July 1, 2009
By Alex V. Cook
Everywhere I went this week, people were swept up in loving Michael Jackson. It is not the least bit surprising; his impact on popular culture during all phases of his career is undeniable. The day the word came down, I was at the pool and Michael Jackson was all over the radio and the gaggle of conservative white guys in their 40s who get there early to commandeer the coveted corner table, were making their commentary.
I wasn’t in the mood to hear it. I would not categorize myself as a huge Michael Jackson fan despite my having been a teenage witness to the phenomenon of Thriller. Michael Jackson was truly everywhere then. I remember getting lost on a country road in Virginia on a family RV trip around that time and standing in the summer heat by a dusty mailbox emblazoned with a rural route number were two teenage guys in multi-zippered red “Beat It” jackets and parachute pants. As we passed, my parents scoffed as one of them waved at us with his single sparkly glove.
The reason I didn’t want to hear the commentary of these guys at the pool was because I remember the general reaction to Michael Jackson and, through him, youth culture was fear and disappointment. Michael Jackson was widely considered a symbol for culture having gone horribly awry, much like the MTV that Jackson essentially made became a few years later and the Britney Spears that MTV in turn made is now.
I think it’s unfair to view Michael as either the best or the worst. He hit at just the right time with just the right ideas and details shook up the things that needed shaking, but once that was over, he descended into to most corrosive form of self-parody, losing touch with everything that had given him the riches to do so. In the bleaching of his skin color and horrific surgeries, the increasing emptiness of his music and the legendary bizarre and unsavory behavior that ensued, he only served to prove right the people who hated him.
I walked back to my table near the guys in the corner, and one of them yelled “Oh man, now this was a good song!” and they all bobbed along sunburned singing along with “Man in the Mirror” and that got to me. Michael Jackson did plenty of things wrong, things that many people will never forgive, but there are moments like that where the confessions and hopes of an equally beloved and hated misfit can transcend it all.
Back to the living: Teddy’s Juke Joint is celebrating its 31st year of operation this week. If you have never made it out to Teddy’s place before, this is the week to see things hopping. Congrats Teddy and Nancy, here’s hoping for many more years of back road juke joint blues to come.
Wednesday, July 1
Wooden Birds at Spanish Moon
Thursday, July 2
Plain White T’s at The Varsity
Syllable 7 and Mister Whiskey at North Gate Tavern
Friday, July 3
Lil Dave Thompson at Teddy’s Juke Joint
Rebirth Brass band at The Varsity
Panthalassa, Prom Date, and the Promise Breakers at Chelsea’s
Inner 61 and Fall of August at Click’s
Charlie Hager, Ruby Rendrag, and Jonathon “Boogie” Long & Soul Explosion at Boudreaux & Thibodeaux’s
Saturday, July 4
Prince Night at Spanish Moon
The Amazing Nuns and Prom Date at Chelsea’s
The Old Oaks at North Gate Tavern
Lucid and Forsythe at Click’s
Wade Reeves at Boudreaux & Thibodeaux’s
The Circuit Breakers at Teddy’s Juke Joint
Sunday, July 5
Selwyn Cooper at Teddy’s Juke Joint
Comments
Posted by Kimberly_Hebert on July 6 at 1:29 a.m.
While I highly regard your writing and we have talked on more than one occasion, there are a few things that must be addressed in this article:
Michael Jackson never "bleached" his skin. In the mid-1980s he was diagnosed with vitiligo and lupus. This made him sensitive to sunlight, and the treatments he used for these conditions further lightened his skin tone.
(Nor did he ever molest children. In both cases, the same lawyer was used and the parents of the children had a long history of being fraudulent scam-artists.)
Michael Jackson was warped, yes, but I would argue that he is not an example of what is wrong with pop culture, but rather a product of it. Pop culture is fickle, and the media is amoral in its sensational drive to capitalize on scandal, be it fictionalized or not. There are legions of other celebrities this has happened to. Britney Spears is one of them.
There was a downfall for Michael Jackson--one that was largely concentrated in the events of his personal life. However, rather than citing his decline as what is wrong with pop culture today, I find it to be instead representative of just what media has the capacity to do in its idolatrous treatment of these oft-fragile celebrities. It induces anti-social behavior, delusions of grandeur, and destructive decision-making, to say the least.
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