(MSc) Sebinomics

I was shocked to read the news that Michael Jackson died yesterday after suffering a heart attack in his home in Los Angeles.

Despite all the controversy in the past decades, Michael Jackson was a true music business phenomenon. Kick starting his career with the Jackson 5 at the young age of five, then moving onto release the most successful album of a solo artist with Thriller and selling out tour after tour, Michael Jackson become The King of Pop, an iconic brand in the business. Whatever he touched turned into gold. The King of Pop didn’t need a big marketing machine behind the brand to sell albums and concert tickets. Michael Jackson was the marketing.

Source: lancedrummondsmusic.wordpress.com

Time Magazine proclaimed Michael Jackson, “A one-man rescue team for the music business.” Okay, that was in 1984. But still, Michael sold 750 million albums throughout his career. His planned tour for July 2009 had set a new record as the fastest selling concert of all time. Tina Kells wrote on NowPublic.com, “Selling at a rate of 11 tickets per second all shows sold out completely at a startling rate prompting Ticketmaster director Chris Edmonds to comment, “this week we have witnessed a live entertainment phenomenon.” 360,000 tickets were sold by pre-sale before buying was opened to the public on Friday morning.  More than 750,000 fans from around the world purchased blocks of seats for the London shows.”

The only time I saw Michael Jackson live was in 1997 on his History Tour in Basel, Switzerland. I remember it was a rainy day and Michael’s gig was in an open air stadium. Right when his show started the sun came out and his 150-minutes show amazed an audience of about 50,000. It was pure A+ entertainment like I had never seen before.

Michael Jackson will be remembered as The King of Pop. The man who did the Moonwalk. The dancing zombie in Thriller. The artist with the funky gloves. The singer who wanted to Heal The World. And the human being who said, If you’re thinking of being my brother it don’t matter if you’re black or white.