I’ve been struggling for days trying to wrap my head around my reaction to the death of Michael Jackson. I was a fan from an early age, and as a child of the 80s that I am, MTV and Jackson’s music and videos is a large part of the soundtrack and visual imagery of my early life. Yes, there are some parts of Jackson’s personal life that is very troubling, but at the end of the day we don’t know what happened – so I’m not going to talk about that, enough people are covering this topic already.

I studied musicology in university and specialised in popular music at postgrad level and that of course colours my view of Jackson greatly – musically, Jackson is one of the most important artists of his generation, who heavily influenced the direction of pop music. This is not opinion – this is fact, and it has infuriated me to see several people saying that his music was not ground breaking – when it was.

Let’s side-step the massive issue I have with people who did not spend years and years analysing and reading academic texts on popular music effectively telling me they know my subject matter better than me (on what basis? news articles? please.) and instead refer onwards to someone who has articulated this very well already. I will quote a section of the blog post linked at the end of the entry, but I do encourage you to read the full entry and listen to the demos – it’s very interesting.

Rest in peace, Michael Jackson. Your music had a tremendous effect on me and a lot of others with me, and pop music lost one of its greatest artists last week.

As far as Thriller specifically…Mike did something that no one else had done….he created the musical bridge for mainstream music from the 70’s to the 80’s…he was the cat who survived the 70’s and led the way to he 80’s, where most other 70’s cats were tryna figure out what to do next…most of them were doing disco knock-offs and praying for their survival…

people glaze over it now…but what soul/R&B figure could create a hit rock record that was embraced across the board…AND considered authentic by the rock audience?(the snobs may have been pissed off, but they werent the ones buying the records)…what soul/R&B cat was collaborating with Van Halen….and have it WORK?

it wasnt Prince….w/out Beat It, could you have a Let’s Go Crazy?

what other soul/R&B cat could get one of the Beatles on Black radio in the 80’s?

what soul/R&B cat would get Vincent Price to drop spoken word in the middle a funk/R&B cut cum horror movie?

who was else at the time was incorporating African chants and percussion at a time when everyone was whitening it up sonically(including MJ)…and who would reference Soul Makossa in the 80’s?

listen to the fact that a Black artist who was considered strictly soul/R&B decided to do a stylistic tour de force in one album when it hadnt been done before…

Thriller had:
Funk
straight R&B
Quiet Storm
MOR Pop
Rock

…all in one album by a Black aritst when such a thing was not only unheard of but frowned upon…..

futhermore, on Thriller he spoke abt teen preganancy, gang violence, challenging the social constructs of manhood, the culture of gossip, emotional blackmail, obsession, false accusations of paternity, and belief in one’s self…

fluff?

In Memoriam Part 1: The Artistic Value of Thriller | Scorpeze explains it all….