I grew up with Michael Jackson so to speak. I remember the Jackson 5 and Osmond cartoons and seeing them dance and sing their hearts out on Flip Wilson, Sonny & Cher & the Carol Burnett shows. I remember little Janet doing her Mae West imitations and charming the world. Michael was a young James Brown performing "I Want You Back". We watched Michael and Diana Ross on "The Wiz". The Jackson Five imitated dead white artists before springing the "Dancing Machine"'s robotic moves and huge afros on mature white audience variety shows. Older stars such as Diana Ross and Cher patronized Michael and then flattered him by doing poor imitations of his dance moves. Cher even adopted an afro for his appearance on her show. Michael was a charming teenager and viewed as likable for both black and white audiences. It seemed normal for the cute black kids to be on a white variety show, while older black artists who worked the "Chitlin'" circuit beamed with pride and envy on the doors little Michael was blasting open with his all-American charm.
Michael's Off The Wall LP was my teenage awakening to another world that I did not experience in my white suburban Upstate NY Irish/Italian Catholic upbringing. I remember my sister and I listening to the LP on the turntable record player and Ann Marie being the first kid of means in our neigborhood to buy it. This was before MTV broke out in 1982. Everyone remembers Michael for ruling the beginning of MTV and the Thriller video. But for me, the revolution began with the first song played on the Off The Wall Album in 1979 in my floral print bedroom before the Billie Jean MTV break-out video in 1982. It was also our first glimpse of Michael as an adult solo artist and our last view of him as a "black" performer.
The music that poured from that burning LP made me come alive. It was so far ahead of the curve that it actually stretched my mind to the musical revolution going on before the cusp of MTV. The early MTV (1981-1982) had no commericals, big hair bands or reality shows....it was dance music with Michael Jackson, Madonna & Blondie leading the way. The computer graphics were amateurish with white backdrops, and the clothes worn looked like homeless people who had searched through the trash bins of Andy Gibb. Sting and Pat Benetar could not compete with Michael Jackson's groundbreaking dance moves in his Billie Jean video.
Madonna was the only other artist at that time to have the same effect on me. I was working at Ames Department Store and my one and only African American colleague was telling me how "hot" Madonna was in her new video on a station called MTV. I naturally assumed she was African American and MTV was a "black station". The radio stations were still segrating music as black or white and Madonna was identified as "black". My sister and I danced to her cassette tapes. We didn't know she was white until her Lucky Star dance video burned the MTV airwaves in 1982. Jackson & Madonna were the first savvy performers to use MTV for self-promotion. They broke thru the barriers before Rap or Punk as words existed. (Blondie performed rap on MTV before it was called Rap). Britanny Spears was still wearing diapers. Punk rock had not become a genre yet. Bon Jovi was no where to be found. Journey hadn't yet dominated the airwaves with "Don't Stop Believing". REO SpeedWagon and Styx were making their exits.......Entertainment Tonight had not yet made its debut in 1981. People magazine was only 5 years old.
We were living in a creative space void that was the perfect entrance for a Michael Jackson alien in silver spaces boots to dance into. Time-space was setting up for a musical social revolution called MTV while we were still too innocent to recognize the world atoms shifting around us. This was the final days of disco and the beginning dawn of computers in every home, MTV in every living room, YOU TUBE videos, mediocre American Idol talent shows, and tabloid gossip shows called "news". CNN didn't exist yet, and people read the newspapers or watched the 6 o'clock news. Tabloid news could only be found in the supermarket aisles under the National Enquirer covers while waiting in line. If we wanted to know what a budding singer looked like, we searched the album cover photos. If we wanted a picture, we bought posters and hung them in our rooms. If we wanted to hear new music, we had to buy it, or wait for it to come out on the black radio stations or the Casey Casum weekly top 40 countdown. If we wanted to see the music performed, we had to buy the tour tickets, or wait for guest appearances on variety shows. If we wanted to know more about their personal lives, we trusted the teen magazines' publicity machines. Hip hop wasn't a word yet, and Prince was only dreaming of becoming as eccentric as Michael. The door was now shut on disco and a new American music was blossoming from the Bee Gees' remains. Elvis had just died. For a budding artist to catch international attention, he/she had to be an exceptional songwriter or performer. There was no one to imitate for the new rock & roll developing. They did not need Simon Cowell's critiques, and Paula Abdul didn't exist yet. There were no American celebrities doing international tours , or adopting adorable children of color from other countries, or helping the native African hungry and HIV infected. The war on drugs had not been declared yet. Actors weren't elected to political offices yet, and musicians and actors weren't politicians yet. Religious beliefs were respected and kept private. Gay rights was just beginning to emerge, but individually hidden. The Middle East was someplace far, far away where bombings were a daily event. Africa was going hungry and mentioned at many dinner tables across America by parents scolding children to eat their vegtables. We were in a sheltered, safe world that had just sucked the life out of the final days of disco, variety shows and charming large family acts.
A flicker of excitement wavered with the Off the Wall debut in 1979.
I will always remember the purity of that sweet voice singing over syncopated heartbeats and pulsating rhythms. It's no accident that Michael adopted the white socks, black shoes of Elvis' breakout concerts. Michael had the quadruple threat of dancing moves, rockability, personal vulnerability, and expression of voice. His abundant, unconscious and infectious joy of performing was contagious. He was a 21 year olded Pied Piper leading a new generation into an imaginary world.
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