OT: Memorial For MJ at Staples Center on July 7

[jrnyman28]

Funny thing is last night I was on the drunk train on my way home from school last night out of San Francisco, and the train was packed with kids between 15 and 22 years of age, the Giants game just let out. All these fucking kids were just hollering and being shitheads the entire hour ride out. They talked an incredible amount of shit, but one thing for sure, not one of them mentioned MJ at all. Matter of fact, many of the kids were singing songs, none were MJ's. So who was MJ's fan base? None were in the four fully loaded train cars last night that's for sure.

He has the top nine digital album downloads last week. He has sold more albums the last ten days than Journey has their entire post Perry career. Who ever his fan base is, it's obviously huge.

Not true. Last number I heard he sold 422,000 albums (including digital downloads) since his death. The real sign of change in the music landscape is that he sold over 2 million individual tracks.

[The Sushi Hunter]

What sucks about this whole MJ deal is now it's going to be like when EP died, there's going to forever be people dressing up like the clown now and there will be an entire parachute team of MJ's jumping out planes and whatnot, like they have for EP. And like the Dancing Evis', there's going to be a fleet of Dancing MJ's. Great! Something to really look forward to now.

[jrnyman28]

What sucks about this whole MJ deal is now it's going to be like when EP died, there's going to forever be people dressing up like the clown now and there will be an entire parachute team of MJ's jumping out planes and whatnot, like they have for EP. And like the Dancing Evis', there's going to be a fleet of Dancing MJ's. Great! Something to really look forward to now.

What's wrong with that? If it makes people happy, spreads joy, and inspires people than I see nothing wrong with it.

[Don]

Funny thing is last night I was on the drunk train on my way home from school last night out of San Francisco, and the train was packed with kids between 15 and 22 years of age, the Giants game just let out. All these fucking kids were just hollering and being shitheads the entire hour ride out. They talked an incredible amount of shit, but one thing for sure, not one of them mentioned MJ at all. Matter of fact, many of the kids were singing songs, none were MJ's. So who was MJ's fan base? None were in the four fully loaded train cars last night that's for sure.

He has the top nine digital album downloads last week. He has sold more albums the last ten days than Journey has their entire post Perry career. Who ever his fan base is, it's obviously huge.

Not true. Last number I heard he sold 422,000 albums (including digital downloads) since his death. The real sign of change in the music landscape is that he sold over 2 million individual tracks.

They're saying on the radio (KOST) this morning that those numbers aren't accurate because of the way the digital sales are reported and the numbers are more than double that. We'll see how it shakes out in a few weeks. They were talking about how the numbers are being fudged so the record companies don't have to pay the artists as much by under reporting these sales. They're trying to make up for the loss of CD sales by taking advantage of they shaky auditing procedures concerning Digital downloads.

You are so right on about the individual tracks. All you need to do is sell a gold record. If you can get 3 or 4 songs in the top 20 on the HOT 100 list, you will be recognized as a star these days.

[The Sushi Hunter]

What sucks about this whole MJ deal is now it's going to be like when EP died, there's going to forever be people dressing up like the clown now and there will be an entire parachute team of MJ's jumping out planes and whatnot, like they have for EP. And like the Dancing Evis', there's going to be a fleet of Dancing MJ's. Great! Something to really look forward to now.

What's wrong with that? If it makes people happy, spreads joy, and inspires people than I see nothing wrong with it.

True. I'm different then most though. I liked EP until all the clowns came out and started dressing up and acting like him. After 32 years of it I've completely had it with seeing that, I can't stand listening or watching anything having to do with EP now.

[Lula]

What sucks about this whole MJ deal is now it's going to be like when EP died, there's going to forever be people dressing up like the clown now and there will be an entire parachute team of MJ's jumping out planes and whatnot, like they have for EP. And like the Dancing Evis', there's going to be a fleet of Dancing MJ's. Great! Something to really look forward to now.

dude, relax. why let this stuff get to you so much? just let it go.

[Behshad]

What sucks about this whole MJ deal is now it's going to be like when EP died, there's going to forever be people dressing up like the clown now and there will be an entire parachute team of MJ's jumping out planes and whatnot, like they have for EP. And like the Dancing Evis', there's going to be a fleet of Dancing MJ's. Great! Something to really look forward to now.

dude, relax. why let this stuff get to you so much? just let it go.

do you blame him?! What he does behind closed doors and in private , will become trendy. He will not be the center of attention at the parties no more, since others will learn to moonwalk

[hoagiepete]

Kind of an ironic footnote to all of this, but my wife and I saw Danny Ganz a few months before he passed. He REALLY dogged MJ in his act. Now they are both gone. Wierd.

[Behshad]

Kind of an ironic footnote to all of this, but my wife and I saw Danny Ganz a few months before he passed. He REALLY dogged MJ in his act. Now they are both gone. Wierd.

if that's how the voodoo works I totally hope Billy Mays dogged Al Sharpton

[Rhiannon]

He has the top nine digital album downloads last week. He has sold more albums the last ten days than Journey has their entire post Perry career. Who ever his fan base is, it's obviously huge.

Not true. Last number I heard he sold 422,000 albums (including digital downloads) since his death. The real sign of change in the music landscape is that he sold over 2 million individual tracks.

They're saying on the radio this morning that those numbers aren't accurate because of the way the digital sales are reported and the numbers are more than double that. We'll see how it shakes out in a few weeks.

*raises hand*
Responsible for 10 CD sales, and 2 DVD sales since his passing.
Three of those CDs are on back order until the end of the month at least.
I wonder if a lot of people are like me, and were big MJ fans in childhood, but lost interest or forgot about him after the 1993 controversy. Then realized on June 25th that they missed the music. I had Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad on vinyl. Those three plus Dangerous on cassette, and a long lost VHS. Hence the massive consumption of sales.

[hoagiepete]

Kind of an ironic footnote to all of this, but my wife and I saw Danny Ganz a few months before he passed. He REALLY dogged MJ in his act. Now they are both gone. Wierd.

if that's how the voodoo works I totally hope Billy Mays dogged Al Sharpton

I wasn't going to bring this up, but isn't it amazing how quickly Sharpton and Jackson (Jesse) got to California to get in front of the cameras? Unbelievable. They have to be the biggest attention/publicity seekers of all time.

[Behshad]

Kind of an ironic footnote to all of this, but my wife and I saw Danny Ganz a few months before he passed. He REALLY dogged MJ in his act. Now they are both gone. Wierd.

if that's how the voodoo works I totally hope Billy Mays dogged Al Sharpton

I wasn't going to bring this up, but isn't it amazing how quickly Sharpton and Jackson (Jesse) got to California to get in front of the cameras? Unbelievable. They have to be the biggest attention/publicity seekers of all time.

Amazing ? Yea. Surprising ?! Not at all.
Those two thrives on things like this.
Rumor has it that Sharpton states that if it wasn't for MLK we wouldn't have Black olives!

[steveo777]

Kind of an ironic footnote to all of this, but my wife and I saw Danny Ganz a few months before he passed. He REALLY dogged MJ in his act. Now they are both gone. Wierd.

if that's how the voodoo works I totally hope Billy Mays dogged Al Sharpton

I wasn't going to bring this up, but isn't it amazing how quickly Sharpton and Jackson (Jesse) got to California to get in front of the cameras? Unbelievable. They have to be the biggest attention/publicity seekers of all time.

Amazing ? Yea. Surprising ?! Not at all.
Those two thrives on things like this.
Rumor has it that Sharpton states that if it wasn't for MLK we wouldn't have Black olives!

Waste of oxygen. Sharpton allegedly owes $1.5m to the IRS for taxes. He will probably blame this on some kind of discrimination or profiling.

[Lora]

BTW re: Mariah Carey's Performance

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/mariah-carey-apologizes-for-jackson-memorial-performance/24962?nc

The song she sang is one of my favorite Jackson songs. Not a big fan of Mariah's, but that song puts a tear in my eye regardless. So I can just imagine trying to actually sing that one at a time like that. I thought she did a good job holding it together, but you could see in spots, it was hard to do. I give her an A for effort. In happy times or sad, my emotional nerve endings are always never far from the surface and for some reason some music just touches my soul. LOL, I'm always associating one song or another with everything in life, good or bad.

I thought she did okay with the vocals considering the situation...she was understandably emotional. I could have done without her hoochie-mama outfit, though. She probably considered it conservative in relation to her usual wardrobe but I thought it was inappropriate for the occasion.

[bluejeangirl76]

I wonder if a lot of people are like me, and were big MJ fans in childhood, but lost interest or forgot about him after the 1993 controversy. Then realized on June 25th that they missed the music.

That's me. I didn't forget about him after '93, and I didn't fully lose interest, I guess, but I didn't pay all that much attention to the music that came out after Dangerous. I would spin Thriller from time to time and stop if I found a video on... I played the Making of Thriller VHS sometimes... but definitely with his death, I realized that I did miss a lot of those songs I used to love so much and smacked myself for never replacing my Bad cassette with a CD. But thanks to a wonderful friend with a copy of Number Ones, I was able to play "Smooth Criminal" on repeat for 1/2 an hour in the car this morning.

[Ftloperry]

But where were Michael's "real" friends? Where was Liz Taylor? Liza? Quincy Jones? MacCauley Culkin?

Quincy Jones made a statement that he still is having a hard time believing that Michael is no longer here. He said that part of his soul is forever gone and he can not bring himself to go to the memorial.

[jrnyman28]

I wonder if a lot of people are like me, and were big MJ fans in childhood, but lost interest or forgot about him after the 1993 controversy. Then realized on June 25th that they missed the music.

That's me. I didn't forget about him after '93, and I didn't fully lose interest, I guess, but I didn't pay all that much attention to the music that came out after Dangerous. I would spin Thriller from time to time and stop if I found a video on... I played the Making of Thriller VHS sometimes... but definitely with his death, I realized that I did miss a lot of those songs I used to love so much and smacked myself for never replacing my Bad cassette with a CD. But thanks to a wonderful friend with a copy of Number Ones, I was able to play "Smooth Criminal" on repeat for 1/2 an hour in the car this morning.

Ahh, Smooth Criminal, the 3rd MJ song to play on my iPod last night. Loved the Alien Ant Farm version as well.

[Rhiannon]

I wonder if a lot of people are like me, and were big MJ fans in childhood, but lost interest or forgot about him after the 1993 controversy. Then realized on June 25th that they missed the music.

That's me. I didn't forget about him after '93, and I didn't fully lose interest, I guess, but I didn't pay all that much attention to the music that came out after Dangerous. I would spin Thriller from time to time and stop if I found a video on... I played the Making of Thriller VHS sometimes... but definitely with his death, I realized that I did miss a lot of those songs I used to love so much and smacked myself for never replacing my Bad cassette with a CD. But thanks to a wonderful friend with a copy of Number Ones, I was able to play "Smooth Criminal" on repeat for 1/2 an hour in the car this morning.

I didn't completely forget either, but it was more like, Oh... MTV's debuting a new MJ video with Janet... this should be coo--OHMYGOD this song kicks my ass! Listen to it on repeat all summer, and same with Earth Song. You Are Not Alone weirded me out. Anything after that was a casualty of ignorance due to preoccupation with life. I don't own anybody's entire catalog (save for Steve Perry), even my Journey collection is only Perry stuff and Revelation (the latter of which I've never taken out of the case). I'm not interested in Mike's full catalog either, his pre OTW solo material doesn't interest me.

Eek, embarrassingly enough as much as I enjoy the Thriller album, it's not my favorite by a long shot. Bad and Dangerous are my absofaves. Even HIStory and Invincible are worth having, and a new found fascination with Blood On The Dance Floor. Those last three are the backordered pieces. *pout*

Oh... and you're welcome!! You're welcome to any CD in my collection.

[Barb]

There are currently 27 MJ songs in the top 100 downloaded on iTunes right now.

[JeremyP]

*raises hand*
Responsible for 10 CD sales, and 2 DVD sales since his passing.
Three of those CDs are on back order until the end of the month at least.
I wonder if a lot of people are like me, and were big MJ fans in childhood, but lost interest or forgot about him after the 1993 controversy. Then realized on June 25th that they missed the music. I had Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad on vinyl. Those three plus Dangerous on cassette, and a long lost VHS. Hence the massive consumption of sales.

I find that a lot of people of our generation became fans of him when they were very young. I did at seven and wore out three cassette copies of the "Dangerous" album. Most of my friends were the same way until after the '93 stuff (which after doing some research on my own, I have to say he looks as innocent as anyone has ever looked), and then they didn't wanna listen to him anymore after that because they didn't wanna be seen as weird.

I've never had that problem, lol, so I continued listening and being a fan up 'til now. Now when I hear the music, along with the reaction of, "Man, I love this song." and the memories it brings back, is sadness. I find I can only listen to the slower, contemplative songs right now.

[bluejeangirl76]

Eek, embarrassingly enough as much as I enjoy the Thriller album, it's not my favorite by a long shot. Bad and Dangerous are my absofaves.

I hold them equal. There are ones I love enough to play on repeat from all of those records. Thriller is still amazing to me because I was so into it back then, and as a little kid, to watch the whole phenomenon grow right in front of me... I saw the famous Motown 25th Anniversary appearance, and I remember what an insanely huge deal it was when "The Making of Thriller" came out - I watched it at my friend's house - on their BETAMAX. I still can't believe that has never hit dvd and I'm really annoyed that my VHS copy is buried in a box in storage right now.

[Don]

I wonder if a lot of people are like me, and were big MJ fans in childhood, but lost interest or forgot about him after the 1993 controversy. Then realized on June 25th that they missed the music.

That's me. I didn't forget about him after '93, and I didn't fully lose interest, I guess, but I didn't pay all that much attention to the music that came out after Dangerous. I would spin Thriller from time to time and stop if I found a video on... I played the Making of Thriller VHS sometimes... but definitely with his death, I realized that I did miss a lot of those songs I used to love so much and smacked myself for never replacing my Bad cassette with a CD. But thanks to a wonderful friend with a copy of Number Ones, I was able to play "Smooth Criminal" on repeat for 1/2 an hour in the car this morning.

I didn't completely forget either, but it was more like, Oh... MTV's debuting a new MJ video with Janet... this should be coo--OHMYGOD this song kicks my ass! Listen to it on repeat all summer, and same with Earth Song. You Are Not Alone weirded me out. Anything after that was a casualty of ignorance due to preoccupation with life. I don't own anybody's entire catalog (save for Steve Perry), even my Journey collection is only Perry stuff and Revelation (the latter of which I've never taken out of the case). I'm not interested in Mike's full catalog either, his pre OTW solo material doesn't interest me.

Eek, embarrassingly enough as much as I enjoy the Thriller album, it's not my favorite by a long shot. Bad and Dangerous are my absofaves. Even HIStory and Invincible are worth having, and a new found fascination with Blood On The Dance Floor. Those last three are the backordered pieces. *pout*

Oh... and you're welcome!! You're welcome to any CD in my collection.

It's Off The Wall for me. I found the LP in our stereo console at home and I was hooked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajuh1jNlfrE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkbPlpb7-7U

[Rhiannon]

I find that a lot of people of our generation became fans of him when they were very young. I did at seven and wore out three cassette copies of the "Dangerous" album. Most of my friends were the same way until after the '93 stuff (which after doing some research on my own, I have to say he looks as innocent as anyone has ever looked), and then they didn't wanna listen to him anymore after that because they didn't wanna be seen as weird.

I've never had that problem, lol, so I continued listening and being a fan up 'til now. Now when I hear the music, along with the reaction of, "Man, I love this song." and the memories it brings back, is sadness. I find I can only listen to the slower, contemplative songs right now.

I don't know "when" I became a fan. It's just always been there for me. Bad was released about the time I was starting to toddle about and develop memories and learn music. In pre-school my Mom gave me a cassette copy of Bad, which was my first album. My first day of Kindergarten she gave me Thriller, and for Christmas in first grade I finally got my own copy of Dangerous. I wore those out along with my VHS of "The Legend Continues" and "Moonwalker".

I vividly remember being 7 years old in line with my Mom at the grocery store reading the headlines on the tabloids in 1992 and early 1993. This was the point at which my fan-ness was most intense, too. I had recently before those headlines told my Mom Michael Jackson was my "idol". Then seeing all of that negative stuff, and the interviews, I couldn't believe it. I didn't believe it. I knew it wasn't right.

But the kids at school started with the stupid jokes, and you know how lunch tables were. And that's just how it happened for me.

And to be honest, I feel kind of remorseful about abandoning one of my earliest musical interests like that. So, like you, I've been listening to his stuff recently. Non-stop really. In the car, at the gym, at home... if there's music on, it's Mike. But I'm listening to everything, if I only heard the slow ballady songs, I'd be an emotional punching bag.

[jrnyman28]

I have never purchased any MJ material. The songs on my iPod come from Billboards Top 100's series. I am a prime target for Greatest Hits or those individual track downloads. Great music, great memories but I never had to buy it because it was everywhere. Oddly enough, the first MJ solo song I remember vividly is "She's Out Of My Life" (I think that is the title) and I hated it back then...ESPECIALLY the way MJ breaks up at the end of the song. I had discovered Joureny, REO, Styx and was discovering Def Leppard. I was going in a heavier direction so MJ was NOT what I wanted to hear. But in the past year or so I have found that hearing that song is very moving. It is so simple, short and to the point but filled with emotion. My appreciation of MJ had more to do with the entertainer, the show but that song brought it back to his singing.

[Rhiannon]

In pre-school my Mom gave me a cassette copy of Bad, which was my first album. My first day of Kindergarten she gave me Thriller, and for Christmas in first grade I finally got my own copy of Dangerous.

Your Mom was Joe Jackson???

They have their similarities.
J/K... she'd never let her eyebrows get that bad. And Joe's got such a puss, total bulldog-face. Big ol' flappy jowls.

[Don]

I've got Joe Jackson's greatest hits on the work computer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMueTqXredM

[jrnyman28]

I vividly remember being 7 years .... in 1992 and early 1993.

I couldn't get past this line. Just another reminder of how friggin' old I am!

[bluejeangirl76]

I vividly remember being 7 years .... in 1992 and early 1993.

I couldn't get past this line. Just another reminder of how friggin' old I am!

Yeah, she needs to shut her face. I vididly remember watching Thriller on a Betamax about a year before she was even conceived. Being old sucks.

[Rhiannon]

I vividly remember being 7 years .... in 1992 and early 1993.

I couldn't get past this line. Just another reminder of how friggin' old I am!

Yeah, she needs to shut her face. I vididly remember watching Thriller on a Betamax about a year before she was even conceived. Being old sucks.

Oh yeah, I totally coordinated my conception to take place in November of '84 just so I could piss off people on the internet that Al Gore hadn't invented yet!

Hey... ya'll can shut it too! I missed good Journey, I missed Thriller, I had to grow up in the 90's with all those slouchy, greasy, grungers and cheesy rappers, and bad rock. And I still can't rent a car without paying an extra $25/day! And I guarandamntee you my driving record and ability is better than 97% of the general 25+ populous. Never fear, I have a birthday in six weeks... I'm getting older too. But you don't see me bitchin' about it.

[bluejeangirl76]

I'm getting older too. But you don't see me bitchin' about it.

...YET!!

I didn't bitch about it until I slammed face-first into 30.