This May Lose Me Some Friends

[poliphilo]

The music never dies. It goes on and on and on. Ad nauseum. Someone switch the bloody thing off.

Jackson's work is kitsch. Even the better stuff is slick and empty.

Fred Astaire said Jackson was the greatest dancer of the 20th century. I refuse to believe he meant it.

Bad? Not in the way he wanted us to think.

I find it shocking that people make excuses for Jackson that they wouldn't dream of making for other middle-aged men who like to share their beds with children.

By the time of his death he was a freeloading junkie who indulged himself in every little whim- but couldn't be bothered to pay his staff.

Celebrity turns men and women into monsters. The strong-minded get out before it destroys every last scrap of decency and truth.  Jackson wasn't strong-minded.

Comments

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

I was never a fan, don't think I could recognize anything of his except Thriller.

Fred Astaire must have been going senile - no way was Jackson better than him OR Gene Kelly or even Danny Kaye (and that's stretching it, Kaye was not a dancer either).

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Maybe Astaire was just being polite. I don't know. Or modest.

Celebrity turns men and women into monsters.

[baritonejeff.livejournal.com]

While that is much too often the case, not every celebrity becomes a monster. I have had too many lovely colleague experiences with too many bonafide celebrities to accept a statement as blanketing as that, although I can certainly see where one could easily come to believe such a thing.

Jackson was severely damaged goods, and he behaved accordingly. You make an excellent point about those whose attitude toward him is of the "blind because they will not see" variety; excusing things that they would never excuse in others. Idolatry requires that.

Having said all of the above, I greatly admire the sheer chutzpah of this post. :)

Re: Celebrity turns men and women into monsters.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I would draw a distinction- spurious perhaps- between celebrity and fame. There are plenty of famous people who manage to keep a distance between themselves and their public personae. Celebrity is what happens when the person and the persona merge.

Re: Celebrity turns men and women into monsters.

[baritonejeff.livejournal.com]

Spurious? I don't think so. Interesting take on celebrity? Definitely.

I'm not sure that I completely agree, but you've certainly given me some food for thought.

Thanks!