Joy-Ann Reid

Joy-Ann Reid
Pembroke Pines, Florida, USA
December 08
Journalist and talk radio personality in South Florida. Also blogging daily at


Editor’s Pick
JUNE 26, 2009 9:18AM

Michael Jackson: the roar of the crowd

Rate: 6 Flag


Jackson's performance of the Moon Walk at the Motown 25th
anniversary TV special on
May 16, 1983 rocked the world.
I was in junior high, and yeah, it was the shit.

When you talk to former performers, at any level of fame, they'll tell you that when their season comes to an end, it's hard to adjust to life without the attention, the recognition of people in the street, or the roar of the crowd. Michael Jackson never seemed to adjust to his fall from the center of our attention. In the ultimate twist of irony, by dying too soon, at age 50, he has found a way to get it all back. From the moment we heard the leak, and then the confirmation, of his death, the world, including the U.S., where his fame really had receded into a kind of uncomfortable infamy -- we just can't stop talking about him; we're grooving to his music again, and he is the center of all the world's attention.

I've got to think that somewhere up there, Michael Jackson is happy as hell.


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Joy-Ann - Michael Jackson will always be a part of the American & World Entertainment Culture. He spanned 4 decades and touched so many. I hope that he is now at peace and can start to enjoy his creative talents which brought so much joy to millions around the globe.
Joy-Ann, you're right when you point out that we Americans have found newer cultural idols. To many of us, Jackson had become an embarrassment, a victim of fame and abuse and mental instibility. But around the world, Jackson was/is still celebrated. I hope he has found some peace.
I just loved watching his Motown performance--thanks for this. He had just an incredible sense of the physical, and his moves are otherworldly. I can see, in retrospect, why he was in such constant pain and need meds for it; nobody's body can keep up with that level of gyration without taking such a toll.
What troubles me more than the allegations that Michael Jackson was a child molester is the parents who, presumably of “sound mind” and of their own free will, dropped their little boys off at the gates of Neverland..