So, Michael Jackson, as many of you have probably heard, passed away earlier today. Amazingly, this story has captured the attention of everyone who has a television. I guess the notion of a younger generation fighting for their freedom in Iran has become old hat.

Okay, I’m not trying to be a wet blanket. For better or for worse, Michael Jackson had an incredible impact on most people my age and older. Jackson’s influence on pop culture was immense, whether people knew it or not. Jackson helped to shape MTV and the music industry of the past 25 years or so, gave record label executives the idea that they could make huge piles of money by showcasing an artist. Unfortunately, there was something that was lost on most people when they tried to emulate Jackson’s success: the man was incredibly talented. The videos were used as a means of bringing awareness to Jackson, rather than serving as an ad. It’s an important distinction: initially, for Jackson, the videos were an exclamation point on an incredible product. If you took away the videos, you’d still have something amazing. For many artists that followed (and sadly, for Jackson as well) the video became representative of the artist. All polish and no depth. As I said, Jackson fell prey to this as well, as his career going into the 90s and onwards languished, despite even bigger and bigger budgets. It didn’t help that he became increasingly eccentric as time went on, becoming more renowned for his bizarre behaviour than for anything musical. I guess, you could say that Jackson could be seen as a microcosm of the music industry and, if you do, you have to wonder if this means if we can officially state that the ‘business’, as we know it, now has an official time of death.

I mean, honestly, think about it. The ‘majors’ have been losing more and more money as time has gone on, much like Jackson has. MTV has become more about spectacle and the bizarre than anything truly engaging or artistic, being more interested in foisting the likes of Steve-O or Speidi upon us (ironically, MuchMusic has gone to streaming non-stop Jackson related material since his death was announced. I’m unsure if the same can be said about MTV down in the States, but I find it to be incredibly sad that I was surprised to see such heavy coverage done for Jackson, particularly in this day and age. The last time I recalled this sort of 24/7 coverage being bestowed on a musician was with Kurt Cobain’s death) Both the industry and Jackson became embroiled in some ugly legal issues, mostly pertaining to money. For Jackson, it had mostly to do with bankruptcy, for the record labels, it had more to do with suing grandmothers and teenagers. There are a lot of parallels that can be made and, without meaning to sound incredibly ghoulish here, it is strangely appropriate that Jackson’s passing came when it did. A movement that he embodied and signified, far more than anyone else, has come to an end, just as he himself has passed away.

That’s without going into Jackson’s own personal issues, something which I think most people are unqualified to be doing. I did like what Bob Lefestz had to say in his e-mail newsletter, though: “He missed his childhood and now he’s gonna miss his old age. How fucked up is that?”