It has been six years since the King of Pop, Space Michael, Mike Michael Jackson left us forever. Yesterday marked the 6th death anniversary of the greatest phenomenon, the biggest draw, the most popular super-star on the planet, the mega-talented Michael Jackson. He was a singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and actor at the same time.
Born on August 29, 1958 in an African-American, working-class family, Michael Jackson started his career along-with his brothers as a front-man of the Jackson-5 in 1964 and began his solo career later in 1971. He climbed the ladder of success during the 70s and by early 80s, was a force to be reckoned with in pop culture.
Michael Jackson was undoubtedly a master of his craft but his greatest success and achievement is the unprecedented and unparalleled levels and heights of global admiration and excessive praise that he received. A mere sight of the charismatic enigma made people howl and wail in an expression of extreme emotions; love, happiness or mild fear, that is what Space Michael extracted out of the hearts of the people.
In a relatively less-connected world of the 90s, Michael Jackson conveyed his message of uniting the world through love and music; and this he did in spite of all the barriers- physical, cultural and linguistic et al. He also did so successfully.
Michael Jackson set the bench-mark of fame and celebrity-success for all future performers; and he set it very high. His 1982 album ''Thriller'' is the best-selling album of all time. Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991), and HIStory (1995) are some other albums standing tall in best-sellers. He is also accredited with popularizing the breath-taking ''Moonwalk'' and ''Robot'' as dance moves.
Michael Jackson owns multiple Guinness World Records, 13 Grammy Awards, the Grammy Legend Award, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, 26 American Music Awards (more than any other artist) including the "Artist of the Century" and "Artist of the 1980s", 13 number-one singles in the United States during his solo career and estimated sales of over 400 million records worldwide.
''To whom much is given, much is required'' and the same was true for M-J. He was tested to the extremes by various controversies during his career and their sensationalizing by the media. A challenged childhood, a fundamental change in appearance, multiple allegations of molestation and regular misunderstanding of him by the fans and public were the major problems highlighting his career and life.
We do things. They are either positive or negative. But he had risen to a different position and status. What he did was always both positive and negative. It wasn't up to him anymore. It was to those who saw and heard what he did and said. For instance, the change of appearance meant him forsaking his own identity to some people while to others it simply meant that he was above parochialism and identification with local/provincial groups. He wanted to embrace all but not all embraced him.
Michael gave the world cheers but found tears in return. With his out-of-this-world talent, people treating him different than all the rest of the error-prone human-beings, is both understandable and unfortunate. He may have gone but the candles of love that he lit will keep radiating light, forever.
“God gave me a gift & I have to use it responsibly by giving back. I’ll do it until I have pennies left or God calls me home.”- So he believed and then came, finally, God's calling on June 25, 2009 and Michael Jackson wasn't among us anymore.