will be the ones spoiling it for the rest of you, today.

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Alisa does give credit where credit is actually due, but no more.

Michael Jackson was born. In short order, he was seen to have talent as a child. And then began a cascading avalanche of exploitation, first at the hands of his father, then in the clutches of the corporate media homogenization machine. The exploitation was continuous, unrelenting and ultimately fatal. Michael suffered from terminal identity crisis. He had no idea of who he was and instead kept chasing the ever elusive notion of what the corporate machine sold as his identity.

The obvious self-loathing manifested by the multiple cosmetic surgeries finally resulting in a resemblance to the Joker could be hatred for his father, a desire to restart his life, or maybe he was gay. Who knows? The systematic exploitation of him could render all three possible.

Alisa did omit one other facet of his Shakespearean existence: he was not a "brilliant businessman" as I heard one breathless cable noisemaker assert. He was mediocre at that too.

Not that I wished this for him, but given the tragic circumstances of his life, death was the best thing to happen to him.

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Good for this article and its writer. After all the fawning of the past week or so, it is great to read that someone sees, as I do, that Jackson - to paraphrase an oft quoted gem - 'couldn't act, couldn't sing, could dance a little'.

Why everyone went apeshit over him is utterly beyond my understanding. The Beatles, at least, made music that is and will be remembered for a long time and had some quality, melody and musical merit to it. Probably won't last as long as Mozart though. Jackson?? Here today, gone tomorrow (I hope). All he did was marketing - he had no talent whatsoever.

Poor blighter was a physical and personal mess. While it is easy to say his father whacked him about - yawn - we all have stories. Most of us grow up and get on with it. He tried to cushion himself against adulthood. Silly man!!

They say he had kids - I understand that they aren't even his kids because he couldn't bear physical contact. So what's all the hoo hah about?

Has anyone counted the number of kids in one parent familes, the partner in which has died? There are millions and most of them won't have the type of care and money to help keep them that Jackson's kids will. Check out the orphaned kids in Africa whose parents died from HIV/AIDS (thanks, in part, to his Popeness and his religite minions).

So no! I don't mourn him and I hope the people weeping crocodile tears of loss now will dry their eyes and get on with their lives sans Jackson. The Elvis rubbish is bad enough - do we really have to have another one??

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While you have a few points you are out of your mind when you say he was not a great dancer or great singer. I won't even go into the dancing, it's merely self-evident and your simply demented on that point.

As for the singing you may be technically correct, but he had what nobody can teach you about music in a class room, heart, that intensity and electricity created by putting ones whole being into the performance. Some call it stage presence and it's really much rarer and more beautiful than all of the technical expertise and range in the world. I hate pop music and was never a fan of Michael Jackson but even I can see that this is why he was a superstar. You really picked the wrong major with such a perceptual handicap.

It's pretty telling that you failed to list the most widely accepted musical geniuses of the twentieth century as well (David Bowie and Frank Zappa). Pretty much exposes you as an elitest snob of musical academia of the type which can't recognize musical genius unless it has been debated to death and over-analyzed for 80 years (can't be good if it's not old / everything new is garbage).

What a putz.

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It amazes me that you are claiming racial bias by people with low expectations of blacks to
validate your own prejudice opinion of Michael's true visionary musical talent.

He was the first musician who brought others together to produce an album for humanitarian
aid(We Are The World); His Thriller album was visionary and the first of it's kind; his voice range was such that Mariah Carey needed
an accomplice yesterday so he could get Michael's low range as she got Michael's high range; worldwide people of all ages danced to Michael and grieved for Michael; Nelson Mandella even recognized Michael.

It is true that Michael's life and reputation was damaged by his growing strangeness and the sexual allegations but damn.....a visionary musician he was. A one of a kind. A terrific talent. A trendsetter. And definetly, a man who helped people cross the imaginary racial and inter-continental barrier....by the masses.

And what an outrageous insult your premise is!
An outrageous racial insult to all!!

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I saw the "reverend" Sharpton on The O'Reilly Factor tonight. What a moron! He claims Jacko "taught us how to love each other." He implies that Jacko is the reason Obama became president. He claims Jacko was the first black man on the cover of Rolling Stone. Jimi Hendrix did it in 1970 and I'm sure there were many others. What does Al Sharpton do to make his millions? I don't know any multi-millionaire reverends. I'll tell you. He and the other race pimp, Jesse Jackson, run for president, get the black vote in the primaries, and when they drop out, they sell their endorsement to the highest bidder.

Bill O'Reilly is absolutely right. It's absurd to make Jacko a hero to African-Americans. He was the most self-hating black man who ever lived. Even if you believe the skin disease story, why did he straighten his nose and his hair? Why did he marry two white women? Why did he adopt three white children? He was a has-been freak who hadn't written a hit in over 20 years and tried to transform himself into a white woman.

I used to hate Fox News for censoring Ron Paul, but I've developed a new respect for Fox News since Jacko's death. There are massive riots in China, a coup in Honduras, a budding revolution in Iran, a 4th of July fireworks show (I mean missile launching) in North Korea, a presidential visit in Russia, and Fox News is covering these stories. All I see on CNN and MSNBC is non-stop freak funeral coverage.

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Sad to see that in this day and age people are still opposing 'Fine arts' and 'Minor arts'. When will we finally get over this white male culture of elitism and so-called excellence? It's like dadaism and feminism never happened.

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AlterNet published this odd opinion piece for what reason, to say something catchy and off the wall? This is like the pro-vegan article that was riddled with half-facts that showed the author's bias and lack of adherence to the scienfitic method. Who makes decisions to print this drivel?

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For what it's worth, THIS white man first saw the very young Michael Jackson sing "I Want You Back" on Ed Sullivan oh-so-many years ago, and was amazed and thrilled at the charismatic self-assurance and discipline that Michael displayed as he sang lead and danced in tight choreography with his brothers. Such admiration for Mr. Jackson has endured over the years. For someone such as yourself to make an unsubstantiated and dreadfully immature comment that all white people looked at Michael as some "shuck and jive" minstrel not only insults the very real talents that he possessed but insults anyone who might be white who--even in those days--were not inclined to look at our fellow citizens of African heritage with such condescending attitudes. For a third-rate blogger with dubious musical bona-fides (sorry, girlfriend, but a Bachelors degree in music from a fifth-rate college doesn't qualify you to be an expert in anything--like, why didn't you move on and get a Masters or a Doctorate?) to make a contrived assault on the memory of a man who--whether she likes it or not--was loved and admired by millions of music and dance fans worldwide displays more of the author's own shortcomings and pretentiousness than it does any failings that the subject of her envious ire might have actually had. You can rant all you want, dear, but the facts are that Michael Joseph Jackson was a musical genius and a pop-culture innovator who was a dedicated student of his craft and its history. Long after your inarticulate and inaccurate musings are forgotten, Michael Jackson will still be remembered as a consummate professional and an artistic visionary. His accomplishments--and failings--will still be written about, discussed and debated, certainly with more respect and objectivity than your spiteful, mean-spirited and, ultimately, irrelevant commentary.

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A bit snobby, but generally on target with respect to Jackson being obscenely overrated, and all of the crap about breaking color barriers in the 80s. Just a couple of comments (of course).

The article seems to associate complexity with quality or genius. Most 2 minute pop songs are crap, but the best are as good as a rambling 10 part concerto or some of Coltraine's indulgent, mind-numbing jams. The bass riff for "I Want You Back" is a good example, as are a few other Jackson 5 tunes.

Whether or not the Jackson 5 music was aimed at whitie can be debated all day, but so what? Marketing is marketing, but good is good. Louis Armstrong was widely considered a Tom, but it looks like he's on your list of approved geniuses.

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Just a lot of 'Pop Fluff '.

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Nothing compelled Martin Luther King Jr's children to speak at the Jackson (MJ) memorial and favorably compare MJ to their father.

Nothing compelled Kobe to salute MJ and mention MJ's Guinness World Record for most charities supported, nor anything compelling Magic Johnson to describe the command MJ showed of his shows was such that Magic truly believes seeing it made him a better basketball point guard. Nothing compelled countless artists, both black and white, to unequivocally salute Jackson's music, including but not limited to musicians as diverse as Beyonce', Usher, Sean Coombs, Liza Minnelli, Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana), Dionne Warwick, Justin Timberlake, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, Wyclef Jean, & countless others.

Non-musicians like Arsenio Hall, Brooke Shields, Nelson Mandela, Rep. Barbara Lee, actor Will Smith, and the children of Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. J. Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton have nothing but praise.

FWIW, Larry King of CNN visited Neverland, found it unlike media mis-impressions, said he'd love to live there, then was in row three of the MJ memorial and found it very moving and well-done.

I don't own a any MJ song or CD, and for 43 years have never considered myself a fan. However, the focus achieved by his death caused me to review his work and see what all the fuss was about. I readily saw a body of work seriously infused with the values of equality, peace-making, humanity, and universal love. (The "Bad" video, for example, is a story of how dance/music makes peace between fighting gangs). Most videos are consciously set in the ghetto. Naturally, "We are the World" is the foremost example of his conscious humanitarianism, mostly quietly done.

A very recent CNN poll says fully 51% of Americans consider themselves "fans" of MJ, and this 51% is HEAVILY Democratic and liberal, and concentrated in the young, women, and especially minorities. It's a real stretch to say white media is somehow fawning at black mediocrity.

Neilson and Billboard.com notes Obama's historic election commanded a peak of 5.5% of internet postings (all voluntary and non-MSM-"media") but MJ commanded over 8% in the day following his death, the all-time internet record. Only non-democratic values like elitism can deny this story widespread media coverage.

As a new fan, I know from personal experience that any unbiased investigation of even as a little as a few hours will quickly dispel misinformation like this article above. No claim's made that MJ influenced classical, but in the areas of pop, R&B, soul and dance music there's just no reasonable doubt.

PS MJ lived his Art. Repeat: When the facial morph scenes happen in "Black or White" video, note that MJ made his real life walk the walk
he "talked" in the song, singing: "it doesn't matter if you're black or white." He didn't want to be a shallow sex symbol but wanted to divert focus to his music/dance -- his Art.

It's so sad that MJ's creative Art was so misunderstood and that so many kept trying to push Michael back to the ghetto: Stay black, stay the "old Michael". Without the freedom to be eccentric, we've no real personal freedom at all. Can't anyone see that part of breaking boundaries is proving, BY EXAMPLE, that what's important is heart/soul/music and not black/white, beautiful/ugly, man/woman, young/old, and all the other rules MJ broke with his appearance and dress? One famous female singer specifically thanked MJ for teaching "we have to break the rules to break the records."

MJ's GLOBAL popularity reflects his blending musical styles, blending or blurring racial identities, all in service of pointing to the songs/dance the whole world could unify around and love. My respects!

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thank you for remindng readers about excellence.
sadly, it seems that most do not recognize it.

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How sad that the author so casually squanders an opportunity to add to the enduring literature of the species. Michael Jackson's artistry may or may not last into our far cultural future, but the point of such artistry is to illustrate the fullest passions of the artist and to induce the fullest passion possible in the observer - good AND bad. In the end, the artist cares little how you are moved but THAT you are moved - and, ideally, moved completely. Negatively-charged art and negative passions toward the art of another can leave a bad taste in the mouth of many, however, apathy is and always ought to be grossly unacceptable to us all. I salute the author for being negatively moved by Michael Jackson but I challenge her to evolve personally by finding and being moved by what is equally-positive in the exact same artistry. Passion ought always be the goal of us all, but to stop at our negative passions is only half-measure attempt at the life one is given.

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The author had me going till she said John Coltrane was a genius, though they tell me he's not as bad as he sounds.

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while I enjoy Alternet's informative articles on Politics, Media, those awful Republicans, etc. this is no place to bash Michael Jackson. Either the writer has no musical appreciation or has an axe to grind against poor Michael. The man was was incredibly talented - Thriller isn't the best selling album of all time for no reason. Billy Jean, Man in the Mirror, Beat It, ANother Part of Me, Black or White, etc. are all wonderful songs that thrilled millions of people. His videos broke new ground and his Moonwalk took showmanship to a whole new level. I saw him perform in 1984 - when he moonwalked across the stage, 50,000 people held their breath. VERY few entertainers could manage that. He was a unique figure in entertainment and will be missed. He made a lot of mistakes, yes and received bad advice and guidance from the posse that surrounded and insulated him from reality. Now their meal ticket is gone. The doctors that enabled him and helped kill him with toxic drugs should be prosecuted - but MJ deserves better than to be trashed by a hack AlterNet writer.

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Alisa - perhaps you missed the classification "pop." You seem to confuse the definitions of classical and technical with talent. Talent is the recognized ability to perform any act in a way perceived by the mainstream (status quo, if you will) to be above the norm.

Clearly he was a salesman and an entertainer. Was he the Beatles, Beethoven. Mandela, Manson (Charles, not Marilyn), Martin Luther King or Einstien? Hardly. He was an ikon, a tangible in which many could find solace, joy or motivation. Hang your Berklee BA on the wall and let people have their heroes. The redeeming qualities of those heroes is not your concern.

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Alisa your bushwa-z attitude sucks. Isn’t it a shame you share the planet with so many low life people who like music of many kinds? Revenge is sweet. Next year at this time when the world celebrates the life of MJ, you will listen to Thriller and watch MJ dance one more time. In fact you will do that the rest of your life.

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Thank you!

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And forget the great musicians of the 1920's and 1930-40's. Black and White. But the MTV ipod generation has no memory at all.

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Three weeks after my fourth birthday, my daddy didn't come home. He was killed in the Battle of the Bulge in Dec., 1944. It was the "greatest generation" because our shores were attacked, and if we had not sacrificed 406,000 soldiers, Hitler would have taken over the world.

You are not the one! 200,000 U.S. children lost their fathers in saving the world from Hitler, and we still suffer 65 yrs. later.

Your post lacks knowledge of anything!

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MJ took fame beyond known borders. That was his genius. This is why the likes of Liz Taylor and Madonna loved him. This is why the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin are following his path. Outrageousness and audacity are the two pillars of the modern media, and MJ used them beyond the borders of sanity. We may be going collectively insane, and in some way it seems to me appropriate.

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Finely thought and finely stated. I had been thinking the same thing, but I hadn't the courage to say it. Hell, Hattie Lee McDaniel brough down more racial barriers than the "King of Pop."

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Give me a break!!!!

Some definitions of tragedy:

A.

1. A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances.

2. The genre made up of such works.

3. The art or theory of writing or producing these works.

B. A play, film, television program, or other narrative work that portrays or depicts calamitous events and has an unhappy but meaningful ending.

C. A disastrous event, especially one involving distressing loss or injury to life: an expedition that ended in tragedy, with all hands lost at sea.

Let's see now. He does not fulfill all of "A," as he had full control of his life, and more than most because he was filthy rich.

Not "B," as his life had no meaningful end, even if it were a narrative work.

And definitely not "C," as only he died, and probably of his own free will, either overtly or covertly.

Nope, not a tragedy in any sense of the definition. Only a distraction from the REAL tragedies that have recently taken place, such as in the last eight years, and now continued by the Obamanation in Iraq.

As for his musical work,most of what the article points out is correct from an analytical point of view.

Other than that, the people of Amerikkka have a history of adoring sh!t, just take Shrub as an example. So it is no surprise that Jackson was "adored," and "elevated" to unreasonable levels.

At least he is not a war criminal like the Shrub and company.

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ALISA WHO???

Like "TOM", I, too, am "impressed" with Ms. Valdes-Rodriguez's musical credentials. At age 16, I won a summer scholarship to Berklee School of Music, via a national competition, sponsored by "Downbeat" magazine, back in '63. At the time, although not yet accredited, Berklee only admitted the best…of which I was the worst and the youngest! (I went on to write and record two albums that peaked at 34 and 41 on the national charts in '68, went back to school and received an M.A. in "Jazz Theory & Composition" and was a successful musician and producer until I "retired" in the early '90s.) So, I think I'm qualified to comment on this article…which I can sum up in two words:

UTTER CRAP!

Evidently, since the rest of the parasites and vultures are coming out from under their moss-covered rocks to get their "15 minutes of fame" from Jackson's sad death, Ms. V-R has decided to do the same. I hope she enjoys the short-lived attention this article is getting her. I suspect that this is all she will ever have. (Obviously, Berklee must have lowered its standards of admission, since my time there!)

I'm guessing that if he'd been dancing the meringue, while backed by a mariachi band, he would have been more acceptable to her.

Since when has it become the duty of a Pop artist to "…break down racial barriers…" or "…change American culture…"? He was a singer who was well-marketed and his music was certainly a helluva lot more listenable than the average "Pop Diva's" or crapper-rapper's! His voice was more than adequate for his material…and he was definitely a lot more listenable than a pretentious phony, like Tom Waits.

As for his dancing: I wonder if Ms. V-R could imitate what he did without falling on her (probably) fat ass.

Last observation: trying to compare Michael Jackson to the Jazz greats, like Miles, etc., is like trying to compare them to the likes of Bach (which, amusingly, she does!), Mozart or Beethoven. Jackson was, simply, an entertainer who made good.

Nothing more; nothing less!

From the vitriol that Ms. V-R exudes in her mean-spirited attack on a Famous Dead Person, I suspect that she is a very angry and unhappy Latina who is, probably, frustrated because her own musical career has gone nowhere.

She should be deeply ashamed of herself for writing such trash!

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Sorry folks, but the writer of this article is 110% correct and right.

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Michael Jackson was one of the most incredibly talented dancers of the 20th/21st centuries, and people with considerably more qualifications than you have recognized this.

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You're comparing farmstand apples and grocery store oranges to prove imported pineapples to be the superior flavor of the day, while organically grown kiwis are so passe and never really liked. Just because you don't care for kiwis doesn't mean they aren't still grown and sold somewhere to uncounted many who still absolutely love them.

The popularity of the various genres of entertainment out there are strictly a matter of the public's personal taste. And, quite honestly, more folks shared a love for Michael than your opinion of him. Contrary to what you think, Michael will be around for years, and both crassly impersonated and lauded copiously in tributes by coming artists and entainers who discover and deeply value what he left behind.

So, stop sipping your bitter kiwi-free hater-ade already. Focus on being a legitimate journalist, and not a whining opinionated MSM hack, beating dead entertainers into the ground, inappropriately comparing genres, venues, and audiances on a disengenuous campaign to sway your audience into accepting your personal preferences as canon and law. Michael Jackson has been funeralized for quite long enough. So, to keep this drivel up is merely contributing to the problem you've spent so much effort in this article lamenting. Let's finally put the pop idol to rest, and hope that, when you die, as many people have read and found credibility in your writing as loved and adored Michael Jackson.

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It amuses me that the writer of this piece employs the same clatter that she accuses the mainstream media of, in pulling out all the flimsy superlatives (or in this case, the jabs we're supposed to read as "criticisms"). And I'm sure it's enormously gratifying to see this long string of responses following the piece. Ain't you a writer! But you're not a critic. Or, not a very deep one. You spew your commentary as if it were birdseed--plenty in volume, but not very filling.

Would ALTERNET let a flimsy article like this run if it were about Al Franken, or Obama, or ....any other public figure, for that matter?

I don't expect to agree with everything I read--and in fact, try to read all perspectives (it's not fun, but it's good to know what all sides are thinking). But if this is the type of work that ALTERNET is now letting pass as deep analysis, I'm afraid I will have to look to other sources for "progressive" insight. This is a sad day for me. I really thought I could depend on ALTERNET.

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While I think the author makes a few decent points, I find it interesting that she fancies herself a modern day Deems Taylor as a music critic but writes laughably lightweight drivel as an author. "Dirty Girls on Top?" Please. To be fair, perhaps we should compare her literary talents to, say, F. Scott Fitzgerald or James Joyce? But heck, she'd say, her books make the bestseller lists so they MUST be good, right?

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What has amazed me since the news of his demise came over the television on the late afternoon of June 25 are the writers who have credited Michael Jackson with being the first "cross-over" African American artist to reach a predominantly white audience. Most of those writers are in their early thirties (and, I assume, white) and may be forgiven for not remembering the names Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Sammy Davis Jr, The Mills Brothers, Josephine Baker, Jimi Hendrix, Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Eckstine, Ethel Waters, Bill Cosby, Diana Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Eartha Kitt, Chuck Berry, The Ink Spots, Little Richard, The Temptations, Sidney Poitier, Richard Pryor, Dick Gregory, Charley Pride, Stevie Wonder, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, Diana Ross and the Supremes - and a score or more other pioneers who were able to chip away the walls of America's racial divide years before Jackson entered into our collective consciousness. That he was a major influence cannot be argued. But he was not the first - far from it.

One cannot help but wonder what might have happened had this most gifted performer not attempted to hide who he was and made more of an effort to set an example to the desperate children who shared his skin color - or used to share it anyway - the same children who would eventually seek to identify with the faux thugs and jackasses who produce "Gangsta Rap". Some of these kids - most of whom had no conscious memory of the Jackson Five or even Thriller - believed him to be white. And why shouldn't they think that? He was white! He was whiter than I - and I'm pretty damned white! (Irish complexion, you know).

To say that he was a good example for African American kids to emulate is - forgive me - one half step shy of insanity.

We have to give the man his due: Michael Jackson was - beyond a shadow of a doubt - a great artist whose recorded legacy will endure for decades, maybe even a century or more. But an examination of his life is riddled with questions of all that might have been; all that should have been. It is more than likely that this was a severely mentally ill human being who never sought the treatment he so desperately needed; surrounded by fawning sycophants who enabled his sickness by constantly reassuring him that he could do no wrong. As John Lennon once said in the same context about Elvis Presley, another victim of the excesses of fame: "It's always the courtiers that kill the king".

The sad, inescapable truth is that for reasons we will probably never be able to fully understand, his talent and his career were ultimately wasted. Like Charlie Parker, Montgomery Clift, Judy Garland and Lenny Bruce before him, his brilliance as an artist would be overshadowed by severe, psychological torment and an unexplainable desire for self-destruction. Therein lies the real, unspeakable tragedy of Michael Jackson.

The Implosion Continues

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

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Finally, someone with sense enough to point out "the Emperor has no clothes."

Michael Jackson was not a musical genius. He had connections, worked them to his advantage and made and squandered a lot of money. The moment I heard he had died I was certain the media would have a circus around the event. They did just that.

I'm sorry for his children losing their father. Beyond that, I'm not going to miss him.

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Like so many posters here, I grew up alongside Jackson. I adored one thing he did - 'Ben' - but as an adult, his strange 'dancing' habit of grabbing at his crotch was more offputting than his slightly wheezy tenor. Yes, his music was often danceable, but no more so than many others. And his personal life was, at best, an inglorious mess.
Yes, he was an icon for many of his generation - and mine. But I - and I am no musical snob - cannot see that he did all the things commentators lay claim to in this overblown public mourning.
I would love to hear from someone who's studied the phenom what it is that triggers these mass hysterias. I've been shocked and moved by deaths of public figures I've loved but not met, but I've never felt like rushing off into some public space and sobbing while laying flowers and cards and teddy bears...

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The author is entitled to his/her opinion. But at the end of the day [we] all know that opinions are like assh*les, everybody has one. As Michael Jackson's life era comes to an end, the author of this insipid piece of opinionated trash will be reduced to the dustbin of history while Michael Jackson's legacy and contribution to culture and music will live on forever and anon. R.I.P. Michael

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Thriller was 25 years ago when he was still a sane, talented, handsome young man with most of his marbles still intact.

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Although I am in general agreement with this otherwise excellent article, I must take issue with one point:

To say that Jackson was not a great dancer is - to be polite - silly.

He was a great dancer. No less an authority as Fred Astaire said as much.

Tom Degan

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I am so happy to see a voice of reason. Thank you

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No claim was made in the above article that she's "reformed" from her 8 years in the corporate media at the LA Times and Boston Globe, nor is there any suggestion that her present task of writing her 8th and 9th fictional works is any different than the blog article above.

THe above may sound like sarcasm, but more than one poster including myself seriously wonders about her sincerity, or if she's just trying to stir the pot for controversy or publicity reasons (selling books, e.g.)

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All praise to Alternet! And some to Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez for a competent, if not hypercourageous, attempt to "re-think" the last fortnight of psychojournalism.

Having read Alternet for several years, and having contributed almost 100 posts myself - my journalistic equivalent to Ms. Alisa's bachelor's in performance - I have been vaguely distressed that 90% or more of the contributors are liberal-leftish and 10% or less are knee-jerk reactionary. In short, Alternet is an ideological echo-chamber, which can become tiresome at times.

So, at last we have two genuine sides in a dispute, albeit one of no lasting importance (I hope). Although it is not immediately apparent that saying "Hurrah" or "Boo" to Michael Marketing necessarily makes you a liberal or a conservative, Ms. Alisa's anti-gloss on a remarkable case of commercial commodification has certainly pushed people's buttons, and seems to have divided the nation (and maybe the world of entertainment consumerism) no less than all those amusing issues that have artificially split the USA (despite the ministrations of Obama-the-Healer) into "red states" and "blue states", or whatever slogan is in service today.

This division of opinion (so far more "Hurrah" than "Boo") has been as divisive as anything I've recently read. And, WOW, has the wake ever been a television triumph! Not since the trials of OJ or Wolf Blitzkrieg's cheerleading for the Attack on Iraq, has CNN be so fixated. It is so disorienting that FOX News actually emerges as something akin to "fair and balanced."

And to think: this is not a matter of natural or human disaster. It isn't about ecological degradation, economic pain, pandemics, war or garden-variety assassination or mass starvation; this is about selling CDs. And it is HUGE!

By contrast, I'm told that the cynical commodity that was the bloated Elvis won only 2nd place on the CBS evening news when "the King of Rock and Roll" gave it up in Nashville, and Paul Simon's Graceland remains his only mildly memorable tangential tribute. Indeed, only when Princess Di, who was recruited to improve the Royal gene pool (with no great success), expired in a mash of glass and metal, did the media learn to take the death of a vacuous celebrity and make it into an enduring circus. But not even the passing of the relentlessly reactionary Pope John Paul II garnered close to the virtual vapours of the hyperfest of "Thriller Down."

It is not necessary to go to J. S. Bach, Barishnakov, Ella Fitzgerald or M. L. King to undo the claim that Michael Jackson was the greatest this or that in the history of the universe (or at least the ever-expanding American part of it's humanoid mass kultur). In terms of music, I have two words: Jimi Hendrix. In terms of culture shifting: Dylan or the Beatles (both overblown in my view, but nonetheless of lasting impact) were greater forces. And these are wholly within the traditions of "pop" or "rock" music. In fact, as a simple matter of marketing, methinks Madonna has been just as successful, and she didn't even have to fix her face.

So, when all (or almost all) is said and done, Michael Jackson, who may well have been as sweet, innocent and naive as his infinitely replaceable entourage (in life and death) insists on saying, will go into the appropriate Hall of Fame - alongside Tony the Tiger and the Energizer Bunny - as an iconic figure in American self-absorption and salesmanship, to say nothing of eternal adolescence.

Of course, maybe it isn't as hard to find politics in this dispute as I thought: but, to do so would require a systemic interrogation of mass culture in the temporary centre of what passes for Western Civilization, and a critical theory capable of sustaining the subsequent critique, and that will need a whole new blog, so to speak.

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Somebody said it. Thank you.

That whole obsession with "celebrities" is quite disgusting . . . I'm not into the conspiracy theories, but I can't but think that this cultivated craze is part of the effort to keep Americans entertained to distract them from reality: panem et circenses. And less panem—even more circenses.

(But it is Barishnikov, not Barishnakov.)

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I think a lot of people on this comments board are misunderstanding the intent of the author. Michael Jackson was certainly a talented man - but he was no genius. His dancing, while admirable, can be mimicked by most choreographers worth their salt - and taught to high-school cheerleading teams and after-school dance classes in one or two sessions (the 'Moonwalk,' Jackson's signature dance, relies on a tromp l'oeil for its awe-inspiring effect, and can be learned by anyone who has access to a mirror and twenty minutes of free time). But let's not also forget that 'genius' like Baryshnikov (whose popularity was partly due to the collective disbelief that such 'artistry' can be cultivated in such a repressive and 'cold' atmosphere as the Soviet Union) and J.S. Bach (who was financed his entire life by wealthy patrons, and who worked extensively within a rigid set of musical parameters that he rarely stepped out of) can also be called into question. Michael Jackson was talented in that he knew to surround himself with powerful people in the music industry, make shrewd business decisions that ensured (to some extent) his success, and aligned himself with corporate interests who took advantage of his 'otherness' to reach new markets.

'Genius'-ness, in the social sphere, is only as admirable as it is profitable.

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Mj was an incredible pop artist-he had a fine sense of style, was a technically quite accomplished dancer and choreographer, and a feel for simple catchy tunes that people like. I agree with the author-this did not make MJ a genius, but why do some people even feel compelled to argue this? Seems to me, like in lots of cases, the media has to add some spin to justify all their ramblings. So, we have MJ the musical genius and ground breaker, neither of which was really true, either musically or otherwise. More than anything, this reflects the navel-gazing of the people who report on popular culture, and the sycophantic, incestuous and unhealthy relationship they have with the "producers" of popular culture. One cannot live without the other, so being a moderately talented but hugely successful commercial artist becomes grounds for canonization-its the free market at work! Sadly, the author of the article picks the wrong target.

(sorry for the double post)

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That's why people love his music so much. Have you heard some of the shit on the radio today? That's Mediocre. A few talented artists mixed in a swath of trash, and it's up to the listener to distinguish the good from the bad.

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Michael Jackson gave over 500 million dollars to charity.
I think we could all have a little humility regarding Michael Jackson. He was a great philanthropist and humanitarian.
And that is indisputable.

Perhaps Alisa could sit down and study the lyrics of "Man in the Mirror" before criticizing Michael.

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And I write this with a tad more musical education than a bachelor's degree. While you may find his pop genre mediocre, he raised it to the highest possible level. Anyone who ever practiced any instrument ought to be able to look at a video of him dancing and know it took years of obsessive practice. I'm not sure why Americans like to lump. But disliking pop (or actually liking it or feeling neutral about it and jumping on the other bandwagon, "I'm smart because of what I claim to abhor") and using that to claim that accomplishment in that genre is always mediocre because the genre itself seems so is not good thinking.

He was extremely talented, which is a wordI've seen Americans, especially parents of students, use wrongly. All talent is is what you're born with; musical talents at a lesser level are a dime a dozen. He was not that. Watch this video of him at the age of 10 and if your jaw doesn't drop at the talent and the already-apparent accomplishment, you didn't pay attention. You have to scroll past some dumb banter. It's the Ed Sullivan show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ane6VJGlIMs

It's a little boy singing a Smokey Robinson tune. It's incredible. Robinson himself agreed. He got a call from Barry Gordy asking him to come over and see something amazing.

But talent gets people almost nowhere. Jackson had to do a great deal of (brutally enforced) work before walking into Motown Records at the age of 9 or so and impressing them enough to give him and his brothers an immediate contract. Motown already had big hitmakers. They didn't need him.

After that, he kept moving on. He changed pop and he changed dance and he changed videos. He was not just great, he was the best. It's odd that fairly mediocre writing is used to criticize much better dancing and creativity. Why don't we apply our own standards to ourselves? Maybe spend the amount of time actually honing a craft to his degree for the number of years he did it, and then that craft will speak for itself. Right now, that is not the case.

But it is possible to learn to separate the genre and your like or dislike of it from what the person obviously managed to do with it. I dislike Picasso's paintings quite a bit, but my preference for or against them doesn't delude me into thinking he was a hack. I like Mozart much better than Varese, but ditto.

No one could do what Michael Jackson did. The sad part of a lifetime in the arts, working with young people who have big dreams but a typically American sense of cynicism and criticism for everyone except themselves is the observation that although maybe ten person in ten million works on their chosen craft to the degree he did, everyone who didn't still trusts their own expertise, whether or not it even exists.

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"He was not a musical genius; didn't break down racial barriers; wasn't a great dancer; didn't change American culture."

I would like to add that the sky is NOT blue, the trees are NOT green, there are NO wars, people HAVE wings, and the author of this article IS smart.

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Michael Jackson hated black people?

The whole article is just stupid. I wish I didn't waste my time reading it. And going through the process of having my password resent to me because I forgot it. And having to find the comments page again after navigating away from the article.

That is how stupid this article was.

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classic sour grapes article. infantile. cant believe this was posted.Must have a hidden agenda
that is cruel--glad i just skimmed it

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I have K's on vinyl, casettes, CDs and some old single sided 78s.
I have everything from requiems to Judas Priest.
The vast majority of my wonderful collection is jazz.
My favorite is Stanley Turrentine.
I have a CD entitled "Sugar".
The last track is "Gibraltar".
It kicks ass.
I have Cannonball's and Nat's "Jive Samba".
It ALSO kicks ass.
I have a CD from Judas Priest~~"Ram It Down".
There's a number on it entitled "Johnny Be Good".
It kicks ass.
I enjoy putting a requiem into my CD player and kicking back with the lights out and wearing my Koss headset.
Mmmmm, relaxing.

MJ's "BillieJean" makes my feet move and my ass swing like ANY OF THE OTHER numbers I have heard.
I played drums & keyboards in various places in Chicago in the 50's & 60's and, I NEVER went to Snob U.
I mostly learned from those with whom I jammed.

This "broad" and her drivel is so illegitimate that, it almost makes one wish they were illiterate.
Maybe SHE is.

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I feel a speck of envy there, if you don't like Michael, don't spread your hate.

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Michael Jackson was a talented performer who led a bizarre life and had a tragic background. His problems, which ran very deep, were in the public sphere, yet he was able to maintain his composure - how many could be under the microscope for so long and hold up? People felt for this man who was so noticeably both disturbed and tremendously talented. He may or may not have been the most talented musician but he was unique, bold, interesting, and he persevered in spite of continual road blocks. It is a testimony to the strength of human nature in general, and his strength in particular, that he did not buckle under the stress of being Michael Jackson. I hope that he had support through his bizarre and tragic life. I sincerely do. The family and then the entertainment industry got the most they could out of him - sucked him dry in the end. What a way for a human being to be brought into the world and then used. I wish him healing in this next stage of his journey.

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I agree the media is going overboard with their descriptions of his impact on humanity. But one thing that he did accomplish was bringing all the races together on the dance floor in love and happiness. When we are dancing and singing we are not black or white or anything in between just a group of humans creating phenomenal energy together and being happy in the moment, and here is where HIS Genius lay.

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Michael had every thing except white skin. He tried to change the color by bleaching it. But he still remained black to the world. Self hatred is a terrible thing. Michael would have been a happier person if he accepted himself as a great entertainer instead of fighting for the love of every racist. He should have listened to the words of his famous song and
"Beat It".

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I'm going to try to make this short. First, thank you for saying this. As soon as I finished reading this, I knew what the comments section was going to look like, and I'm glad I wasn't disappointed! Whenever you state an opinion, especially when it comes to music, it seems it always start a fire. Second, I would like to state for any dissenters that pop music is NOT challenging to learn to play, which explains it's popularity. We like easy things. They make us feel like we accomplished something, even though we were never challenged. Anyway, those are my thoughts and opinions, so let the bashing begin!

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Many years ago at the height of Michael's career I read an article in the LA Reader that recast my awareness of black pop music. In it the author pointed out that Barry Gordy realized that the way to sell more product (which is the name for music in the music industry) was to appeal to a white audience. That is why he put the Supremes in those bee-hive hairdos and sparkly dresses and had them singing a tune from the notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach.
The article noted that MJ performed in the guise of all the most popular minstrel show characters: as Jim Crow when he played the Scarecrow in the Wiz, as Zoot Sims on the cover of Thriller and as The Gloved One, and as picaninny in his dance routines. Sadly white people are unaware of this history and continue to be entertained by the same disingenuous routines – to the detriment of their own self-improvement.

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Put an article on Michael Jackson, Sarah Palin, or 9/11 who done it article and get dozens of responses so soon so fast but anything else? Silence. Even in bad economic times the populace has the nerve to obsess over lightening rod celebrities and politicians ! So much online negativity and I had to fall for trying to counter it ! Damn !

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Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy, which honored Jackson with 13 Grammys, says, "Rarely has the world received a gift with the magnitude of artistry, talent, and vision as Michael Jackson. He was a true musical icon."

The GRAMMYs are the only peer-presented award to honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position.

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and Alternet is already posting articles critical of Michael Jackson for his use of the pentatonic scale. Yeesh. This is just pathetic. Hey editors, there is no shortage of nobody Berklee snobs eager to trash successful musicians to make themselves feel better for never "making it." Whoever gave this article the green light needs to be fired.

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Congrata-freakin-lations on that degree.

You fit the stereotype of a cloistered elitist academic to a tee.

Fred Astaire called Michael Jackson the one of the "greatest dancers of our time".

I guess since he wasn't a Berklee academic who had a framed degree with his name on it, he knew less about performing arts than you do.

It doesn't take a Bachelor's Degree from Berklee to see that even as a child, Jackson was a uniquely gifted and talented singer and performer. He transformed pop music in a way that no other popular performer did.

You're free to scoff at comparisons to other so-called "musical geniuses", but Jackson's impact on pop music, entertainment, culture, and his impact on MILLIONS of fans all around the world is absolutely, positively undeniable.




....and btw, just a tip:
You really look like a jack-ass with all the thinly veiled racism about blacks getting a "free pass" in schools. There are countless young black students all across America who feel rightly or wrongly that they have to try ***TWICE AS HARD*** as their white counterparts to earn the same recognition for their achievements.

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Leaving the ultimate significance of MJ's music aside, I think most reasonable people would agree that the words "genius", "legend", and "icon" have been so overused that they are now meaningless.

One technical point: Ms. Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez should dig out one of her old music theory texts, look up the definition of "pentatonic", and then provide us with the specifics about which MJ songs used the "pentatonic scale". (WHICH pentatonic scale, too?)

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welcome to the world of yellow journalism where, in short, it is biased opinion masquerading as objective fact. The practice of yellow journalism involves sensationalism, distorted stories, and misleading images for the sole purpose of boosting newspaper sales and exciting public opinion.

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But he did for black people. There were no black videos or music on MTV before Michael, Michael opened a lot of doors where blacks weren't thought as "strange" any more--he made us human, and in exchange for that, he lost his own sense of identity. He carried a huge weight at a very young age. I was there, I watched him grow into a young man, then begin to age slowly. The world became a different place for blacks, not only with King's contribution, but with MJJ showing up on the musical scene and smashing every entertainment record known to man. Oh, yes, he did make a huge difference, but you're not likely old enough to be able to tell what that is like. You likely weren't born into the racist world of the 1950s and 60s and showed up late in the 80s, speaking of something you know nothing about. The black community can and will tell you different, but younger people today don't know any better than to write about things they don't know or didn't experience for themselves. He did his part, as did Martin Luther King Jr. They didn't live forever in order to do it all, but they did what they did when they did it ... and it made a difference. But ... it's a part of black history and that is out of your league, apparently. You probably even think racism is "new" and just appeared from out of nowhere. The rest was up to up, but as Dr. King's son and daughter, Martin III and Bernice (whose own father died for rights we are still fighting for today) said, "Yes he did." It's a black thing, you wouldn't have a clue about it. Don't write until you read first--or at least know something about black history. Jealousy doesn't suit you when you don't have the other man's talent and didn't make any contributions to the uplifting of black folk yourself.

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According to reports and pictures there were millions of people mourning and watching Jackson's Funeral. I wondered how many of these same people would find that much time to go to their own Grandmother's funeral. Not to mention the five American soldiers who got killed in the Middle East that same day. There was not room for them in the news. Michael Jackson's death was news for sure. But not to the exclusion of everything else. Although it is 'safe' for the media. No need to double check facts for accuracy. So all and all a break from the demanding job of reporting news. Thanks, ANNA

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Thank you for saying what I've been saying all along.

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He is an average singer and an average dancer. His music was good but it was mostly composed and produced by talented artists.

As for breaking barriers, you can thank the record companies who heavily promoted and distributed the music around the world. He did not consciously try to break racial barriers, the man painted himself white for god’s sake.

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If you write music using the pentatonic scale, that automatically makes you not a genius??

GIVE ME A BREAK, LADY!

WHAT A BUNCH OF IDIOTIC, JEALOUS SNOBBERY.

I can name you hundreds of geniuses who wrote songs primarily in the pentatonic scale.

Simplicity does not automatically disqualify you from genius. In fact, often it is the hallmark of things that are beautiful, awe-inspiring, and evocative, transcendent and great!

Give it up, snob.

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I already made a comment here stating that the author of this article was, at very least, wrong about MJ's dancing (and, I personally feel, more aspects of MJ, which I feel make him deserving of recognition as a Great artist).

However, in addition to all those things that are "traditionally" considered to be "artistic" MJ tried, in his music,to say something about our society and the world.

IMO, At this particular moment, many of us (and I include myself) even those of us who are enthusiastic fans of MJ, have been too distracted by this MJ business from certain world events which I think are very very important, and which I think we need to give our attention to. One of those events which is very high on my list is the situation in Honduras. And to paraphrase MJ: "All I want to say is we don't seem to care about them".

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I love it, this person has a Bachelor's degree in music and somehow think that entitles her to determine the meaning of musical genius. She named Bach, Cannonball Adderly, and others as examples of true musical genius. What her tiny little mind fails to realize is that in popular culture there are also musicians, composers and performers who are deserving of the title "genius." Some examples are Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, Bjork and others who have made a substantial mark on society and whose legacy will long outlive their physical beings. Michael Jackson was such an artist.

I know Michael Jackson has his detractors. People certainly have a right to not like his music. But I wish AlterNet had done a better job of selecting a writer who is critical of Jackson's place in history. The piece written by Ms. Rodriguez is pathetically uninformed and intellectually weak.

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Wow! Are you stupid! Obviously you would not know a creative genius if one fell on you.

Just what have you done for the planet lately? Have you bestowed on it anything like love, music or dancing ever? Or are you just a miserable complainer?

I think that your writing is not even up to being mediocre. Keep trying though.

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While I agree that we throw around the genius title a bit too frequently, much like the word "awesome" (see Eddie Izzard), and that our obsession with celebrity and morbid fascination with their deaths is abhorrent..
The obvious bias here(and pure attention grabbing - see Peter King) leads me to comment.

In your assertion that Mr Jackson "hated being black" you "forget" to mention the vitiligo which was verified by the initial autopsy report.
Countless photographs show the patches on his skin before he had the de-pigmentation process done, a common treatment for severe cases, in which pigmentation is removed from the rest of the skin so that it will match.
This is readily available information...
Perhaps Mr Jackson should have walked around looking like a leopard?
Would that have made him more acceptable to you?

I can't speak in defense of the surgeries, except to say that they had more to do with self loathing than any blanket hated of his race.
Yes, it was painful to look at him over the last 10 years of his life, but hell, if money was no object, I wouldn't have the face I was born with either.
The self hatred was always something I personally understood, even while bemoaning what he did to himself as a result of it...
The same folks who'll criticize Mr Jackson for his surgeries are the ones who will walk up to me on the street and tell me I'm the ugliest woman they've ever seen.
"Can't you do something..." Go figure.

Most tellingly you never mention the hundreds of millions of dollars he donated to the NAACP, the United Negro College Fund and the tireless work he did to fight aids here and in Africa. He met with Presidents and Heads of State around the world to promote these causes. Proceeds from the Dangerous tour went entirely to charity - to the tune of 125 million dollars.
All of these are odd pursuits for someone who "hated black people".

Perhaps instead of stomping on Mr Jackson's corpse for attention, you should ask yourself what you have done (with your oh so prestigious degree...) to help others in need.
Personally I know that compared to him I haven't contributed anything.

You will, I am certain, get loads of attention for this diatribe. Mission accomplished.

(As an aside, it strikes me as funny that folks here mention Mozart as a better example of "genius".
Anyone with a faint knowledge of music history "beyond the 1970's" knows Mozart was the pop star of his day, creating music for the masses... and that Miles Davis, beloved Giant of Jazz (yes, you can appreciate both pop and jazz - I love Coltrane, too) had that big crossover album called Tutu which featured a cover of Jackson's Human Nature...
Gotta love irony.)

Now get back to Uighers and Iranians fighting for freedom, our troops dying in Afghanistan, bombs in Iraq and tromping conspiracy theorists, please.

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In insulting Michael's style of dance, you insult some of the dance masters from which he learned it. He combined all of those moves from people who went down in history as the best showmen in the business. Your ignorance is very telling. Michael learned the moonwalk from Jeffrey Daniels, who, at 52, is still dancing in the black community now (and Jeffrey learned it from those who had to dance to stay alive back in the 30s and 40s). You insult Gregory Hines, from whom Michael learned the fine art of being light on his toes by using tap. You insult James Brown, who taught him to move fast and rhyme his body to the beat. You insult Bill Bailey and Cab Calloway just to name a few, whom Michael studied heavily from old movie films. You insult Fred Astaire, of whom when Michael told him he learned a lot from him, said to Michael, "It was the Negroes who taught me to dance." You are devoid of black history, music history, and you don't even understand the history of dance and the classics, and yet you chant as if you are educated?

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This article could easily be the most controversial statement about Michael Jackson (and Gen X) that we are likely to see!

And I very much appreciate what was said here although I can't agree entirely with all of it.

I definitely see a tremendous analogy to the Michael Jackson 'Phenomenon' with the following of the Grateful Dead and what one writer said about Dead Heads in general, "It was definitely not cool, forbidden, taboo, to criticize what came out of the loudspeakers on stage - even if what was coming out was total crap".

My own view is that in this capitalist society, "Musical Genius" is defined primarily, sometimes exclusively, by Platinum Album Sales and Music Industry Awards. It's the old familiar "style over substance" problem. 'Style' = taste and talent = 'Musical Genius'; just a simple money generating equation you understand, that happens to generate an unpleasant byproduct - musical crap. And it's way too simple a formula for me, and so I pass on it every time.

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This Jackson phenomenon is a true sign of how low the "culture" has become.

C'mon, groupies. He was a marketed phenomenon, a kid with some vocal talent who ended up at the right place at the right time, was packaged and promoted--not unlike a new cereal or detergent. He obviously thought he was beyond the law--or rather that law was beneath him.

He became a freak show, yet still had an audience that bought everything sold in his name/image.

It's not a difficult thing to study!

Then, after spending nearly $50,000 a month on prescription drugs, he dies, and everyone, from Al Sharpton to MSNBC--for which I had, until recently some respect--bought into how the world will be missing something because the freak show bit the dust.

As the writer and other commentors pointed, out, that's akin to assuming Sarah Palin is presidential material: Only the most dyed-in-the-wool ideologues buy that nonsense.

Was MJ talented? To a degree, if you like that kind of stuff. Was there anything special about him? Maybe his freaky appearance. Maybe that he could have purchased Iraq with his pocket change.

All the fawing proves to me is that those of us on the left still have a lot of work to do. And Al Sharpton's not going to be much of an ally...

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The author is right to a degree when compared to classically trained musicians and dancers, however she is missing the point about what made MJ so compelling. It was his charisma, energy, and magnetism on stage that defined him and yet these qualities remained undefinable. The author reminds me of naturally talented people who becomes classically trained in their field and loses a great deal of that undefinable mystery we call talent or "genius", by becoming "over schooled". The perception or definition of genius is also changed or colored by the schooling. Now, greatness is defined by the "proper" chord and note structure while raw excitement is relegated to the background. To put it simply, her concepts about genius are very much a product of her training.

One additional off topic rant- Alternet seems to have become Fox news when reporting on Michael Jackson, an excessive amount of negative reporting.

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Yes! Yes! Yes!
You've said everything I've been thinking lately and you've named many of the Black artists I've admired for so long - Ella, Miles, Coltrane, etc., etc. Let me add one more -- Monk.

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I wont bother to address nor dignify the "merits" of this article & the personal attacks on Jackson's talent. I will simply address the small minded, tunnel vision arrogance and hypocrisy of the author.

1. You go on about MSM and yet perpetuate the very misconceptions that have been created and spread by MSM. His Physicians and surgeons have come forward to discuss MJ's skin and surgeries. MJ had Vitiligo, which causes uneven, unattractive and disfiguring alterations of pigmentation. As an entertainer, he would surely not wish to expose his scarred and disfigured face, so he chose to do the limited things available to him to hide the effects of the disease. He had severe acne scarring which affected his choice to have facial surgery. His initial nose surgery was done for medical necessity, due to an injury. Perhaps he chose to go a bit further than needed, but do we KNOW or feel the psychological damage that people suffer when they are disfigured by illness, injury or features that are the brunt of other people's cruelty? The media blew all of this out of context and rarely considered the truth of his lightened skin and plastic surgery.

MJ spent time with thousands of children, many of whom stayed at Neverland. Of ALL of the children around him regularly, only two came forward with allegations, one walked away with millions and MJ was found INNOCENT by a jury of his piers on the 2nd claim.
These were good fodder for heavy news traffic and so the stories will never die. Just as so many pull over at a tragic car wreck, peering
at tragedy, so will many continue to look for the worst possible things to believe, to feed their undying desire and need.

2. Assuming, by your name, that you are not a member of the black or white race, what makes you an authority on the feelings, choices, reasoning and tastes of either race and their choice or preference of talent, genius, etc? I resent the implication, that any of us saw MJ in the very bigoted, racial way that you portray us as "seeing" him. I enjoyed his music, his dancing, his style and his gentle humanity and feel very sad for his untimely death. Nothing more, nothing less.

3. You go on about our screwed up idolization's, but fail to mention that it is not America alone that has had this response to MJ, but the entire world. Are ALL cultures and countries simply being fooled by this "mediocre" entertainer's impact on people of ALL races, colors, ethnicity? This would imply that you somehow, arrogantly, believe yourself a righteous teller of truths that others deny ... and the rest of the world are wrong and deceived. There is a psychological label for that type of grandiose thinking, that perhaps you should be measured by.

4. Attack pieces, similar to this one, always fail to give credit for all of the good, humanitarian things that MJ did. The list of those alone place MJ in a class of his own. He had more compassion, kindness and caring for total strangers than most have for their own.

The list goes on & on

(cont in Pt II ... due to space limits)

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The root of all criticism. No matter how many degrees the author accumulates, she will never possess the natural raw talent of MJ.

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His music was derivative and his dancing was pretty good but there are many great dancers who invent steps that were better than the "moonwalk".
He was one of the first "Corporate" megastars. And as we all know, there are many who succumb to the hype, and many that are financially beholden to the cash cow of various corporations (MJ/CocaCola/EXXON anyone?).
Sadly, the stage at his memorial was full of such folks.
He was musically relevant 20 years ago, but his cultural relevance is very true today as he has proven our collective gullibility to hype and corporatization. To have his memorial staged as it was, was fitting and sad.

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Now you've gone and done it. How dare you defame the saintly memory of Michael Jackson? The most gifted, brilliant, sensational, and nicest celebrity of all time, and you try to defame his impregnable image. Honestly!

Ok, Ok, so his artistic output the last 25 years was not as great as his earlier works. OK, so he made himself look a little different, but MJ swears it was "only two" surgeries to his nose, and that the rest of his morphology was just due to "growth.
Alright, so he got a little weird with Jews, and tried to blame his financial problems of the Jews in the music industry (like Tommy Mottola, the famous son of a rabbi).

You do a disservice to Americans of all stripes, trying to follow MJ in his progressing death over the airwaves. QWe all must realize how important MJ was, anf if we forget, the MSM is always there to force feed us more of MJ until even his true fans want to hurl.

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Billy Jean, Man in the Mirror, Beat It, ANother Part of Me, Black or White, etc. are all wonderful songs that thrilled millions of people.

Franz Schubert wrote 600 plus songs before he died at the age of 31 in 1828. You might be surprised to learn that many people have written songs that express the inner workings of the human heart before Elvis, The Beatles or Michael Jackson were born.

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MJ is/was most definitely a product of our times and that he didn't need to be anything other than he was. That's what earned him his popularity around the world.
There is hardly anyone around in todays world who doesn't think it's terribly f****d but it's also a world were anything goes and watching others do the things that that we think we would like to do or find unacceptable is, with such vast and rapid promotion and communication, a world wide phenomenon. Here is where MJ captured the world. He entertained us with everything he did, everything. He was a "fix" for millions.

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This author can't be considered credible when she asserts that "white people" could only appreciate the young Michael Jackson as a "cute negro child singin' and dancin'". Her byline suggests she is Latina. So, how does she know how "most white Americans" viewed Jackson?

She is flat out wrong about my view of the young MJ, and sounds incredibly rascist - a term I use with reservation. When your bias is so strong, it colors everything you project.

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I was never a rabid fan of Michael Jackson, though I do like a few of his songs. And I agree with the author that he wasn't a musical "genius".

That being said, however, the man had a combination of musical and performance traits at just the right time and place that attracted millions of fans from all over the globe for over 40 years. That kind of wide appeal and staying power indicates that he had the right stuff, if not quite a genius. Jackson was far more than a flash in the pan or a one hit wonder.

He was a troubled man, one with many skeletons in his closet, but musically, we must give Jackson his proper credits.

I've never heard of Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez' music. Berklee graduate? Big, fat, hairy deal. It sounds as if the author of this article has a major case of sour grapes.

If Jackson were alive to read this article, I'm sure he'd be laughing all the way to the bank.

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Your name indicates an unmistakable Latin heritage. So, to you I say about your aricle...que pedaza de mierda. You have no clue about cultural music trends...you are too ensconced in your ivory academic tower (where the heck is Berklee? Thought you misspelled Berkley, but apparently other folks here know the place exists.) I'm sorry you didn't make it in the music world, but at this rate, you don't have much of a future in journalism either.

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Well well well...The wolves finally arrive with blood stained teeth and claws ready to pounce. First for those who hail Jackson as a "Corporate Superstar" worthy of depreciation your motive is dubious at BEST as his stardom was established LONG before brands thought it truly necessary to meld pop art into merchandise marketing..The only problem I have with the Jackson coverage is that he wasnt the primary greatest of our generation as James Brown STILL influenced him and others (Also MJ Thinks of Brown as the Best as well).

As for Thelonious, Coltrane, and Mozart ..Why in the hell are you comparing ANY of them at all ? Just because apples and oranges secrete juices that doesnt mean you'll get the same experience nor should they be regarded with the same standards. Thats outrageous. They each existed for a reason and were proved greats for endurance and passion. Something I doubt you will achieve in this lifetime Ms. Alisa Valdes.

But for all its worth your jealousy-filled diatribe that I NEVER READ did get me interested in who YOU are and WHAT I FOUND makes me look at your writing in a new light. You worked at the L.A. times, yes, but how did that come to an end, such a lucrative position ? You were unhappy they didnt let you compare the children's movie 'Road to EL Dorado' to the Horrendous Holocaust because you expressedly felt that tradegy was fairgame for deppreciation because the Spaniards supposedly killed "10 times" more people then the Nazi's. Again Alisa you do NOT HAVE THE AUTHORITY to state the pain and gains of others from which you have NO CREDITED INPUT into. In my opinion the L.A. Times should've FIRED you.

Next lets look into Alisa's pattern of wanting readers at ANY expense. Alisa was known to blog on AfterEllen.com (GLBT site for those who dont know) who consistently aligned her views and ideals to fit in with lesbian community and even expressed herself as bisexual only to rengege her claims of bisexuality and all when asked of this when she wants garner attention and love from a different crowd. Classic Flip-flop and attention grabbing..points to deep-rooted insecurities. As for her Music Degree she did NOTHING with it.

For more on Ms. Alisa Valdez.

blog.shankbone.org/2009/02/13

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...MJ was greater than the sum of his parts! THAT is why he was a GREAT ENTERTAINER.

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It appears that it's Politically Incorrect to analyze and assess Michael Jackson's contribution to pop cultural history. Those of us who do so should be fired, or, perhaps worse. What a bunch of grouches all you pop only music loving zombies are. Don't be afraid to explore, show curiosity and expand your musical tastes. Expand your ears and minds and please grow up. Pop music is not the end all and be all of musical expression. Or the epitome of Soul in music.

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Quincy Jones is the real genius-he created the sound-Jackson sang.
w/o Quincy the later Jackson recordings are bland and forgettable.
Then Jackson paid him back by refusing to perform on Quincy's "Back on the Block"-

I agree-mediocre at best and a reflection of a generally bland, corporate-controlled media and mainstream music scene-

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An article that is so anti-democratic that... gasp... it doesn't just toe the line set by "the majority"!

And you can tell you are a total elitist because A. you dare to have your own opinion and B. you don't take the word of the recording industry or of bastions of unquestionable judgement like Rolling Stone as gospel.

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they and he were one of many groups. He was never considered a genius then, or at any time during his career. He did have the help of promoters and people who were very influential in the music business who could do great things for his career. Up till the funeral he was considered a "weirdo", and just because he died it doesn't make it any different.
You can blame his obsession with his looks on all kinds of things like "his father beat him" but back then - pre child abuse laws - EVERYBODY'S kids got spankings. Nowadays they call it "beating". I knew if I acted up I'd get at the very least a taste of a "keen switch" as my mother called it, yet I've never felt the need to sleep with somebody else's children in the nude or give them wine. He admitted to that.
His dancing was mediocre and mechanical. Did you ever see him dance with a partner? Nah. His music was dance-pop. The producers and directors added a lot of theatrical stuff, but take away the wind machines and the zombie dance troups, and the spectacular part is gone.

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...but he had that thing you can't pin down, define, fake, justify or manufacture, the thing called "it."

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and waves her cherished degree with fervent academic righteousness against the biggest selling solo artist ever, who's dance moves were emulated millions around the globe, who magically connected to the populace, on what they believed, a personal level. All our cultural exponents are flawed humans. the sublime Coltrane, like many other jazz greats, was a heroin addict. what a great role model, huh Alisa? Stuffy Alisa digs her heels deep into the academia bubble when she postulates "with a clear conscience that MJ's musical abilities, placed upon the spectrum of human accomplishments in this field (of entertainment, I assume?), are mediocre". wow, talk about inserting your head firmly up your ass... she proceeds to eruct elitist, revisionist petulance citing a) Berlioz, who attempted to murder his ex-fiancee, her mother and boyfriend, b)Charles Ives and Bach, both, whose music no one cared about when they were alive, and c)Tchaikovsky, gay, suicidal, depressed, roundly panned by every prominent critic of his day (maybe even one of Alisa's ancestors?). Then Alisa concludes that MJ, who since childhood was a successful entertainer in his own right, is the equivalent of propped tools of incompetence Palin and Dobbs. now there's a leap for ya. this load of monkey poo comes as no surprise, given Alisa's familiarity with mediocre artistry - her novel, The Dirty Girls Social Club, is a drab and lifeless dung heap. you can buy it on Amazon.com for $2.50

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With the author of this article.
Not all of us live in the world of Mozart, Vivaldi, or Dizzy Gillespie.
Music is so vast in scope, that unless you're completely deaf, one form or another is sure to please you.
This country has contributed more to the world of music than any other, hands down. The variety is absolutely mind-boggling.
Michael ackson was born with more raw musical talent than any other ten people. If he'd lived in the Classical Age in Europe, he probably would've been as famous as Chopin or Verde, for instance.
Market forcs dictate success in the music world, today. This country overflows with musical talent, most of which never sees the light of day, unless some gimmic,aimed at getting good press is employed. Music videos do that job nicely. This is an area where Jackson was the undisputed KING.
Michael Jackson's target market was teenyboppers and those completly ignorant of other forms of music.
Michael Jackson could've been so much more than what we saw and heard, but his inner demons got the better of him, and he died way before his time.

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look at all the jackson ads on this page alone... worth more dead then alive as long as people still buy into bland and boring jackson 'music' and 'dance'...

can this entire thing about jackson please drown in the bathtub of history???

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QUICK CULTURAL QUIZ 2009

Ed McMahon died this week.
He was a great entertainer, but prior to his stage accomplishments he was a distinguished Marine Corps fighter pilot in WWII
earning six Air Medals and attaining the rank of Colonel.
He was discharged in 1946 and was later promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in the CA Air National Guard.

Farrah Fawcett died this week after a long career in Hollywood as an actress.
After she was diagnosed with cancer, she became an activist for cancer treatmentand devoted her last remaining years encouraging people to seek treatment.
She documented her plight on film and used it to encourage others
to stay positive and upbeat despite their diagnosis and suffering.

Michael Jackson died this week.
He was perhaps one of the greatest singers of modern time.
He will also be remembered for his eccentric lifestyle
that included sleeping with a chimpanzee,
living in a carnival-like atmosphere at Neverland,
his fascination with Peter Pan, and his numerous masks and costumes.
He also admitted to finding pleasure sleeping
with young boys and paying out millions of dollars in settlements
to the families of these boys despite being acquitted by a court on one allegation
of sexual molestation.

~QUESTION~

Which of the above did the (democrat) House of Representatives declare a moment of silence for today?
(Hint - It wasn’t the first two.)

~QUESTION~

Which of the above’s family received a personal note of condolence
from democrat President Obama?
(Hint - It wasn’t the first two.)

How can we possibly respect this man acting as The President of our United States?
(liberals do what liberals do…that is why they are secular socialists)

http://conservablogs.com/theconservativecrawfish

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Awsome article, I'm completely fucking shocked it got posted on Alternet!!!

I can't rememebr the last article I archived from Alternet. This one is definatly getting archived.

A lot of people didn't want to hear what you had to say but it is true.

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Uhh, from which dingy, little, rat-infested peanut gallery did this "courageous" and opinionated stalwart crawl out of?

Some people make a career out of shooting down popular figures, always seeking the negative, of being full-time contrarians just for the sake of controversy. You are already convinced you are right, well before you hear (hear, not listen to, for you are incapable of listening to) the opinions and ideas of those you oppose. You could have written this opinion piece years ago, it wouldn't have mattered. You just load up your attacks with grandiose rhetoric and vocabulary, but you're still just a hack. You, Ms. VR, have found your calling in life.

You are as unappealing and offensive as any self-righteous individual, whether a born-again religious zealot, or an ultra-left socialist radical trying to tax our society to death.

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I am not a fan of pop culture, but I think this article was a bit inappropriate. Art is subjective and the fans who loved him have a right to have their grief respected. To me this article seems to make Alternet look tough after it has caved to so many other special interests. Real brave to pick on the broken hearted right now!

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Ms. Rodriguez's article manifested the very problem with judging Blackmales, which she stated about the school situation. Famous entertaining Blackfemales and whites are never scrutinized at their death like the Blackmales.

People are oh so envious of us and our Melanin enduced gifts [from God], they are forever jealous on us; in real life or even in our death. Why does it matter what level of talent Michael aspired to, at this time of mourning?

People are committing suicide after his death. Do you know any other entertainer--of an opposite race of the deceased star--who has caused the opposite race fans to kill themselves? Of course not. So, for whatever level of talent he reached, like many Blackmen who rise above our structured crucifixons (racisms), we have a God-given talent to lead, aspire, verbalize, dance, and control any situation presented before us.

Thee Expected One (Mahdi) has taught us to take on our haters and be ready o assume our rightful place to re-rule the world. Don't hate. Congratulate. And waith for that oh so popular and famous white person to die soon. The Semitic-English media is about to pay for their anti-Kemitic coverage of Mr. Jackson. Then, let's her the criticisms of this white icon?

(I know she's Espanol, but they've already paid with the Hollywood whorification of their Spanish actresses--J. Lo, Eva Mendez, Rosie Perez, etc.)

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What if it were Britney or Madonna that had OD'd? Wouldn't we see the same media circus, the same claims of greatness, outpouring of heartfelt sentiment for the passing of a cultural icon from "fans?"

The article is a pretty fair evaluation of MJ as a performer. I've never seen pop music as being "art" in any form, so it's probably easier for me to agree. However, any time that you point out that the king wasn't wearing any clothes, his supplicants, sycophants, managers, leeches, and hangers-on are bound to get a little butthurt. Regardless of their glaring absence of support back when he was the target of public derision absent any legitimate proof, some obviously feel the need to vindicate themselves by wearing sackcloth and ashes in his passing.

To call these people artists when they were actually hardly more than performing monkeys for the media and the entertainment organgrinders is to validate the exploitation.

I do agree that his life story, along with most other exploited pop culture idols like Britney or Lilo for example, is truly tragic.

How can these people really be expected to maintain any semblance of sanity under all that scrutiny, especially when they begin performing so young?

I'm not even going to examine the effects of the shallow adulation of the masses coupled with cash on the psyche of anyone under the age of 25. That would be too depressing.

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And I am glad that someone had the balls to say it out loud. Nobody cared about Michael Jackson 2 weeks ago, and nobody was buying his albums (except maybe to repurchase Thriller). This is silly idol worship at best.

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I've been noticing that there is a contingent out there really upset by the attention focused on Michael Jackson's death and the heralding of his career.

I don't expect EVERYONE to love the same artists- there are great country singers out there but I would never ever listen to a single song because I hate the twang of that music. But I don't HATE country singers, or feel the need to belittle people who enjoy that music.

There is definitely something amiss in all this MJ hating. By amiss, I mean racist- like, it strikes me that the only reason to want to pull your hair out over the late Michael Jackson's media coverage and fan-love, is because you think he doesn't deserve it, but why wouldnt he deserve it?

Michael Jackson wasn't a religious leader, Nobel Prize winner, or the doctor who cured cancer. He was a Pop artist, that's all, and he was really good at THAT THING. That's all this praise is about.

The only reason to HATE the attention he's getting for his ACTUAL contributions to ONE domain of life- ENTERTAINMENT, not world peace, the only reason for the degree of feeling against him has to be linked to something irrational. Like not being able to stand seeing a black person get attention that should be reserved for whites. That's really what it must be. Because I don't think this kind of article would have been written about any other race of artist.

If a great country or reggae artist died today, and his/her fans and the media were raving about the person's life, I'd just ignore it. So would Alisa, and the people I've encountered who get these really awful menacing looks on their faces when MJ is mentioned.

Not liking the artist is fine, but the hatred for MJ getting his due praise for what he was good at is really weird- I wish Alisa would ask herself deep down honestly if she really would be reacting like this to any other artist.

By the way, I'm African American, and both me and my brother were always the top students amongst our mostly white peers in the standardized testing we took at school. Despite being smarter than average (because we have really smart- yes, black- parents who cultivated our intellect), our mostly white teachers usually ignored us in class when our hands were up and our parents had to fight to get us into honors and AP classes, even though we outscored other students. Lots of letters to boards of education with our test scores attached were involved. But Alisa thinks blacks only get praise, usually undeserved, because white people pity us- that doesn't quite match up with my life story. Racism lives, and Alisa should want to check herself.

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Given that she’s a (critically praised) author of “chick lit” novels, it’s hard for me to believe that Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez feels justified in walloping any artist with the same kind of snobbish artistic intolerance to which she herself has been subjected. Any kind of commercial fiction—especially fiction targeted toward women—gets a beating in the press for not being “literary” enough. (That doesn’t even take into account the challenges of writing commercial fiction about people of color when you yourself are a person of color.) Does that mean it has no value? Does that mean that the hundreds of thousands of readers who enjoy it are idiots? The same questions can be asked about pop music and about Michael Jackson.

Whether you like Michael Jackson’s music is a matter of personal taste. But no one can deny that he struck a chord that few popular musicians have with the world public. Sure, a Berklee College of Music snob can’t compare him to Bach. But you can’t compare Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, Elvis, the Supremes, Nirvana, and Tupac to Bach either—except in that their music was so unique when they landed on the world stage, that they shifted their musical genre in a whole new direction, and people sat up and listened en masse. (And danced.)

I have a graduate degree in English literature from an Ivy League school. That doesn’t mean I’m going to trash Terry McMillan or Valdes-Rodriguez's fiction work just to prove how smart I am. And I’m certainly not going to look down on the US or world public for appreciating any kind of art—whether commercial or high-brow—that makes people think, feel, or even just dance.

It’s very interesting to analyze the reasons behind this public outpouring of grief over Michael Jackson, especially in the context of his eccentricities—nobody wants to be a lemming, and we all need a wake-up call when that starts happening. And yes, the conversation that’s long been going on about the way he mutilated his looks and bleached his skin is a necessity—if only to use it as a starting point to talk with our children about wrong-headed and racist ideals of beauty. But to look down on anyone just for loving Jackson’s music? Ridiculous.

Oh, and comparing the Jackson 5 to Buckwheat and blackface so greatly minimizes their undeniable talent, it smacks of racism to me.

AlterNet, if you want to add a dose of pop culture in with my news, that’s fine. But keep the nose-in-the-air crazies away, please.

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They were all the pop icons of their day. And they were all alternatively feted and trashed - look at how Mozart ended up, buried in a pauper's grave.
I wonder, if in a hundred years, we will be listening to Jackson, the Beatles and Elvis the way we now listen to Beethoven and Mozart.

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I cannot help from feeling depressed at the content of this message board. We are indeed a nation of children.

Just once it would be nice for people to actually discuss the arguments of the article, instead of resorting to personal attacks, temper tantrums, and patent defensiveness.

Look, there is NO point arguing over whether or not you "like" a form of art. It's a fool errand to argue over whether or not you "like" Michael Jackson's music or dancing. I do acknowledge that the writer encourages this kind of faux debate.

What amazes me, however, is that folks herein are so personally offended (hello, narcissism?) that they glide right past the substantive points that the author does raise. It IS the height of denial that our media is going on and on about Jackson as a champion of blackness when he clearly DESPISED his own blackness! That is a tragedy, and, as such, an opportunity to have a real conversation about the psychological damage caused by white racism. Hello, did ya miss the story yesterday about the black kids in Philly denied access to a whites-only pool? How 'bout that ongoing story about white supremacists building their ranks and the guns-are-us-a-thon that have followed Obama's election?

It is also telling how posters are so ready to go after the writer while ignoring the very sound argument about the very tangled history of black performance--never forget that some of the most virulently racist whites (i.e. Irish immigrants) were the primary audience for blackface minstrelsy. The author is right--whites have "accepted" black entertainers far more readily than, say, affirmative action. The comforting notion that we somehow have moved past that history says more about how much we SHARE with Jackson in terms of our own fears about race and our own denial of our nation's struggle with racism. His bleached skin, collapsed nose, and straightened hair mirror our own collective denial of white supremacy and all its more subtle variants.

Can we talk about those things like adults? Can we see them and mourn them?

Look, Thriller defined my childhood, and, to me, there's no question about his talent. But I'm not stupid enough to get into argument with someone about whether or not they feel the same way. It's like trying to argue about whether purple is a prettier color than green. Michael Jackson is a marker of the tragedies of our society--and he continues to be so in our discussion of his death--our inability to discuss our obsession with celebrity and our refusal to see racism and confront it directly.

Can we please have a real conversation?

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I never would have expected so many comments in support of this ridiculous article. Upsetting to read young liberals who think it's insightful and "ballsy" to launch a no-class (and no-clue) attack on the lately departed & widely beloved. I didn't know Alternet was so attractive to the corny whitebread idiot contingent.

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Why do people think they have to pass judgement on a very personal thing like talant? You either see MJ's talant as a gift of varying degrees to you and yours or you don't.

Typical product of American education system putting heros like Bach, Coltrane or the pentatonic scale up on a pedistal to judge demean or tear down anything new or different.

I am sure I am not the only one who has teared up at both Bach and MJ. I hope the author can achieve that with her music someday, she sure won't with her writing at this rate.

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I'm a 58 year old woman and community leader. Michael's music juiced, inspired and moved me. Man in the mirror, may have even saved my life.
The writer couldn't possibly be a dancer ... must be more in head then in body. Michael was finally getting the acknowledgement he deserved for the contribution of spirit he made to the world. I reccommend the writer do some soul searching and see if he could be bold enough to inspire instead of anger. To love instead of being consumed by his fear and therefore as a writer invoking fear and anger in others. I wish you stop writing until you wake up to your own demons. It's toxic what your putting out.

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I don't know anything spectacular, and I don't even know if anyone out there cares what I have to say but I will say it anyway...

What gets me about the media is not only the larger than life extravaganza that was presented to , what ,over a billion people?

But now, that this author has to pick a dead man apart.

Who cares if some felt him a genius>? That is a term that is truly relative.

But what he was, without question, was unique...

...and that fact caught the spirit of those upwards of a billion people across the chronological spectrum of time who shared in some small part in his memorial on Tuesday..

...whomever feel they have to denigrate the recently deceased, while those who loved him, or fawned over him even, are still grieving,I believe have major ego problems.

Michael Jackson affected a lot of people in a lot of ways; was outside the box of our staunchly Quaker society; tried to give children and himself something pure and simple to hold onto as they went into the crux of this wild and crazy world.

Let the man rest, let the people say what they will...

I for one can attest to having awakened every morning with a different Michael Jackson tune in my head every morning for these past weeks...sometimes it is Wagner, sometimes Saens Saens, sometimes Tchaikovsky....and NIN at times...but since his death it has been MJ.

And there are a LOT of people in the world who felt his spirit and sense of purity that he was attempting to convey and feel transformed to some degree by it!

Let him rest o'noble author; go and critique someone who is alive and can defend himself, all-knowing one...

admit that your direction here is simply a moot point to a plethora of individuals who really felt a certain magic exude from this one whimsical and ethereal creature...

he brought together an eighth of the population of the world, PEACEFULLY

...isn't that amazing?

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Taken at "big picture" level, I would agree with the author's overall statement. Celebrity deaths reveal the true excesses of the modern spectacle culture. Like Reagan, death remade Michael Jackson. An apotheosis where all flaws are whisked away and all talents and accomplishments absurdly amplified.

However, in her choice of argument I must say I read with much distaste. How strange to see a black-nationalist-boureoisie.

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Jackson was a genius in the pop music tradition. Obviously. And a great artist -- in the sense that he was able to reach a large audience and touch them emotionally in genuine ways. I and millions others were moved by his originality and authenticity.

You are an obnoxious snob.

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