Michael Jackson: The End of HIStory

Michael Jackson via last.fm

Michael Jackson, whether he was the King of Pop or the King of Weird, commanded our attention during his lifetime--for better or worse.

It started at age 11, as lead singer of the Jackson 5, when Michael and his brothers landed four consecutive singles ("ABC", "I Want You Back", "The Love You Save" and "I'll Be There") on top of the Billboard pop charts. As the clips from The Ed Sullivan Show and Dick Clark's American Bandstand showed, Michael was a born performer. But he didn't have much of a childhood.

When Jackson went solo, he became one of the biggest superstars in the world. Albums such as Off The Wall, Bad and Thriller set records for sales that may never be equalled. The Moonwalk was introduced on a Motown TV special. Videos for "Billie Jean", "Beat It" and "Thriller" almost singlehandedly put MTV on the map.

As Jackson's music career receded, his bizarre personal life took center stage. He married and divorced Lisa Marie Presley (Elvis' daughter), He married and divorced Debbie Rowe, the mother of two of his children. He reportedly used hyperbolic chambers and wore masks in public. He had numerous surgeries that realigned his face and his skin color. There were allegations of child molestation, which he either settled out of court or was acquitted in a sensational trial. The legal costs that resulted forced Jackson to leave his beloved Neverland ranch.

Then, in the midst of preparing for a comeback concert tour, Michael Jackson died suddenly of cardiac arrest at age 50. TV networks cleared their schedules to present coverage of Jackson's body being transported by a Los Angeles police helicopter from one hospital to another. Millions watched as the body, draped in a white blanket, was moved into a van that would take him to the coroner's office for an autopsy.

Grotesque imagery aside, we need to know this about Michael Jackson. He was a hell of an entertainer with dance moves that will be imitated for as long as there is music. But he was also a screwed-up individual who never really crossed the threshold into adulthood, and that made him hard to like. And now he's out of our lives.