This is a tribute to Michael Jackson, one of the biggest icons of the century.
As we all know, he died last June 25 after quite a turbulent life. What depresses me is that he died right before his comeback.
But I’m not here to talk about his death, I’m here to talk about him, and my thoughts on him.
When I was around five, I found a Jackson 5 CD in my mother’s CD collection. I stared at it for a while, not comprehending why my mother loved this CD much more than she loved the others.
My mother saw me, pointed at one of the boys on the cover and said, “That’s Michael Jackson.”
Back then the name Michael Jackson meant nothing to me. It was just another name, another inconsequential singer.
But soon after that, our maid and I sat in my bedroom, watching MTV. Michael Jackson’s video, Thriller, came on, and our maid broke into a huge grin.
“This is a nice song,” she told me. “It was number one for a long time.”
So I began to learn about Michael Jackson, and exactly how much he influenced the world. When reports of him molesting children came out, the same maid told me that she heard Michael sold his soul to the devil to become famous, and that he was now reaping the consequences. Being raised in a Christian school, I admit, has not done much good for me. But it did teach me that the devil is bad, and that our soul belonged to God.
So I said, “He’s a bad person, then.” And thus my first opinion of Michael was formed.
Now, at fifteen, I know much better. I can’t say I’m the best Christian in the world; in fact, I’m not such a devout Christian. I have my doubts about God, and I can say I don’t have much faith in humans. Maybe if I was an extremely devout Christian like my classmates were, I wouldn't have listened to Michael Jackson at all. But I'm not, and two years ago, when I was thirteen, I decided that I didn’t care if the man had really sold his soul to the devil. He sang, and he sang well. His music was good.
For that reason, I decided that he never really sold his soul. I believe that people whipped up that rumor, perhaps out of jealousy, or out of boredom. And so I put his music into my iPod, never mind if it might have contained evil subliminal messages. I was willing to risk it. He didn’t seem to be a bad person; just a misunderstood one, one with issues. And we all have our issues, don’t we?
My classmates didn’t believe I actually put his songs into my iPod. “You like Michael Jackson?” Then they’d snort. I shrugged and said he’s good. (On a side note, I’m not embarrassed to say that I have Britney Spears on my iPod either.)
My classmates love breakdancing, they love modern music, but most of them dislike Michael. They believe in the old “he sold his soul to be rich” rumor. They say that listening to the devil’s music will make you go to hell.
It appears that they’ve cast off Michael Jackson without realizing that he’s one of the forerunners of breakdancing. (I think.) He influenced modern music, modern fashion (in a sense) and roughly, modern culture. He is called the King of Pop for a reason.
Now he’s dead, and I don’t think any of my classmates realize that music has lost one of its greatest artists. They think the great artists are Fall Out Boy, Miley Cyrus, The Jonas Brothers and hordes of other bands I won’t bother to mention. I’m not here to say that those bands are bad, but I say this with certainty: they never came close to Michael, and they probably never will. Their stars will rise and fall, but Michael’s rose and continued to stay in the sky. It probably will stay there forever.
I quote my father: “Michael Jackson has become a legend.”
And we all know legends never die.
~ Kara
and now I really, really, really feel bad. 
(No sarcasm included)
