In Death, Jackson Will Be Bigger Than Ever
Internet age's first too-young-to-die megastar's legend will grow
By JERE HESTER
Updated 10:20 PM CST, Wed, Jul 8, 2009
Michael Jackson's memorial service Tuesday didn’t really mark the final goodbye to the pop star. Instead, it raised the opening curtain on a new phase of his career, in death, as a highly marketable icon.
Like Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe before him, there’s little doubt Jackson's image will be exploited and his exploits endlessly debated. But there is a major difference: He's the first of the too-young-to-die megastars to fall in the Internet Age, giving speed and unfettered voice to both his deification and demonization.
News of Jackson’s death at age 50 on June 25 generated so much online traffic the Internet got clogged. His memorial service was touted as most-watched webcast ever, even as seemingly every TV station carried the spectacle live.
Jackson’s Facebook page, which, as Mashable notes, had 80,000 fans before his death, now boasts more than seven million. In the three days after his death, 2.3 million copies of Jackson songs were downloaded, along with more than 240,000 of his albums.
And the Internet has proven the main public forum for the fierce arguments over whether Jackson should be remembered most for his musical accomplishments or for the horrific allegations that followed him.
There’s more than enough fodder to keep the Jackson story and debates going, in the traditional media and online: the circumstances of his death remain mysterious, with the role of prescription drugs being eyed, in echoes of Presley and Monroe.
Then there are the ancillary soap operas surrounding control of his estate, his tangled finances, and, most importantly, the fate of his three children.
While Jackson leaves tabloid material, he also bequeaths more potential artistic treasures. There’s the footage from the rehearsals for the comeback tour that wasn’t to be. But the biggest trove may come in unreleased songs.
Comparisons could be drawn to Jimi Hendrix and Tupac Shakur, whose record labels released more posthumous albums than the artists saw reach the public in their too-short lives.
Jackson, though, may have more in common with the Beatles, prolific recording studios perfectionists and experimenters whose unreleased songs and alternate versions spurred hundreds of bootlegs and ultimately the six-CD “Anthology” series in the 1990s.
Jackson, whose recording career spanned 40 years, may have even more unheard gems locked away: former Sony boss Tommy Mottola told Time magazine that the King of Pop would record up to 30 songs for a 12-cut album.
"The world will be listening to Michael Jackson for decades to come," he told Time.
Imagine the downloading frenzy new Jackson releases could unleash.
Jackson’s legacy will depend greatly on who controls the material and how it’s presented. It’s unclear whether the freak show will continue – Neverland as the new Graceland? – or whether the marketing of Michael Jackson will focus on the music.
Meanwhile, the sordid aspects of Jackson saga will likely remain news for a longtime to come. Take this from someone who should know: gossip queen Liz Smith, who, in a column in Variety, called on the media to leave his kids alone.
“From fan and non-fans, the pleading question is already being asked: ‘Will there be no end to this?’” Smith wrote. “’This’ being the wall-to-wall coverage of every little Michael Jackson-related bit of ‘news.’ The answer is ‘no.’”
Hester is founding director of the award-winning, multi-media NYCity News Service at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is the former City Editor of the New York Daily News, where he started as a reporter in 1992.
Copyright NBC Local Media
First Published: Jul 7, 2009 2:54 PM CST
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