The King of Pop

Some celebrities are infamous because of their crafted freakish lifestyle nature. Their 15 minutes of fame do not last because the persona that they become on stage wears off when the person they are comes sneaking back in. When Margo Jefferson (in Chapter 1) explored Michael Jackson’s life, his history, his actions, his intentions, she found that he had very much a dynamic but consistent persona. What many mistook for pedophilia could have been a psychological desire to remain in a preadolescent stage, and create a shelter (the Neverland ranch and amusement park) where children could escape to have fun and experience true joy. His genuine longing for universal harmony (maybe as a result of his fixation in the preadolescent stage) shone through his work in Captain EO, a figure who was devoted to the eradication of threat to a happy society regardless of race, gender, or class. The slow change of his skin color further strengthened the context - He came an image of ambiguous gender and race, becoming a medium and a mediator. 

Even the ongoing art projects, the novelty and the humor of the kitsch that is created in Michael’s name affirms his chameleon nature. The mere fact that his image has been interpreted in so many inflected ways is proof that he has become larger than himself, a spectacle that is associated with a deeper meaning. These pop art projects testify to his immortality among the people, fascinated with his spectacle. One noteworthy example is that of the porcelain figurine of Michael and Bubbles. The porcelain kitsch, symbolic of the malleability and brittleness of pop figures and culture, symbolic of Michael’s slow white-skinned transformation, sat by the grand paintings of royal heads and nobles. It was pop art, mass culture ascending to the throne of high art, high culture. It was mockery of the elitist view of culture, though some may argue that Michael was just as much a hero/a martyr as many of the individuals with their portrait hanging on the wall-- and this was very much the aim of his various pop art pieces. In an edited art piece, Michael’s spectacle remains quite separate from his failures, his successes, or the slander spewed about him. This was part of the trick: preserving the freshness and the sealing the spectacle. 

Michael Jackson: Grasping The Spectacle - edited by Chris Smit 

Chapters 1, 6 & 8 

Read On:

Experience at Neverland Ranch, to be turned into a music institute like Julliard (?)

Studying pop art

To think about:

• “Pop art reverses values” in that the banal, the trite return to high art, worthy of being celebrated again. Why do you think this happens, and not just in relation to this context, but perhaps when related to something like fashion trends. Why is there a cycle of trends, where the old regains hype and the once-in-style returns to the dust? Is this like our constant desire to be in a different era, different situation with different types of problems? Is this another reflection of our inability to cope with stressing conditions we feel are too much for us to handle?
• Many celebrity demises come from society's inability to accept their sexual maturation, their development into an individual we cannot recognise beyond what we were used to. Why is it then that Michael had a falling out with the people if he was stuck in preadolescent desires? It seems like we come to despise them no matter what they do.