The king of slop

Been thinking a lot about Michael Jackson lately. For obvious reasons, he is a bit of a pariah here in North America. However, like David Hasselhoff, for some reason he is still huge in Europe.

While in London earlier this month, we watched some of the World Music Awards. Michael was being given some lifetime achievement award. Beyonce, acting like his press agent, was the one who gave him the award.

As he came out to accept the award, the crowds were screaming like it was 1963 and these were the Beatles. On youtube, there are dozens of uploads from people who were there recording this with their cell phone.

Later in the show, he then sang a song...sort of. They had a choir of children on stage (very bizarre considering Jackson's many allegations) and the song We Are The World was playing. Jackson came out and sang along with the record. Literally, you can hear Bruce Springsteen or Willie Nelson singing while Jackson interjects by singing along at certain points. It was like really lazy karaoke. Most of the time he was just walking around the stage shaking hands like a politician.



The other reason I was thinking about Jackson was Coglero recently emailed me asking for ideas for the ultimate 80s compilation CD. The 80s were a funny decade as there are so many one hit wonders and totally obvious overplayed songs that most 80s CDs are kind of boring. Seriously, do you really need to hear Soft Cell's Tainted Love or The Human League's Don't You Want Me? And why does all 80s compilation CDs have to include Jackson's own Billie Jean when there are much better songs of his from the 80s.

Top 5 Michael Jackson Songs
1. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
2. Beat It
3. Man In The Mirror
4. I Just Can't Stop Loving You
5. Smooth Criminal

Plus most 80s compilation CDs always ignore some of the great rock and roll from that era. David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen and Van Halen all had great music throughout the 80s. Or they include the obvious songs from some of the new wave bands like Duran Duran's Hungry Like The Wolf or The Reflex when Rio and New Moon On Monday are much better songs and do not feel so dated. I couldn't really help with ideas for the Ultimate 80s CD as I would purposely ignore alternative stuff like The Smiths and The Cure and since a lot of the new wave from that era feels so "20 years ago", I really could not include that kind of music either.