Billions of Tears Shed as The Biggest Name in Music, Michael Jackson, Dies At 50

No doubt by now millions, probably billions of fans all over the world have heard that the baddest man in music, Michael Jackson, died yesterday of an apparent cardiac arrest in his LA home.  He was only 50 years old.

Phrases like “One of the only…“, “Few people have..“, and, “possibly one of..” are commonly used to eulogize performers after they pass.  Those aren’t good enough to describe the inedible career and following of the biggest name in music.  “The only”, “The biggest”, and “No one has ever” are that appropriate and correct terminology when talking  about Michael Jackson.

He changed the face of music forever and set a standard that I don’t think anyone will ever reached again in the world of music.

The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene at the age of 11 as a member of The Jackson 5 and began a solo career in 1971 while still a member of the group. Referred to as the “King of Pop in subsequent years, his 1982 Thriller is the world’s best-selling record of all time and four other solo studio albums are also among the world’s best-selling records: Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995).

Michael Jackson changed the music and the music video from a bland promotional tool, into an art from and necessary marketing production and may have, at the same time given, true purpose to a new cable channel called MTV.  The most awaited MTV “World Premier” video’s were from Jackson and gave ratings to a station that, in my opinion, would have burned out from the boredom until ‘Mike’ upped the ante, and the entertainment value of videos and forced other artists to do the same.  “Thriller“ is not only the biggest selling album of all time, but the video that changed the world of music.  No one had ever captivated an audience and catapulted music marketing like the Thriller video, and no one has done anything like it ever since.  There can only be one first and Michael Jackson is it.

In the early 1980s, he became a dominant figure in popular music and the first African-American entertainer to amass a strong crossover following on MTV. The popularity of his music videos airing on MTV, such as “Beat It”, “Billie Jean” and Thriller—widely credited with transforming the music video from a promotional tool into an art form—helped bring the relatively new channel to fame. Videos such as “Black or White” and “Scream” made Jackson an enduring staple on MTV in the 1990s. With stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of physically complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk. His distinctive musical sound and vocal style influenced many hip hop, pop and contemporary R&B artists.

I had my first kiss to a Michael Jackson song, “Rock with You”, and as the house and techno sounds of Detroit and Chicago started to take over the area, no matter how die hard you were, everyone still had the albums “Off the Wall” and “Thriller”.  You couldn’t play House Music at a top 40 party, but you could definitely get away with mixing up a Michael Jackson song at a House Music party and no one batted an eyelash.  I still remember mixes of “You Wanna be Startin’ Something” with house classics like “Disco Circus” by Martin Circus and “Beat the Street” by Sharon Redd.

Michael Jackson’s influence on how it is done is seen throughout all genre’s of music today, not just in music videos, but dancing.  Ever since videos like “Bad” , “Smooth Criminal”, and “Beat it”, you dare not have a dance song without dancers in the video or on stage at the live performance.  He changed the standards of choreography that artists are still chasing today. Dancers are now a staple in all genres of music from Country line dancing to Rap and Hip Hop. Nobody was doing that before Michael Jackson.

One of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, his other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records—including one for “Most Successful Entertainer of All Time“—13 Grammy Awards, 13 number one singles in his solo career—more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era and the sale of 750 million records worldwide. Jackson’s highly publicized personal life, coupled with his successful career, made him a part of popular culture for almost four decades.

It is common for artists to have songs remixed by DJ’s to cross over into the club market, sometimes making the remix more popular than the original, but you didn’t need that with an MJ song.  They didn’t need it , They were best in their original state. Complete. and any bastardization would undoubtedly be seen as a blasphemy and met with a fan revolt. The only way to mix them and not ruin them, was with another Michael Jackson song.

The combination of Michael Jackson, and Quincy Jones is the most successful teams in all of music, and a bar has been set so high that it will probably never be reached again.  I don’t think we will ever see an artist achieve the success, worldwide recognition, and chart topping sales.  Albums just don’t sell like that anymore.

Michale Jackson was the first, the one and the only.  He was without a doubt the baddest performer in music and the King for all time. He made music that everyone enjoyed from 8 year old’s to grandmothers of every race religion and nationality.  To call him a cross over artist is an insult. He was everyone’s star from the very beginning…there was never anywhere to cross over from.

He effortlessly opened the door of creativity and expression that the music industry badly needed in all music genres across the world and energized music fans everywhere for over 40 years.

We have truly lost the biggest legend of our time.  Mike did it bigger and badder than anyone ever in the history of music and we will miss him.

I’ll miss him.

Additional Stats and excerpts from Wikipedia

Also check out

Big Shot Magazines : Dance Music Artist Remember Michael Jackson and When Michael Jackson Visited Danny Tenaglia

Mixmag’s The World Reacts to the Loss of Michael jackson

Resonant Vibes : Rest In Peace Michael Jackson

http://www.michaeljackson.com/

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