This article seems fairly pointless. While I can respect the fact that not everyone was profoundly impacted by Michael Jackson, it seems very pointless and in poor taste to post an article about how an individual did not effect you greatly. When an individual dies, we should not be looking for reasons to immediately discredit them. To be honest, I think that this article is an attempt to stand out and be different just for the sake of being rebelious. So, congratulation Mr. Walls, I read your article and gained nothing from it.
He Never Made Me Moonwalk
Michael Jackson was talented, but he spent as much time seducing the tabloids as the microphone.
Jun 26, 2009
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Posted By: jcard82 @ 06/26/2009 9:21:21 PM
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Posted By: batvette @ 11/26/2009 10:19:09 PM
I disagree, at least in part. While everyone else is fawning over his memory, many overrepresenting the level of their admiration in years past, I don't think it's disrespectful for a few to appear with a voice of reason to keep it real.
As for myself I 'll say where I differ from Seth is that I too really didn't get much out of Michael in his heyday, but a few years ago picked up "Bad" for one song I did like, "Dirty Diana" and ended up becming a fan. Now when I look back at his live performances, just how cool he really was before he morphed into Mr. Diana Ross, how he was above mortal status, clearly- I can now appreciate what a star he was. -
Posted By: Jason in Australia @ 06/29/2009 7:17:47 AM
How many times do I have to tell you people - it's affect, not effect.
Effect is a noun, affect is a verb. D-.-
Posted By: JeffDavis0 @ 09/03/2009 4:27:26 PM
Affect is also a noun meaning emotion, as in The Doctrine of Affections
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Posted By: NRastro @ 07/07/2009 3:09:28 PM
From the last verse of the first track of the biggest-selling studio album in history:
"If you can't feed your baby.
Then don't have a baby.
And don't think maybe
If you can't feed the baby.
You'll be always trying
To stop that baby crying,
Hustling, stealing, lying,
Now, baby's slowly dying."
It may sound pretty playful in the song, but it was an amazingly blunt statement (especially from an extremely well known pop artist) for 1982, and it was directed specifically to the African-American community, whose ear he definitely had. I remember being stunned that Michael Jackson would say it, right up front, on his album.
To give this some context, remember, this was just barely one year into Reagan's presidency, we were in the thick of an incredibly brutal recession (not too different from today) and unwed pregnancies were just starting the steep increase that would peak in the early 90s.
So, the "ma ma se, ma ma sa" chant may have been fun, and incredibly infectious, but the album was coded, first and foremost, to his African-American fans. He had no idea when he recorded it how big the album would be, or the reach it would have. In the later albums, there was "Black and White," "They Don't Care About Us," and the more plaintive songs like "Man in the Mirror" and "Heal the World."
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Posted By: sidlo12 @ 06/26/2009 7:38:57 PM
The timing of this piece could not have been poorer. Regardless of what you thought of the man as a person, there is no denying the indelible print he left on society. What were you thinking in printing this now? You are entitled to your opinion. No one can take that away from you, but GOD,can't you find just a little tact? This man did more for music and the industry than almost any one person. He gave his life to his passion and it resulted in his ultimate demise. Now is not the time for this article. A few weeks ago, maybe. A few years from now, possibly. But the day after his death, shame on you.
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Posted By: Barney L. Cornett @ 06/28/2009 11:30:01 PM
You're a might angry! Why is that "Bitch"!
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Posted By: shamar from the m-town @ 06/26/2009 7:39:49 PM
one more thing and im thru wit you bitch what the hell your parents got to do with him buying the beatles catalog were they mad because he is black you are a stupid writer ITS CALLED BUSINESS BITCH!!!!!!!! thats you can still buy all of the beatles music so your *** parents who rasied you should not care who actullay owns the music one mo time you bitch
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Posted By: Barney L. Cornett @ 06/28/2009 11:28:17 PM
You're a might angry! Why is that Bitch!!
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Posted By: MH1212 @ 06/28/2009 6:27:20 PM
Well, I don't mean this to be the insult it's going to sound like, but I think you miss a main point. The man was a legendary and groundbreaking entertainer. His personal life, while it may have helped to inspire some of his music, is more or less irrelevant from an audience perspective. It's one thing for his style of pop music to not be your preference - I'm not a country music fan, but I can understand what legends musicians like Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson are. But if you let his personal life and tabloid stories taint your opinions of his music, I think that's a mistake, and says more about you as a listener than about him as an artist. I know it's hard to put those opinions aside - I have a hard time appreciating any of Britney Spears's hotter music or Lindsay Lohan's good movies - but I think to not do that does the artistry an injustice.
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Posted By: namvet667usmc @ 06/28/2009 2:19:42 PM
His family is at fault letting him stay a little sheltered 50 year old boy !
A 50 year old Pop King and Goof Ball, that was never
allowed to live in the real world and grow up to be a mature man !!
He lived in fantasy land and dream world, living on drugs and fame !!
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Posted By: namvet667usmc @ 06/28/2009 2:12:33 PM
50 year old child that was a old Pop King and Big Goof Ball..
His Family spoiled and treated him like a little boy, all his life, they raised him wrong and
helped turn him turn into a Goof Ball and hooked on drugs !!
They never let him grow up and be a mature man !!
Sad really
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Posted By: lalitg @ 06/27/2009 5:30:50 PM
Seth's tastes, influences, and allegiances in music reflect precisely those qualities that Michael Jackson's music supremely ignores - topicality, contextuality, and a self-congratulating self-consciousness. It is intended to be fun, MUSICAL, and danceworthy, and not particularly cerebral (though it can be that too if one adopts that vision). Behind the bubblegum melodies and rhythms lies musicality of a very high order - it is this musical worth behind the deceptive superficiality that makes an impact upon the listener at some time or other, and that has impacted practically half the world to express its grief at the loss of popular music's last and greatest ever icon.
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Posted By: dmath76@hotmail.com @ 06/27/2009 4:41:42 PM
The freaks music was never anything more than bubblegum. Waste of noise. The "artist" himself should have died years ago at the hands of fellow prison inmates, a population that knows how to mete out justice to child abusers. Jackson never did anything but make and apparently spend a lot of ignorant peoples money.
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Posted By: dmath76@hotmail.com @ 06/27/2009 4:45:32 PM
As for his "suffering children", perhaps in a while they will find it easier to sit comfortably for the first time in their lives now that "papa" is out of the picture. Why all this publicity over a bubble gum music performer known more for pedophila than for his craft? The guy lived a lot longer than a LOT of people wanted him to.
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Posted By: Blake84 @ 06/26/2009 11:51:17 PM
I think that I'm like you Seth; I was born in 1984. I grew up with Michael in court and "We are the World". Not exactly his height of popularity. But ever since his death, I, like everyone else, have engaged on an exploration of his life and I am finding that what I once found commonplace is truly remarkable. I'm trying to put myself in my parents shoes. I mean, to see a child of 10 belt the wall of soul that is "Who's loving you"... It's unbelievable. But what's more remarkable is that he only got better. My parents must have felt as if they knew him. He aged with them, sang for them, and was around as long as they were alive. He was no Justin Timberlake, no Miley Cyrus. No, he was so unbelievably much more. I am only just now coming to understand that.
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Posted By: jcard82 @ 06/26/2009 9:20:44 PM
This article seems fairly pointless. While I can respect the fact that not everyone was profoundly impacted by Michael Jackson, it seems very pointless and in poor taste to post an article about how an individual did not effect you greatly. When an individual dies, we should not be looking for reasons to immediately discredit them. To be honest, I think that this article is an attempt to stand out and be different just for the sake of being rebelious. So, congratulation Mr. Walls, I read your article and gained nothing from it.
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Posted By: Skybox @ 06/26/2009 8:35:15 PM
continued:
no defense. Had to wear every championship ring on his left hand just to prove a point. One hand dragging the floor... the other scratching...
All this so he could get ready to play 50 games in Serbia for a cool million apiece. The Serbian Flippers mourn with the world today. It never happened.
So sad to see the great man go up and never come down. We'll never hear again, "No Michael! Your basket is at the other end!"
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Posted By: Skybox @ 06/26/2009 8:29:03 PM
Still in shock. I have been working out every day with MJ and before yesterday (for 2 weeks) was his endurance coach. I watched his decline right before my eyes as he ballooned to over 200 pounds. He could barely run from one end of the court to the other. he couldn't dunk. 2 out 10 from the free throw line after I let him move a giant step closer.
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Posted By: kiera620 @ 06/26/2009 8:19:57 PM
i love how you people all keep saying that seth's opinion means nothing to you etc, but then you keep going on and on about how he's wrong to have it. If it doesn't matter to you then get the hell over it and move on with your lives. Not everyone has to love MJ, It doesn't matter if Seth wrote this article today, next week or next month, he's entitled to his opinion just like the rest of you idiots.
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Posted By: shamar from the m-town @ 06/26/2009 7:21:42 PM
seth you are a bitch ass hoe keep your *** up opinion to yourself who cares if you like mike or not you are one in a billion and whether you lkied him or not the man is dead respect that you bitch
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Posted By: shamar from the m-town @ 06/26/2009 7:19:19 PM
seth you a bitch ass hoe *** you and yo article you are just one fo the idiot columnist trying to capitalize of this man death
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Posted By: NRastro @ 06/26/2009 1:14:31 PM
To the author:
You know, dude, you're a white guy. I really don't care that you thrilled to Nirvana while disdaining "Dangerous." Jackson is first and foremost an African-American success story of the highest order. The fact that you didn't like him means nothing to me. You are not the point.
Go into his songs and see how many of them addressed racism as a theme - - there's at least one in every album. Nothing that Elvis or Sinatra ever did addressed any issues of social consciousness.
You may be too shallow to recognize it, but Jackson was the superstar who began his career after the 60s and Civil Rights were finally fully enshrined in law. Hence his journey, hence his subject matter. That's the context, first and foremost you should look at him in.
I know you were a kid when you rooted for Nirvana to displace him, but grow up now.-
Posted By: NRastro @ 06/26/2009 6:02:47 PM
These two subseuqent comments really matched my thinking exactly:
??? Posted By: tdrive1crazy @ 06/26/2009 2:18:46 PM
Seth, this is a very bad opinion. There's a time and place for everything. You have to be careful as a jounalist, you come off sounding very opinionated and racist. This would have come in better taste if you would have given then grief time to mourn. You are the type of journalist who will help drive off readers of this magazine. "Shame on you, Newsweek".
??? Posted By: ashant @ 06/26/2009 2:06:51 PM
He could have kept this editorial to himself. If you have to ask who needed Michael, you will never get it. The Jacksons had a huge influence on black music, black radio. Mainstream stations wouldn't even play his music initially.
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Posted By: DAVinThePI @ 06/26/2009 2:03:16 PM
Wow, has it come to this, that Newsweek would publish an Opinion piece, and choose to try and pass it off as a news article. Let's take a look: Michael Jackson had the highest selling album of all time, and Seth... poor, pathetic, Seth, wants to try and peddle his life's story off on unsuspecting readers. I would venture to say that the vast majority of the readership of Newsweek has little to no interest in what little Seth did or did not do, or did or did not like, in middle school. I would even be so bold as to venture that most would extend that lack of concern, to Seth's high school years (I am giving Seth the benefit of the doubt here that he attended), or beyond.
If Seth is all Newsweek can find for a contributor, perhaps they should search out the local Junior Colleges. I'm sure they could find, 'qualified' young journalists, in search of a byline, who would at least have the sense to research their respective articles, and keep their insignificant personal lives, 'personal'. Maybe in these slow economic times, Newsweek had to let all the editors go; that is about the only reason I could imagine this joke article ever went to print. What the heck, keep Seth on staff??? just rename your publication to OpinionWeek (or more drivel you don???t really want to hear, but we want to push it on you). Respected news journal indeed (heavy sarcasm).-
Posted By: getreal123 @ 06/26/2009 2:07:10 PM
How did newsweek try to pass this off as a newspiece?? It was obvious from the title it was an opinion piece.
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Posted By: markci @ 06/26/2009 2:10:11 PM
Actually, moron, it was published as an opinion piece.
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Posted By: DAVinThePI @ 06/26/2009 2:17:32 PM
You are such a funny, funny, little man. These are Newsweeks words, not mine:
The Web can provide a flood of information on news and events every minute of every day. Rather than simply channeling that flood, NEWSWEEK editors will continuously filter it to find the most important stories and concepts for our audience. Throughout every day, the new NEWSWEEK homepage will feature four high-interest story packages, embracing everything from politics to international affairs to health developments or business news. In every case, NEWSWEEK will bring a discerning, selective eye to bear, but only after casting as wide a net as possible. We will embrace the best work of other journalists around the Web and the most thoughtful questions and comments of our readers. Our mission is to create a forum for a continuous ??? and continuously worthwhile ??? conversation about key events and issues.
Nothing there about, "opinion". It speaks to news, as a news journal should. You see, literate people go to news journals for news, and opinion blogs for opinions.-
Posted By: delius1967 @ 06/26/2009 5:54:32 PM
The title of the piece is "He Never Made Me Moonwalk". The content is entirely about the author's experience with and opinon of the subject. It's pretty clear that it is an opinion piece. If you need big flashing letters saying "OPINION" that's not Newsweek's fault.
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Posted By: markci @ 06/26/2009 2:41:38 PM
Actually, moron, you haven't got a clue. Newsweek is a web site for opinion and analysis as well as news. Get a life, you worthless imbecile.
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Posted By: markci @ 06/26/2009 2:49:26 PM
Lets see, imbecile, what other stories are on the front page of what you moronically claim to be strictly a news magazine:
What Romney's Doing RIght for 2012 - obviously opinion
Letter to a Young Philanderer - obviously opinion
The Governor's Strange trip - obviously opinion
Necons Have War Lust - obviously opinion
Why Jenny Sanford is a Media Genius - obviously opinion
Michael Jackson's Complicated Legacy - obviously opinion
etc, etc, etc
So maybe if you would get the first *** clue by reading the site, you wouldn't look so gigantically stupid, eh?-
Posted By: hlgns763 @ 06/26/2009 3:12:30 PM
still cant find your muzzle laying around here.... you sure like to call names and act like a junior high kid that figured out swearing is cool.
i would dare you to call someone a worthless imbecile to they;re face in public... from your posts its obvious that you, in life, are a passive agressive narcissistic sociopath, and you get your little kicks in by trying to belittle others over the internet. and somehow im just not able to see where you grand intelligence is coming from to validate you and your "im on a high horse" attitude... only weak people need to call names and act like you. and only a fool would deny MJs impact on the world. you have no merit.
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Posted By: music4366 @ 06/26/2009 2:27:34 PM
Nicely stated.
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Posted By: DAVinThePI @ 06/26/2009 2:25:58 PM
...Newsweek's* words (correction)
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Posted By: olcranky @ 06/26/2009 5:10:39 PM
Wow, because someone dares to note that they did not get sucked into the MJ hype you're going to attack his views? Sorry but there are many of us in the same category of "we recognize MJs talent but weren't fans who purchased his products, didn't idolize him and aren't on some bizarre self-flagellating kick as a result of his untimely death".
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Posted By: emmarcee @ 06/26/2009 5:20:08 PM
May be a rest room wall would be his place to write on! Not on the day the man died!. Where are these people coming from, O lord!!
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Posted By: apples28 @ 06/26/2009 3:56:30 PM
Great Comment!
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Posted By: future slumlord @ 06/26/2009 5:50:55 PM
NAMBLA lost their highest profile member
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Posted By: A.Morgan @ 06/26/2009 1:07:47 PM
Can Newsweek do better? Yes. Oh Yes. I suggest this author go back and actually write a real article. And study some music history. There would be no modern Rock and Roll (and Grunge) without Michael Jackson. You may not have Moon walked but the World did. Michael moon walked. And he helped the World Moonwalk through bias and racism and giant gaps. Between Young and Old. Between Rich and Poor. Between AN order of First, Second, and Third World Nations. He set the grounds for Live Aid and other future benefit concerts. He is the biggest global star, the world has ever seen. You didn't "Moonwalk"? Well, the World you live in DID. And by doing that it changed. So give the man some respect in his death, find a decent pen, and reflect that the world you live in today wouldn???t be the same without the Moonwalk.
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Posted By: future slumlord @ 06/26/2009 5:46:23 PM
Can Newsweek do better? Yes. Oh Yes. I suggest this author go back and actually write a real article. And study some music history. There would be no modern Rock and Roll (and Grunge) without Michael Jackson. You may not have molested little boys. Michael molested little boys. And he molested children through their penises and butts. Between Young and Old. Between Rich and Poor. Between AN order of First, Second, and Third World Nations. He sucked little boys' penises. He is the biggest global pedophile the world has ever seen. You didn't molest children? Well, Michael Jackson DID. And by doing that it changed. So give the man some respect in his death, find a decent pen, and reflect that the world you live in today wouldn???t be the same without the Moonwalk.
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