“Oldies”, “Hits from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s”, whatever the format… I’m sick of them playing Michael Jackson. Just heard “PYT” on the radio and, well, decided to rant. If this is the wrong forum, please move it.
The guy had sex with children. He fled the country to avoid prosecution for this. He settled at least 2 cases with large payouts to make the claims go away and lately, one of the people who testified on MJ’s behalf in 2005 flipped and admitted he was sexually abused by Michael (admittedly, he’s now suing the Jackson estate, so there is a financial gain to be had.)
Hell, we’ve even debated this a few years ago and many of his defenders admit that even if he wasn’t an all-out child fucker, they still would never allow their children to be alone with MJ because of his habit of sleeping with children in his bed.
I, for one, am pretty much a “where there’s $20million+ of settlements and multiple lawsuits/charges made, there’s fire” kinda guy.
So I’m sick of hearing his music played. It’s the equivalent of watching ESPN and, every so often, seeing a clip of Jerry Sandusky’s greatest defenses, and I wish they would have the moral fortitude to keep his pedophile voice off the rotation.
You seem to have a lot of faith in a whole lot of flaky evidence that this is true. The conclusion that I reached after going through the other thread is the evidence for you assertion is extremely weak. So I not only will I not take your assertion as truth: I’m playing my Michael Jackson songs extra loud right now to remind myself of what a talent that man was. I for one don’t believe that cliches like “where there is smoke there is fire” is a correct way to view the world. If you think that Jackson had sex with kids, make your case. There are no comparisons between Sandusky and Jackson.
Micheal Rocks. He was one of the greatest musicians of any generation. He is rightly still being played on the radio. You have the right to believe what you want about the man. But the evidence isn’t there for you to make claim “he had sex with children”, it simply isn’t.
I can get annoyed with PYT as well. A great song that is ruined in the end when you have that high-pitched, chipmunk-y voice coming in on the outro. Who the hell thought that was a good idea?
So you’ve got a point there. Everything else is just stupid.
Look, the only factor here is whether or not you like his music. If you think that he’s one of the greatest musicians of any generation, then you’ll believe that he was an innocent, albeit troubles man. If, OTOH, you think that he’s just this guy who had some dance hits in the 80’s - like Duran Duran with stupider clothing - then, sure, he was a pedophile.
Honest question to the OP: No problem with Chuck Berry or Jerry Lee Lewis being played on classic rock stations? Any issue with theaters showing Roman Polanski films? Just Michael Jackson?
Chuck Berry: pimp
Sid Vicious: murderer
Merle Haggard: thief
Tupac Shakur: rapist
Phil Spector: murderer
Rick James: kidnapper and rapist
Ike Turner: wife abuser
James Brown: pimp
Lil Kim: perjurer
Peter Farrow: child abuser
R. Kelly: child abuser
And there are quite a few others that I didn’t list who got drunk or stoned and assaulted people.
…can’t act? Will give you that. Can’t sing or dance? Are you kidding?
Again: rubbish. The evidence that he was a pedophile just isn’t there. The last thread cited by the OP showed that. You’ll notice the closest the OP can get to evidence is insinuating that there is “smoke.” Liking or not liking his music and believing and not believing he is a pedophile are two distinct things and the belief in one does not mean you can’t believe the other. Most of us dopers are smart enough to think for ourselves: please don’t insult us by pretending you know otherwise.
First of all, I was referencing Fred Astaire. Shame on you for not getting it.
Second, yes. His singing voice was nothing special. Sure, it was technically proficient, and I guess he could “Wooooo!” with the best of them, but his voice had no character, distinction, or any sort of real emotion. He was the precursor of every empty, soulless singer in the three decades that followed him, from Mariah Carey to every American Idol winner ever.
This exactly. If you conflate an artist’s personal moral successes/failures with his or her art, you end up unable to appreciate massive amounts of cultural contributions. And, half of the ones you think are safe are only that way because you haven’t done the research on the artist’s failings.
That said, PYT is one of Jackson’s worst hits, and I would be fine if it stopped getting airplay.
Meh, I personally don’t care whether a dead man did the things that he did, at least not in relation to the person’s artwork. What do we have to gain by behaving as if we’re uncle Joe Stalin and trying to remove their existence from popular culture?
That said, I don’t have much use for the Jackson’s music after they became adults. That sort of stuff is kind of cute coming out of kids (and the Jackson 5 always had good bass sounds), the same sugar pop is pretty grating coming out out of adults. Luckily, I can change the station very easily these days.
