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This weekend I did what millions of people around the world also did: I listened to a ton of Michael Jackson.

I estimate that I’ve heard at least ONE Michael Jackson song every day of my life for the past 25 years. That means I’ve heard his songs at least 9,000 times (and let’s be honest: I probably listened to MJ 9,000 times between 1982 and 1985 alone). He’s everywhere. Whether I’m walking down the street listening to my iPod, or I’m in my car driving (Off The Wall is the one CD that NEVER leaves my car), MJ’s music is always easily accessible in my world.

I also work at MuchMusic, so the odds are also good that I’ll see an MJ video at least once or twice a week (thank God for MuchMoreRetro).

Those first few hours after Michael died, I didn’t want to hear those classic songs or see those iconic videos. I just didn’t think I’d be able to handle it (and I couldn’t, I cried A LOT). But a funny thing started happening this weekend: my sadness and anger began moving into the realm of appreciation and celebration. Maybe I was inspired by the images of hundreds of people standing outside the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, singing and dancing and sharing in the joy of MJ’s incomparable musical legacy.

So on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I busted out my entire MJ collection – including my Jackson 5 box set and Jacksons CD’s. I put the CD’s in my player, cranked it real loud and pressed REPEAT.

Not that I needed any confirmation, but DAMN. What a masterful body of work.

Pop music just doesn’t get any more perfect than classic Jackson 5, circa 1969 to 1976. To think that Michael Jackson was barely 10 years old when he recorded “I Want You Back” and “I’ll Be There” is awe-inspiring. Listening to those records, you realize that he had more soul as a child than most of his adult contemporaries. He was a prodigy in every sense of the word.

The Jacksons were essentially the world’s first boy band, and they set the template for every pop group that followed for the next 40 years. New Edition, New Kids On The Block, Backstreet Boys, *N SYNC, Boys II Men - take your pick. They all owe a HUGE debt to the Jacksons. Heck, Justin Timberlake owes his entire CAREER to Michael Jackson (no matter how much he’s tried to downplay MJ’s very obvious influence over the years).

If you don’t own at least one J5 CD, I really MUST insist that you go buy one – or at least download a few tracks off iTunes. There’s no better time than the present.

Personally, my favourite Michael Jackson album is Off The Wall. Growing up Thriller was my be-all and end-all, but at some point in my late teens I started leaning more towards MJ’s first “grown up” solo album. Maybe the album spoke to me because I was transitioning into adulthood, just as Michael was transitioning into adulthood when he recorded it. There’s a thread of innocence and self-discovery on that album that perfectly represented who Michael was at that time, and listening to it this weekend – especially in light of everything’s that happened – gave me goosebumps.

The truly amazing thing is about Off The Wall is the paradox in Michael’s voice. One minute he’s SO alive and energetic (“Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough”), and then he’s incredibly vulnerable (you can actually hear him holding back tears on “She’s Out Of My Life”). And really, isn’t that how Michael was his whole life? An unstoppable force of nature on stage, yet so shy and emotionally fragile off-stage.

Besides it being my personal fave MJ album, I’ve also long held the opinion that Off The Wall is an even better album than Thriller. Having said that, however…

Thriller is THE album that will forever define Michael Jackson, and rightfully so. Its cultural impact was enormous, and the numbers speak for themselves – it’s sold an unbelievable 100 MILLION copies to date. To put that figure in perspective, consider this:

- that figure means every man, woman and child in Canada could own THREE copies of Thriller
- its nearest competitor, AC/DC’s Back In Black, sold 49 million copies (and was released two years earlier)
- the two biggest pop albums of the past decade – Backstreet Boys’ Millennium and Britney’s …Baby One More Time – “only” sold 40 and 25 million copies in comparison.

Who, in this day and age, could sell 100 million of ANYTHING?

So much has been said and written about Thriller over the past 25 years. It was groundbreaking on so many levels, and its effects on music and popular culture were SEISMIC. Nothing I write could possibly do the phenomenon justice – you just had to be there.

Imagine turning on the radio on any given day, or at any given time, and hearing “Billie Jean”.

Imagine walking into a department store in 1983, doing a 360 degree turn, and seeing Michael Jackson memorabilia EVERYWHERE you looked.

Imagine going to a concert in October 1984, and seeing a 5-year old kid (me), a 14-year old teen (my uncle), a 27-year old mother (MY mother) and a 60-year old man (someone’s grandfather) dancing and singing and generally losing their minds at the sight and sound of Michael Jackson.

If you can imagine any of those scenarios, that’s what it was like.

As I listened to those 9 songs that I know so well, I realized that Thriller was pop’s first great crossover album. It literally had something for everyone – pop, R&B, soul, rock, club bangers, heavy guitar licks, and soft, vulnerable ballads. It’s no wonder that it appealed to the world at large. You realize how groundbreaking it was when you think about the pathetic state of popular music today. Popular music today is all about niche markets and hitting a “target demographic”, and no one sees the big picture anymore – that music should be a unifying, not dividing, force. Michael Jackson understood that better than anyone else, and that’s why Thriller is such an important album.

Thriller is basically the ground zero of modern pop music. It truly is at the root of everything Justin, Britney, Usher, Beyonce, and even Madonna have ever done. It’s been imitated a million times, but never duplicated. No one has been able to match its magical, timeless, cross-generational appeal – not even the creator himself.

So, was Thriller the best thing that ever happened to Michael Jackson? Or did its success paralyze him?

Imagine having to compete with your own legacy, or trying to top it. In MJ’s case it was virtually impossible. Not that he didn’t try – Bad is a great album, and brought us some of Michael’s most memorable songs and videos (“The Way You Make Me Feel”, “Smooth Criminal”). Michael also sounded much more aggressive on Bad, and even looked the part for a couple of years. It’s fascinating to hear that evolution in his voice, especially if you listen to Off The Wall, Thriller, and Bad in sequence. It’s almost as if he lost more and more of his innocence with each album, as superstardom slowly began to suffocate him.

Hands down, my favourite song from the Bad era is “Man In The Mirror”. It’s one of those songs that no matter how many times I hear it, it stirs up something deep inside me. I put it right up there with John Lennon’s “Imagine” and “We Are The World” (which Michael co-wrote with Lionel Richie) as one of the greatest social anthems and commentaries in pop music history. If you need any proof of that song’s power, go to YouTube and type “Man In The Mirror Moonwalker” in the search engine. It’s breathtaking.

As for Dangerous, it’s MJ’s last great album – and one that has always been underrated in my opinion. It may not have those instantly recognizable, era-defining classics like “Billie Jean” or “Beat It”, but it’s really the last time we saw and heard glimpses of the old Michael Jackson, before all the bullshit in his personal life began to completely overshadow his music.

As I listened to basically his entire catalogue this weekend, I realized that any pop star in the world today would KILL to have just two or three of MJ’s songs in their own catalogue. I’m talking about songs that are genre-defining, timeless, and instantly recognizable anywhere you go. You could literally go to any corner of the Earth, and the people living there will know at least ONE Michael Jackson song. That’s pretty effin’ powerful.

John Lennon once said that “everyone loves you when you’re six feet underground.” I went to the Tower Records website today and ALL of its Top 10 selling CD’s are by Michael Jackson.

I know that I always loved him while he was alive, but I have a completely different appreciation for Michael now that he’s gone. Because as I listened to “Billie Jean” and “Off The Wall” and “I’ll Be There” and “Dancing Machine” and “Heal The World” and “You Are Not Alone”, it hit me like a ton of bricks that none of us will EVER see another Michael Jackson in our lifetimes. No one will even come close.

It’s a shame that it took an untimely death for the world to once again openly discuss and appreciate his Michael’s music. But if that’s the ONE positive thing that came out of this tragedy, then I guess that’s better than nothing.

- Antonella La Farcioli

Tags: micha, rip

Posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 4:29 pm by Mark Swi and is filed under Celebrities & Pop Culture, Headlines & Current Events.

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