Michael...

The genius under the hat....


He was the culture for two decades. Almost everyone in pop tried to do what he was doing and failed. VH1 is showing nothing but Michael videos this weekend, calling attention to the fact that Network TV has reduced itself to simply an asterisk in a culture they helped create. Looking at the endless array of Michael Jackson videos today we can see that his talent was either that he was a dancer/mover, a singer, a musician, an extraordinary choreographer, or he just looked better in tight fitting clothes than any man on the planet. Or all of the above. I think he also hired the absolute best directors available, (check out "Black or White"), people who had a free reign to create their vision on the canvass known as Michael Jackson. Bob Fosse, the great choreographer (All That Jazz, Chicago, etc.), gave up dancing because he knew he couldn't be better than Fred Astaire. Lots of choreographers packed it in when they realized they could never be as good as Fosse.

More than just one really good singer of the 40s tried to imitate Sinatra and failed. Everyone tried to out do Astaire before they realized that Astaire looked better in a tux than any man alive and everyone else packed it in. Elvis wannabees still litter the music landscapes with their boring imitations. The Beatles expanded pop music to horizons nobody knew existed. But after all is said and done there are precious few in or out of show biz that can match the dazzling pyrotechnical creativity of Michael Jackson. He will not be remembered as a freak in white clown makeup, and thank God for that.

Take a look at VH1 today and be appropriately amazed. And if you check closely you'll realize that it was never the glove that was Jackson ID, it was the "hat." Nobody ever wore a hat in the ways that he did and his use of it was the most important feature of his visuals. RIP at last Michael