The details are somewhat scarce and sure to be filled in to minute detail in the coming hours, but all that really matters is this sad fact: TMZ and LA Times report that Michael Jackson has died of cardiac arrest. He was 50. Holy shit. R.I.P.
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RIP. Get ready for the “glad he’s dead” posts. Sanctimonious hypocrisy: it’s so hot right now.
Well I wouldn’t go as far to say I’m glad he’s dead, but to be honest, as shocking as this is, it seems strangely fitting that this is how he went out
Can you really imagine a 70 year old Michael Jackson?
guh?
Wow…
You’re blowing my mind, Frank.
Jakco, We will miss you?
Well fuckin’ shit. How about that? RIP
Thriller will always be a classic…
this is really sad. like I said, his music was a huge part of my childhood. I’ve learned the thriller dance on three separate occasions. RIP Michael.
oh boy today is crazy.
Good riddance you overrated multi millionaire.
You’re a fucking monster.
I have no sympathy for child molesters who managed to avoid jail time because of their money and fame.
What a way to cover your expenditures.
No, I’m the fucking monster
Come here little boy. Want some Jesus Juice?
and on the eighth post, there was a douche….
I’m guessing you’ve released a better album than Thriller?
being a child molester makes him looks so overrated? don’ make sense to me
Its nice to know that envious talentless hacks can make comments on musical forces like michael jackson. Just remember that what comes around goes around
maybe the beatles will finally get their publishing rights back
You mean the Beatle?
I lol’d. But yeah, I was thinking the same thing.
He had no purpose in buying the publishing rights to those songs.
Keith Olbermann said that MJ is giving McCartney 50% of the rights to the Beatles catalog with the other half going to Sony.
Dear Gabe,
What were you doing when Michael Jackson died?
Sincerely,
A Fan
Dear A Fan,
I was watching the movie Jumper and twittering about it. Duh.
Sincerely,
Gabe
I knew someone would bring that up. I like Shaq’s coping tactic tho.
THE_REAL_SHAQ
3:05: “is it true about michael”
3:06: “This is the cavs new hot cheerleader,wow smokin. @THE_REAL_SHAQ http://twitpic.com/67l1u – new Cavaliers’ Girl! Ain’t she peerrty?
Ri …”
i think he left them to macaulay culkin.
and the dandy warhols will cover blackbird?
Everyone is reporting this like it’s a big surprise, because they think that’s how they can be respectful. Well I’m not surprised. He’s looked like 90 pounds for years…ah, correction – the news just said 5’10″, 125lbs. They keep saying ‘frail’.
He was probably addicted to painkillers after all those surgeries. Sounds eerily similar to all the pro-wrestlers who die in their 30′s and 40′s of exactly the same thing.
He was a great pop artist. WAS. He hasn’t been relevant for over 15 years. Let’s all go play Off The Wall and Thriller and Bad, and remember the time, pun intended.
nice job spreading inaccurate information
so typical of the idiocy in our society
Nice job being an idiot. So typical of the idiots in our society.
A sad end to what must have been a very very strange life. “Ben” is one of my favorite songs of all time. Definitely underplayed. RIP.
that’s the one about the rat, right?
On a scale of 1 to 10–I’m 0 sad.
LA Times says he’s in a coma. TMZ is the only one saying he’s dead.
yeah. not dead. hold your horses stereogum. lay off the tmz.
Washington Post is posting it too, using TMZ as a source.
la times confirms he’s dead. he’s dead.
TMZ is not a hard news source. Come on.
yeah, but they’re barely ever wrong about this sort of stuff. the mainstream media can’t report until they get confirmation from the hospital – federal privacy laws.
i dont wanna believe it either man…………
………….were gonna be just fine youll see
I guess Jacko’s on his backo….
I wonder what Jarvis Cocker is doing right now.
I was thinking the same thing. It will be interesting to hear if Prince has anything to say either.
You come on. MJ is dead. It’s sad. Stop bickering over sources. (If you need another, here’s LA Times, who have reported his sad passing.)
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/06/pop-star-michael-jackson-was-rushed-to-a-hospital-this-afternoon-by-los-angeles-fire-department-paramedics–capt-steve-ruda.html
His death is noted in his Wiki entry. That was quick. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson
thats what you get for fondling macaulay culkin
My god, you people are fucking awful.
Why, did they molest you?
MJ was a great performer/artist but that doesn’t trump the fact that he molested boys.
One of the last, greatest American icons that transcended personal issues.
Show some respect for someone who accomplished more than you could ever dream of coming even close to.
global associated news is reporting that it was a suicide – over 2 dozen sleeping pills. just sayin’.
P.Y.T. for the win forever!!! R.I.P.
Really Important Pedophile?
What may fly as fast as the DEATH rumor is the HOAX rumor. Anyone want to start?
A good time to be an entertainment journalist indeed. $$$$$$$$$
Jam on, Michael…
what’s the age that separates the people who are really affected by this, and the ones that do not care at all?
30 i say?
I don’t know, I’m 25 and Thriller was an absolutely central part of my childhood cultural experience.
i’m 32 and i’m more afffected than i thought. my wife is 25 and she seems to remember mostly the later and dubious years.
I’m 17, and I remember being obsessed with the video for Beat It when I was 5.
There goes the jobs of a lot of bad comedians.
Don’t let my death distract you all from the continuing crisis in Iran. US media I’m looking at you…
Sad to see yo go so young Michael. May you rest in peace Michael. Thanks for the music and the memories.
Music fans around the world have just lost an icon.
I read a great quote on the NY Times website. “For a generation, the greatest moonwalk had nothing to do with NASA.”
Sad news whether or not he was “relevant” or not he released some pretty great music.
Well, I am sad. No one can deny him his talent. Come on… The Jacksons… Thriller, Bad…
And Ed, I’m 24.
oh, I wanted to say Jackson 5
So, at first I was upset. I was almost crying, because he meant more to my musical formation at childhood than anyone. I went for a drive. The radio stations were all doing tributes. One was playing “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’”.
And I sung along. And I danced in my seat.
And I realized he’s more alive than ever.
Gay.
You obviously have to be very insecure about yourself to anonymously attack someone else for making a sincere comment while labeling yourself “Not Gay”.
I think he was being funny.
You’re gay, too.
Well, we’re gonna hear about this from the media for a while.
‘Keep The Faith’ indeed!
The most talented performer in the history of pop music. Show a little respect, folks.
Lets leave these old hyped artists in the past. There is great new music made by bands like Dirty Projectors and The Smashing Pumpkins. Stop living in the past.
lol at the Smashing Pumpkins being a “new”, “hyped” band. You better be trollin’ son.
i
Mindblowingly unexpected.
Mark Sanford has to be thrilled, though.
Michael Jackson died in the 80′s. This is just a formality.
What happens to Blanket now?
The Free Willy song was my first real exposure to music as an interest.
Wonder if Conan will say anything.
I wonder what Dave will say about Farrah Fawcett.
..a few people seem to be misinformed – Michael Jackson was acquitted of all sexual abuse allegations back in 2005.
So was OJ. Guess what–he’s a piece of shit as well.
what about the out of court settlement in 1993? how can so many people completely glaze over the POSSIBILITY that he was a child molester. there’s obviously more to a story than what a jury decries. i’m not celebrating MJ’s death by a long shot, but come on… he was not Princess Di or Mother Teresa no matter how many sweet tunes he wrote.
I was talking about this with a friend, and i think we concluded that this is the first real “generational” death. You’re always hearing about people dying: Kurt Vonnegut, Farah Fawcett (who unfortunately passed away today as well), etc. But the fact is, as sad as all of these deaths are, they had not tapped into the same level of mass consciousness. My facebook statuses aren’t filled with RIP messages for Farah, for instance. MJ was oddly, some cultural touchstone for our youthful generation. Those of us (myself included) who were too young to remember him in his heyday, are just as visibly upset as those who weren’t.
And while older generations may be just as affected, they’ve already experienced their share of prominent deaths. Michael Jackson was such a figure of legend in modern music that his death resonated with everyone, one way or another, and to the point that we can only now look back on our generation and say “Whoops! There it goes!”
I’m doing an injustice to what should be like, Chuck Klosterman territory, but there you are.
“this is the first real ‘generational’ death”
kurt cobain
Kurt Cobain was the first ‘generational’ suicide.. he was also a faggot for committing himself to such. What a coward..
Seriously, MJ deserves respect, regardless of his personal life and problems. He was truly an icon.
I agree he deserves respect; I just hope (aw, hell who am I kidding) that people don’t go overboard canonizing him.
No question his artistic legacy can’t be touched, but MAN, no 2 ways about it, this guy had some serious issues.
Understatement of the night.
I like how you use such hateful terms like “faggot” and then tell people to be respectful…look in the mirror!
Asshole
I guess i was speaking more towards Generation Y.
Kurt Cobain’s death was more of a Gen X cultural touchpoint. Although they were both at their height of fame around the same time, their deaths obviously had a notable time discrepancy. I think (although i don’t know, not being much of a music listener at the age of
that they were on the same level of impact however, just for a different age bracket. Michael Jackson was just close enough to make him (key word) relevant to our musical/cultural appreciation. Kurt had (and has) the same relevance but because his death was so early on, it was kept tied to the generation that birthed him.
But i’m not going to go all out on arguing the point. They were just thoughts.
An old man walks into a pub in Scotland, his feet shuffling, his back bent. He drags himself onto a stool and orders a beer. Placing the full glass in front of him, the bartender inquires upon his sad face.
The man answers with a smoky and trembling voice and a Scottish accent:
Ah, tell ya man! This pub, this very pub we’re just sitting in. I built it, with me own hands! But do they call me the Pubmaker? Naa! See the wall over there, that protects our town? I built it, with me own hands! But do they call me the Wallmaker? And the bridge, you know, that crosses our river, I built it, with me own hands! But do they call me the Bridgemaker?
But I tell ya, man! YOU FUCK ONE GOAT!
But…..what will happen with Bubbles??
Fans of music love Michael Jackson – not people over 30. His records are the best argument for popular music that exists.
how many soldiers died in iraq today so we could sit on our asses blogging about Michael Jackson?
One has nothing to do with the other. Our young men are not over there right now defending our freedom to blog (or anything else). They are there because they were dragged there under false pretenses and, at this point, can’t just leave. We shouldn’t by any means forget what’s going on in Iraq, but it’s unfair to say that because there’s a war going on, the unexpected and untimely death of a cultural icon shouldn’t give us pause.
as a former marine, i think what dude was trying to say is that the military in general is responsible for much of the freedoms that we enjoy today. not bush’s bullshit war in iraq, but the hundreds of years of (justified and honorable) military action since the birth of our nation.
really sad. I’m still shocked. R.I.P.
I’m not sure what to think personally about the his death. The last 15 years have not fared well for him no doubt. It is however pretty obvious that this is the biggest death in music since Elvis. Jackson has meant more to a wider audience than say Lennon or Cobain. His music/dance is iconic. Your lying if you have never tried to moon walk.
I guess my last post was harsh. I’m kind of excited I got so many downvotes, though.
Is that sardonic?
Who will He-Man…
thanks for everything mike, you are the king of pop forever!!!
Truly sad news. The man was such a living legend
RIP
stuart braithwaite of mogwai had the best quote: “You bought the Elephant Man’s bones and sent a statue of yourself round the world. RIP you amazingly talented loonball.”
’nuff respect
And how about that Colin Meloy quote: “Whoa. The deli lady started weeping while she was getting my greek salad.”
Now THAT is insight, people!
You know what, Micheal Jackson’s personal life aside (that’s a completely different discussion) you sure as fuck can’t deny the impact that he had on popular music. He was the first African American to be featured on MTV and had literally everyone across the board – fans and critics giving him praise. The guy is called the “King of Pop” for a reason. I actually believe his relevancy existed through the countless of imitators that we have today.
All I’m saying is no, I’m not going to canonize the man…but I respect him as an artist. Also stop fucking frontin’ like you all haven’t got at LEAST ONE MJ song that if you were to hear it, you’d sing along, dance or at least tap your foot to it.
So can I get a SHAMON?!
(This coming from a person who usually doesn’t comment on these sorts of things.)
SHAMON. there you go.
Okay, what is with all of the comedians? Has our generation really fallen to that level. I’m pretty sure someone doesn’t have to be a musical legend or even an honorable person in life in order to demand respect at their death. There is no need to defend the merits of this man’s life in order to save them from ridicule on the day of their death. Someone died, real people are hurting, some people will want to grieve and remember him and his impact to their lives online, etc. Just shut up and give them some room. Not everything has to be a joke guys.
Clearly, you are new to this “interweb” thing.
Let’s be frank here. The only people that are experiencing genuine grief and “hurting” are his immediate family and friends, not a bunch of people who feel like they knew him by watching his videos in the 80s.
He leaves behind an incredible musical legacy, but to sit here crying/grieving as if he was one of your close friends is just ridiculous and disrespectful to those who have truly lost a loved one.
I’m not telling you to experience grief, or even implying that people reflecting on his life are even hurting. What I’m saying is everything that happens in the world doesn’t warant some retarded oneliner in a faceless website comment section, especially when it’s in reference to someone’s death.
Are you saying I’m not familiar with the internet because I’m trying to suggest that people should talk about someone dieing with at least an 8th grade level of maturity?
No, I’m saying telling people on an anonymous message board to essentially “grow up” is naive and pointless, and smacks of a holier-than-thou attitude.
You knew what you were getting into when you typed in http://www.stereogum.com, don’t act all surprised when some of the posts are insensitive and snarky.
Now, go cry yourself to sleep tonight, dreaming of a man who was last relevant circa 1988.
amen
Respects, man.
The saddest thing is that an entire generation will remember him primarily for his, er, alleged crimes and not for the fact that (albeit with more than a little help from Quincy Jones), he was one of the greatest pop artists there will ever be.
This is such a fucking bummer.
This is sad that it ended this way where he was in such bad shape for the last decade or so. Yes he had his problems and I don’t justify anything he allegedly did, but MJ had an extremely difficult and pressured childhood, a particularly tough relationship with his father, that likely had some substantial effect on his later personality and life. Just let the King of Pop be for a little while, geez.
Still can’t moonwalk for shit, gonna go learn some MJ on guitar.
A sad day all the way around. This is just a small sample of thoughts of America!
Reese
I hear he died because he ate a seven year old wiener……OH
to soon?
Yes, “to soon”. I mean “two soon”. Also, not funy. I mean not funnnie.
Michael Jackson left a huge mark on American culture. Anybody reading this knows who the man is. No matter how old you are or where you live. You know who he was. He should be remembered for his music and the legacy he has left us. We should all realize that beyond all that he was, like all of us.. he was firs and foremost a human being. May he finally rest in peace.
Thanks for the music you left us Michael.
i’m 19 and michael jackson is one of my favourite artists. thriller is THE album. no one can deny that he had a huge impact on music and it wouldn’t be where it is today. i know this is the internet and everything, and it’s pretty much expected for everyone to make tasteless and lame jokes, but have some respect for a dude that just died and that also deserves and holds the title as king of pop.
Didn’t he say he’d freeze himself? Or was that just rumours? I hope he did.
poor lonely bastard. hope he’s found peace
You know it’s bad. It’s bad. You know it; it’s bad.
Don’t worry, tonight Michael Jackson and Kurt Cobain and Jimmy Hendrix and Frank Sinatra are all jamming in heaven and it really really really sucks.
is everyone that reads stereogum a self-righteous, humorless piece of shit?
Yes. Get over it pussy.
Well, it’s Human Nature to eventually pass away. It was a shame his heart couldn’t Beat It. It seems like the Smooth Criminal was under cardiac arrest.
Okay, I’m done. You will be missed, Mike.
Tough day for music. Reeeaaaally tough day for dance fighting
I find it very disturbing that anytime someone says that he was a child molestor and that that outweighs anything he accomplished musically, that person gets a -50 rating. Sorry, but molesting kids is right up there with murder. It’s evil, and the truth is that the Michael Jackson that everyone seems to be mourning today actually died a long time ago
This just reminds us that when we die we never get to come back, ever. I mean not like for a long time, but ever. Like before you were born but forever and there’s no middle part where you get to try sushi for the first time. It’s important to remember this because there is absolutly nothing you can do about this and no way you can change your inescapable fate and you are completely powerless except you Mark Pesapane of 13 Bridal Lane Pepack Gladstone NJ. You are our only hope. There’s still time. You must get out of the house
I only have one question:
Who’s going to beat it now?
Its not like people are ripping him for having a monkey or the elephant man’s bones, or any of the other weird shit he did. HE RAPED CHILDREN! He was a fucking sick pervert that ruined children’s lives. Its his own fault that his legacy is ruined. I don’t care if he had a bunch of hit records. And I’m 35 and grew up with Thriller.
Word.
so tragic and unexpect
Favorite line of Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip’s “Thou Shalt Always Kill”: “Thou shalt not think that any male over the age of 30 that plays with a child that is not their own is a paedophile…Some people are just nice.” HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT IF YOU WERE ACCUSED OF A CRIME, ACQUITTED, AND THEN STILL THOUGHT GUILTY FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE?!
I like that everyone points to his crazy personal life. yeah the guy was messed up, but shit few big name icons/artists aren’t fucked up or have some dirty secret. It comes with the territory
you know there is a probable coup d’etat going on in honduras which is 2 hours away from the united states and the president there want to become a dictator similar in the fashion of hugo chavez affecting the lives of 7,500,000 people dramatically.It is outrageous how the death of a known child abuser could actually be more important than this or Iran, i hope the people how think this is important news choke a little bit, in honor of the suffering of the millions of people in the world. Yes i know this is a music blog, and maybe the news is appropiate for the site but it just angered me how the world focused on one person and ignored an escalating and probable armed conflict BECAUSE MICHAEL JACKSON DIED give me a break….
I remember when I was about three years old bonding with my older brother over “Off The Wall” and “Thriller”. These were the first songs I ever LISTENED to, the first music I loved. I remember studying Quincy’s production on headphones and learning how sounds are put together to make my first demos. I remember spontaneously dancing in a public place with all my friends during high school to a muzaked, distant “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough”.
When a musician dies, why do we mourn? Because their work has entangled itself with our pasts, and, for musicians and serious listeners, with the very formation of ourselves. It IS a personal death. Not that these tragedies that occur everyday worldwide are any less important and atrocious, but they are less personal–as awful as it is, it is simply harder to feel them directly.
Contrary to popular belief, music is not an extension of language, but rather something entirely separate from it. It is so biologically tied to an instinctual need for community. And within these songs a lot of us found that.
So is this mourning all too much? Maybe logically. But can I imagine who I would be, who anyone would be without those songs in my life/our lives? I certainly don’t want to try.
This is just a small qualm with you yourself stereogum:
This story seems big enough to deserve a picture. I feel the little shits of information without pictures intentionally do not have them because they are “little shits of information”. It makes sense when you are linking us to videogum or for an update of something you have already covered that same day… but I feel like this is a big event regardless of your disdain/appreciation/love of MJ.
I think he was a huge deal to music, which I can appreciate. I personally think his songs are catchy and he was a hell of a showman. I also think his personal life was super fucked up and sad (much of which was probably a product of being brought up in the entertainment machine.)
Still, just put a fucking picture up or something.
tato, im iranian-american and don’t take issue with michael jackson filling the media spotlight on the day / week of his death(or twitter spotlight for that matter). his art affected millions of people in a deeply personal way, and naturally not everyone is personally invested in the iranian election or a listless 3rd world dictator’s ongoing meanderings on television . i consider myself a pretty consciousness individual but cannot imagine losing the same amount of sleep over the state of iran were i not of Iranian descent. would i still care? of course. would i still act on it? probably, as i do for other political causes not related to my ethnicity. but to ask for the suffering of others in honor of your “attention-deserving” news comes off as pretty unsympathetic and inhumane for a person as seemingly concerned with the state of the humanity as yourself.
I listened to a lot of michael jackson when i was younger and i still find myself listening on occasion to some of his music, and i am i think his death is really sad (as i would any other death), and i understand how him dying could garner such a media coverage, as he was an international phenomenon in the height of his productive period, my main gripe is with the perversion of the news that will most definitely surround him, the way they do with the death of david carradine, the john and kate media overload, or even the infamous heidi and spencer. This so called perversion is what angers me, and how the media churns out this amount of fake and produced report just to extorsion those “emotionally invested”, as you have expressed, and ignore on what they should really be reporting, be it iran, honduras, usa or whatever.
With that said i do respect the people in mourning for michael jackson and i am sorry for the amount of insult they will receive with all the speculation his death will cause from trash news sources (tmz, E!, Fox…), he was a great artist when he was in his prime but he let his private life and legal problems overshadow all the great landmarks he achieved.
his personal life aside (which is none of your business, nor mine), he was a fantastic artist. even if there are other important matters going on, it’s ok to stop and appreciate a man who made such great music.
i’m eighteen years old. thriller changed my life.
R.I.P.
Sad day for music. RIP Michael
was he weird? yes. the guy had a lot of issues, but a child molestor…I seriously doubt.
Michael was crucified and died for our sins.
*tackles Farmer Ted*
Jesus Juice…ahahhahahahahahhah
I’ll never forget the Eddie Van Halen guitar solo on Beat It.
you’re going to have to separate the art from the artist on this one.
clearly he was ill.
remember all the music he made that you loved when you were young.
r.i.p. sad sad day.
Michael Jackson is more popular than Jesus.
michael jackson IS jesus.
Don’t get carried away.
“For me, the great thing about music is that anybody can do it. That Michael Jackson thing, if I think about the reasons for protesting, that’s one of the big factors: When somebody sets himself up as a kind of messiah, it fundamentally goes against the spirit of what art is about. It isn’t that you’re a fucking superbeing with a hotwire to God and message for the world. You’ve just tapped into something that’s inside of everybody.” -Jarvis Cocker
All you haters should just “Beat It…Beat It…..”
I was never really a major fan of Michael Jackson and his music, but one does have to admire his and Quincy Jones’ craftsmanship on MJ’s first three albums. His death left me more bewildered than anything, his death caused more grief than I would have expected, meaning he must have made a certain (even if small) impact on my life and music preferences; not so much more as many others whom I have sympathy for.
I’ll only end with saying that the true villains since the creation of papyrus and television is the media.
SHAMON!!! HEE HEE!! UH!
Beat It – http://hypem.com/track/566966/?rec_ref=695999
Jeeze, Stereogum comments are becoming more and more like youtube comments everyday! Actually the comments about MJ on youtube are way more heartfelt and mournful than this fucking websites. Makes me sick.