The King of Pop Reigns

Tonight we were watching "This is It." First of all, I now understand why it is so easy for my younger son to dance along with the music coming from his toys because I felt the same way while watching this movie. I was even singing along at times! Secondly, it made me reminisce about growing up with Michael Jackson's music in my life soundtrack. It started with my parents getting me his "Thriller" album as one of my first cassettes ever. I liked every song on it and played it constantly. I even made my dolls dance to his songs. I saw the "Thriller" movie when I was in 2nd grade and it didn't really scare me other than the werewolf part at the beginning. My sister (who was 4 at the time) referred to the zombies as "sunbeams." The first concert I ever went to was for his "Thriller" tour. It was at the old Comiskey park. I saved the souvenir program at the time and would look at it every day.

As I got older, I had a fading interest in his music. If it was on the radio, I'd listen. I just wouldn't make an effort to get the albums. Later, there were all the rumors that started when he had plastic surgery and just kept plaguing him and making him out to be a media spectacle. It got really old after a while and I was actually glad when he was found not guilty (of stuff he was rumored to be doing with young boys) in 2005.

When I was 12, I saw "Captain EO" at Epcot Center. It was very enjoyable and also the last time I had seen a 3D movie up until this year. There was a cool song at the end of the movie.

In 2000, my friend loaned me a tape she recorded from MTV of 80's music videos. The video for "Say Say Say" (the one he performed with Paul McCartney) was on it. That brought back memories of watching this video as a kid. However, this time I really liked the song.

"Thriller" had some new life breathed into it when they did the dance in "13 Going on 30." My husband and I would try to do the dance after watching it. At one point, my husband told me he wanted to take a picture of me doing the dance and later transformed the picture into me doing a hula dance and put it on my 30th birthday cake for a Hawaiian-themed party.

Last summer, I went to a carnival with my husband and sons and then we stopped off for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. During dinner, my parents called to tell me the news of Michael Jackson's death. It was shocking, but I was relieved for him, in the hopes that his song "Leave Me Alone" would finally come to pass. However, there's always going to be speculation surrounding a celebrity's death and MJ was no exception.
In the meantime, "This is It" was released in theaters, and I finally saw it tonight on DVD. It is the movie with which we "broke in" our new TV. I was very impressed with the movie and thought that concert would have been really cool to see if he had lived to do a tour with it. There was so much hard work put into every song. As I said before, it was impossible not to sing and dance along with all the songs I remember from my youth. Way to go out in style, Jacko!

Despite all the rumors surrounding his life and death, I would still play his music for my kids. He was and will always be a pop icon, equivalent to what Elvis was for my parents' generation. His music is fun to listen, dance and sing along to. I see no reason why they can't enjoy it and I don't plan to share the ugly stories about him. Let's allow a new generation to hear his songs and watch his music videos with no stigma attached. Maybe my sons will also think that he's singing about matzah during "Wanna be Startin' Something." (My husband and I still think he is.)

To end this blog, I invite all readers to comment with their favorite MJ songs. Mine are "The Way You Make Me Feel," "Pretty Young Thing," "Say Say Say," "Human Nature," and, of course, "Thriller."