(no subject)

Some musicians/entertainers/artists/etc. are just... in the water, so to speak. Part of the landscape. So present, so influential, that questions of whether you 'like' them or not are almost beside the point. And the problem of being around when they hit their peak is, you might take them for granted for a while, until the longevity of their influence finally wakes you up to what you've been seeing all along.

I've always been more a Janet fan than a Michael fan. Control has been in my music collection almost from the start, but I never got around to picking up Thriller. But then again, I didn't have to--I already knew Thriller by heart, thanks to MTV, radio, etc. I suppose some people managed to shut it all out, but they had to be dead in their souls to pull that off. Nor could I fault Michael's public image. I'm a fan of Bowie for gods sake.

But, in many ways, my musical taste was slow to mature, and so--it's strange to say it--I think I was too young at the time to appreciate fully what Michael was doing. And why moments like this one at the Apollo(?) were changing all kinds of rules.

As for all the charges and accusations of later years, I honestly have no idea. I seriously doubt any 'truth' will ever really be known. But the fact that people can do things like this help make the point that he was something more than 'of his time', and maybe the silver lining of this day is that people will eventually return to what we should probably remember MJ for, instead of what we have been for 15+ years. A good part of that can get heaped on the memory of his father, where it probably belongs.

I also have to wonder if Janet might revisit this. The video was always wildly inappropriate, given what the song was about, but I suppose a new reading would be fitting.