Jacko Of The Dead

Considering the pop culture nature of this blog, it seemed appropriate tp mention the passing of of an important cultural icon; Michael Jackson. Many will sing his praises, and deliberate the controversies of his life elsewhere, but I just wanted to add my perspective.

Pop videos...no one made music videos like Michael Jackson, even if they had money to spend. When an MTV countdown showed the most expensive music videos ever...most were wasteful crap. Will Smith on a speedboat ain't that engrossing. Anything with Mariah Carey is a waste of money. P Diddy...we don't care how much attitude or bling you have. Jackson videos were mini movies. The had plots. They had epic dance sequences, impressive Jackson dance solos, imaginative settings and inventive direction. From the stark sci-fi slickness of Scream to the power of the Earth Song video. From the crazy unrelated collection of scenes in Black or White to the gang-inspired confrontation of the Bad video. Most were memorable. Some were great.

Perhaps intentionally, his best songs were adapted into his best videos. There's the glorious 1930's gangter style Smooth Criminal with it's bizarre gravity defying dancing. In its longer, Moonwaker cut, it goes all Transformers on us, destroying all pop video competition in the process.

But his best is the incomparable, John Landis monster epic Thriller. Landis was at his peak here and had proven himself a master of comedy, horror and the musical (all the genres on show in Thriller). A perfect marraige of music and moving image, it's barely dated despite it starring 'black' Jackson in his red-leather period. The video is so iconic, it's inspired a collection of affectionate homages and spoofs (including the above Final Fantasy DVD extra from the 2000 movie).

Still brings a shiver to my spine, the perfection of that dance sequence. Today, at perhaps this very moment, Jackson is being laid to rest. In three days time, if he were to rise from the grave, if Jacko were to perform this dance, I'd be a happy man.
So would Jackson (no make up required you see).