Why we care when the famous (or infamous) die.

Unless you live underground, you undoubtedly know that on Thursday June 25th, the King of Pop, Michael Jackson died. I think a lot of people were surprised and saddened by his death not so much because of his fame, talent, marred reputation, or relatively young age.... it was a combination of these things that's brought this reaction out of people.

Think about it. This is a man that's been famous since the late 1960s... since he was a small boy. He was one of the artists I grew up listening to, and I grew up in the 90s during a time when he was pretty darn famous. At that time, Thriller and Bad were behind him, but he was still a huge star that made waves wherever he went. Yes, I grew up in the days when MJ's skin was still lightening... he wasn't black anymore, but he wasn't the ghostly color we observed in his last years. His hair at this time was curly, and he was still known by the "gloved one" moniker. And if you want to know the truth, he was one of my favorites as a kid. I remember one time, my cousin and I had an argument over who was a bigger MJ fan. And in maybe '93 or '94, when I was 5 or 6, he had this HUGE pay-per-view concert come on TV and my mom let me watch it. That was the concert that they often show clips of... the one where a fan got so excited she passed out.

He may not have still been one of my favorites, but I was and am still a pretty big fan. Some of his songs are very high on my unwritten list of amazingly good songs. And I would say listening to his album Thriller is just as spiritual an experience as listening to The Beatles' Rubber Soul, The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Billy Joel's The Stranger, or any of Elvis' early genre classification defying records.

There are a lot of people right now making this man out to be a saint. There are a lot of people that refuse to let the accusations against him (that I won't mention now - because I know you all know) die. Are either of these reactions appropriate? Hardly. But as someone who has only lived in a world without Michael Jackson for a day and a half out of the nearly 21 years I've been alive, I can understand this death rattling people. Music is forever changed because of him, and in my opinion, so is pop culture. I wasn't alive in 1977 when Elvis died, but I've seen pictures and video, and it's all SO familiar now. I think right now, the thing to do is to hope that his family (the many siblings, both of his parents, and his three children) will be okay. And I also personally hope that his friends (such as Elizabeth Taylor - who's admitted she's personally devastated by this loss) will be okay as well. Friday morning, journalist Maureen Orth said this about Michael: "As big a genius he was with music he was also that big a failure as a human being, in my opinion." The man had not yet been dead 24 hours when she said that. She's entitled to her opinion, but I fail to see how her assessment could have helped anything now. I know if someone close to me died, and someone had said something like that about them it would be hard for me to hear. I'd hate to be the relative of someone famous. I can't imagine how hard it must have been for MJ's brother Jermaine to have give that press conference just a couple of hours after the death to confirm his passing.

And sadder still, the same day Michael Jackson died, TV icon Farrah Fawcett died of cancer. This death was no where as shocking as MJ's but it was still sad. But to me, the saddest part was that her death made news for a few hours (as she died in the morning, and he in the afternoon), and then he passed away and completely overshadowed her. He was as much of a supernova in death as he was in life. The rest of the day, the news talked at length of him, showing clips of all his awesome music videos and less awesome public appearances, then they'd quickly mention that she had "also passed away," and show that one iconic image of her. (If you don't know what image I'm talking about... do a google image search for her and I bet a dollar it'll be the first thing that pops up.) Farrah was beautiful and talented, and really rather cool. And you know what amazes me about her? She's always remembered as being one of Charlie's Angels. People say the show sucked after she left. The amazing part? The fact that the show ran for several years, and she made that huge of an impression during her one year starring on the show. One season. Amazing.

Now, after rambling on for paragraph after paragraph on the deaths of these two people, I still haven't addressed my topic at hand for this blogging - why we care when the famous (or infamous) die. Honestly, why do we private citizens care when celebrities pass away? Why did I cry when I heard the news of Heath Ledger's death? Why did I stay in shock all Thursday afternoon over MJ? And the truth is we care when they die because even though they aren't people we personally know, they're people who have in some small way touched our lives. The people that are mourning MJ now - his fans - care that he is gone, because he was someone that touched their lives by making great music. The people that are not sad that he is gone obvious had strong opinions of him, and there's no denying then that he also somehow affected their lives. Even if someone I was no fan of died tomorrow, it would affect me because they obviously affected me in some small way by raising my ire. And this applies to anyone, not just MJ. I mean, I'm still saddened by the death of Walt Disney and Elvis Presley because they've certainly affected my life and I admired them, even though they were long gone before I was even alive. People die everyday... even famous people, believe it or not. And our deaths affect more people than we'd even realize. A facebook friend of mine set her status to something about how you should tell people TODAY how much they mean to you... send your flowers now, not when the person can't enjoy them. Isn't that a beautiful sentiment?

PS - thanks to anyone who was trooper enough to read this whole thing, lol. When I wax philosophical, I get long winded.