A lot has been written and said about Michael Jackson since his untimely death at 50 years of age on Friday, the mainstream media covering the singer’s career and life from top to bottom. Acknowledgment of his music and industry achievements (750 million records worldwide, 13 #1 singles, 13 Grammy Awards) has been well documented, as has his impact on the collective consciousness via pop culture (even a surprisingly sensitive Germaine Greer wrote in The Guardian of Jackson’s astounding influence on modern dance, "the surprise is not that we have lost him, but that we ever had him at all.")

Rather than add greatly to the kilometres of printed copy and hours of audio and video making up the inevitable commemorative tributes – because, let’s face it, unless you knew the man personally, there’s not a great deal more that can be said – we hand the reins to senior Rave writer Simon Topper for his thoughts on why Jackson’s death was indeed an event heard around the world….

The biggest story in entertainment in years hit suddenly on Friday morning like an "OMG did you hear?" meteor, leaving a trail of texts and tweets and unconfirmed news reports and sceptical blogs in its wake – until (what seemed at the time like) finally, an official statement confirmed it all. Michael Jackson is dead.

It was one of the most unavoidable news stories in recent memory. That night I devoured as much reporting on MJ as I could watch. How would the media frame this figure whose life was so far removed from suburban reality that he had long ago become more myth than man?

It was surprisingly gentle. While outlining his unparalleled controversies and oddball lifestyle, it was perhaps this acknowledgement of MJ’s many foibles that allowed an otherwise cynical media to use words like "genius", "the greatest entertainer of the modern era" and the hitherto cringed-at "King Of Pop" as givens. For a man who had become the world’s easiest target to lazy comics, there was an unexpected, though entirely appropriate, amount of respect.

However, running MJ story after MJ story for the first 20 minutes of their specially extended news bulletin, Channel Nine, as it ritually does, rubbed me the wrong way with one of their angles. It was the usual patronising story-by-numbers about the reaction of Michael’s obsessed Brisbane fans. Have some borderline-unhealthy MJ fan/impersonator give us a stilted tour of their memorabilia-packed house while the reporter pretends they won’t be made out as a lamewad to the viewers at home. Then show footage of them crying. Cut to the next obsessed freak.

That’s stock standard practice with celebrity deaths, and of course MJ’s obsessed fans are a ridiculous cut above anybody else’s obsessed fans. But what twisted my girdle was that this time, the story shouldn’t have been how the dead celeb’s fans reacted. In this case, everybody you know was going to react in some way. Your parents. Your kids. Your goth/emo/metal/indie-as-fuck internet friends. The middle aged lot at work you would never dream of talking about music with. And why? Because Michael Jackson’s was a collective loss. Around the world, as much as right here in your suburb, MJ is part of our culture.

I know it sounds like over the top hyperbole, but it’s only happened a handful of times in history that things line up in such a way. Usually the person at the forefront of their craft – the one pushing the boundaries, the one breaking down barriers, the absolute best at what they do – works in the dark underground trenches, forging opportunities for others to follow. Any self-respecting music snob lives by that premise. Even then, the most popular names of any given time rarely infiltrate society beyond a certain level. But very occasionally it’s happened that the best also become the biggest, and on a scale that defies normal notions of fame – The Beatles, Elvis Presley, if we go far back enough William Shakespeare … and Michael Jackson.

Thriller was a turning point in popular music, and unlike The Velvet Underground, this influential record blared from kids’ bedrooms on every street in the world, including yours. If you didn’t own it, or Bad, or Dangerous, then someone in your family did. And those of you who don’t already have them appear to be snapping them up in record numbers now – wait for next week’s charts.

So while none of us could ever really relate on a human level to Michael Jackson, his early death is a cultural milestone. And when the media’s reporting inevitably gets too much, and you’re about to automatically switch back to your standard cynical mindset, just be glad that for perhaps the only time in your life, everyone got it right.

SIMON TOPPER

• Ex-george singer Tyrone Noonan is playing his only 2009 Sunshine Coast show this Friday at the Sands Tavern in Maroochydore. Accompanied by a full five-piece band, Noonan will be supported by Graham Rix and Harii Bandhu on the evening. Fans should seek tickets through www.sandstavern.oztix.com.au.
• Bris-rockers Lysergic will be showcasing new tunes this Friday at Rosie’s before heading to the Sunshine Coast’s Sands Tavern with Lynchmada (recently signed to Truth Inc Records) on Saturday to play alongside locals Idle Theory and Ablaze Withsin, the metal act featuring Dean Morcombe – who are also set to play the upcoming Daniel Morcombe Foundation fundraiser at The Globe on Jul 10 with Kate Bradley, We All Want To, and Crystal Radio. That’s our long-winded way of telling you about three Rave-recommended gigs.
• Brisbane punks Sonic Porno are playing a final show of their recent east coast tour at The Step Inn on Friday night. Launching the video clip for single Jager & Sex, they’ll be supported by The C**t Offensive and Sudden Chaos. It will be SP guitarist Dave Traves’s final show before retiring to be replaced by Lime Spiders guitarist Mark Wilkinson.
• DJ duo The Stafford Brothers will be filming footage for a new reality TV show pilot this Friday when they play at The Met. They’re urging fans to attend and join in the fun, as it’ll be the last local performance for a while, with the boys heading off to DJ on the Euro circuit (and collect more footage) for the next few months.
• QPAC’s busking competition BU$K OPEN! will be holding open auditions at Reddacliff Place this Saturday. To be eligible, you must register by ringing QPAC on (07) 3842 9137 or emailing . The free registration closes Wednesday Jul 1 at 5pm.
• This Saturday Amped To 11 host the first night of the Feel The Heat tour, featuring Brisbane’s 1989, the Gold Coast’s High Noon Heat, and the Sunshine Coast’s Fire Driver, in a loud evening of Aussie Rock. It all goes down at the Springwood Hotel from 8pm.

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