blamebrampton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
blamebrampton) wrote2009-06-26 07:46 pm
blamebrampton) wrote2009-06-26 07:46 pm
With due respect to ...
... those of you who are mourning him, I am probably going to bite the next person who tells me that Michael Jackson was a revolutionary figure in the fight for equality by African Americans. I hasten to add that this has so far been three in real life and double the number of media foik: my flist has been a bastion of sanity.
Aesthetic irony aside, it belittles genuine revolutionary figures. And I am not even talking about political giants like Dr King; there were many entertainers who walked a far more difficult path earlier and with more grace and charity, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Paul Robeson, Josephine Baker, Sammy Davis Jnr and Nina Simone.
I'm all for people loving the heroes they choose, but I would love a bit of perspective at times like these. And perhaps a little sense of history.
Flistees who are just missing the singing and dancing, I apologise for intruding on your sad day.
Aesthetic irony aside, it belittles genuine revolutionary figures. And I am not even talking about political giants like Dr King; there were many entertainers who walked a far more difficult path earlier and with more grace and charity, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Paul Robeson, Josephine Baker, Sammy Davis Jnr and Nina Simone.
I'm all for people loving the heroes they choose, but I would love a bit of perspective at times like these. And perhaps a little sense of history.
Flistees who are just missing the singing and dancing, I apologise for intruding on your sad day.
no subject
Worked for aid in Africa...yeah.
Sang and danced like no one before...yeah.
Revolutionized the music video with the release of Thriller...yeah.
The only, and I mean ONLY, place where I can see equality is the fact that he was the first African American artist to have videos played on MTV, and that was because of his 'cross-over' success.
I think that media is only regarding him as a 'hero' because everyone between the ages of 20 and 40 really did grow up on his music and are more likely to feel the Elvis or John Lennon-like loss.
no subject
And yeah, I think I am feeling old and crochetty and that very few pop stars are remotely heroic these days, while there are other people, and popular culture figures of the past, who were.
I'll just trot off and play some Robeson albums ...