Mixed feelings here: I love the music, but I’m not a huge fan of the person.
I will say that he seems to have lived his life with good intentions, but astronomical success just seems to warp the mind — in his case to the point where he thought “loving” little boys and sharing a bed with them was ok. That keeps me from joining wholeheartedly in the mourning, but I have to say that if I made 43 gazillion dollars and was surrounded by “yes men” all the time all the time, I don’t think I’d end up much better than him. Not saying I’d start taking an interest in the neighborhood preschoolers or anything, but I’d certainly have a cloned tyrannosaurus in my back yard, a fleet of space shuttles to drive me to the grocery store, and I’d probably wear a tiara, a cape and a suggestively oversized diamond-crusted codpiece everywhere I went. I’d probably also carry an ornamental sword too, just because it looks cool.
But enough of this moralizing talk about codpieces. This site is about the moves, man, and that’s certainly an interesting topic when it comes to “The King of Pop.” The dude was a good dancer, no doubt. But I’m going to break with the crowd and stop short of calling him great. To be great you need to be an original, and MJ was simply a good imitator rather than a creator – a good remixer rather than an originator.
The dude’s entire repetoire was…
1. One part cabaret jazz, which he straight up stole from Bob Fosse:
(see earlier post on this subject here)
2. One part funky shuffle which he got from James Brown:
3. One part glides, which he learned from Jeffrey Daniel, but which have been around since at least Bill Bailey’s time in the 50s:
4. One part, pelvis thrusts which he probably got from um…well…you know.
Sooooo…good dancer.
Highly questionable moral character.
But lengendary performer. I mean, the man made Thriller — arguably the best album of all time — and for that I am genuinely sorry to see him go. So RIP Michael. It’s been a wild ride.
stuff that moves 