My most surreal foreign experience was first hearing of Michael Jackson's death on a Paris News channel. Reasonably, considering my beginners level French, I assumed I must have heard wrong or I just wasn't getting the joke. Once I realized it was true, "le roi du pop est mort," I began to think about how strange it was for the death of an American pop icon in Paris. If a huge French music star died, would new programs in America be interrupted to cover the breaking news or would that rack in the World Music section just stop growing? I began to question whether I really thought such coverage was reasonable. Everyone loves Thriller, but do we really love Michael Jackson, and is really worthy of the hero status he has achieved upon his death?
The next day I was shocked at the Michael Jackson mania I was surrounded by. Shrines were posted on the walls of Parisian buildings, posters and merchandise were being sold in all the stores, and every tabloid had a different headline about "Jacko." At the Sacre Coeur I was prepared to see one of the world's most beautiful churches but instead I was overwhelmed by the group outside chanting and singing some of Michael Jackson's greatest hits.
It seems to me that the world had forgotten Michael Jackson until his death, at least the media had. He had been preparing a comeback tour, which we know means that a former star has fallen out of favor and maybe wants some extra cash or just a good PR stunt. We hadn't seen photos of him in the tabloids for a long time and now his ghost seems to be everywhere I turn. In Edinburgh I came across the impersonator whose picture I posted below. How strange that now Michael Jackson has died the media has forgotten the fears of child molestation and disturbance at his strange looks. I am excited to begin research for my paper to truly investigate how the media around the world has represented Michael Jackson from child star to pop star to villain and freak to dead hero.
Is death the perfect PR move?
I have to agree that death can be a huge boost to something in the business world. The example I always go to is The Dark Knight and Heath Ledger obviously. The movie was highly anticipated even before his untimely death but the excitement of his impending role as the Joker was taken to a whole new level in the aftermath. Once the trailer was released and clips made their way to youtube, the whole world was taken aback by the frightening character that Ledger had brought to life. We all know what happened once the movie came out...it broke almost every movie money record and ended up second in all time gross to only Titanic I believe. The question I always ponder while watching the movie(which is quite often)is how much difference did it make that Heath died before it came out? I believe that there was a strong fan base for the Batman series already but it would have maxed out around 100-150 million dollars. Instead it made upwards of 500 million bucks because everyone had to go see this unbelievable performance by someone who was dead. Death can be the ultimate catalyst for hyping something up whether it be album sales or movie tickets sold.
ReplyDeleteDeath being an ultimate PR campaign also makes me think of Tupac and Biggie.
ReplyDeleteI must say that I am great fans of both, just as I am of MJ, but they too have skeletons in their closets. Tupac also faced sexual abuse charges, while Biggie saw adultery as a minor offense.
Both artists seem to have earned the majority of their respect post-death. I find it ironic that Tupac was on the Death Row Records. And Biggie's first album was entitled "Ready to Die."The irony in all of these instances make me slightly curious if they simply took part in the ultimate PR campaign as MJ did. I am just waiting for the three of them to just pop up somewhere, maybe Dubai??
It also makes me think that we still have somewhat of a romantic fatalistic mentality in the fact that death brings the most respect.
I've been working on my paper all weekend, and Michael Jackson just keeps popping up in my research. I'm comparing MTV and STAR TV, so I've been looking on the MTV sites of other countries, and I can't believe how often they mention Michael Jackson. MYV Latin America has an article about how Michael Jackson was given anesthetics from his doctor. MTV China has several pages of special videos in memory of "the King of Pop." On MTV Japan's list of shows, the first category of programs that comes up is dedicated to Michael Jackson, with something called "MTV Featured Michael Jackson in memory of: Michael Jackson's great history of 50 years on the air."
ReplyDeleteI knew that American pop culture was popular in other parts of the world, but I had no idea how much they missed Michael Jackson.