A few years ago, Magic Johnson told a story about Michael Jackson that seems unimaginable today. In the 1980s, the former Los Angeles Lakers star invited Jackson to a Lakers game, an invitation the singer was initially reluctant to accept because he was worried his presence would cause too much trouble. As it turned out, those fears were justified. “He sat down; the people went mad,” Johnson recalled Various types. “They were running from the top, all around. We had to stop the game to get him out.”
Like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Drake, they’ve all attended sporting events without stopping the game. But Michael Jackson, after he became famous, was different. He existed on a unique plane of the stars—and nearly 20 years after his death, he still inspires a unique level of desire, devotion, and curiosity from fans, even those who were not alive to see him in the flesh. The great success of MichaelA recent biography of Jackson’s life is proof of that staying power. Already, the film is the second highest-grossing biopic of all time, and there is big rumor that a sequel will be released, given that the film’s timeline will stop in the late 1980s.
Audiences have not been disappointed with critics largely panning the film for being shallow and offensively commercial. A flurry of headlines about what was left out of the film—most notably, the 1993 lawsuit accusing Jackson of molesting a 13-year-old boy, and subsequent lawsuits alleging similar abuse—have also not mattered. (Jackson settled the case in 1993 and pleaded not guilty; in 2005, he was acquitted in a case brought by a separate accuser. Jackson, who died in 2009, was accused of sexually abusing four children. in a new case filed suit against his estate in February. Mali has denied the allegations.) Regardless of any previous negative buzz, the Michael The filmmakers were counting on nostalgia to overcome controversy about the film’s moral direction—and they were right.
I am not ashamed to admit that I agreed too. While I was watching Michael in the theater, I was filled with my memories of Jackson. One of the highlights of the film is about the tension that arose during the planning of the Jacksons’ Victory Tour in 1984, where the grown-up Michael joined all his brothers in the Jackson family. I was 9 years old when my mother took me on one of these dates; tickets were impossible to get, but my stepfather at the time won a pair from a radio broadcast. Our seats were so high in the Pontiac Silverdome, just outside my hometown of Detroit, that it was a wonder my ears didn’t ring. Not that I would care. Although I don’t remember every song the Jacksons performed that night, I still vividly remember how electric it felt to be in that audience.
This is real emotional abuse Michael the filmmakers seem to be going. They wanted me to remember how I kissed the Jackson poster on the wall every day before school; the soap-opera-esque love triangle I would create between my Barbie dolls, Ken, and Jackson; how I would handle the first scene of the “Thriller” video like the moon landing; how I prayed so hard for Jackson after his hair caught fire during a Pepsi commercial video shoot. In fact, a friend of mine from Los Angeles recently shared that she and her mother drove down to the hospital that treated Jackson for his burns to stay awake. Although those are specific memories, millions of people around the world who have seen the film can relate well; for better or worse, it seems that many of them have chosen to take a trip down memory lane rather than face the difficult circumstances of Jackson’s life.
It probably doesn’t help that, today, the famous are no more that popular. Today’s stars are arguably more accessible than Jackson ever was, thanks to social media and the demand from fans and business partners for more visibility. But even younger fans who didn’t experience Jackson the way I enjoyed his music and imitated his dance moves; His mythology did not diminish over time. It is more than nostalgia to take people to the cinemas. Jackson has been a staple in music history, and no fan wants to feel like they’re missing out on one of the most important figures the industry has ever produced.
This is not to dismiss concerns about the quality of the film or the complete dismissal of allegations of child sexual abuse. (The events surrounding the 1993 case were recorded, but legal issues it led to millions of dollars being spent on reshoots) But the gap between what Michael offers and what other people think it should be can’t be wide. Fans don’t want to feel bad about Michael Jackson. They want to see a poster on their bedroom wall. It is worth considering why this is so.
*Image Sources: Zak Hussein / PA Images / Getty; Sonia Moskowitz/Getty; Ron Galella Collection / Ron Galella / Getty; John MacDougall/AFP/Getty; Lynn Goldsmith / Corbis / VCG / Getty; Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP/Getty; Bettmann/Getty.
