By the way, the long forgotten King of Pop Michael Jackson will turn 50 tomorrow. There is no celebration. Yes, the fanfare is missing; in fact, one can’t even spot the man who was ruling the music arena for decades. You know once there was a popular joke that every child in the world would probably not know who the prime minister or the president of his/her country was but he/she would have definitely heard of Michael Jackson. But the same man has been erased from our memories; quite obviously he gave us reasons to treat him the way we are. So, don’t worry this article will not make you look at him differently. It will just go back into time to look at the singing sensation he used to be till he had a sharp fall from the top due to allegations of child abuse and his crazy whims.
Starting out as a member of Jackson Five, a music group formed with his siblings, in 1964 Michael gave hits like ‘ABC’ and ‘I’ll be there’ in even before he was a teenager. But he created history with ‘Thriller’, ‘Billie Jean’ and ‘Beat It’ in the late 70s. There was another plus point that Michael had — his impeccable dancing skills. You can imagine what fun people my age must have had growing up when Michael was creating musical and visual wonders all around. Women fainting at his live performances were a common occurrence; the special effects did actually take our breaths away. He was a star in the truest sense of the word, and not just in the west, he had a strong fan following all across the globe.
Perhaps that is the reason why he suffered such a severe downfall after the two accusations of child molestation against him in 1993 and 2003. And then there were also the debacle of marriages he entered intoa and the innumerous plastic surgeries. Oh yeah, and holding his baby from the window of the hospital he was born in, did not win Michael any brownie points.
Like many others, Michael blamed his behaviour to the abuse he faced at the hands of his father and to the challenges of being a child star. The latter definitely is a very scary statement that always lurks in the minds of parents whose children are rising to fame. We have had the likes of Britney Spears and Macaulay Culkin suffer the same fate as Michael did. They were sensations, people loved them, they went terribly wrong and then we forgot who they were.
Fame sure is a scary thing.