OK, so I was in two minds as to whether or not to do a post… there is so much already on the internet about this tragic event that I really have very little  information to add to what has already been said. Friends who know me ‘in the real world’ will also know that there are other periferal aspects that I am unable to comment on at present. However I reasoned that this is such a huge event, and something I am sure to look back on in later life, and so I’ve decided to say a few words for the purpose of my blog.

I saw mention of something being wrong come up on twitter around 21:30 and at first wrote it off as a rumour; after all, I’d not heard of TMZ, and Sky News are hardly a reliable news source in my opinion. However it soon became apparent that there was some weight to the rumour and I was quick to switch on to BBC News 24, and I stayed there until around 3:30 this morning watching this all unfolding.

On the note of BBC News, I thought that their coverage was occasionally disgusting (referring specifically the male anchor chap who was on around midnight GMT when they confirmed Jackson’s death). I don’t see why, less than 5 minutes after announcing death, they went and did a hatchet-job character assassination on him! Why skirt the issue for hours and then, as soon as he dies, absolutely slate him and bring people on the phone to try and portray him badly? Not what people wanted to hear at that time, surely? I can’t believe that when they went back to Uri Gellar, the male anchor said “Uri, your friend is dead”, and said it completely deadpan and without compassion. What a twat.

Truly this was the first time that twitter has broken a story for me, and it has been ‘interesting’ to read the reports of the roles of social media in this instance. I just wish that the subject matter had been a happier one.

I think I understand why a lot of people feel confused about all of this. I never met the chap, never saw him, and only really knew him through his music (which I adored and has landmarked key moments of my life thus far); however I feel a strange feeling of loss and sadness. My family is small, so I don’t really have too much experience of death and so I do feel at a bit of a loss as to how I am feeling, how I’m supposed to feel, and why I do. I’m still slowly getting used to the idea of ‘he’s really not with us any more’.

I sincerely don’t think that we will ever see such an immense public reaction as this again, and I think that it really did come straight out of left-field… I mean, he was only 50 years old! It really does make you appreciate the fragility of life. I am still struggling to comprehend all of this I think… perhaps when the media hype quietens down, I’ll be able to process my thoughts a little more clearly. I hasten to add that I am not one of these die-hard-I love you Michael-kind of fans, moreover I am a lover of music, and I think that Jackson truly was the master of his craft!

My favourite song of his (and one of my all-time favourites) has to be ‘Beat It’:

So many of my memories include Jacko songs, especially some great nights out back in the Village in Manchester – with most of them revolving around this song.

Back in the day when I was at college and all of my friends were getting into thrash metal, and I wasn’t(!), they used to tease me that the music that I listened to was manufactured rubbish (in fairness, at the time, it largely was heh!). However the next day, I came in and put on ‘Beat It’ and we all rocked out to Van Halen’s guitar riff, danced around the common room and agreed that even though Jacko wasn’t thrash metal, he certainly was very, very cool!

I really don’t think his success will ever be matched, and I would say that I think we’ve genuinely lost *the* biggest star that we will ever produce in our generation. Through his music, and the decades/generations to follow, I am sure he will live on. Certainly, when I am old and half-dead, you can bet I’ll still be skipping along paving stones to ‘Billy Jean’ and contemplating how I can fit ‘Thriller’ and myself as a zombie into my funeral to give everyone a fright heh.

“Music has been my outlet, my gift to all of the lovers in this world.
Through it — my music, I know I will live forever.” Michael Jackson.

RIP x