Ten years ago Michael Jackson | Music | '
June 25, 2009, many music fans will probably always remember: The sudden death of the singer shook – not only – Michael Jackson fans worldwide.
The image of the childish superstar in the months – more years – before his death considerably fragile: His ever grotesqueren "cosmetic surgery", his idiosyncratic way to witness with some well-known, sometimes mysterious women offspring, his striking closeness to children. The innovative music productions had also long since subsided. But Michael Jackson was not finished with his career and started another big project: "This Is It" was to be his last big show, which he wanted to perform 50 times in London. But then he succumbed suddenly to an overdose of medication. The bewilderment over Jackson's surprising death initially pushed the discord into the background.
Milestone in the video clip story
Without a doubt, Michael Jackson earned the title of "King of Pop" during his lifetime. His most fertile period was his collaboration with music producer Quincy Jones, with whom he created the groundbreaking albums "Off the Wall" (1979), "Thriller" (1982) and "Bad" (1987).
The hits from the latter two albums have become the most successful and innovative music videos of all time: Director John Landis (including "Blues Brothers" and "American Werewolf") has filmed an independent 13-minute short film with the video clip for "Thriller": Michael himself Sitting in the cinema chair with his girlfriend, watching a horror movie in which the lead actor Michael Jackson becomes a werewolf. His girlfriend is too much, the two leave the cinema. On the way home, Michael sings her "thriller". The path leads you through a cemetery. Zombies wake up and pursue the two, while Michael also turns into a zombie.
The girl escapes and suddenly awakes from a nightmare, the "real" Michael calms her. Then he turns around and looks with yellow zombie eyes grinning into the camera. The story is not what made the clip so memorable. It is the iconic dance scene of the zombies: the choreography, the costumes, the camera work – at half a million dollars "thriller" was the most expensive and elaborate video clip that had ever been shot. The icing on the cake was horror actor Vincent Price's voice and wicked laugh.
Morphing becomes socially acceptable
John Landis was recruited for the song "Black or White" from the album "Dangerous" (1991). The director brought the then childhood star Macaulay Culkin ("Kevin – Alone at home") into play: In his nursery he lets him hear loud rock music – until the father complains. Then the kid rolls an oversized guitar in the living room, proposing a loud distorted power chord that carries the father through the blanket into the African steppe. And then the song begins: Michael Jackson dances with Africans, Mongolians, Indians, Russians, Indians through different worlds – in the end, morphing sequences are shown in which people from all ethnicities transform into each other. The statement is clear: All people are the same, no matter what skin color they have.
Whether moonwalk, zombie dance or "weird" gangster: Jackson's dance scenes were sensational
After the song, the film continues. A panther leaves the film studio and turns into a dark side street in Michael Jackson. It starts a destructive and lascivious dance. Between his spectacular steps and movements, he keeps taking himself into the crotch, shattering windowpanes and bumping into cars. The four-minute part of the video was not broadcast in the US. Jackson wanted to portray only the drives of a cat and turn against racism. Subsequently, Nazi and KKK symbols were also inserted into the video, which were destroyed by Jackson during the "Panther Dance".
Serious allegations of child abuse
Despite numerous scandals, the throne of the "King of Pop" seemed irrefutable even after his death. But the documentary "Leaving Neverland" by British director Dan Reed, which appeared in 2019, casts a heavy shadow on the person Michael Jackson. Again and again, "Jacko" was accused of child abuse during his lifetime. In "Leaving Neverland" Wade Robson and James Safechuck tell how the singer abused her as a minor on his Neverland ranch. "He said that if someone found out what we were doing, we would both be jailed for the rest of our lives," says Robson in the four-hour film.
In 2005, Wade Robson defended the "King of Pop" in court. Now he raises serious allegations
Wade Robson and James Safechuck had already raised charges in 2013 against the deceased in 2009 Jackson. When the singer had to face trial in 2005 for child abuse and nine other charges, Robson had still acted as a relief witness and had stated that Jackson had never behaved inappropriately. Jackson was subsequently acquitted.
It has repeatedly been reported in US media that Michael Jackson has paid millions of dollars to families of numerous suspected victims of abuse. Fans of the pop star, on the other hand, argue that the families had thundered the big money and only charged the charges.
Can you still hear his music?
Following the broadcast of "Leaving Neverland", numerous radio stations around the world had decided to remove Michael Jackson songs from the program. Under the hashtag #MuteMichaelJackson critics called on Twitter to stop hearing any songs of the singer. In conversation with ‘, the philosopher and ethics professor Maria-Sibylla Lotter called these reactions "frightening" and pleaded for the art to be considered separately from the artist's personality.
Sculpture by the American artist Paul McCarthy at the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn: Is it possible to separate the work and the artist?
Rein Wolfs, artistic director of the Bonn Bundeskunsthalle, agreed with that. In the run-up to the current exhibition "Michael Jackson: On the Wall" there had been discussions about dealing with the "King of Pop". He considers it a mistake to throw works out of the cultural canon due to artists' private misdemeanors, Wolfs told ‘. "You have to contextualize the problem and discuss the connection between art and person."
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