When news broke that Michael Jackson has died of apparent cardiac arrest, the outpouring of first shock, then grief, was the largest, most instantaneous of its kind the world had ever known. Though the deaths of John F.Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. affected history more, and the deaths of Elvis Presley, John Lennon and Kurt Cobain signified the end of epochs, no single death has ever moved so fast around the globe as swiftly as Michael Jackson’s did.
– Rolling Stone Issue, Sep 2009.
Michael Jackson outshines Elvis Presley
After Elvis Presley died on August 16, 1977, he became the biggest entertainment icon ever. However, he has been overshadowed by Michael Jackson, who died on June 25, 2009. Michael is now the real king.
Perhaps part of the reason for this is because Michael, unlike Elvis, had a lot of talent. Michael Jackson might have acted strangely (and in some cases, pathetically) but he was able to sing, dance, play instruments and write songs. Elvis did the same things, but came across more as an amateur.
Perhaps the myth and legend of Elvis is starting to fade away just as it is with Marilyn Monroe. They were icons for years after their deaths but as time went on, their myths started to come apart. Michael Jackson will be remembered long after these two.
It's becoming clear that to Americans, it doesn't matter how much popular Michael Jackson was in other parts of the globe. Only America matters. Selling out concerts in American concerts is way more important than selling out in other countries! And of course, who cares if Michael Jackson wrote his own songs, produced his own albums and made up his own dance moves that most people in the world know about?
I have nothing against Elvis. I never heard his music, but to become an icon you have to be great, and that's what I'm presuming what Elvis was. GREAT. But the rest of you saying that Michael doesn't even compare is stupid. To Americans he may be a washed-up junkie and a pedophile, but to the world, he was a great entertainer who influenced many singers and artists all around the world. This is just a gut feeling, but there seems to be a lot of malicious, sadistic and racist feelings towards Michael Jackson in America. The man is DEAD. I don't know what you gain by attacking him.
ANDY COMER: Is Michael Jackson the most famous person not named Jesus?
Comments 60 | Recommend 7
July 02, 2009 12:00
Andy Comer
The Monitor
A January 27, 2009, column in Vanity Fair by Dee Dee Myers proclaims that U.S. President Barack Obama is the "most famous living person in the history of the world."
Written at perhaps the absolute peak of Obama's popularity, just after his inauguration, Myers puts Obama ahead of such luminaries as the late Princess Diana or former president Bill Clinton. Even the legendary boxer Muhammad Ali can't match Obama's star power, according to Myers.
With all apologies to Myers and Obama, the president's celebrity status may never equal that of Michael Jackson, who died June 25 at the age of 50. Jackson, after all, was a performer for 40 years; Obama himself is only 47 years old. The "King of Pop" has had decades to spread his influence around the world to generations of people, while Obama has really only been in the international consciousness for about two years.
Let me put it this way: The only person more recognized than the "King of Pop" would have to be Christ himself. According to
www.adherents.com, Christianity is the world's largest religion with about 2.1 billion followers, or one-third of the Earth's human population. The world's 1.5 billion Muslims also recognize Jesus in their holy scripture, the Quran, and surely some of the 1.1 billion non-religious people have at least heard of Christ. That's a pretty decent fan base.
Second to Jesus, however, would have to be Jackson. No other person has crossed cultural and physical boundaries like he has. Jackson was the first international pop star to perform in post-Soviet Russia, for example. In a June 26 article on
www.CNN.com, one Russian recalled that "For Russians, America was like another planet and Michael Jackson was the king of that planet ... (He) was seen as the face of the crazy American life."
Both Jackson and Presley have legions of die-hard fans and even followers who have made careers out of being Elvis or MJ impersonators. Presley, however has been dead for 32 years and never had the benefit of MTV, the Internet or the 24-hour news cycle of the new millennium. As a major Elvis fan, even I have to grudgingly admit that the "King of Rock ‘n' Roll" may no longer be more well-known than Jackson, especially with Jackson's recent passing. As of this writing, Jackson occupied 39 spots on Apple's iTunes Top 100 song downloads and 21 of the top 100 album downloads. Jackson also hogged 14 of the top 25 best-selling music items on
www.amazon.com.
England's Times Online reported that the 750,000 tickets to Jackson's 50 planned "This Is It" concerts at London's O2 Arena sold at a rate of 11 per second, or about 40,000 per hour. Even though Jackson had not performed in years, fans were falling over themselves to see "The King of Pop." I can't imagine any other band or artist that could garner that much attention.
If people didn't somehow know of Jackson's musical accomplishments, they certainly saw Jackson as at least a curiosity. For example, he paraded his children around the world as he and the kids all wore surgical masks to hide from the cameras. Jackson, who as a boy was obviously black, somehow became white over the years and drastically changed his facial appearance, too. And perhaps his most famous moments of the past decade, unfortunately, were when Jackson was accused of child molestation and the trial that followed. If nothing else, Jackson was just plain weird to many people, which may have only added to his fame, albeit as a punch line.
If you still don't think Michael Jackson is the second-most famous person to ever walk the Earth, look no further than YouTube. The Web site features a video of hundreds of Philippine prison detainees dancing in unison to Jackson's "Thriller." The video has more than 27 million views. I can't imagine Obama or anyone else being remembered in such a way in any third-world country, let alone in a prison.
I'm sure some of my dear readers might disagree that Jesus is the most famous person to ever live, or even that Jackson is second to Jesus in terms of celebrity. In time, perhaps Obama may surpass Jackson, but surely not Jesus. In that case, I ask you: Who is the most famous person to ever live? Where does Michael Jackson rank?
I'm eagerly awaiting your response to this "Thriller" of a column.
Andy Comer is a copy editor and columnist for The Monitor. You can contact him at
acomer@themonitor.com.
In the hall of million-dollar dead stars, Michael Jackson will be king.
August 14, 2009, (Splash News)
Jackson's estate is expected to make $200 million in what is left of 2009 and he will rise to become the top-earning of dead stars.
Executors for Jackson have already run up $100 million from merchandising contracts and the Sony Pictures movie of his recent rehearsal footage.
John Branca, 59, and co-executor John McClain, 54, said they are set to earn more than Elvis Presley, who earns in death the kingly sum of an annual $55 million.
Branca said: "When you look at what the Presley estate has done, you see the opportunities here. "I quite frankly think this will be a bigger estate."
Jimi Hendrix has made $150 million in all the years since his death in 1970.
"Clearly it's a new record for estates that likely will not be broken," Branca said.
The Jackson estate's estimated $2 billion will be offset by huge debts the star owed - said to be $415 million, according to a lawyer for Branca.
Kurt Cobain is the top-earning dead star. Cobain has amassed $750 million since his death in 1994. The others follow as: Elvis [$600 million]; John Lennon [$235 million], Jimi Hendrix and reggae legend Bob Marley, who has made $40 million but been blighted by bootleggers.
