S.R. RAMAKRISHNA writes from Bangalore: Who killed Michael Jackson?
No, definitely not his doctors. Nor his rivals. Nor the sharks to whom he reportedly owed money. It is unlikely any of them would have wanted him dead that badly.
Michael Jackson began as a heart-wrenchingly sweet singer. Looking at his innocent early pictures, you wouldn’t imagine he would grow into the freak that many thought he became in his later life.
MJ’s music was nervous, frenzied, jumpy. It was almost atonal, and you won’t find much in his oeuvre that you could call mellifluous. His music and dance went together.
One didn’t mean a great deal without the other.
The beats, many of which he mouthed out before his musicians put them down on paper and played them, are cut, broken, hyperactive. This may sound blasphemous, but like Pandit Kumar Gandharva, who sang in short bursts to make up for a single lung, MJ created an art he and only he could perform.
It couldn’t get more idiosyncratic, more individual. MJ created his art from his neurotic twitches.
What happened in his early days—his troubled childhood when his father took up with his third woman, and his youth as a member of the family band, when he had to share a motel room with older brothers making out with groupies—wrenched him painfully out of his innocence.
His love life was doomed.
He came to be accused of child abuse.
He lived in hell, and his art could never be respectable.
It was street-like, it was exaggerated, it was fascinating.
All of this must have made him king of pop. Perhaps pop, when it needs to be as successful as it was with MJ, needs freaks. The largest selling artiste in history was also the unhappiest. He didn’t like his looks, he didn’t like his colour, and he tried to change all that with the help of modern medicine.
As the police are now telling us, he had nothing but pills in his body when he died. No food. Just medicine. That’s a stark metaphor for his broken world.
MJ made a fortune out of being neurotic, and the pop world fuelled his success and made its own fortune out of him. It takes a smalltown Rakhi Sawant, dreaming of taking on the suave, English-educated stars of Bollywood, to create a freak who sells.
She is today’s freak, checking out her grooms on television, creating hysteria for the moment when she ties the knot, and raking in some millions in the process. Who knows what emotional misery awaits her and the boy she weds on prime time TV?
So who killed MJ?
Could it be those merciless accomplices, pop and commerce?
S.R. Ramakrishna is the resident of MiD-Day, Bangalore, where this piece first appeared
Photo montage: courtesy Ashish Bagchi
Illustration: courtesy Jairaj T.G.
churumuri 
We are all hurting each other each day via judgements but it does not kill easily because we are not as popular. Life is complicated, and its stupid to judge others as if we know all, but for practical purposes. Else, everyone has his or her unique circumstance from which each tries to take the optimal road – sometimes the road, which provides us life, is also the one that kills us.
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In ‘The sum of MJ’s lifework’ (oeuvre), you do not find anything mellifluous ? Are you kidding or just plain ignorant about his work ? The Jackson Five sang slow-sweet songs that could make you cry ! Try ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ or a ‘I Just can’t stop loving you..’
This article woefully lacks depth and research ; it is akin to a quickie that the older Jacksons had and Michael bore witness to. By the way, they were not just ‘making out’ you moron ! Are you too shy to call it what it was — sex.
According to you, ‘his love life was doomed’ ; ‘he came to be accused of child abuse’ and these ‘must have made him king of pop’ ? You serious ? Isn’t it the other way around ? His travails started when he became huge. He became huge as his music was good and people loved (he was a complete package) it — popular ! From when the moment he moon walked in the Motown-25 there was no stopping him. He was an shrewd businessman in his earlier days — one who envisioned the music video industry, single handedly sold it and made profitable. He out-bid everyone for the Beatles catalog. He broke racial barriers at the all-white MTV. If anything,the freakiness started trending uphill as the record sales trended downhill. His freakiness did not sell records. Period. On the contrary, people who loved him distanced themselves from his music when he became more and more bizzare…
P-Diddy had once said that MJ had shown him how you could see the beat — not just hear it. In an era when morons lip-synch to what resembles a phys-ed drill, you had a man who was intense and his music came from his core. Yes it had the signature crotch-grab, the squeals et al. But that was him. If you did not like it , it was your personal choice. But questioning his talent is an insult to the 13 grammys, 750 million copies of his records and his huge fans the world over. You would not question his talent unless you were a clueless dimwit ..
For a man who was as successful and smart(ask Paul McCartney) as Jackson was, he and his lifestyle were his undoing. He though he was invincible and anything he did would pass. The spotlight did it’s part to amplify his stupidity. But as his music suffered, so did his popularity and the cash flow. The lawsuits ensued, the lifestyle still remained and he paid the price.Sure there were enablers, but MJ’s undoing was his own. He was a 50 year old man damnit ! He was not a kid, so stop blaming others. In the same vein, stop questioning his undeniable talent unless you are clueless..
As if the above was not bad enough, you write a lone paragraph about Rakhi and tie the two together — in a bond more superflous than Rakhi’s pending nuptials or the one Michael had. It is a shame that anything can pass off as journalism these days. You must be ashamed of this bovine crap your are peddling ; it is a sorry excuse for an article.
If anyone is interested in balanced, honest and true tributes/catharises about MJ, I’d suggest try huffingtonpost.com , they have some good ones.
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” The largest selling artiste in history was also the unhappiest.”
Maybe this is a minor point. But MJ was not the largest selling artist…it was Elvis (if you count music group.. its The Beatles).
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ramakrishna-avare, i enjoyed your post, but why libel sharks? sharks don’t demand money from anybody. a shark minds its own stomach.
like sexist language, animalistic language is inherently condescending — if animals could vote, there’d be a movement against using such language, which includes offensive phrases/words such as “hounded,” “dogged,” “like a shark,” “birdbrain,” “chicken” (for cowardly), “rat” (for a betrayer), etc.
your piece reminded me that i was listening to my favorite kumar gandharva song, “ud jaayega panchchi akela,” as i learned of jackson’s cardiac arrest. how appropriate, i thought.
finally, i agree that it is absurd to compare gandharva and jackson. their target publics were totally different.
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Coming to lime light is like riding a Tiger. For those who know how to tame the fame, mountig is as easier as getting off it. I think the piece rightly tries to put it in perspective.
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http://www.esquire.com/blogs/endorsement/michael-jackson-moonwalk-video-062609?src=nl&mag=esq&list=enl&kw=ist
Check this out. The original Moon walk by MJ in 1983!
Great!
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http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature/pictures-of-michael-jackson-062609
this TOO!
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MJ died because he was stupid, RS will die if she stays stupid. There are lot of successful people who have handled it well.
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I agree with Hari.
We all ‘shop’ for the most eligible bride and groom anyways.
We go to matrimonial shops, to choose our life partner.
The matrimonial shops have all the parameters duly listed.
Caste, Religion, Age, Profession, Language, Salary, Height, Complexion.
One has to just choose the best combo available.
What is wrong if Rakhi Sawant decides to choose her partner, her own way?
I have seen several hundreds of my relatives, shopping for life partners, through their caste network or a marriage broker.
I for one definetely wouldn’t ‘shop’ for a partner. I believe life partners aren’t commodities to be picked off the shelf, or on a TV show.
But i won’t sit in judgement if others wish to choose their partners whatever way they want.
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Enjoyed reading this. SRR is the RE of Mid-Day, isn’t it?
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InstantMusings Says:
That SRR is the RE of Mid Day is mentioned clearly at the end of the story..did you miss that or any presuppoing something ?
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‘Who killed MJ? Those who’re killing Rakhi Sawant’
Gosh! You mean the producers at NDTV Imagine killed Michael Jackson!
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While there are some good points made, the connection to Rakhi Sawant seems unnecessary here. Methinks it has been added just to increase the readability.
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How strange Churumuri should talk of the “commodification” of women and use these sleazy pictures of Rakhi Sawant which celebrates such commodification! Looks like everybody is using the police constable’s daughter for cheap titillation and Churumuri is no exception for all the hi-falutin’ intellectualisation by Mr Ramakrishna.
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Trash. Utter trash.
Both MJ and Rakhi Sawant look like comedians to me rather than what they are made out to be by the people.
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Madhu Rao,
Very well-written.
MJ was truly a musical-legend, a great talent who unfortunately lost it because of his bizarre personal habits and lifestyle. But that should not be counted against his outstanding music in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s.
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dharma,
Thanks for the link !!
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I can enjoy these pictures at home but I would avoid it in office. I frequent this site quite often and I am a code coolie in the sikapatte important software company in India. I request Churumuri to stop publishing semi porn pictures as it is embarassing to see them in office. You might loose many code coolie readers like me if you continue to do so.
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Global journalism is the thin-ice phenomenon. It is best suited to reporting versus editorial. Good editorials, though, are legends writing about legends!
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Mayzahi, ya, Imagine TV guys killing MJ! Lol! Couldnt stop grinning for a long long time. Madu Rao, you’re missing the woods for the trees or whatever the expression. I did not get the impression the article is denying MJ’s intensity. It is even comparing him to a great Hindusatani doyen.
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code coolie padavaralli,
Do you work in Indian software company or some kind of gulag? Or are they both the same?
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@BinkadaSingaari,
I’m not sure what you are alluding to — woods,trees et al. Whatever that is, my beef is with exactly what I stated, albeit a bit too harshly.
The above justification of how MJ’s freakiness made him a star is false/ignorant. It made good tabloid fodder, but did not translate to record collections. He was a star long before that and his whacko behavior, if anything, started his long decline…
You see contradictions galore. For instance ‘Michael Jackson began as a heart-wrenchingly sweet singer.’ and ‘It was almost atonal, and you won’t find much in his oeuvre(life work of the artist) that you could call mellifluous.’ . His life work includes his Jackson-5 days ; even as a solo artist he has some sweet numbers.
How about this ‘His music and dance went together. One didn’t mean a great deal without the other.’ ? NO. When we listened to MJ’s music in late 80s and early 90s, we did not have the access to MTV like what we have today. His music, sans the visual, was still powerful. It still is in my car sans any video. Re-read the article, it reeks of a quickie by someone who is out of touch with that genre.
My umbrage is with the blase treatment and almost careless nature of the article. His comparison to the Hindustani doyen is flawed at best. The author seems to have a bias (maybe his classical training roots that looks down on popular music ? ) and it shows in his treatment of the story. It’s thread-bare weak link with Ms.Sawant seems contrieved and cliched. Both MJ and Rakhi are mature adults. Alluding their enablers(doctors,media etc) as a cause for their failure/freakiness/demise is plain stupid.
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