McCormick in his blog: "Michael Jackson's Choir Is Not News"
But there was one music story that ran in all papers this week (ours too, unfortunately) which was, in my opinion, a complete non story, involving Michael Jackson and a children's choir. Or rather, according to the pernicious wording of most reports, 'Troubled Superstar demands children's choir' (troubled being the obligatory adjective when discussing Jackson these days, and 'demands' a much more urgent verb than 'requests'). The essence of the story appears to be that Jackson's concert promoters AEG have sent out a call to casting agencies for children to appear as part of his 50 London shows, specifying "young adults, clean-cut and of mixed ethnicity", to be made up of "exactly equal" numbers of black, white, mixed-race and Asian children, and to include six marching snare drummers who must be actually able to play their instrument. And (reported everywhere as if this was a final sign of madness), all the participants had to be able to do "sign language" (which, as any parent knows, school children are routinely taught these days).
Now, forgive me if I look at this and wonder what is so unusual about a singer wanting a children's choir to sing along in a big production of one his saccharine peace and love anthems (quite possibly 'We Are The World', which would make sense of an exactly equal mixed race line up), in which the universal message will be broadcast for the hard of hearing. With some marching drummers. I am sure equity gets stranger requests than that every day. How does it differ from, say, Take That, who presumably had to send out a casting call for tightrope walkers, clowns, female hula hoop fire dancers and men on stilts for their Circus production (currently wowing their fans in stadiums around the country). Have we reached the point where just the proximity of the words 'Michael Jackson' and "children" in the same sentence sends everyone into a panic? I even had Channel 5 news come around to talk to me about his "unreasonable demands", as if he had asked for the choir to be put on his backstage rider, along with bowls of smarties with all the red ones taken out.
Clearly, there is a lot to be said about Jackson and his mooted comeback, but 'Famous Singer Requires Choir To Sing Backing Vocals' is not a news story, even on a slow news day.
Source: Telegraph
What shall I say? The papers/ tv channels are full of non stories. Who cares for the starving, the sick, the dying?
It is page turning and part of the past. But, of course that was also a very important day, because he was innocent and so is not no remember the day June 13. We look forward to the future, for good things to come ahead of the career that Michael will bring many joys. :yes:
