Tributes across the dial
So many people have tweeted and updated about hearing Michael on the radio last night. The best thing to me about the moment was how far across the radio you could hear him. In Washington, the adult R&B station, Majic 102.3, was the best place to listen, and I got chills when they announced the death and went into Never Can Say Goodbye. But the tributes continued across the city's two hip-hop stations, the Top 40 station, the rock station, the contemporary hits station, and the easy listening station. Even the DJ-less "fresh" station threw various Jackson into the robot playlist. On each of the formats, his songs fit.
Couple other thoughts: Last night reminds us how wrong the Justin-as-the-next-Michael notions are. Justin makes good music, but he is not off the wall, bad nor dangerous. Also, I think the L.A. Times wins the obit lede competition. Hard to beat this on greatness/oddness:
Michael Jackson was fascinated by celebrity tragedy. He had a statue of Marilyn Monroe in his home and studied the sad Hollywood exile of Charlie Chaplin. He married the daughter of Elvis Presley.
Jackson met his own untimely death Thursday at age 50, and more than any of those past icons, he left a complicated legacy. As a child star, he was so talented he seemed lit from within; as a middle-aged man, he was viewed as something akin to a visiting alien who, like Tinkerbell, would cease to exist if the applause ever stopped.
It was impossible in the early 1980s to imagine the surreal final chapters of Jackson's life. In that decade, he became the world's most popular entertainer thanks to a series of hit records – "Beat It," "Billie Jean," "Thriller" …
