MJ death, biggest since Princess Di?
musicismylife78
Posts: 6,116
I dont own a tv so I dont know if its All MJ all the time, but some people have suggested this is one of those major music deaths like those of Lennon or Cobain, one where we remember where we were when it occurred.
Some have even suggested the outpouring of grief and nonstop coverage is the most extensive since Princess Di was killed.
Is this accurate?
Some have even suggested the outpouring of grief and nonstop coverage is the most extensive since Princess Di was killed.
Is this accurate?
Post edited by Unknown User on
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It is a major death, but I'm not seeing the news outlets covering it nearly so much as those others mentioned.
Also, the guy did some great work back in the day, but he hasn't been relevant for 15 years and he's basically a child molester.
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
What the hell did Princess Diana do? The royal family is bullshit.
Michael Jackson touched so many lives. His music was a major influence on my childhood.
When Princess Diana died, I didn't get the fuss, at all.
Muhammad Ali's still the most famous man on the planet. He might not appear much in public these days, but there are places in the Congo that don't have running water, much less the Internet, where the little kids shout "Ali Bomaye". If anything happens to Ali one day, then you'll know about it.
You think Cobain's death was bigger than MJ's?
The 24/7 media covered Cobain's death as an updated feature story, but you had to go to MTV to get detailed features, or rely on Melody Maker and NME once a week. The Internet was a baby in 1994. It did make front page news on most of the papers, though, but you got nothing exhaustive.
What people need to remember about Kurt's death was the incident a few weeks previously, the overdose. Kurt teetering on the edge of death was a big story in the music print media of the time. (I'm old enough to remember that!
I think that the difference between MJ's death and that of Kurt is, after the hysteria is over, and people have played MJ's records and become a bit bored by them, this event lacks major cultural significance. Kurt's death had a massive cultural impact. Between April 1994 and Blur's early 1995 appearance on the Brits (signalling the beginning of the Britpop era in the mainstream media), there was this dark hinterland of musical loss. This is difficult to grasp in an Internet era where we're all so postmodern and shuffling iPod playlists.
Blimey, I got longwinded there. Sorry about that!
Umm, I think the media hanging on every thing MJ has done over the past 15 years pretty much blows this out of the water. I can understand if Kurt's implosion and eventual death meant a lot to a lot of people on this board but I can say with a lot of confidence that not a whole lot of people gave a shit overseas. When I say overseas, I'm not talking about London or Berlin, I'm talking tribal village in Africa or New Guinea. MJs cultural penetration (insert dirty MJ joke here) is matched by few in popular culture and Cobain is NOT one of them, not even close.
To a lot of people Jackson has been "dead" for a while now. His antics over the past 15 years or so have alienated a lot of fans, I know, I'm one of them. But to call Cobains death more culturally significant is blasphemy to me. I know i'm on a Pearl Jam message board right now so there are probably a lot of Nirvana fans here but lets not get blinded by our biases.
Also, MJ death is bigger than Cobain's death.
I would put Tiger Woods in that list and take out Mick Jagger and Bono.
Cobain died at the height of his career, just after he had changed the course of rock 'n' roll.
Di died when she was restarting her life and was still VERY active in her humanitarian work. The royal family might be bullshit but she was out sweeping for land mines, visiting people with HIV in 3rd world countries...
Michael Jackson hasn't turned out an album worth hearing from start to finish in 22 years and was just in the news for being a nutbag fruitcake. Up until two days ago, his pictures were the punch line to a joke.
Yes.. it's a bigger story, but not for any reason other than he was a huge star who was killed by his own fame. He died a shadow of his former self... that's all.
I agree with this as well. Cobain's death doesn't even come close
The whole Princess Di thing is a bunch of crap. Mother Theresa died around the same time and not near the amount of coverage was given to her death and I guarantee you she did more than Di, and she didn't go sleep in a palace every night.
SHOW COUNT: (164) 1990's=3, 2000's=53, 2010/20's=108, US=118, CAN=15, Europe=20 ,New Zealand=4, Australia=5
Mexico=1, Colombia=1
The Anna Nicole Smith death was similar (not in the way that a lot of people cared about her, or that she had a large impact on our culture) but they covered the shit out of that story, and pretty much crammed it down our throats for two weeks.
That being said, there are only a handful of national/global events that I remember the dates of, and remember what I was doing when they occurred. The date of MJ's death won't be one of them.
*NYC 9/28/96 *NYC 9/29/96 *NJ 9/8/98 (front row "may i play drums with you")
*MSG 9/10/98 (backstage) *MSG 9/11/98 (backstage)
*Jones Beach 8/23/00 *Jones Beach 8/24/00 *Jones Beach 8/25/00
*Mansfield 8/29/00 *Mansfield 8/30/00 *Nassau 4/30/03 *Nissan VA 7/1/03
*Borgata 10/1/05 *Camden 5/27/06 *Camden 5/28/06 *DC 5/30/06
*VA Beach 6/17/08 *DC 6/22/08 *MSG 6/24/08 (backstage) *MSG 6/25/08
*EV DC 8/17/08 *EV Baltimore 6/15/09 *Philly 10/31/09
*Bristow VA 5/13/10 *MSG 5/20/10 *MSG 5/21/10
Many people don't even know who Cobain is but mention MJ and they'll have an idea.
Peace
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
I am a big music fan and he has had zero influence in my life, couldn't stand his music and he dies essentially a freak in my my book. To mention him in the same breath as John Lennon or Elvis or any of the other greats in music is wrong.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
and to disregard MJ's impact on music is just plain ignorant, i'm sorry. just because you don't like a particular genre of music, or didn't have an influence on your life, isn't reason to dismiss someone's contributions.
Its not about what you thought of him. Its about his influence on an industry and the world. He was one of those few musicians whose appeal was boundry-less. You can hear his influence every day just by turning on the radio.
I too am a big music fan, I never listen to the Beatles or Elvis. I own over 200 CDs, not a single one is of the Beatles or Elvis. Frankly, I think Elvis' music blows but to deny his influence on the music i do love would be incredibly ignorant.
MJs contribution to music is undeniably huge, HUGE. And to not mention him amongst the legends is wrong.
Michael Jackson's death and the media circus which has followed makes for a lot of sound and fury, but what does it signify in historical terms? I mean, really? Anyone who lacks the sense of historical perspective here is a first class nincompoop, in my book.
As for Kurt Cobain, his death left a gaping hole in the music scene for years. He was a spearhead of a generational shift in meaningful art. Michael Jackson was the most successful entertainer of his day, and of all time in terms of radio friendly shifted units, but his active relevance to his contemporary milieu was almost a decade over, in all honesty, by the turn of this new century. His death, though sad to many, didn't suddenly cut off a wellspring of abundant and prolific productivity that continued right up until the last minute to shape other people's work. Jackson was an icon of a former age. Cobain was an artist of the moment. One represented a self-styled majesty of pop, and the other gave a voice to its at-the-time needed antithesis among millions of disaffected and marginalised people who weren't represented by the press.
If you judge the size of the loss of a public figure by the media hoopla surrounding their passing, without intelligently assessing what that death actually means in terms of its implications for the world left in their wake, then you're just attracted to bright shiny things.
he broke barriers, records, and was able to reach people all over the world.
the reaction to his death is well-deserved, i feel. i find it a little sad that on a *music* board, there isn't more love being paid to the man and his music, but ah well.
The young Michael Jackson is for me a Motown equivalent of Gary Coleman. Gary Coleman stayed cool, though, in a midget-sized, curmudgeonly sort of way.
so you don't like anything by:
stevie wonder
marvin gaye
smokey robinson
lionel ritchie, alone and with the commodores
rick james
and those are just the ones i can think of off the top of my head, not including the jackson 5 and michael
?
if that's the case, there ain't much else i can say cuz i can't even understand that. without soul music there is NOTHING.
But you mentioning Cobain reminded me of a conversation I had with my 30 year old brother (HUGE Nirvana fan back in the day, still is). I'm a bit of a fan myself, and the first thing he said to me was, "You may not remember where you were when Kurt died, but you'll always remember where you were when Michael Jackson died."
"Vinyl or not, you will need to pay someone to take RA of your hands" - Smile05
424, xxx