I also have not posted about Michael Jackson because there is really is no need to. Everybody is doing it! So I thought I'd join up but for different reasons.
I really was neutral about his death. It was just another part of my childhood gone just like Cabbage Patch Dolls and music videos on MTV. But I did remember something that I have to mention.
A song on the Bad album called Man in the Mirror struck a chord with me when I was a teenager. Given that I was 8 when Bad was released, it was several years after. I was really beginning to become concerned about the world. About being a force for good in the great strain of Judeo-Catholic philosophy (Jews better the world, Catholics do good works and Protestants save souls). Of particular interest during my teen years was Sarajevo and the war in Bosnia-Hersegovina.
While my classmates were digging on the revivals of Jimi Hendrix and the Doors and buying into Alternative only when popular, I was listening to other shit. I got into Alternative, too. But I also got into the deeper messages that many were spreading. And it went back to the 80's when a lot of musician-as-activist had its real zenith. In the 60's there was protesting politics and folk anthems. But in the 80's it came to singing about social problems. Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman, U2 and even Michael Jackson were singing to raise awareness of problems as far away as Ethiopia and as close as next door.
And there were lots of problems: homelessness, drugs, crack babies, oil spills, endangered species, nuclear meltdown, wars, civil wars, Cold War, nuclear weapons, inflation, recession, taxes, unemployment, pollution, malnutrition, gang violence, civil unrest, crime, school closings, rising food prices, suicide, white collar crime, sex slavery, Cola Wars, Savings and Loan collapse, suicide bombers, famine, drought, AIDS, hate, and poverty.
But the song that probably made the biggest impact brought it back home. Man in the Mirror forced the audiance to reconsider their own feelings and actions, thoughts and ideas about the world and what a person could do to make a difference. Instead of thinking just about others, we had to think about what we could change about ourselves to make it right. The song made an impact at me at that time and I will be forever grateful for it.
The video is an emotionally charged collage of various problems around the world in 1987. It also shows good things happening.
Here's the video. Real Player.
I really was neutral about his death. It was just another part of my childhood gone just like Cabbage Patch Dolls and music videos on MTV. But I did remember something that I have to mention.
A song on the Bad album called Man in the Mirror struck a chord with me when I was a teenager. Given that I was 8 when Bad was released, it was several years after. I was really beginning to become concerned about the world. About being a force for good in the great strain of Judeo-Catholic philosophy (Jews better the world, Catholics do good works and Protestants save souls). Of particular interest during my teen years was Sarajevo and the war in Bosnia-Hersegovina.
While my classmates were digging on the revivals of Jimi Hendrix and the Doors and buying into Alternative only when popular, I was listening to other shit. I got into Alternative, too. But I also got into the deeper messages that many were spreading. And it went back to the 80's when a lot of musician-as-activist had its real zenith. In the 60's there was protesting politics and folk anthems. But in the 80's it came to singing about social problems. Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman, U2 and even Michael Jackson were singing to raise awareness of problems as far away as Ethiopia and as close as next door.
And there were lots of problems: homelessness, drugs, crack babies, oil spills, endangered species, nuclear meltdown, wars, civil wars, Cold War, nuclear weapons, inflation, recession, taxes, unemployment, pollution, malnutrition, gang violence, civil unrest, crime, school closings, rising food prices, suicide, white collar crime, sex slavery, Cola Wars, Savings and Loan collapse, suicide bombers, famine, drought, AIDS, hate, and poverty.
But the song that probably made the biggest impact brought it back home. Man in the Mirror forced the audiance to reconsider their own feelings and actions, thoughts and ideas about the world and what a person could do to make a difference. Instead of thinking just about others, we had to think about what we could change about ourselves to make it right. The song made an impact at me at that time and I will be forever grateful for it.
The video is an emotionally charged collage of various problems around the world in 1987. It also shows good things happening.
Here's the video. Real Player.
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