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Jackson’s oddity obscured genius |
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Written by Lethbridge Herald
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Thursday, 25 June 2009 |
Over the years, as he sank deeper into eccentricity and withered under the weight of scandal and suspicion, it was easy to forget just what a superstar, what an otherworldly talent, and what influence to the music industry and popular culture Michael Jackson was.
There are few who reach such status. Arguably, in the past 50 years, there have been but three acts to rise to such heights: Elvis, the Beatles and Jacko, the self-proclaimed King of Pop.
But with his sudden death Thursday, weeks shy of age 51, archive footage of Jackson from years past served up a tragic reminder of a enormous talent derailed by all the trappings and isolation of fame and fortune.
As a boy, it was Michael who so clearly outshone his singing siblings on stage. It was that voice, charisma and confidence that propelled him to the front of The Jackson Five. He wasn’t some cute child star who would vanish once puberty hit and his “cute factor” faded.
As an adult solo star, Jackson set a new standard in the music industry with Thriller, an aptly titled 1982 album — topping the charts, exciting a generation of new artists, and taking the music video to theatrical levels never before achieved.
The album was like a revelation with track after track of hits — seven hitting Billboard’s Top 10 — nearly as many hits as there were Grammys celebrating it, a record eight.
No one back then moved like Jackson, performed like Jackson or created a sound quite like he did. And no one to this day has outsold that one watershed album.
In later years, as he created a more bizarre image for himself shaped by cosmetic surgeries and punctuated by affectations such as surgical masks covering a face that bore little resemblance to what he looked like as a child, his odd behaviour overshadowed the brilliance within.
And there are many today who know him only as a has-been celebrity dogged by allegations he mistreated children at the amusement park/home he called Neverland. He was charged but found not guilty in 2005, but the picture painted at trial of a man who surrounded himself with young boys, tempting them with booze and pornography, left his reputation in shreds.
But as we’ll see in the flood of tributes in the wake of his death, many of his fans around the world never stopped idolizing him.
And he hadn’t given up on plans to reclaim his former glory. Jackson was working on a new tour that reportedly would feature 300,000 Swarovski crystals lighting up the stage.
The world won’t see that glittery vision become reality. Instead, they’re left with a sadness for an immense talent lost to the eccentricity that blossoms in the company of enablers living off his wealth who never helped the artist control his impulses for any manner of excess.
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