printAs all the repugnant muso hip-hop adulators pronounce vacuously on Michael Jackson’s contributions to “black music,” and other permutations thereof, the King of Pop’s last video reveals a hardcore edge: a catchy riff accompanied by a LOUD—and wait for this—competent guitar. The very antithesis of the aforementioned “art form.” Jackson the perfectionist sought out a competent, I suspect, studio axe woman playing in the progressive rock tradition, which relates to “black music” as Barack relates to economic recovery. Jackson had moved away from his signature, intolerable, squeaks-and-hiccups sound. Good for him—and for posterity, however long that lasts in this culture.
What a shame that, in Lawrence Auster’s astute estimation, Jackson had destroyed his health through drastic, disfiguring, medically-sanctioned self-mutilation.
I often had trouble understanding Michael’s lyrics, but I liked the sound. There’s no denying the talent. It’s a shame he wasted so much and that others were allowed to waste so much of him. It was never going to end in any other way but tragically. Michael did a lot of his own damage, and it’s just a shame. However, the talent is on record, as it were, and it will live for some time. Maybe as long as people can keep milking it for cash and suing each other over it.
Michael Jackson’s music was really without racial/ethnic connotations. Let’s be honest now, he was an ultra-commercial POP artist and he didn’t even want to remain black himself. His music had no bearing whatsoever on what passes for black music today and seems to be blasted out of every other car in the city I live in, the obnoxiously over-equalized booms and bass blasts accompanied by vulgar, narcissistic rapping about how untouchably “dope” and “fly” the talentless goon in question is. I am not unbiased: I detest such “music”.
Perhaps a plug for Professor Ellis Washington is needed. His column today may help to explain M.J.’s mindset a little. You can find it on http://www.worldnetdaily.com in the commentary section. It made sense to me