But it is also chock-full of tragic contradictions and inner turmoil that encapsulate Michael. An inspiring message of hope, unity, love, world peace and raw talent which is tinged with so many other things that would haunt the rest of his life. Surrounding himself by children in one instant (Macaulay Culkin) and sexual imagery in the other, morphing faces and identities and race, the intentional or latent androgyny that Jackson embodied, all followed by a narcissistic dance sequence having nothing to do with the song - undermining the song, in fact - and then the insane and self-destructive violence, vandalism, smashing in a car, breaking windows, that crazy yelling, crotch-grabbing and pants zipping, most of which was sanitized from the video after the original premiere. In "real life," Michael Jackson and the media, which became largely indistinguishable, built an image of the "King of Pop," the biggest thing in music, the unifying center of all music, who sold his own mega records but also owned the Beatles catalog and married Elvis Presley's daughter. But in Black or White, he really seemed to inadvertently reveal himself, simultaneously hopeful and dark, inspirational and creepy, focused and direct and then incomprehensibly losing its way. If a picture is worth a thousand words, what was a Michael Jackson music video extravaganza worth?
I remember watching the Black or White premiere, amazed and then baffled, trying to separate the incredible from the bizarre. It was a major television event and more than that, and it was the only thing anyone spoke about the next day. [Note: the full video is now posted at the end.]
This In Living Color spoof of the Black or White music video is also essential to understanding the impact of the video on America.
On Friday night, Keith Olbermann interviewed Deepak Chopra, who was a good friend of Michael Jackson, and Chopra spoke of how he knew of Michael's drug dependency issues, that when Chopra would raise the issue Michael would ignore him for several weeks, then return and apologize and deny any problem - but continue on with the same behavior. Chopra was never able to force a drug intervention. Rinse, lather, repeat. Chopra expresses anger at the enabling doctors - legalized drug pushers - in Hollywood, and he should be angry about them. But they're being paid to be enablers. Keith gently pushed Chopra on the intervention point, and Chopra's candor is admirable, but you decide for yourself whether his answer is sufficient, or if Chopra has to do some soul-searching as well on the intervention front. I'm not interested in assigning blame or reading minds, and I honestly don't think it would even be fair to do that. And, in theory, Michael was a big boy and bears his own responsibility. It just strikes me as a question worth asking.
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Similarly, it's hard not to wonder what in the world John Landis, of Animal House and The Blues Brothers fame and The Twilight Zone movie helicopter accident infamy, who directed the Black or White video (as well as Thriller), was thinking when he allowed those last five minutes into the music video. Was Michael just too powerful to say no to? Or is this an example of how, as much as Michael's childhood years were distorted through abuse and demands, his adult years were marked by enablers and hangers-on who used Michael in their own way and for their own purposes and never stepped in to help right his course. Putting out a controversial music video is a lot different from prescribing medication, but it is nevertheless obvious that Michael Jackson seemed to be good at surrounding himself with those people who would enable his inner demons (and perhaps in the case of Landis, seeking out those with their own demons and questionable judgment), rather than tell him that a choice he was making was wrong or dangerous or Bad - and that may have been what finally brought an end to his life.
It seems to me that Jackson, in life and death, tells us a lot about ourselves, although in large part that is for each of us to decide. (That sounds a bit goofy, and I guess it is, but so what?) And I realize that, in a significant way, none of this really matters at all, or at least shouldn't. Nevertheless.
The first I heard of Michael Jackson's death was an email from a work colleague who wrote: "Michael Jackson dead. Pedophelia industry loses best customer." Which is not to say that there isn't a certain sad yet justified legitimacy to being horrified by some of the things that Jackson allegedly did. Jackson was never convicted of those actions (and there is substantial support for the idea that his accusers were simply opportunistic gold diggers, the likes of which will surely emerge from all corners following Michael's death, but who knows), yet it was clear that at a minimum he never really understood what was wrong with letting young kids bunk up with him, and how insane it was for him to continue to have sleep-overs with underaged children after allegations came to light. At best, he had a fantastic lack of self-awareness - who dangles their infant from a balcony and then insists there was nothing wrong, that those who were complaining were the sick ones? At worst? Well, we can all imagine the worst. I'm the last one to say that those things are not a sick part of the legacy.
Perhaps it is a generational issue. I grew up listening to Michael Jackson, and Michael was peaking as I went from middle school into high school and college. To me, in spite of all of the revelations and lunacy, and then because of the revelations and lunacy, he was and remains larger than life. The principal memory of younger people, on the other hand, may be the allegations and scandals and the bizarre behavior, Wacko Jacko, a freak, not the music.
But the fact is also that this nasty commentary came from the same person who has previously emailed me not-so-thinly-veiled racist imagery involving President Obama. It's not an isolated example, either. So how we choose to remember Michael Jackson may in large part be a reflection of how we choose to see the world. In Michael Jackson's confusion, we all have the opportunity to find our own messages and lessons, and learn things about others, in some cases for the better and in some for the worse. Those messages are as much a reflection on each of us as they are on the amazing, unique, conflicted and tragic life of Michael Jackson. From that standpoint, whatever the reality is or was about the nature of Michael Jackson, it may just not matter.
At the end of the day, though, I've been posting this music and my occasional comments not so much as social commentary but because his music deserves to be remembered. We'd only be hurting ourselves not to listen again, and to appreciate the monumental nature of what we've lost. Because for better or worse, that music helped to make my generation who we are. The King of Pop was a fabrication, simultaneously ubiquitous and completely unknowable, in a way that may never be possible again in our rapidly-changing, 180-channel mass media, iPod digital post-CD, single-song download era. One person may never be able to rise to that level of mythology again. Maybe that is better.
But maybe not. Maybe sometimes it is great having something so big that reality could not hold it down, that the whole world could collectively understand and be confused by at the same time.
UPDATE: MTV now has the "long version" of the video up, although it has supposedly been edited to make the violence more palatable.
At the end of the day, though, I've been posting this music and my occasional comments not so much as social commentary but because his music deserves to be remembered. We'd only be hurting ourselves not to listen again, and to appreciate the monumental nature of what we've lost. Because for better or worse, that music helped to make my generation who we are. The King of Pop was a fabrication, simultaneously ubiquitous and completely unknowable, in a way that may never be possible again in our rapidly-changing, 180-channel mass media, iPod digital post-CD, single-song download era. One person may never be able to rise to that level of mythology again. Maybe that is better.
But maybe not. Maybe sometimes it is great having something so big that reality could not hold it down, that the whole world could collectively understand and be confused by at the same time.
UPDATE: MTV now has the "long version" of the video up, although it has supposedly been edited to make the violence more palatable.
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