Michael Jackson & The Death Of Mega Fame
Posted by anastasia on 06-29-2009
Of all the wall-to-wall Michael Jackson coverage we’ve been blanketed with over the past weekend, one story really jumped out at me — it was David Segal’s piece in the New York Times about how fame may never be the same again. The gist is that fame on the scale of Jackson’s would be nearly impossible to achieve in the new fragmented media reality we live in.
When the news of Jackson’s death broke on Friday, I spotted a few tweets lambasting MTV for not having immediate wall-to-wall live coverage, continuing to play its reality programming, and therefore being irrelevant. Of course, the tweeters were my age or older — echoing the ongoing complaint from those of us who grew up with MTV that it has abandoned the “M” in music television. I agree that MTV has become less relevant to today’s youth, but I don’t think it’s because they’ve stopped playing music videos. The network that helped make Michael Jackson and Madonna some of the biggest stars on the planet has also become a casualty of the new media landscape that makes this level of fame nearly impossible to achieve and all the more fleeting.
The Times article also argued Jackson’s fame would be impossible to achieve in today’s battered music industry. From the article:
Michael Jackson has sold an estimated 100 million copies worldwide of the 1982 album “Thriller,” which spent more than 31 weeks at the top of the Billboard charts.
It’s one of those high-water marks that nobody will touch, because record stores are vanishing, and along with them, megahit albums are vanishing, too. A big week on the Billboard charts is a quarter-million units sold, which is about the number of units the Jonas Brothers moved last week with their latest release, which opened at No. 1. And it’s rare for an album to last even three weeks at the top.
People who buy music tend these days to buy — or steal it — online, a song at time.
Even the fashion trends Michael inspired from the glove and jacket of many zippers would be hard for a singular artist to replicate on such a massive scale. Today youth trends often bubble up from YouTube videos or travel in a viral way from school to school with the help of Facebook or MySpace instead of being handed down by pop star on the scale that Michael or Madonna (with her rubber bracelets) could achieve in the pre-internet era.
The one recent exception might be Barack Obama, who has managed to achieve pop star status (in addition to the presidency)…
Sorta Related:
The Jackson ’6′ contest on SMITH Magazine’s site (write or read 6-word epitaphs!)
Categorized under: Movies & Music
June 30th, 2009 at 3:53 am
MJ was great and he will really be missed by all.
June 30th, 2009 at 8:38 am
I read the NYT article this morning and agreed with pretty much every point he made. With so many sub-genres and niche labels, it’s becoming impossible to be the king of anything significant. I’m not sure, is there a King of Europop or a King of Acid Jazz? Just checking.
June 30th, 2009 at 10:33 am
From the article:
====================================
George Harrison was the only Beatle who’d visited the United States before the group landed for that historic performance — his sister lived in Illinois — and when he returned to England he gleefully informed his mates that nobody in America could compete.
=====================================
That doesn’t seem like something George Harrison would say.
Half the songs on the first Beatles’ album are covers of American recordings.
The name “The Beatles” is based on “The Crickets,” an American band.
April 8th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
[...] got us (Anastasia and me) talking once again about the end of mega fame, and how much has changed with the rise of playlists and mashups taking over for the album concept, [...]
June 18th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
[...] media marketing machine (as you point out with MTV, radio, etc.), making it much harder to become the kind of icons we grew up with, but for those who do break through (Gaga, Bieber), their fame is often fueled by fans who have [...]