MICHAEL JACKSON
The sad and tragic life of Michael Jackson came full circle with a public memorial service in tribute to his death, held yesterday in Los Angeles, which in its vulgarity, ostentation, hypocrisy, and all round superficiality, was redolent of ancient Rome.
His gold plated coffin was carried into the auditorium by members of his family and placed on a plinth under a white spotlight in front of 17,000 fans/mourners, who were present only after taking part in a lottery for the privilege, along with the tens of millions watching on TV around the world. What then ensued was three hours of gushing eulogy, song, and heartbreak over the death of a man whose life was a study in the anti-human nature of the celebrity culture which stands as an indictment of our society and the economic system that lies at its root.
Michael Jackson never knew anything other than life under the spotlight. From the age of 5 he was a professional singer and performer, his life a daily regimen of rehearsal, performance, and touring with his brothers. Later, turning solo, the regimen continued, until by his twenties he was a global superstar, regaled with the title King of pop.
His singles, albums, videos, and live performances broke records time and time again, culminating in Thriller (1982), which became and continues to be the biggest selling album of all time, at its peak selling an unbelievable million copies a week.
But behind the songs, the videos, and the groundbreaking concerts, Michael Jackson’s personal life was unravelling. The sheer extent of his fame meant that for him anything even approaching normality was as much a fantasy as standing on stage performing and being worshipped by tens of thousands of people was for his millions of fans. Unable to deal with the distorting and cloying reality of the pressure that was placed on him to be more than human, Michael Jackson did his utmost to escape into an imaginary world of childlike innocence and fairytale. His Neverland Ranch was symptomatic of a man who’d rejected a world in which he was surrounded by the demands of fans, managers, promoters, recording executives, and a legion of sycophants, for one in which he was surrounded by children and the innocence they represent.
Stories began to emerge of his relationship with a monkey, of him sleeping in an oxygen tent, and then later of his inappropriate relations with some of the children he took to taking with him around the world, which progressed into charges being brought against him of sexual molestation.
The physical manifestations of Michael Jackson’s personal collapse were all too obvious in the plastic surgery which turned him into a living, breathing monument to self loathing and mutilation. Increasingly, whenever he appeared in public, it was like looking at a man slowly turning himself into one of the characters from his Thriller video, perhaps in a conscious attempt to hide from a world grown ever more intrusive and unsympathetic.
Ultimately, the ridicule which dogged Michael Jackson while he was alive, ridicule driven by an unforgiving media and international press, has been in inverse proportion to the deluge of tributes and fawning idolatry that have dominated the coverage of his death.
Perhaps the real tragedy that has emerged from the death of Michael Jackson is the way it has unleashed such scenes of mass hysteria. More than anything, the fixation and obsession with fame and celebrity that is a feature of our society is a reflection of the struggle and despair experienced by so many. Poverty, drudgery, and hopelessness are the ingredients which feed a perception that the only route to happiness is more money than you can spend in one lifetime and the adulation of millions.
In the last analysis, the death of Michael Jackson from a suspected drug overdose at the age of 50 is proof of the fact that escape from reality is impossible. What is possible is liberation from the despair and unhappiness which drives people to seek such an escape in the first place. This liberation is found in human solidarity.
Anything coming on the protests in China?
Comment by apollo — 8 July, 2009 @ 9:46 pm
try http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/uighur-oppression/
Comment by Derek Wall — 8 July, 2009 @ 9:50 pm
Actually I thought it was quite subdued and repsectful.
Comment by Opinion — 8 July, 2009 @ 9:54 pm
Such a dreadful loss to the commitern
Comment by Red Bob — 8 July, 2009 @ 11:00 pm
i’m with Jimmy Carr on the telly last night ” it reminded me of how i felt when Diana died - i didn’t give a f**k “
Comment by sheffielder — 8 July, 2009 @ 11:03 pm
Don’t blame it on the sunshine
Don’t blame it on the moonlight
Don’t blame it on the good times
Blame it on the global-capitalist-imperialist-media-cult-of-celebrity-complex.
Comment by Robert Browne — 8 July, 2009 @ 11:06 pm
“Michael Jackson’s personal life was unravelling. The sheer extent of his fame meant that for him anything even approaching normality was as much a fantasy as…”
MJ had at his funeral messages of support from Nelson Mandela and two children of Martin Luther King. That is enough “human solidarity” for me thanks very much John.
What about the reported high suicide rate of former SWP members, is that ‘approaching normality’?
MJ was a uniquely talented entertainer who at pivotal time in history placed a black face in the mainstream thus conditioning a younger generation to racial colour blindness.
As for “personal life unraveling”, well who other than a clerical fascist, is prepared to ‘cast the first stone”?
Comment by Hugh — 8 July, 2009 @ 11:22 pm
I do hope tomorrow we get back to the cricket, or perhaps an indepth interview with Cristiano Ronaldo about fast cars, Gaydar, celebrity hookers and of course, whether he manged to “lay down” with Paris Hilton.
Comment by Red Bob — 8 July, 2009 @ 11:33 pm
“redolent of ancient rome”?
hilarious.
Comment by Dennis — 8 July, 2009 @ 11:46 pm
#2
I have very little sympathy for Louis Proyect’s reading of the situation.
Comment by Andy Newman — 9 July, 2009 @ 12:22 am
i for one feel kinda sad,
he made some fabulous music and for a while he was such a force of talent. Jon Wight is spot on. his decline and death is a sad indictment of this world.rip mike x
Comment by graham — 9 July, 2009 @ 1:48 am
`But behind the songs, the videos, and the groundbreaking concerts, Michael Jackson’s personal life was unravelling. The sheer extent of his fame meant that for him anything even approaching normality was as much a fantasy as standing on stage performing and being worshipped by tens of thousands of people was for his millions of fans.’
If you’d watched the funeral you’d have noticed how everybody was bewitched by Michael’s constant smiling. He was an ironist, an artist. He was a very funny guy and he actually had a great life in the end. Try being ordinary if you want to know about an `unravelling life’. When you point a finger there are always three pointing right back at you.
Comment by Thoughts — 9 July, 2009 @ 3:02 am
@10
These protests have been going on for several days and we’ve had cricket and Michael Jackson. How long does it take to come up with a line?
Comment by apollo — 9 July, 2009 @ 5:52 am
from what I hear, with the record sales that MJ’s death is producing is enough to pay for that coffin by the time i get done writing this comment
Comment by grasshopper — 9 July, 2009 @ 6:20 am
Lots of memorial services are full of gushing eulogies, vulgarity and even hypocrisy.
Most people would regard dwelling on someone’s alleged faults before they’ve even been buried as in extremely bad taste.
Unless perhaps, they were discussing General Pinochet, or Margaret Thatcher….
For some reason, John Wight’s obsession with the decadence of celebrity culture is beginning to remind me of the “Red Fascist” in the film “Mysteries of the Organism”
- a Scottish white boy dissing many of the black cultural icons of America for being “vulgar and ostentatious”.
Smokey Robinson, for instance, a great singer-songwriter, made a very measured and witty speech
Far greater “mass hysteria” has greeted the death of popular singers in many cultures, Edith Piaf, for example.
The only thing you can really say is that the multi-channel coverage of Jackson’s death has been overdone for commercial reasons.
Sony Entertainment, the TV and Radio stations, the celebrity magazines and web sites will all be cashing in.
Comment by prianikoff — 9 July, 2009 @ 8:12 am
Since I live in Maputo, I foolishly imagined I might be able to escape from Michael Jackson. No such luck! On Tuesday night, I turned on what I imagined would be the main evening news on state television, only to find that the news had been cancelled in favour of the live broadcast of the Jackson funeral.
So I switched over to the main Mozambican private channel, STV - and it was exactly the same! CNN, of course, was showing the funeral, so I turned to “France 24″, to find a French intellectual discussing, guess what, the significance of he Michael Jackson funeral.
So I’m not surprised when they say that a billion people watched the funeral. They watched it because there wasn’t anything else on. This was enforced conformity on a global scale. And I had naively imagined that the whole purpose of the capitalist media was to bring us diversity!
As for the outpouring about what a genius Jackson was - well, he had a few nice tunes, and he could dance well. But we have lost vastly superior artists - John Lennon, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix, to name but three, and I don’t recall similar scenes of grief and hysteria.
Comment by paul fauvet — 9 July, 2009 @ 8:49 am
“But we have lost vastly superior artists - John Lennon, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendri”
I take it you’re white.
Comment by Dustin the Turkey — 9 July, 2009 @ 10:42 am
Carlos Acosta, Cuban superstar, on Jackson (mainly as gentlemanly riposte to Amanda Platell)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/andrew_marr_show/8123116.stm
Comment by ballet russe — 9 July, 2009 @ 11:06 am
Dustin, you really are a turkey. Since when has the quality of people’s music been judged by the colour of their skins?
You also seem unaware that one of the dead artists I mentioned, Jimi Hendrix, was not white.
Would you seriously argue that Michael Jackson was a greater musician than John Lennon? Which song stands a greater chance of being played in 50 years time - “Thriller” or “Imagine”?
Comment by paul fauvet — 9 July, 2009 @ 12:00 pm
The bullshit about freedom of choice under capitalism is one we don’t challenge enough. I like going to the pictures but what choice will I have in the next couple of weeks - I can go and watch Harry Potter or I could go and watch Harry Potter. And why do I actually need 30 different washing powders to choose from ffs.
Comment by Doug — 9 July, 2009 @ 12:51 pm
Well Doug, I am looking forward to seeing Harry Potter next Thursday (probably first time I have been to the cinema this year) but there are lots of other films on too - though I admit nothing very interesting.
Still, secondhand video cassettes are so cheap these days I recommend you head down to a charity shop or car boot sale and stock up. For the price of a cinema ticket you could get at least 20 classic films…
As for washing powder, I reccommend using soap nuts instead. Cheaper and much better for the environment.
Comment by RobM — 9 July, 2009 @ 1:53 pm
“What is possible is liberation from the despair and unhappiness which drives people to seek such an escape in the first place. This liberation is found in human solidarity.”
Which explains why so many old Marxists top themselves or otherwise drink themselves to death???
I always get the creeps when politics adopts a pseudo-religious tone. My understanding is that Michael Jackson became addicted to painkillers when his hair caught fire. just like John Coltrane started taking heroin because he had toothache. What the fuck this has got to do with “human solidarity” is beyond me. Anyway, I suspect there’s more of that among Michael Jackson fans in their shared love and grief than in all the left wing parties in the world.
Politics is about rational answers to concrete problems; not a salve for existential angst. Once the irrational / religious element sneaks in, then there is scope for tyranny. What can you expect though, when Marx pinched his ideas from a religious obscurantist like Hegel?!
Comment by Charles Dexter Ward — 9 July, 2009 @ 2:35 pm
Michael Jackson is dead, long live Jarvis Cocker
Comment by steelcityred — 9 July, 2009 @ 3:20 pm
“You also seem unaware that one of the dead artists I mentioned, Jimi Hendrix, was not white”
Ah, Jimi Hendrix; the black artist of choice for aged white hippies who couldn’t dance.
“Which song stands a greater chance of being played in 50 years time - “Thriller” or “Imagine”?”
“Thriller” I hope - anything is better than that pile of mawkish wank. “Imagine there’s no possessions” - why didn’t you try giving some away of that £750 million then.
Comment by Dustin the Turkey — 9 July, 2009 @ 4:03 pm
Well said Distin, Hendrix was musically white - no question.
Comment by communist — 9 July, 2009 @ 10:48 pm
Musically white?? What the hell is that supposed to mean?
Comment by Tim Vanhoof — 10 July, 2009 @ 12:37 am
Did anyone notice that Dustin the Turkey’s superior artists all began with the letter J?
Freaky or what?
Though Janice Joplin wasn’t mentioned. Maybe ‘cos she ain’t a he?
Comment by anticapitalista — 10 July, 2009 @ 1:02 am
Whoops it was a quote from somewhere
Comment by anticapitalista — 10 July, 2009 @ 1:05 am
Trackback: Michael Jackson inspires Blogdonia
Comment by DaisyDeadhead — 11 July, 2009 @ 6:58 pm
Posted my own thoughts a week ago on my blog:
http://marxist-theory-of-art.blogspot.com/2009/07/michael-jackson-and-cult-of-celebrity.html
Quite agree about the hypocrisy surrounding Jackson’s death, and the cost of celebrity.
@19 and 24: I suspect posterity will rate “Thriller” over the sentimental “Imagine”.
Comment by Eugene Hirschfeld — 11 July, 2009 @ 7:12 pm
To Dustin the Turkey
Anything is better than Imagine???
Let me tell you one thing..If John Lennon wrote a song as bad as the crap M.J has come up with from 1986-2006, he would have shot himself!!!!
Comment by THE TRUTH — 12 July, 2009 @ 6:50 pm
Anyway, it’s a safer world for children now that M.J has gone!
Comment by THE TRUTH — 12 July, 2009 @ 6:52 pm
What a bunch of idiots..Comparing M.J trash music with the genius that was John Lennon.
Comment by THE TRUTH — 12 July, 2009 @ 6:53 pm
Well MJ memorial can never be a similar scene of grief compare to john lennon,hendrix or elvis, because micheal was greater than them when he was alive, and still remains greater than them in grave,sorry man ,you cant beat it , no one cant beat defeat, you are a defeated loner get a life .
jay J
Comment by jayJ — 14 July, 2009 @ 1:16 pm
I’m not a black but want to tell those of you, that john lennon, hendrix or elvis only mattered to white people.
Michael touched people of all colours around the world.
He has always been a victim of racial discrimination, despite of all the commercial success.
Racially motivated jealousy is the driving force of witch-hunt and bashing.
Comment by Not black or white — 17 August, 2009 @ 1:35 pm