What Will We Remember About Michael Jackson?

Michael Jackson, well where do you start, one thing is sure I am not the only person to have written about him over the last few days.

On the announcement of his death people rushed, not to his Neverland Ranch, or some other commemorative spot to show their outpouring of grief but rather flocked to the modern outlet of public opinion, the Internet.

Within a couple of hours of his death Google staff apparently went into a panic in the belief that the giant search engine was under some kind of attack as their traffic figures spiralled out of control, and seven out of the top 10 search terms involved the words Michael Jackson, the same was true on Twitter where 5000 messages were being posted every single minute that also included his name.

On the surface this does seem like a strange reaction as it would seem prior to even a few weeks ago the ‘wacko Jacko' effect was still in full swing.

There can be no doubt that over the last 15 or 20 years most of the news headlines and gossip column inches have been filled with negative comments about Jackson's behaviour, mental state, physical well-being, sexual misconduct, not to mention the state of the former superstar's disfigured face.

There can be no doubt that for a considerable amount of time little Michael Jackson was the powerhouse behind Motown's phenomenally successful Jackson 5 even if the singing and dancing brothers dressed in nightmarish orange and green jumpsuits.

Most child singing sensations fade away and only ever resurface on reality TV shows. That's certainly was not true of Michael Jackson who not only re-emerged as a young adult singing sensation but soon easily overshadowed his former baby Jackson image.

Those not old enough to remember the release of the album and video Thriller can probably not imagine the scale of the star's success. At the time the 15 minute video was easily the best selling video cassette of all time without mentioning the 51 million Thriller albums sold across the world making it the bestselling album of all time.

Last week the incredibly popular Black Eyed Peas have a number one album which has managed to sell just over 100,000 copies across the world.

His stunning dancing performances on TV and his live shows mesmerised his fans and many millions of people who otherwise had little interest in pop music.

He followed that with other multi-million selling albums, videos, tours and massive promotional deals that set him up as the greatest entertainer of his generation. Slowly but surely tiny cracks in his character began to widen into massive canyons.

The press jumped head long into every strange Jackson story they could find and Jackson certainly gave them all the ammunition that a tabloid journalist could ever wish for, he wanted to look just like Elizabeth Taylor, his best friend in the world was a Chimp, his skin became white, as did his facial features, his marriages, including one to the then Princess of pop in waiting, Priscilla Presley, he slept in a bubble.

There was seemingly never a day when he did not manage to poor gasoline onto the already bad publicity fire.

Then came the allegations of sexual misconduct with a child, which eventually after much pushing and pulling, many millions spent went away. The star then became reclusive as he could not give away his new recording material to a suspicious public. Several years later when new allegations regarding another child emerged that seemed that is public life was completely and utterly finished.

The announcement that he was to play an astonishing 50 dates in London's O2 Arena again brought tabloid journalists out in a frenzy of laughter and abuse, that was until all of the dates sold out within a matter of hours.

It seemed like the former King of pop was about to make a shattering comeback. Then with a script that only the best Hollywood writers could produce just at the right moment, the star dies suddenly, leaving the world wondering just what would have happened and would he again had been able to regain his King of Pop crown.