Remembering the King of Pop
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For the people of my generation, Thursday June 25, will stand out in our minds. That is the day that Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, died from what the media is saying is a heart attack.
I know that there are a lot of important things going on in the world and that it may seem silly to write about a singer passing away, but for people my age, this is like the death of Elvis was to the people the same age in the ‘70s.
For many in my generation, Michael Jackson was a huge part of our childhood and adolescence. He was, in every sense, an icon that we all looked up to and adored. His music was the soundtrack of our lives. His posters were hung on our walls. His videos were watched by all of us that were just getting into Much Music.
Some of us idolized him so much that we had a white, rhinestone-encrusted glove placed carefully on our night-stands that we would try on once and a while while we were attempting to do the moon-walk in our bedrooms (yes, I did that!).
Despite the controversy that surrounded Michael in his later years, there are those of us that never fully believed it, that our childhood icon could never have been what the media painted him to be. Personally, I think Michael never grew up and honestly had the child-star mentality that made him seem so strange as he aged.
I thought I would share one of my earliest memories of Michael Jackson (other than singing Beat It to my little brother!). It was when I was seven years old. The video for Thriller had been released that year and though I was very young, I was at an older child’s house and able to watch the video without parental supervision. At this point in my life I was just starting to develop my own taste for music and Michael Jackson was my favourite. I actually had a massive crush on him and was quite excited to see the video. Wow, was I in for a surprise. Everything started out fine. I was thrilled to see him in his letterman jacket. With wide open eyes, I watched him ask the pretty young female to be his girl. Then, IT happened. Two-and-a-half minutes into the video Michael rose up with those glowing yellow eyes and sharp scary teeth. I was horrified! I was so scared, but I couldn’t stop watching. I had nightmares for a month! It was so bad, I had to take down my life-sized poster of Michael off the wall because I keep envisioning his eyes turning yellow and his face making that horrible transformation.
My fears only lasted a few months though and eventually Thriller became something that I watched daily with no fear and the poster went back up along with Teen Beat magazine photos that were torn out and wallpapered around the life-sized Michael. That day lead to an infatuation with his music that spanned two decades and to this day I still love listening to Michael Jackson.
For me, the man and the music will live forever.
RIP Michael Jackson.
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