Some Thoughts on MJ and Pop Culture

I'm back in the cable news world. I'm watching a mass of people outside the Apolo theater holding up radios and dancing. It's strange. Keith Olbermann, how I've missed you. Thanks for taking me through this evening.

My first thought when I heard that Michael Jackson died was of him as a little boy. As someone who didn't really get to be a kid, and how that likely set him up for a tragic life and maybe predictably tragic ending. That maybe if he was just playing with trucks and hanging out at the pool when he was a kid, he might have lived a happier life?

I am also fascinated by the way that *we* build famous people up, celebrate them (hence "celebrities), then tear them down and crucify them. Then they die and *we* glorify them again. I don't know that I have any insight into why, but I think it's irresponsible and in some ways, inhumane.

I was out for happy hour with folks from work when one of my paralegals got a text saying MJ had died. On my way home a couple hours later, I turned to B96, which is the main hip-hop station in Minneapolis. I think it has the most street cred among pop/rap stations, know what I mean? Anyway, it's not a station I listen to, but I turned to it to hear what they had to say. They were playing a bunch of old MJ songs, including Man In the Mirror and Black & White. Totally awesome. Then, the DJ started giving some commentary- he pointed out how MJ was the first black artist to get airtime on MTV. How his videos were unprecedented in form, content, and length. He ended by responding to those listeners who were calling MJ's character into question, especially the criminal accusations. He pointed out that he was found not-guilty. An obvious statement, but I'm glad that he said it. Does that mean innocent? I don't know- but that's the justice system we have. Trials, juries, the presumption of innocence. Sometimes the results aren't what people want but it's a pretty phenomenal system and I don't think any of us would really have it any other way.

There are moments in pop culture that remain vivid in my memory. I remember watching the OJ car chase on TV with my mom the night before I went on a church trip to Washington. I remember wearing black to school for 3 days after Kurt Cobain died, even though I didn't really listen to Nirvana. I remember the Challenger exploding on TV at Kindergarten. I remember the phone calls and text messages on Election Night 2008- watching MSNBC and realizing that Obama only needed California and Oregon to win.

I remember singing a version of We Are the World at pre-school. I remember watching the world premiere of Black & White, the MJ video with Macaulay Culkin and all those multi-racial people's head and shoulders during an episode of The Simpsons while laying on the floor in my dad's sun room. While I wasn't a huge Michael Jackson fan, his impact on music is extraordinary and his impact on anyone born in the 1970s or 1980s can't be disputed.