Remembering Michael Jackson (1958-2009)

Michael Jackson’s difference as a performer is what made people around the globe flock to him from the time he was a little boy, what eventually gave him the biggest-selling record of all time (Thriller), and what made us call him a genius. Until his death in June 2009, for all but his fans (not an insubstantial population), this difference seemed to have been forgotten, taken for granted, or overshadowed by his other, less embraceable differences. This article recounts Jackson’s contribution to popular music through his remarkable body of work and also examines some of the more controversial aspects of his biography, which were almost always viewed by the media in a negative light. The author suggests that the irreconcilability of Jackson’s differences (gendered, racialized, generational), both musical and biographical, made him in effect unknowable, producing profound anxiety in many. This accounts for the particularly venomous media coverage of his life. The author suggests several counter-narratives to widely held ideas about Jackson’s difference. Global Data