I’ll vote for that as well. Considering that Obama seems to be falling into the same trap that LBJ did in regards to Afghanistan.

As for Jackson, enough already, he’s passed and is almost buried. The media was out of control with this.
I don’t think the Pope would have gotten this much coverage. This was an example of how shameless the media can be, they milked this thing to death.

If ones life is so shallow that one needs to live vicariously through celebrities it seems that one should, get a life.

I second that!

Biggest Selling Album Of All Time – Guinness Book Of World Records
Etc
Etc

Yeah, well. I hear Walmart sells a lotta stuff, too.

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No matter, I’m sure MJ did do a lot of good for people.

The self-proclaimed “King of Pop” passes, and so begins an incessant period of memorials and retrospectives on MJ’s “art” and his influence on contemporary pop culture. WBUR’s On Point cannot contain itself; on the day after his passing — June 26th — ‘BUR devotes an entire hour segment to memorializing the “pop icon.”

Some eleven days after MJ’s passing, July 6th, 2009, arguably, the 20th century’s most controversial US executive-level office veteran, Robert S. MacNamara, passes. Why Arguably? – because one could easily make the point that MacNamara’s decisions under both JFK and LBJ during his tenure as Secretary of Defense from 1961 – 1968 are still today rippling through the fabric of time and profoundly affecting every living US citizen. Yet, nary a word from On Point on MacNamara’s passing and the rippling effect of his executive-level actions durng the Vietnam War.

Those who accuse the the mainstream media (MSM) of attempting to lull US citizens into becoming a docile & apathetic populace by means of a constant barrage of “infotainment” are themselves often tainted with the name “conspiracy theorists” — a pejorative epithet that ultimately fails to convince against “infotainment’s” true intent.

Still, one hopes that progams such as WBUR’s On Point will step outside the MSM infotaimnent assault, and offer its astute listeners at least an hour of what it deserves — a MacNamara/Vietnam retrospectrive that serves to ring through ‘BUR’s silence thus far.

Biggest Selling Album Of All Time – Guinness Book Of World Records
Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” Album is the biggest selling album of all time, with over 50 million copies sold worldwide. Thriller is also the biggest selling U.S album with sales of 25 million copies.

80’s Most #1 Hits
By The End of the 1980’s Michael Jackson had more #1 hits than any other artist for the decade.

Michael Awards
Michael has more awards than any other artist.

Entertainer Of The Decade
With the #1 (Thriller) and #2 (Bad) ranked albums in the world Michael was the 1980’s Entertainer Of The Decade.

Most Grammy Awards – Guinness Book Of World Records
Michael won a record breaking 8 Grammy Awards in 1984, more than any other artist in one year.

Largest Contracts – Guiness Book Of World Records
$890 million (Sony Music) Contract, with prospective earnings of $1 billion.

Greatest Audience – Guiness Book Of World Records
The highest-ever viewership was 133.4 million viewers watching the NBC transmission of Super Bowl XXVII on June 31, 1993. Michael was spotlighted during the half-time peformance.

Highest-Paid Commercial Spokesperson – Guiness Book Of World Records
Pepsi Cola paid Michael Jackson $12 million to do 4 TV commercials.

Bad Tour – Guinness Book Of World Records
Michael Jackson’s world tour brought in a record gross revenue of over $124 million during September 1987-December 1988.

100 Million Records
Michael has sold over 100 million singles and albums outside of the U.S.

Billboard Charts
Michael Jackson is the first person in the 37 year history of the chart to enter at # 1, with his single “You Are Not Alone”. Michael broke his previous redord held by his single “Earth Song” which debuted at #5.

Biggest Selling Video
Michael Jackson’s “The Making Of Thriller” is the biggest selling video to be released by an artist.

Billboard “Hot 100″ Singles Chart
Most #1 Hits by Male Artist (13)

#1 Debuts
Michael’s “Bad”, “Dangerous”, and “HIStory” albums all debuted at #1.

Consecutive #1 Singles
Jackson 5 were the first group to ever have four consecutive #1 singles.

#1 On Charts
In 1983 Michael became the first artist to simultaneously hold the number one spots on Billboard’s rock albums and rock singles charts, as well as the R&B albums and singles charts.

First Video
Michael Jackson was the first black artist to have a video aired on MTV.

When a dancer of the caliber of Baryshnikov states that Fred Astaire was one of the best dancers in the world ever, I’m going believe him.

These dancers were part of that zeitgeist, and just because dancers now ‘pop’ does not mean that it’s more sophisticated. It is true that the training has gotten better so you’ll have better trained dancers. The amazing thing is those dancers were for the most part naturals they came up from clubs and shows. The training was minimal compared to what we have today.

Hip hop dancing can be amazing and in some ways the Lindy Hop was the street dance of that period, as it developed through the music halls and clubs. It was an African American dance as well, the white big bands of the day did not play as fast until this thing became a fad. By then it was already kind of dead.
Duke Ellignton’s band use to play dance competitions.

Yes, I watched the clip you posted in youtube, they were wonderful for that period of time. At times, I thought I was watching WWF (wrestling), haha…..

Dance has being inspired by oldies, then evolved, now we see much more sophisticated body control dance. Like everything else, all performing or visual art are inspired by people before people, and whoever made it big and famous most likely would take credits for. This kind of things goes on and on over thousands of years throughout human history.

MJ uses his moonwalk to go with his music, make them theatrical, anytime when someone uses old ideas and repackage them into new sensation, it is considered “innovation”, and that’s what MJ has accomplished.

If you keep him inside the genre of “POP”, I won’t argue.

Was MJ one of the greatest of all time? Yes and no.

Those Lindy hoppers would give him a run for his money, as would Astaire in their prime. Can’t forget Gene Kelly.

I had to watch that Hellzapoppin clip about five times.
It’s so infectious, man those people could dance.

Here’s a YouTube clip on some of the early sources of the Moonwalk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxZcLWAmdco

It’s called, Slim Gaillard’s Vout-O-Reenee Dictionary.

Now get me an orange soda O’routee…

Otherwise known as Slim an Slam…

Slim Gaillard wrote a dictionary of jive, which is not hilarious as in full of wit, it is also a written history of period through langauge.

Louis Armstrong was and still is one of the greatest as is Ellington, Mingus, Parker and so on.

I’m not sure how many have ever seen this it’s from a 1941 film called Hellzapoppin’ Swing and despite the stereotyping of African Americans, the music and the dancing is out of this world.

Frankie Manning who died in May of this year, he’s the guy in the overalls dancing at the end of what has to be one of the best jazz dancing sequences ever filmed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0BHxhUnokU&feature=related

I think a lot of the discussions thruout ALL the media include talking about POP music as if it is ALL music. If MORE people, worldwide, heard & responded to Michael Jackson’s music, in part because of the means of musical distribution (CD’s, TV, videos, etc.), does that make him more influential MUSICALLY???

Go look at the PBS Ken Burn’s series on JAZZ. Those early men & women of jazz: THEY were the ones whose MUSICAL influence is so HUGE, we almost can’t talk about it, altho Wynton Marsalis & others do so beautifully thruout the series. If we are talking about musical FORMS, we’re talking about THOSE musicians, and, from among them, I would name LOUIS ARMSTRONG as the single most influential musician in all of American culture! The music of the early jazz musicians, including that of Armstrong, is SO powerful, its roots & forms influence every TYPE of music and how it is made or found or built.

Maybe the worldwide average age is just too young to have even grown up with old movies on TV, where we saw great jazz musicians & dancers, including dancers doing the moonwalk! Michael Jackson did NOT create it!! The old black tap dancers: go find them! AND, if you watch the Ken Burns series, one of the MOST heartbreaking parts to watch is the historical time period when enough white musicians had learned from the original black jazz musicians to, thanks to legally mandated segregation, over-run the black musicians, not in terms of talent, but in terms of bookings, recordings, etc. It is a devastatingly unfair piece of American history, and movingly portrayed in the series.

It was, in the end, America’s segregation laws, that kept earlier black musicians from having the worldwide (& even nationwide) fame they earned & deserved. America still TO THIS DAYl has far too many remnants of the segregation era knit into the fabric of life, and Jackson had MTV to buck up against, and he WAS born just a few, short years after the Civil Rights Act. But, the early black jazz musicians made transcendent music from their lived lives, which were politically stacked against them to a FAR greater degree. And, they often made their music with a single, found instrument, left over from a war, not with huge production teams.

Michael Jackson was extremely talented, but I stick by what I said above.

Thank you for posting those songs. It never took away his talents even he didn’t write/compose his music. But this only tells me how ignorant I was about knowing so little of him, I have to say I have more respect of him as a musician and artist.

May him rest in peace.

Stranger In Moscow
This Time Around (song and lyrics writen by Michael Jackson and composed by Dallas Austin, Bruce Swedien and Rene.)
Earth song
D.S
Money
Childhood
2 Bad (song and lyrics written be Michael Jackson and music composed by Bruce Swedien, Rene, and Dallas Austin.)
HIStory [sic]
Little Susie

Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough
Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’
Heal The World
Scream (the duet was written and composed by James Harris III and Terry Lewis, Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson.)
They Don’t Care About Us