The King of Pop

Michael Jackson died on Friday. Well, Thursday in L.A. But since I was on the South Island of New Zealand, it was Friday. I went through my Michael Jackson phase at 13 and 14, the apex was in 2003. The first tape (in the South Island, we take a while to catch up with modern technology) that I bought was HIStory Vol. 1. I bought it the day after Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix came out in 2003, Sunday 22nd June. From there on, my obsession started.

I played the tape over and over. I bought every CD, record or tape that I could find, of both him and the Jackson 5. Dangerous. Bad. Off the Wall. The Jackson 5 Christmas Album. Music and Me. Blood on the Dance Floor. Number Ones. Thriller. The intensity of each obsession wanes, but still the underlying love for the music is there. With his death, people all around the world have realised and remembered how much they love his music. How they grew up idolising him. My generation fondly remembered discovering it amongst their parents' record collections.

Although he was an easy target to make fun of, due to his strange appearance and baby-dangling incidents, most people could look beyond the bad, and focused on him a fabulous musician and performer. On Saturday morning, NZST, I put on one of my Greatest Hits CDs on the loudest CD player, turned it up 'real loud' in his memory, and danced like Macauley did in the video clip to 'Black and White.' Who cares if our neighbours complained? There is no such thing as playing Michael Jackson too loud.

One day I was trying to think who the first famous person I had ever heard about was, growing up in the early 1990s. Not Bush. Not Clinton. Not the NZ PM, whoever it was. A four-year-old has no interest in politics. I figured it must have been Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson or Walt Disney. I remember my friend Rachel bragging about how she knew 'the way to Wacko Jacko's house' and proceeded to give me directions. He was her dance teacher, apparently. Even four-year-olds in the backwaters of New Zealand knew who he was, and idolised him.

Michael Jackson was, quite simply, the greatest popstar of all time. To be fair, the competition is slim. Prince? Madonna? Britney Spears? Rihanna? Elvis Presley was the King of Rock'n'Roll, Luciano Pavarotti was the greatest opera singer in recorded memory. Michael Jackson stands with those giant performers. He was as good as pop will ever get.