Michael Jackson Dead!

[Phoenix999]

I don't understand people's tearful reactions to this....

Its called Recreational Grief, public signs of caring such as wearing coloured ribbons, signing internet petitions, and carrying banners about feeling good, but not doing good; it’s projecting one’s ego that’s all and thereby showing others what a deeply caring individual you are!!!, but not actually doing anything that makes a difference, if you look back over the years TOC is full of it and a prime example!

Reece.... you don't really like this place do you

If not then why don't you leave

[Red Yaris 54]

TO GET BACK ON TOPIC

I appreciated Michael Jackson for the sheer entertainment value of his music. He was truely a master of his art, and will leave a legacy of music that will influence many for years to come.

May his soul rest in peace.

[PaulT]

Paul.

[balli hi]

I find it difficult to have sympathy for someone with accusations of paederasty against his name , not that just because he was accused, so that makes him guilty , we all know that people are wrongly accused of things all the time , what worries me is that whacko bought his accusers off , thereby settling out of court , which for me leaves big question marks , and therefor guilty untill proved innocent , i certainly won't be mourning his passing , sorry no grief here i'm afraid .

Also i have heard people putting him at the top of the pile when it comes to musical greats , above the likes of John Lennon , Elvis , Mark Bolan , ect ,..... Their having a laugh , no chance .

I have no idea who Mark Bolan is, Elvis and Lennon may have been great artists, but for a man like jacko to have such a huge fan base proves he is and was the greatest. Everyone who listened to music no matter what genre they were into must have had one of his songs in their music library.

Even tho' most of his great songs are over 20 years old, made before i was even born, they can still be played without them being sounding outdated. This shows that Jacko was the greatest musician that graced the stage.

As for his personal life, whatever it was, if he is guilty of these accusation then good riddance to him...but theres no denying the man had talent.

I'm clearly a lot older than you so let me educate you , Mark Bolan was the singer songwriter of T Rex : Born: September 30, 1947, London, England

Died: September 16, 1977, London, England

Active: '60s, '70s

Genres: Rock

Instrument: Vocals, Guitar, Songwriter

Representative Albums: "Early Singles 1964-1968," "Bump 'N' Grind," "At the Beeb" Representative Song: "Cat Black (The Wizard's Hat)

As a kid growing up , i collected everything and anything to do with T Rex , i was a huge fan & still am , Mark Bolan was and always will be one of the music industries greats , bigger than jacko ??? ...in my eyes YES , but factually.... If i'm honest , i'll have to say no , so maybe a bit of a climb down on that front , i fully acknowledge that MJ was a global phenomenon , however MJ actually wrote very little of his own songs , quite a lot of jacko's hits were written and produced by Quincy Jones , maybe someone will correct me on that score , and i'm sure that thriller , the biggest selling single of all time , was actually written by an unknown englishman..... its one thing having a great voice , but real talent for me is defined in ones ability to not only sing , but in ones ability to sing write & produce , that for me is how you define greatness , John Lennon had it , and so did Mark Bolan , thats not to say that i was'nt a fan of MJ , i was and still have some of his albums on Vinyl as well as on CD , however things changed for me when all the stories and accusations of paederasty were leveled at him , but instead of fighting the accusations till the end in court , he chose to silence his accusers with out of court settlements , child abuse for me is one of the most vile acts one human being can inflict on another , an unforgivable act , and as said , jacko has huge question marks hanging over him on that front , and i'm sorry , for as much as i enjoyed his music , i can't find any room for grief for a suspected paedo , and as i respect your thoughts and everyone elses on jacko's passing , i hope you will respect mine

[Bizarra]

Not personally a fan of the man, but I enjoy his music.... the old ones are classics. Loved Beat It, Thriller, Billie Jean.... the list of amazing music goes on. He was an incredibly talented man in his earlier days.

Regardless of his personal life... we've all heard the stories. He was eccentric and wacky. He was never out of the public eye, a place he'd lived since he was five.

Whenever someone dies, regardless of how I feel about them, I try and take a moment just to think of their loved ones. Michael Jackson had a hell of a lot of fans, to be in the industry as long as he has, he's the sort of artist who can make a terrible album and still have millions of loyal fans. Me personally, I'm not a fan per se, but fundamentally you realise that this isn't just Michael Jackson the entertainer or Michael Jackson, the weirdo, who's passed away. It's Michael Jackson the man, the father, the son, the brother. And ultimately, I feel sorry for his children, regardless of whether they're biologically his or not, because no one wants young children to have to suffer their Father passing away.

I'm personally quite disappointed at the attitudes of some people on here, who feel the need to make jokes so soon after someones death. Have a little respect. Ok so we never knew the man and some of us didn't like him a great deal.... me included in many respects.... but a lot of people did. Even I can see the legacy Michael Jackson left.... he was such an important cog in the MTV generations wheel. I mean could you ever imagine a party without some drunken relative trying to Moonwalk. Could you ever imagine Bo'Selecta without Michael Jackson and his "eeeee-heeeeeee SHAMONE!" and his stories about his "brother Tito". What about other artists, who have taken Michael Jacksons trademark dancemoves and created their own versions. Justin Timberlake springs to immediate mind. Would Justin be who he is without Michaels influence? And not forgetting the most important thing he did. He was a black artist (lets forget his "skin disorders" for the moment). He made black music acceptable for white people, even the likes of White Middle America. People, who might have otherwise not listened to Motown saw this kid and enjoyed his music. The colour of his skin didn't register to anyone. He wasn't 'the black artist' Michael Jackson. He was just Michael Jackson.

Yes he was ridiculed and he was berated and his decisions were sometimes very stupid and not something a completely sane person would contemplate, but as a performer and an entertainer, he was probably one of the greatest.

You can concentrate on the negatives in his life and say "Well he was weird and he's a child molester and he dangles baby's off balcony's and he was black and now he's white" or you could actually say "Yeah, I didn't like the guy, but he made some brilliant music and left this amazing legacy which will live on and as an artist, he was revolutionary"

And leave the tasteless jokes til next week at the earliest.....

Thank you, Em. You have saved me a lot of time & typing by putting my thoughts more lucidly & eloquently than I could

Danny K made well put & eloquent comments, too, many of which I can subscribe to. :P

I might add that anyone who is a member is allowed to voice their opinions on this forum, whether they have 27 posts or 10,000

"Speak no ill of the Dead" is an Irish & probably English adage, too

[local hero]

well within an hour of finding out about his death i have had streams of jokes about him, 38 in total one that includes Farah Fawcett Majors who we all seem to have forgot, I am neither for or against, some i find amusing others not, but this happens with every major event its as if theres a race to get the first joke out, I sometimes wonder if they are instigated by the phone companies as they must make a fortune out of these events. I think Bernard Manning once said there is no subject he wouldn't tell a joke about apart from concentration camps as his father died in one, apparently he fell out of the control tower whilst trying to shoot some escapees.. :shutit:

[clangnuts]

The media hypocrisy is summed up quite well in this YouTube video:

Warning, it contains some very bad language, and I'm sure some will find it offensive (if they don't bother thinking of who the real message is aimed at).

**DESPITE THE WARNING GIVEN THIS VIDEO HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM THE GENERAL TOC FORUM AS IT CONTAINS "GRATUITOUS" BAD LANGUAGE WHICH CONTRAVINE TOC TERMS AND CONDITIONS....... IF YOU WISH TO POST THIS SORT OF MATERIAL PLEASE JOIN THE UNMODERATED TOC SUPPORTERS CLUB**

[Karma Supra]

Why are "his" kids white????

(no it's not a joke lol)

[KPARRIS-JONES]

Seriously, I don't have sympathy for the man. Too many problems around him, and he was just so wierd. I cannot respect someone who destroys themselves like he did.

[plus one]

Loved his music,

Wasnt to keen on the man himself!!!

went out saturaday night....heard man in the mirror remixed in several different ways and that was just in one club, there was also a few other micheal jackson classics thrown in for good measure!

i think you can deffinately have to much of a good thing!!!

[clangnuts]

The media hypocrisy is summed up quite well in this YouTube video:

Warning, it contains some very bad language, and I'm sure some will find it offensive (if they don't bother thinking of who the real message is aimed at).

**DESPITE THE WARNING GIVEN THIS VIDEO HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM THE GENERAL TOC FORUM AS IT CONTAINS "GRATUITOUS" BAD LANGUAGE WHICH CONTRAVINE TOC TERMS AND CONDITIONS....... IF YOU WISH TO POST THIS SORT OF MATERIAL PLEASE JOIN THE UNMODERATED TOC SUPPORTERS CLUB**

Sorry about that. :(

I'll get me coat....

[cabcurtains]

Seriously, I don't have sympathy for the man. Too many problems around him, and he was just so wierd. I cannot respect someone who destroys themselves like he did.

If you had been an A list Celeb since the age of 8 with no childhood and dad who considered whipping you with a belt not a beating because that needs a stick, you too could be a bit weird!!!

The poor bloke was also given some terrible advice by his aids who no doubt took millions from him, i doubt he felt he could trust anyone, yes he did make some strange decisions but IMO this was driven by living in a strange environment and having an abnormal life for a farm boy from Indiana!

Everyone should have some apathy for his situation and respect him for his talent now he has gone.

[Demonic Angel]

Seriously, I don't have sympathy for the man. Too many problems around him, and he was just so wierd. I cannot respect someone who destroys themselves like he did.

If you had been an A list Celeb since the age of 8 with no childhood and dad who considered whipping you with a belt not a beating because that needs a stick, you too could be a bit weird!!!

The poor bloke was also given some terrible advice by his aids who no doubt took millions from him, i doubt he felt he could trust anyone, yes he did make some strange decisions but IMO this was driven by living in a strange environment and having an abnormal life for a farm boy from Indiana!

Everyone should have some apathy for his situation and respect him for his talent now he has gone.

I concur....

The man never grew up.... he never really had a childhood - his father had him performing at 5 years old and Michael himself admitted they were all beaten regularly. Joe Jackson ruled with an iron fist.

Personally I think that's where the obsession with young boys comes from.... he thought he was a kid, he lived at Neverland Ranch and called himself Peter Pan.... normal sane adult men don't do that. He was obsessed with young boys probably not for sexual reasons (he's admitted all three of his children were conceived using artificial insemination, so it's likely he never actually had sex to create them, even though he was married to the mother of the elder two), but because he felt like 'one of them' and they were on his wavelength.

You could spend months, possibly years psycho-analysing the guy, his past, his childhood, what actually was going on in his head... as a psychology subject he would have been fascinating to study.

That's my personal opinion on it. Michael Jackson, in his mind, wasn't 50. He was childlike, he probably saw sleepovers with young friends as innocent.... unfortunately any sane adult human being doesn't think the same way.

The guy had serious psychological problems, stemming fundamentally from his childhood and the physical, mental and emotional abuse from his Father. It's said he got his nose done, not because he had breathing issues as he said, but because his own father called him 'Big Nose'.... I mean if my Dad called me that repeatedly I'd be booking in for rhinoplasty too... he probably also suffered from body dysmorphic disorder as well, hence the repeated surgery to try and make himself look less African-American.

The poor guy was troubled in every avenue of his life. It's quite sad to think about it actually.

[duncerduncs]

As sad as it is that Michael Jackson has died, does anyone else think that the news channels have gone a little OTT?

[reece]

As sad as it is that Michael Jackson has died, does anyone else think that the news channels have gone a little OTT?

Not really. Wait till the funeral...

[cabcurtains]

As sad as it is that Michael Jackson has died, does anyone else think that the news channels have gone a little OTT?

Yep, like everything with the media lets make a huge hype and forget peoples feelings, our local radio station was advertising being able to listen to the 911 call, what sort of freak wants to make an effort to hear that??

[Danny K]

As sad as it is that Michael Jackson has died, does anyone else think that the news channels have gone a little OTT?

OTT? I'll say!

- I was flicking TV channels last night trying to watch three things at once without recording; (women aren't the only ones who can multi-task :) ), and there was the perfect example of the sheer banality of media ineptitude. I accidentaly clicked on one of the channels that repeats programmes on another channel one hour later, and it had a static message plastered across the screen:

"Due to legal reasons we cannot show 'The Michael Jackson Story'."

Now if you were a TV executive what would you do for the next hour / hour & half?

What these 'experts' did was to leave the message up ALL evening for the duration of the time the actual MJ Story would have taken - bozos!

- I'm just not interested in the technical reasons why it couldn't be substituted with another repeat of an earlier 'programme', (surely this kind of incident must have had a contingency plan allowed for at some time?)

Then this morning I was catching a news update (as in general news) and there was another example of the zombie-like media working 'on our behalf' as if they're about to reveal a US version of our Commons expense fraud case that is of so much national importance.

MJ's sister, Toyah Jackson was driving into the driveway of her parents house (maybe it was her own driveway, couldn't tell) when what appeared to be 40 or so 'reporters', mobbed her car, forcing her to stop. Such was the machine-gun-like cachophony of voices shouting: "Toyah, how do you feel? etc.," that it was impossible to hear her attempted replies above the manic, near hysteria, of a scrum. (Who knows? Perhaps she replied, "I'm fine, I'm just off to a dance").

- However, being the consummate professional she is (and skilled in handling intrusive media packs) - she THANKED THEM for their concern, (we know she thanked them, because they told the viewers afterwards), and if they hadn't informed us, you could guess so when as she attempted to drive off, you heard the paparazzi voices rise clearly as if they were one - (and simpering with self-approval), "God bless you Toyah", with each "God bless you" rising in vocal volume, calling after Toyah until it almost became a chant, as if indicating some kind of approval as in: "That's how WE should be spoken to by celebrities, on such occasions".

It would appear that while scandals such as the MP's expenses show a real need for a free unimpeded media, it comes with the side effect of some inedible after-tastes too.