Apparently Michael Jackson died of cardiac arrest today, at the age of 50.

Despite doing his very best to stop us, it's important we look past his personal problems, and acknowledge him as one of the all-time great artists.

I was born in 92, so I obviously wasn't around when he was the most popular person in the world, but his music from the late 70s and early 80s is fantastic.

I,m stunned. Lets remember him for his genius.

I'm shocked. Even though he wasn't in great shape, I never saw this coming. Today, we lost one of the world's greatest entertainers.

Yeah. Goddamn.

"Thriller" is an amazing pop album. I'm listening to it as a tribute.

Sucks. I was always hoping he could turn it around and lead a normal elderly life.

In a way, Billie Jean became the story of his life. "Some people always told me, be careful what you do". He should have known that a man as popular as him would be accused of pedophilia if he invited kids over for sleepovers, even if he only meant to relate to them like another kid.

It's sad. I'd always hoped his life would calm down and he'd have a chance to just be appreciated for his art again.

I heard Bad a few weeks ago for the first time since I was a kid. The contrast between it and Thriller seemed symptomatic of his emotional problems. Where in Thriller he seemed relaxed, happy, and able to just enjoy singing, in Bad he was overly desperate to please, insecure and defensive.

I only wish he'd been given a stable enough childhood for his self-image to be able to handle fame.

It's a sad day for pop. Michael Jackson was its brightest star.

He was my earliest musical memory(born '87) so I'll always remember him...

This is unbelievable. Just unbelievable. What a tragic end for the biggest pop star ever. I was hoping he could silence some doubters with the tour that was scheduled. And what about his poor kids?

Very sad. But almost fitting given his self-destructive nature.

I just found out. Needless to say I am pretty stunned. Another one of my favorite artists dead before his time.
The man was a musical genius, troubled for sure, but without a doubt a creative genius. It's a shame he didn't put out one last album before his death.

Rest in peace, Michael.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkcZDGFm0Yw

Y’know, I’ve never owned Thriller (which came out when I was a high school freshman), and yet I know all of the songs on it. I can’t imagine that could be true of any other album.

Reviewing the short, often unhappy life of Michael Jackson, I find it pretty easy to look past the freakishness of the last 20 years and focus on his musical achievement, which was awesome. The range of styles in which he worked was just mind-boggling.

I also think it’s important to remember what he did for pop music in the 1980s. Before Jam Master Jay and Steve Perry got together, before Prince started getting heavy play on AOR stations, MJ was the first African-American to storm the gates of previously lily-white MTV, a network badly in need of a funk infusion. And he did it purely on the basis of the quality of his stuff—it wasn’t just Eddie Van Halen, because the “Billie Jean” video was in heavy rotation for months before “Beat It” came out.

In the US, at least, it was the first crack, maybe since Hendrix, in the great white monolith of rock—and I include my beloved punks in that (the UK did a bit better, with Madness and the Specials, and the Clash covering Junior Murvin, and Bowie channeling Motown).

In Obama’s America, we have the luxury of taking the original syncretists for granted, but Michael becoming a pop star for *everybody* was a defining moment in pop, and what we listen to today, from indie to Timbaland, is much, much richer for it.

Viva Michael.

It's interesting that you say that Schleuse, because I had never thought of pop music as being an avenue that was closed to black people.

Great loss but the real Michael Jackson I like died after Thriller. I don't get the comparison with the Beatles. The Beatles sold over billion albums while being a recording group for only seven years years and pushing the limits of pop music. I think the comparisons with Elvis Presley is a fair one.

well to me Thriller is easily the best album of the top 4 most acclaimed albums of the 80s. I've always been impartial to british alternative guitar rock but I thought the Queen is Dead unlike Thriller is NOT flawless from beginning to end. I could think of two songs from that album that were at best average. Same thing goes for Sign 'O the Times. All those songs didn't really stand out in their entirty compared to Thriller. Public Enemy's cool and certainly different from what was coming out at the time. But still not in the same league with Thriller. He had some great singles afterward and even his less acclaimed albums like Dangerous could easily surpass the best work of any pop artist from today.

Harold, I think you're putting words in my mouth. I thought it was an interesting point that he made. I had never thought of it. I was not around in the early eighties. Well, I was, but not long before then. Point is, I tend to associate black artists so closely with the history of pop/rock that it had never occured to me that there was a time when it was hard for them to get on the radio/MTV. My musical awareness bloomed in the 90s. By then, it wasn't. You're assuming my post was sarcastic, which it wasn't.

I like it. I like all the songs on Thriller but it's certainly not my favorite album of all time. But of the top 4 of the 80s to me it's the best.

I really think Bad isn't nearly as good as Off The Wall or Thriller.

Besides the fact that that's when he couldn't deal with having white splotches on his skin so he bleached his whole body, Bad is also when all the stereotypical Jacko-isms really pop up. You don't get quite so many random unnecessary "SHIMONA! EE-HEE!" in the songs on Thriller.

Then if you look at the comparison between the songs Beat It and Bad. They have a lot in common. They both have a chorus that involves repeating the title of the song, and in both the narrator is a big tough gangster. But Beat It is a story. The narrator is saying "I'm a big tough gangster, and you want nothing to do with it, get the hell out of here before you die." Bad is just an ego trip. "I'm a big tough gangster. Aren't I cool? Seriously, isn't that awesome?"

Then Bad has all these lyrics like "Noone's business but our own!" and an entire song called "Leave Me Alone". It's not hard to read between the lines that he's having trouble dealing with his fame.

Bad is so much more a strained listen than his first two albums, other than a handful of singles like Smooth Criminal I have no reason to go back to it, whereas on Thriller the only song I feel the need to skip is "Girl is Mine".

nj! I'm eager to see your list.

5. She Drives Me Wild
4. Why You Wanna Trip on Me
3. In the Closet
2. Who Is It
1. Remember the Time

You'd think MJ would have more singles in the top 3000. Not that two of his albums alone and handful of singles haven't earned him a lofty position as it is.

His work will continue to impact and influence for generatons, I'm sure. Even though he hasn't produced anything remarkabkle in some time and kinda kept recycling his signature moves, it's a monumental loss to entertainment and music. R.I.P., KOP.

hearing about this made me really sad. i don't care what the autopsy reveals (revealed?), we're the real killers. we love MJ, but he has to die before we'll try to let him know. while he's alive, all we can do is criticise him. my guess would be that he didn't *want* to die, but something tells me he was ok with it, and maybe that's why it happened. every second website has a tribute to him at the moment. not meaningless ones either. if he could see them, i don't think he would have been ok with dieing. i'm sure he would have wanted to live. i'm sure the pressure he thought he was under would disappear. poor guy. i hope we learn something.