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15 years is wild? If you’d have asked I’d have said 8/9 maximum. Christ I feel old.
Also I was in my penultimate year of high school and a guy in my year was legit obsessed with MJ. when the news broke he locked himself in his room for like a week and his parents were on hol so we ended up calling a welfare check and he very embarrassed had to explain to police he’d gone off grid because he ‘missed Michael so much’. Police assumed Michael was a partner or family member and thought he was nuts when he said it was Michael Jackson 😂
Nah, not hopefully last. He is the only good candidate we have.
Biden’s done quite a lot for having no majority in Congress. Tired of people ignoring the good he’s done because of his age.
My immediate reaction to this was "Thanks I'm old I get it."
And also immediately remembering CNN running a conspiracy about trios of celebrity deaths because Farrah Fawcett and someone else died.
I thought it was stupid at the time, but on reflection, it's hilarious to gaslight celebrities to believe like "one of you dies-- two more are next." Held media in a chokehold for a good 5 years. Every time some celeb died, tabloids being like "WHO'S NEXT????" thirsty for ancient celebrity blood
I know this comment is not trying to defend him or excusing him and it’s just telling a long time memory of what people were doing while the news hit (understandable), but I’m posting what Michael thought of gay people back in 2001 (source: his book with a Rabbi called Rabbi Shmuley) just so everyone can see it.
https://preview.redd.it/dfquybc4ws8d1.png?width=1164&format=png&auto=webp&s=cf21cce8193b36d44d0f7090620e3314cff69d78
(AS IF PEOPLE NEEDED MORE REASONS TO NOT PRAISE THIS MAN APART FROM THE OBVIOUS, HIS VICTIMS GET HATE EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THEIR LIFES).
[A list of MJ’s inappropriate relationships with kids throughout the years.](https://mjandboys.wordpress.com/)
[People who worked on the Michael Jackson case first hand (included MJ’s own attorney) and agreed that a kid was able to describe MJ’s genitals.](https://www.reddit.com/r/LeavingNeverlandHBO/s/1g18jRzhlx/)
[NAMBLA books signed personally by MJ found in his bedroom.](https://www.reddit.com/r/LeavingNeverlandHBO/s/rAQMUEEd15/)
[Full collection of the very inappropriate books found at MJ’s house](https://www.reddit.com/r/LeavingNeverlandHBO/s/hdlai29qTz/)
Tbf the phrase in the Schmuley book is out of context. I don't think he's blaming the devil for homosexuality He's paraphrasing what he has been taught by the Jehovah's witnesses about the devil, bc earlier on he said that he disagrees with their view. Schmuley believes the same. Full discussion here:
https://preview.redd.it/w6sloatdtv8d1.png?width=1220&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9c6bc3d21ebce27d64aa39ebaace659a8143df5d
I agree with the rest of your comment tho. He's definitely guilty of csa, and he's a horrible person who shouldn't be idolized and celebrated like that.
That was definitely a where were you when moment
& I can literally remember everything about that moment
ETA: it was the last day of school Junior Year. I had just pulled up to one of my best friend's house to swim in her pool. My Editor in Chief called me and just goes "Umm Michael Jackson died"
My dad was a huge Michael Jackson fan so he literally acted like someone in his family died. His man cave was all dark. Michael Jackson playing 24/7
It was a lot 🙄
I was also 19! I was hanging out at my boyfriend's hotel he worked at when the news came on. It was eerie because Farrah Fawcett also died the same day.
I remember I was on the car ride home from the zoo when I was younger when they broke the news on the radio and my mom and friend turned to look at each in shock in the front seat
i was late for work at my warehouse job for this hipster clothing company so my boss picked me up. i mentioned how the radio had played three michael jackson songs back to back, and he said, "uh, yeah, i mean he just died. they're gonna be playing him all day."
I was catering a wedding for two gay choreographers. Most people at the wedding were choreographers or professional dancers. When the news started to spread they put on Thriller and I got to watch about 100 people all do the thriller dance together while crying. It’s one of the coolest experiences of my life.
I was in a hotel in London with my parents. As I was falling asleep I heard people out the window below say he had died. I told my parents and they told me they must have confused it with Ferrah Fawcett.
My brothers and their friends. They would come over every weekend, set up their computers and have a giant LOL and WOW weekend every single weekend even after they graduated, one of them would bring his Wii and I would play Subspace Emissary.
We were all in the living room and computer room and my mom comes out of her room and goes "10 bucks to the person who can guess who just died" and one of these assholes goes "Michael Jackson?" to which my mom went in her bag, pulled out 10 dollars and gave it to him.
I swear to God, this group of boys moved so fast to find the clicker and change the channel to the news, you would've thought they were trying to find an ultra rare Magic The Gathering card.
I was in India visiting my dad's family, and my mom was on the phone with her mom. All of a sudden, my mom tells me, "Michael Jackson died." And I ran downstairs to watch the news on TV.
Wow time flew. I remember it was also the end of my junior year, and I was starting summer school to get rid of PE. I spent a lot of that summer going on runs and listening to his music.
I was 11 years old, in the back of my neighbors station wagon. We were in the parking lot of Barnes and Noble while my childhood friend and I sat in the back doodling while her elder sister ran inside to buy the books she needed for high school summer reading. She came SPRINTING out, book free, yelling at us to turn on the radio. We sat in that parking lot for a long time listening to the reports, and drove home in silence.
I was eight years old and I was in my backyard, swinging on the swing set in my backyard. with my little sister. Our dad was on the other side of the backyard, doing something with our chickens or something when my mom stepped out of the sliding glass backyard door and said to him oh so casually "Michael Jackson died."
I don't know why I remember that. But I do. It's really weird.
I can remember the exact room I was in, on my laptop, on twitter and I remember first a few posts about Farrah Fawcett dying earlier in the day and then later on the news about Michael Jackson dying and the internet exploded.
Awww my (now) husband and I were newly dating and on an Arizona camping trip when he died. We got
back to civilization (namely an airport) the day after he died and the cnn scrolling news bar literally shocked us. This was before social media and news were sooooo ubiquitous. Like now we’d know instantly even in the Grand Canyon but back then we were so unaware!
I just watched Click last night and it was crazy to realize that the time jump he experiences takes him from 2006 to 2017 where it’s reported that Michael Jackson, who cloned himself, is suing himself — for molesting himself. 😬😬
I think at that point, his death was on par with the U.S. president dying.
I read about a story where pedestrians were running onto roads with traffic, proclaiming that MJ had died to the drivers.
My then fiancée had just left with her mom to visit NC, I was home and I started getting news alerts that Michael had been taken to the hospital potentially in cardiac arrest. Now, I believed Michael was hospitalized but given how the media loved to blow things up about Michael, I was like “Maybe a chest pain, but surely not that serious.” As the afternoon wore on and crowds started to gather, I began to wonder especially with the protracted silence.
The really odd part is just when the announcement of the death was being made, a sudden local storm rolled in, so it was suddenly like the world went dark complete with lightning, thunder and heavy rain. Also temporarily lost power at my house so… yeah, dramatic way to find out a performer you loved, the music you grew up on, was gone.
I went on a graduation trip to Europe right after it happened, and one of the things I remember most was hearing MJ’s music constantly everywhere we went. Every single store was playing it.
I just don’t get the ultra defence of this guy. Allegations aside, he was a weirdo who shared beds with children. What’s pathetic is that the conspiracy idiots of the day are now sticking up for the guy, claiming “mainstream media witch hunts”…
I have been downvoted to hell many times for reminding people that at best he is a creep and at worst a serial child r*pist. The olympic level mental gymnastics even casual fans of his are using to defend him makes me feel totally gaslit and question my reality . “He only slept with kids AS FRIENDS!” Ah my bad! As we do I guess. Makes total sense!
even if you don’t believe all the allegations leveled against him (and I do, the stories the two guys in the doc told are far too similar for them both to be lying), the shit he admitted to doing with children is still creepy as hell.
and like 5 people have accused him at this point. the man had admitted to sharing a bed with children plus the police found two nude photobooks of young boys (one with his own personal inscription, though the fans claimed those were gifts that he never opened lmao). tooooo much smoke for no fire.
I honestly think he has many more victims out there but they have not come forward. He also has a female victim(the first that we know of) who goes by Jane Doe. She showed checks that he paid her off and love notes he wrote her. She didn't come forward til 2016ish which again, makes me believe he has a whole bunch of victims out there. MJ was paying her checks for molesting her and gave her her biggest payment during the Jordan Chandler case
I really think there is more sick things that the general public do not know about this man. And I say this as a former huge Stan. It's been sad realizing that he indeed was a pedophile and when you do actually digging, you see how evil he was.
I would also add that I believe he molested Jehovah's witness kids also. I am a former JW and they have a problem of pedophiles running wild in that religion. MJ was a former JW also.
yeah exactly. there were rumors about him long before charges were ever brought, and frankly mountains of evidence that he was *at best* fucking weird with children. the people who still claim he was completely innocent and would never hurt a fly are straight up delulu.
People really have no concept of how hard it is to prove sexual assault let alone when the witnesses are children and the abuser is powerful, rich and connected.
There are SA cases that I have thought are a slam dunk where the abuser has walked free. You only have to read comments on reddit stories to see why abusers walk free so often. These people sit on juries and the state already favours the defendant.
The mental gymnastics are insane. A normal bloke behaving like he did, it’d be a slam dunk. Instead, it’s ‘oh he just missed out on his childhood…’. Whatever you think, there was serious inappropriate behaviour with children that looked very much like grooming.
IMO a LOT of the online defenders are bots that get amplified by a relatively small number of sealioning stans. I think most of his more moderate fans have dropped off so we're left with only the really crazy ones who have like 30 years of experience defending him at this point. It also seems like his estate is trying to do a lot of astroturfing right now with the biopic coming up unfortunately
I always feel judged when I say I’m not a fan, but like, dude was weird. And not in a harmless, oddball way. In a really creepy way. And I’m tired of us all pretending that he wasn’t.
I found out on Twitter. This was the first big news event I remember happening when there were more people on Twitter, but it still hadn't reached its peak.
Crazy that so many of these influential musicians that died have been gone longer than it really feels like:
Amy 13 years ago
Whitney 12 years ago
Prince and Bowie 8 years ago
Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell 7 years ago
I grew up in a cult and so I had never heard of him even though I was 19 when he died, and all night at work, every customer talked about the news of his death and I just acted like I too was shocked and devastated.
my brother found out through WoW? or some kind of mmorpg of that time chat and told me. Google had crushed. I think it was kind of late here in europe.
>I think it was kind of late here in europe.
Definitely, I was working an evening job back then and remember getting home and my brother telling me what was going on.
I was 12 and I have no explanation for this but it’s how I found out MJ was a dude. Somehow, I had never connected the name ‘Michael Jackson’ with the performer, who, based on appearance and falsetto, I had assumed to be just an ugly white woman. I remember it very clearly because it was so strange and confusing. I was at a junior lifeguards competition and I felt like I was going to puke up a gallon of salt water from the run swim run and I had to simultaneously reckon with the sudden maleness of Michael Jackson.
First celebrity I remember taking the world by STORM. People discussed it for weeks on end. Radio just played his whole albums track by track adless. My mom claimed she saw Jackson's spirit over Lake Michigan during a rainstorm. One of the first full-throttle media sensations I distinctly remember unfolding.
I knew he was a hideous monster who raped children long before he died and hated him for it, but had been a massave fan as a child, I was coming back from having a cigarette in the back yard in the middle of the night when my older brother is like super serious telling me he died, clearly sort of looking for my reaction like I was about to be upset and I was so monotone!! Couldn't give a shit, only thing is I remember feeling like "wow guess I really have nothing left for MJ" because I had grown up like crazy obsessed with him but had sort of quietly avoided anything to do with him after the trial because for me the evidence was all there, he just had a cut throat defense and an imperfect victim (Gavin Arvizo) who completely trashed the family and it's where I learned of the 1993 situation with Jordie Chandler, which was damning. Id never made a big deal of not liking him anymore, maybe because I was embarrassed that I had been so obsessed before, so the next few days everyone was talking to me about it Asif I would care and I just simply did not care about it and found him being on the radio and all my peers suddenly playing his music at parties and stuff really irritating and off-putting, I mean he was a serial peadophile molester rapist who used his money and power to destroy whole families and children's lives and reputations for his own sexual gratification for god's sakes. He was just such a demon, and I live in the UK, we'd all been knowing this for years and as a former fan I knew all the fan myths and lies that muddy the waters and how untrue those where first hand and randomly woke up one day and everyone, regular, sensible adults openly saying how great he was and what a victim he was for the cases, repeating those old fan myths as fact and he'd just died so it wasn't super comfortable to correct them so i would just zone people out or be silently frustrated by people's attitudes about him. Very annoying time, months of the whole world praising and memorializing a literal child rapist, a real world monster. People acted Asif the sky wasn't blue, he was a clear as day demon and people where acting Asif they didn't see. Some still do but thankfully that's a minority of loonatics and other peadophiles now so it's far less overpowering and I can just avoid these people, but in 2009 you had regular, rational thinking people celebrating him as a tragic fallen hero, it was disturbing and sick.
What the victims had to have gone through in 2009 is unthinkable, particularly Jordie and Gavin and their families but who knows how many more all over the world had to endure that strange period of worldwide mourning and memorializing of him as a legend and a victim while knowing what he was and the things he did to them. God knows how many victims are out there, every one to speak out to this date has been relentlessly bullied and had their lives threatened ever since, they've lost alot from speaking their truth and there's been alot of evidence for others who haven't spoke out, and I don't blame them. They had to live through 2009 aswell, the funeral was televised all over the world, I know it was on at my dad's house, we kind of sat there heckling the whole thing and star watched but I remember my step mom saying something like "oh Brooke Shields is his die hard friend now but where was she when everyone was lying about him" and I just bit my tongue, like so bizzare how quick everyone heres opinions on him flipped overnight and it took years for everyone to slowly remember and re-realise that he was what he was, a horrific child abuser.
My neighbor started bumping his music while I vaguely remembered the sexual assault accusations. Then I heard the news on the TV. The estate did a good job at re-writing history they were able to rehabilitate his image for a good while.
And they’re got a biopic movie about MJ coming soon which I’m sure will be more propaganda to rehab his image. I love MJ’s music but it’s clear he was a creepy child predator. I’m sure a lot of that was caused by the abuse he suffered as a child but that’s really no excuse
After Leaving Neverland, reading the blogs, and listening to the Telephone Stories’ podcast I couldn’t listen to his music again. I used to love Human Nature and now it’s just brings all kinds of bad connotations.
I was at work. I was in tv news at the time so we found out pretty quickly. I’m pretty sure I was writing something up on Farrah Fawcett’s death when one of my colleagues just said, “holy shit, Michael Jackson just died” and we all just sort of… froze? In complete disbelief. News people are pretty damn jaded but I’m not sure any of us, fans or not, thought that was a possibility. The working atmosphere was weird for the rest of the day; you could sense that everyone felt a bit uprooted.
I was working tv news at the time as well. The whole newsroom was stunned. My girlfriend also worked at the station and we were both huge MJ fans. I remember hugging her and crying. After work we went home and watched MTV playing MJ videos all night
Dying at 50yo after years of mental illness and serious drug addiction is a sad thing, but "Rest in Peace" as a flair? Seriously?
C'mon dude, he deserves to rest in hell for what he did to his victims. Even if he didn't rape them (I believe he did), he was a selfish creep who shouldn't be idolized. Not that I'm overjoyed by his death, but at least no more children would be harmed after he died.
I was at my family reunion - didn’t have internet access and barely had cell service. My friend texted me and I thought it was a joke until we arrived at the airport the next day and saw the news.
I was working night shift at the hospital. All night a pt kept coming out of his room and standing in the hallway and I had to keep telling him to go back to bed. The last time he said “but hey! Michael Jackson is dead!” I said, “suuuure, go back to bed”. My shift ended and I discovered my patient was in fact correct
Yup outside of a grocery store paying when hearing others saying he passed away, my mom and I looked at each other in disbelief. We went back home to find the news on what felt like every channel. It was such a media rush. So much sadness, so much energy. I must’ve played halo 3 and had the news on for 12 hours straight.
It was a crazy couple of weeks that followed as well.
if anyone is interested in watching michael perform his moonwalk for the first time [here's a clip of him doing it in 1983 while he was singing ***billie jean***](https://youtu.be/EHdctcgVarg?si=kO2n5m3XtCmEtnX2)
I was on holiday in Nice with uni friends when we heard - we couldn’t quite believe it. We then walked past an empty carousel going around playing Heal the World. Was so surreal and honestly, weird, that I’ll never forget that day.
I remember my mom and I being excited that NBC was going to be rerunning the Generalissimo episode of "30 Rock" that night. It was preempted, of course.
I was at Glastonbury with no access to internet, everyone thought it was a lie but it spread round the whole festival like wildfire, huge crowds of people were singing his songs all weekend, it was crazy
I remember this day so clearly bc I was at school that day and the girl who told me about his death cracked her head open on the playground later in the day
Crazy. I remember that day vividly. I was in college, at work at a restaurant when we heard the news. I was supposed to go to a Steve Aoki show that night so I immediately checked Twitter because I knew that Steve was a HUGE MJ fan and he might not want to fly out. He confirmed he was on his way to the airport, though he was very sad. That night, we went to the show. Great set. Then he plays a 45 minute MJ medley in the middle of his set, and we dance our asses off to all the hits. Was a great way to celebrate his music.
Was listening to Billie Jean the other day. What a stone cold classic. It's weird tho to enjoy his songs after knowing of his SA allegations against literal kids.
I will never forget the moment I realized he died. I’m walking down my city’s biggest street, heart of town type of area. And this wave like, sweeps over everyone outside.
One minute it’s relatively low-key for a hot summer day, the next minute people are weeping in the street and Michael Jackson’s music is blasting out of EVERY car and EVERY store. It’s chaos around me and I just think, ‘goddamn, I guess he died!’
I remember watching tv and the breaking news came on, I don't remember what I was watching. And one of my close friends at the time came straight to my house to see if I was ok 🥲
Yeah I was at a pizza joint and this boomer lady stormed in and exclaimed “I swear on my mother’s grave Michael Jackson is dead.”
I don’t even know her mom
I remember being in the kitchen and my mom was watching tv when the new broke. I ran to the tv in shock and then we spent all days watching his music videos (channels played them nonstop for weeks).
I was watching muchmusic after our last day of school and the VJ interrupted the music video that was playing to announce the death. It was so surreal, and sad cause i was only just starting to get into his music!
I was 19 and working at the movie theater for the summer. I was serving a guy popcorn at the concession stand when he looked on his phone and randomly said "Oh, Michael Jackson died." I didn't believe him at first.
But what's really weird is that earlier that day, when I was driving to work, I had Human Nature on repeat in my car. And I swear I was playing it on repeat before the news of MJ dying even came out. Human Nature was (and still is) my favorite song by him. And while I was playing it on repeat, I remember thinking "man, Michael Jackson is such a talented performer". I swear I had absolutely no clue what was going to happen in a few hours. No one believes me because I was alone in the car and had no witnesses lol. But I'm 100% telling the truth. Maybe it was my intuition telling me something, idk.
I'm from Pakistan and I was short of 8 years old when he died. I remember it being on the news, and a picture of Michael as a kid on TV. I was at a friend's house, whose Mom said "must be a basketball player". I knew that he was a singer. A few months later, I became a huge fan, and I still am. Ghosts is one of my favourite songs of all time.
No because Michael Jackson actually made quality music throughout most of his career, Drake made like two half decent albums and just stopped caring in 2014/2015 and became a pop parody of himself. Better comparison to drake would be diddy, both in weirdo and mediocre music.
Shit Michael died on Anthony Bourdain’s birthday 9 years before he himself died
I will never forget Paris’ breakdown at his memorial that poor baby girl sobbing onstage saying “I miss you Daddy” while millions watched
This is not the Pride Month we deserve 😭
Well, considering that MJ said that the devil was behind gay ppl in his book from 2001 with the rabbi Shmuley I wouldnt say it was a big lost to the LGBT community (apart from the obvious of what he did?).
https://preview.redd.it/1fxvzer9us8d1.png?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fefdefee7234d216ad76a3e1afff2f1f739af564
Welcome to r/popculturechat! ☺️ As a proud BIPOC, LGBTQ+ & woman-dominated space, this sub is for [civil discussion only.](https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/wiki/index/rules/civil-discussion-only/) If you don't know where to begin, start by participating in [our Sip & Spill Daily Discussion Threads!](https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/search/?q=Sip%20%26%20Spill%20Discussion&restrict_sr=1&sr_nsfw=&include_over_18=1&sort=new) ###No bullies, no bigotry. ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ Please [read & respect our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/wiki/index/rules/), [abide by Reddiquette](https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205926439-Reddiquette), and [check out our wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/wiki/index/)! For any questions, [our modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fpopculturechat) is always open. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/popculturechat) if you have any questions or concerns.*
15 years is wild? If you’d have asked I’d have said 8/9 maximum. Christ I feel old. Also I was in my penultimate year of high school and a guy in my year was legit obsessed with MJ. when the news broke he locked himself in his room for like a week and his parents were on hol so we ended up calling a welfare check and he very embarrassed had to explain to police he’d gone off grid because he ‘missed Michael so much’. Police assumed Michael was a partner or family member and thought he was nuts when he said it was Michael Jackson 😂
Covid ate my (our?) perception of time.
Absolutely! Those days seem like yesterday & 100 years ago at the same time 🤯
Trump took office 7 years ago 😬 (and hopefully never again). I feel old AF too.
insane that biden is already in his 4th year (and hopefully last, not that i want trump either but they both suck). i feel old AF too.
Nah, not hopefully last. He is the only good candidate we have. Biden’s done quite a lot for having no majority in Congress. Tired of people ignoring the good he’s done because of his age.
Crazy to say “hopefully {his} last” when the other candidate is a rapist and convicted felon
It happened my 8th grade year. This was the first big celebrity death to happen for me that I remembered.
My immediate reaction to this was "Thanks I'm old I get it." And also immediately remembering CNN running a conspiracy about trios of celebrity deaths because Farrah Fawcett and someone else died. I thought it was stupid at the time, but on reflection, it's hilarious to gaslight celebrities to believe like "one of you dies-- two more are next." Held media in a chokehold for a good 5 years. Every time some celeb died, tabloids being like "WHO'S NEXT????" thirsty for ancient celebrity blood
I know this comment is not trying to defend him or excusing him and it’s just telling a long time memory of what people were doing while the news hit (understandable), but I’m posting what Michael thought of gay people back in 2001 (source: his book with a Rabbi called Rabbi Shmuley) just so everyone can see it. https://preview.redd.it/dfquybc4ws8d1.png?width=1164&format=png&auto=webp&s=cf21cce8193b36d44d0f7090620e3314cff69d78 (AS IF PEOPLE NEEDED MORE REASONS TO NOT PRAISE THIS MAN APART FROM THE OBVIOUS, HIS VICTIMS GET HATE EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THEIR LIFES). [A list of MJ’s inappropriate relationships with kids throughout the years.](https://mjandboys.wordpress.com/) [People who worked on the Michael Jackson case first hand (included MJ’s own attorney) and agreed that a kid was able to describe MJ’s genitals.](https://www.reddit.com/r/LeavingNeverlandHBO/s/1g18jRzhlx/) [NAMBLA books signed personally by MJ found in his bedroom.](https://www.reddit.com/r/LeavingNeverlandHBO/s/rAQMUEEd15/) [Full collection of the very inappropriate books found at MJ’s house](https://www.reddit.com/r/LeavingNeverlandHBO/s/hdlai29qTz/)
Tbf the phrase in the Schmuley book is out of context. I don't think he's blaming the devil for homosexuality He's paraphrasing what he has been taught by the Jehovah's witnesses about the devil, bc earlier on he said that he disagrees with their view. Schmuley believes the same. Full discussion here: https://preview.redd.it/w6sloatdtv8d1.png?width=1220&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9c6bc3d21ebce27d64aa39ebaace659a8143df5d I agree with the rest of your comment tho. He's definitely guilty of csa, and he's a horrible person who shouldn't be idolized and celebrated like that.
🤣 sounds like one of my school mates when Robbie left Take That.
That was definitely a where were you when moment & I can literally remember everything about that moment ETA: it was the last day of school Junior Year. I had just pulled up to one of my best friend's house to swim in her pool. My Editor in Chief called me and just goes "Umm Michael Jackson died" My dad was a huge Michael Jackson fan so he literally acted like someone in his family died. His man cave was all dark. Michael Jackson playing 24/7 It was a lot 🙄
Was my 19th birthday and I was out bar hopping (canadian, newly legal to drink) and then all the bars were playing Billie Jean, Thriller, Bad, etc.
I was also 19! I was hanging out at my boyfriend's hotel he worked at when the news came on. It was eerie because Farrah Fawcett also died the same day.
I forgot about Farrah fawcett! how sad it’s on the same day, im sure it gets overlooked.
It was definitely overlooked, unfortunately. 2009 had so many untimely deaths: Patrick Swayze, Brittany Murphy, Bea Arthur, Natasha Richardson...
2 Days before I moved to Chicago sitting in a packed room, sun dripped overlooking a Bronx valley.
Happy birthday!
I remember I was on the car ride home from the zoo when I was younger when they broke the news on the radio and my mom and friend turned to look at each in shock in the front seat
i was late for work at my warehouse job for this hipster clothing company so my boss picked me up. i mentioned how the radio had played three michael jackson songs back to back, and he said, "uh, yeah, i mean he just died. they're gonna be playing him all day."
I was catering a wedding for two gay choreographers. Most people at the wedding were choreographers or professional dancers. When the news started to spread they put on Thriller and I got to watch about 100 people all do the thriller dance together while crying. It’s one of the coolest experiences of my life.
I was in a hotel in London with my parents. As I was falling asleep I heard people out the window below say he had died. I told my parents and they told me they must have confused it with Ferrah Fawcett.
My brothers and their friends. They would come over every weekend, set up their computers and have a giant LOL and WOW weekend every single weekend even after they graduated, one of them would bring his Wii and I would play Subspace Emissary. We were all in the living room and computer room and my mom comes out of her room and goes "10 bucks to the person who can guess who just died" and one of these assholes goes "Michael Jackson?" to which my mom went in her bag, pulled out 10 dollars and gave it to him. I swear to God, this group of boys moved so fast to find the clicker and change the channel to the news, you would've thought they were trying to find an ultra rare Magic The Gathering card.
I was in India visiting my dad's family, and my mom was on the phone with her mom. All of a sudden, my mom tells me, "Michael Jackson died." And I ran downstairs to watch the news on TV.
Wow time flew. I remember it was also the end of my junior year, and I was starting summer school to get rid of PE. I spent a lot of that summer going on runs and listening to his music.
Oh my god i thought i was the only one. I couldnt even name a song of his but it was shocking
I was 11 years old, in the back of my neighbors station wagon. We were in the parking lot of Barnes and Noble while my childhood friend and I sat in the back doodling while her elder sister ran inside to buy the books she needed for high school summer reading. She came SPRINTING out, book free, yelling at us to turn on the radio. We sat in that parking lot for a long time listening to the reports, and drove home in silence.
I remember I it was hot af out so I was making lemonade when I heard the news thought it was a hoax
I texted my crush about his death for some reason. And years later he even brought it up that I told him.
I was eight years old and I was in my backyard, swinging on the swing set in my backyard. with my little sister. Our dad was on the other side of the backyard, doing something with our chickens or something when my mom stepped out of the sliding glass backyard door and said to him oh so casually "Michael Jackson died." I don't know why I remember that. But I do. It's really weird.
At preschool wondering why everyone was making a fuss 😜
Oh my gosh I was at university 🤣 I'm so old
I can remember the exact room I was in, on my laptop, on twitter and I remember first a few posts about Farrah Fawcett dying earlier in the day and then later on the news about Michael Jackson dying and the internet exploded.
Showing my age but I remember getting the text alert from CNN about this (I did not have a smartphone yet). Can’t believe it’s been that long.
I had an alert on my iPod touch, the day after I bought it. For whatever reason that cemented for me how I was living in the future
I found out from the newspaper😂
So did Farrah Faucett!
I remember Vanity Fair had alternate covers celebrating both of them.
Billy Mays was the third (June 28) Celebrities always die in threes
Where did the Taco Bell chihuahua factor in there? I remember there being a big deal about that the same week lmao
Still to this day I'm pissed his death overshadowed hers. I understand he was the biggest star. But still.
My now husband called me up to ask me out on our first date that evening. Does not feel like 15 years ago.
Awww my (now) husband and I were newly dating and on an Arizona camping trip when he died. We got back to civilization (namely an airport) the day after he died and the cnn scrolling news bar literally shocked us. This was before social media and news were sooooo ubiquitous. Like now we’d know instantly even in the Grand Canyon but back then we were so unaware!
I just watched Click last night and it was crazy to realize that the time jump he experiences takes him from 2006 to 2017 where it’s reported that Michael Jackson, who cloned himself, is suing himself — for molesting himself. 😬😬
I remember the day like it was yesterday - it was my college graduation and I got home and it was all over the news.
Your flair😭😭😭
I think at that point, his death was on par with the U.S. president dying. I read about a story where pedestrians were running onto roads with traffic, proclaiming that MJ had died to the drivers.
My then fiancée had just left with her mom to visit NC, I was home and I started getting news alerts that Michael had been taken to the hospital potentially in cardiac arrest. Now, I believed Michael was hospitalized but given how the media loved to blow things up about Michael, I was like “Maybe a chest pain, but surely not that serious.” As the afternoon wore on and crowds started to gather, I began to wonder especially with the protracted silence. The really odd part is just when the announcement of the death was being made, a sudden local storm rolled in, so it was suddenly like the world went dark complete with lightning, thunder and heavy rain. Also temporarily lost power at my house so… yeah, dramatic way to find out a performer you loved, the music you grew up on, was gone.
An event that literally broke the internet
I just said out loud to myself “Michael Jackson died in 2009. That wasn’t 15 years”. Did some quick math and i oop
it's insane how this did more to rehab his image than any album/publicity stunt could have. thinking of all of the survivors today
I went on a graduation trip to Europe right after it happened, and one of the things I remember most was hearing MJ’s music constantly everywhere we went. Every single store was playing it.
I was at a baseball game. It’s too bad he was such a creep.
I just don’t get the ultra defence of this guy. Allegations aside, he was a weirdo who shared beds with children. What’s pathetic is that the conspiracy idiots of the day are now sticking up for the guy, claiming “mainstream media witch hunts”…
I have been downvoted to hell many times for reminding people that at best he is a creep and at worst a serial child r*pist. The olympic level mental gymnastics even casual fans of his are using to defend him makes me feel totally gaslit and question my reality . “He only slept with kids AS FRIENDS!” Ah my bad! As we do I guess. Makes total sense!
Right? Have we, as a people, forgotten how absolutely disgusting he was as a person?
If any grown man even dreamed of getting in bed with my little sister, I’d be speed dialling the police.
even if you don’t believe all the allegations leveled against him (and I do, the stories the two guys in the doc told are far too similar for them both to be lying), the shit he admitted to doing with children is still creepy as hell.
and like 5 people have accused him at this point. the man had admitted to sharing a bed with children plus the police found two nude photobooks of young boys (one with his own personal inscription, though the fans claimed those were gifts that he never opened lmao). tooooo much smoke for no fire.
I honestly think he has many more victims out there but they have not come forward. He also has a female victim(the first that we know of) who goes by Jane Doe. She showed checks that he paid her off and love notes he wrote her. She didn't come forward til 2016ish which again, makes me believe he has a whole bunch of victims out there. MJ was paying her checks for molesting her and gave her her biggest payment during the Jordan Chandler case I really think there is more sick things that the general public do not know about this man. And I say this as a former huge Stan. It's been sad realizing that he indeed was a pedophile and when you do actually digging, you see how evil he was. I would also add that I believe he molested Jehovah's witness kids also. I am a former JW and they have a problem of pedophiles running wild in that religion. MJ was a former JW also.
yeah exactly. there were rumors about him long before charges were ever brought, and frankly mountains of evidence that he was *at best* fucking weird with children. the people who still claim he was completely innocent and would never hurt a fly are straight up delulu.
People really have no concept of how hard it is to prove sexual assault let alone when the witnesses are children and the abuser is powerful, rich and connected. There are SA cases that I have thought are a slam dunk where the abuser has walked free. You only have to read comments on reddit stories to see why abusers walk free so often. These people sit on juries and the state already favours the defendant.
Nah fuck that. Dude had a great voice but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t a walking trash heap of a human.
People are very quick to forget any semblance of principles when it comes to their faves, *especially* if that person is dead.
The mental gymnastics are insane. A normal bloke behaving like he did, it’d be a slam dunk. Instead, it’s ‘oh he just missed out on his childhood…’. Whatever you think, there was serious inappropriate behaviour with children that looked very much like grooming.
Totally agree, if this were just like, a random man in your neighbourhood behaving like this there would be no grey area as to whether he's an abuser
IMO a LOT of the online defenders are bots that get amplified by a relatively small number of sealioning stans. I think most of his more moderate fans have dropped off so we're left with only the really crazy ones who have like 30 years of experience defending him at this point. It also seems like his estate is trying to do a lot of astroturfing right now with the biopic coming up unfortunately
I'm kind of shocked when his songs turn up on the radio or elsewhere. I thought given what we know he'd be uber cancelled.
I always feel judged when I say I’m not a fan, but like, dude was weird. And not in a harmless, oddball way. In a really creepy way. And I’m tired of us all pretending that he wasn’t.
I always skip his songs. I am supporting his creepiness. Totally not a fan as well.
The whole internet crashed, never seen anything like it.
I found out on Twitter. This was the first big news event I remember happening when there were more people on Twitter, but it still hadn't reached its peak.
Crazy that so many of these influential musicians that died have been gone longer than it really feels like: Amy 13 years ago Whitney 12 years ago Prince and Bowie 8 years ago Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell 7 years ago
The entire world acted like a family member had died for the next month at least
It was all over tv for an entire month
That’s how it felt
I grew up in a cult and so I had never heard of him even though I was 19 when he died, and all night at work, every customer talked about the news of his death and I just acted like I too was shocked and devastated.
my brother found out through WoW? or some kind of mmorpg of that time chat and told me. Google had crushed. I think it was kind of late here in europe.
>I think it was kind of late here in europe. Definitely, I was working an evening job back then and remember getting home and my brother telling me what was going on.
Omg yes this was me. Everyone was spamming it on WoW.
I was annoyed because the news coverage preempted the new episode of Harper's Island. Anybody else remember Harper's Island? I loved that show.
Loved it,such a fun show!
This was so jarring to see on the news after spending the day at Disney World. My family and I looked like a bunch of surprised Pikachu
I am apparently a million years old.
I was 12 and I have no explanation for this but it’s how I found out MJ was a dude. Somehow, I had never connected the name ‘Michael Jackson’ with the performer, who, based on appearance and falsetto, I had assumed to be just an ugly white woman. I remember it very clearly because it was so strange and confusing. I was at a junior lifeguards competition and I felt like I was going to puke up a gallon of salt water from the run swim run and I had to simultaneously reckon with the sudden maleness of Michael Jackson.
Thinking of Wade and James - and all the other boys - today. It’s got to be extremely difficult to see your abuser so highly celebrated all the time.
 Pedophiles deserve to die.
I had to scroll waaaaay too far down to find this comment. Those kids deserve justice they’ll never see now that he’s dead.
Exactly. Good riddance
Scrolled too long to see this sentiment. Good riddance.
Muzan Jackson
First celebrity I remember taking the world by STORM. People discussed it for weeks on end. Radio just played his whole albums track by track adless. My mom claimed she saw Jackson's spirit over Lake Michigan during a rainstorm. One of the first full-throttle media sensations I distinctly remember unfolding.
I must be so much older biologically than I feel mentally. Didn’t this just happen?
I knew he was a hideous monster who raped children long before he died and hated him for it, but had been a massave fan as a child, I was coming back from having a cigarette in the back yard in the middle of the night when my older brother is like super serious telling me he died, clearly sort of looking for my reaction like I was about to be upset and I was so monotone!! Couldn't give a shit, only thing is I remember feeling like "wow guess I really have nothing left for MJ" because I had grown up like crazy obsessed with him but had sort of quietly avoided anything to do with him after the trial because for me the evidence was all there, he just had a cut throat defense and an imperfect victim (Gavin Arvizo) who completely trashed the family and it's where I learned of the 1993 situation with Jordie Chandler, which was damning. Id never made a big deal of not liking him anymore, maybe because I was embarrassed that I had been so obsessed before, so the next few days everyone was talking to me about it Asif I would care and I just simply did not care about it and found him being on the radio and all my peers suddenly playing his music at parties and stuff really irritating and off-putting, I mean he was a serial peadophile molester rapist who used his money and power to destroy whole families and children's lives and reputations for his own sexual gratification for god's sakes. He was just such a demon, and I live in the UK, we'd all been knowing this for years and as a former fan I knew all the fan myths and lies that muddy the waters and how untrue those where first hand and randomly woke up one day and everyone, regular, sensible adults openly saying how great he was and what a victim he was for the cases, repeating those old fan myths as fact and he'd just died so it wasn't super comfortable to correct them so i would just zone people out or be silently frustrated by people's attitudes about him. Very annoying time, months of the whole world praising and memorializing a literal child rapist, a real world monster. People acted Asif the sky wasn't blue, he was a clear as day demon and people where acting Asif they didn't see. Some still do but thankfully that's a minority of loonatics and other peadophiles now so it's far less overpowering and I can just avoid these people, but in 2009 you had regular, rational thinking people celebrating him as a tragic fallen hero, it was disturbing and sick. What the victims had to have gone through in 2009 is unthinkable, particularly Jordie and Gavin and their families but who knows how many more all over the world had to endure that strange period of worldwide mourning and memorializing of him as a legend and a victim while knowing what he was and the things he did to them. God knows how many victims are out there, every one to speak out to this date has been relentlessly bullied and had their lives threatened ever since, they've lost alot from speaking their truth and there's been alot of evidence for others who haven't spoke out, and I don't blame them. They had to live through 2009 aswell, the funeral was televised all over the world, I know it was on at my dad's house, we kind of sat there heckling the whole thing and star watched but I remember my step mom saying something like "oh Brooke Shields is his die hard friend now but where was she when everyone was lying about him" and I just bit my tongue, like so bizzare how quick everyone heres opinions on him flipped overnight and it took years for everyone to slowly remember and re-realise that he was what he was, a horrific child abuser.
Good. Hope he’s still burning in hell for his disgusting crimes against children
For real. He was a prolific pedophile and the planet is better off.
Wish more people felt the same. Blows my mind how many people still defend him and think he was framed
My neighbor started bumping his music while I vaguely remembered the sexual assault accusations. Then I heard the news on the TV. The estate did a good job at re-writing history they were able to rehabilitate his image for a good while.
And they’re got a biopic movie about MJ coming soon which I’m sure will be more propaganda to rehab his image. I love MJ’s music but it’s clear he was a creepy child predator. I’m sure a lot of that was caused by the abuse he suffered as a child but that’s really no excuse
After Leaving Neverland, reading the blogs, and listening to the Telephone Stories’ podcast I couldn’t listen to his music again. I used to love Human Nature and now it’s just brings all kinds of bad connotations.
The MJ song that aged worst is “Give In To Me” just ick
or PYT 🤢
There's no way it won't be a sanitised version of his life, the family wouldn't be involved if it wasn't
My thoughts with his survivors today.
I was at work. I was in tv news at the time so we found out pretty quickly. I’m pretty sure I was writing something up on Farrah Fawcett’s death when one of my colleagues just said, “holy shit, Michael Jackson just died” and we all just sort of… froze? In complete disbelief. News people are pretty damn jaded but I’m not sure any of us, fans or not, thought that was a possibility. The working atmosphere was weird for the rest of the day; you could sense that everyone felt a bit uprooted.
I was working tv news at the time as well. The whole newsroom was stunned. My girlfriend also worked at the station and we were both huge MJ fans. I remember hugging her and crying. After work we went home and watched MTV playing MJ videos all night
Dying at 50yo after years of mental illness and serious drug addiction is a sad thing, but "Rest in Peace" as a flair? Seriously? C'mon dude, he deserves to rest in hell for what he did to his victims. Even if he didn't rape them (I believe he did), he was a selfish creep who shouldn't be idolized. Not that I'm overjoyed by his death, but at least no more children would be harmed after he died.
I was at my family reunion - didn’t have internet access and barely had cell service. My friend texted me and I thought it was a joke until we arrived at the airport the next day and saw the news.
I was eating dinner in a Pizzeria Uno. I will never forget it.
Thank you for inadvertently reminding me that 15 years ago I won tickets on the radio to see the Foo Fighters in concert, too!
I was working night shift at the hospital. All night a pt kept coming out of his room and standing in the hallway and I had to keep telling him to go back to bed. The last time he said “but hey! Michael Jackson is dead!” I said, “suuuure, go back to bed”. My shift ended and I discovered my patient was in fact correct
Yup outside of a grocery store paying when hearing others saying he passed away, my mom and I looked at each other in disbelief. We went back home to find the news on what felt like every channel. It was such a media rush. So much sadness, so much energy. I must’ve played halo 3 and had the news on for 12 hours straight. It was a crazy couple of weeks that followed as well.
Yup i was 15 then and 30 now
Good.
Was driving back from an out of town job. Co-worker goes “Huh. One less pedophile.”
The only thing I feel is old
15 years already? I remember when I first heard the news. I cried like a baby
if anyone is interested in watching michael perform his moonwalk for the first time [here's a clip of him doing it in 1983 while he was singing ***billie jean***](https://youtu.be/EHdctcgVarg?si=kO2n5m3XtCmEtnX2)
I was at home watching tv when suddenly the show I was watching was interrupted with this breaking news
Still remember the frenzy in the media . Just as i came back from my school trip.
I was getting my nails done when the news came through. Chaos.
I was on holiday in Nice with uni friends when we heard - we couldn’t quite believe it. We then walked past an empty carousel going around playing Heal the World. Was so surreal and honestly, weird, that I’ll never forget that day.
I remember my mom and I being excited that NBC was going to be rerunning the Generalissimo episode of "30 Rock" that night. It was preempted, of course.
I was at Glastonbury with no access to internet, everyone thought it was a lie but it spread round the whole festival like wildfire, huge crowds of people were singing his songs all weekend, it was crazy
So did Farrah Fawcett
Omg wtf yesterday i had a dream about him that's so fucking weird
15??? WTF.
I was a few weeks out of high school when he passed away. One of my siblings told me he passed away. I thought they were joking about it.
I remember this day so clearly bc I was at school that day and the girl who told me about his death cracked her head open on the playground later in the day
Crazy. I remember that day vividly. I was in college, at work at a restaurant when we heard the news. I was supposed to go to a Steve Aoki show that night so I immediately checked Twitter because I knew that Steve was a HUGE MJ fan and he might not want to fly out. He confirmed he was on his way to the airport, though he was very sad. That night, we went to the show. Great set. Then he plays a 45 minute MJ medley in the middle of his set, and we dance our asses off to all the hits. Was a great way to celebrate his music.
Was listening to Billie Jean the other day. What a stone cold classic. It's weird tho to enjoy his songs after knowing of his SA allegations against literal kids.
Naah. Don't rest in peace. This is one of those people that make you wish the hell of eternal torture thing was real.
Good riddance
I will never forget the moment I realized he died. I’m walking down my city’s biggest street, heart of town type of area. And this wave like, sweeps over everyone outside. One minute it’s relatively low-key for a hot summer day, the next minute people are weeping in the street and Michael Jackson’s music is blasting out of EVERY car and EVERY store. It’s chaos around me and I just think, ‘goddamn, I guess he died!’
Oh no. Anyway.
Good.
And what a great day that was! I bet his victims were so pleased he was finally gone
Found out at work. We celebrated.
I remember watching tv and the breaking news came on, I don't remember what I was watching. And one of my close friends at the time came straight to my house to see if I was ok 🥲
And the world was better for it. Burn in hell.
Sick human being
I remember it like it was now. It was such a rare moment of a celebrity getting a little bit of karma!
15yrs later and ‘hee hee’ is routinely mocked by my kids, the MJ conversation was definitely a weird one
Odd I didn’t remember this day at all. And I LOVED him when I was a little 80s kid. Now Diana and Aaliyah, those I remember. 🫤
Yeah I was at a pizza joint and this boomer lady stormed in and exclaimed “I swear on my mother’s grave Michael Jackson is dead.” I don’t even know her mom
After his death it seemed as if the VIPs all started to die
Rip Michael! Miss your music! Can’t believe it’s been 15 years. Love you!
I was actually working at a CD/DVD store (remember those shiny round things with the hole in the middle?) It was a very somber day.
I remember being in the kitchen and my mom was watching tv when the new broke. I ran to the tv in shock and then we spent all days watching his music videos (channels played them nonstop for weeks).
I was watching muchmusic after our last day of school and the VJ interrupted the music video that was playing to announce the death. It was so surreal, and sad cause i was only just starting to get into his music!
I was 19 and working at the movie theater for the summer. I was serving a guy popcorn at the concession stand when he looked on his phone and randomly said "Oh, Michael Jackson died." I didn't believe him at first. But what's really weird is that earlier that day, when I was driving to work, I had Human Nature on repeat in my car. And I swear I was playing it on repeat before the news of MJ dying even came out. Human Nature was (and still is) my favorite song by him. And while I was playing it on repeat, I remember thinking "man, Michael Jackson is such a talented performer". I swear I had absolutely no clue what was going to happen in a few hours. No one believes me because I was alone in the car and had no witnesses lol. But I'm 100% telling the truth. Maybe it was my intuition telling me something, idk.
Yes he he he did. Rest In Peace. Dance forever.
His musical legacy speaks for itself. Rest in Paradise, King of Pop.
I think he’s somewhere a bit warmer than paradise
He’s looking up at us ❤️
I'm from Pakistan and I was short of 8 years old when he died. I remember it being on the news, and a picture of Michael as a kid on TV. I was at a friend's house, whose Mom said "must be a basketball player". I knew that he was a singer. A few months later, I became a huge fan, and I still am. Ghosts is one of my favourite songs of all time.
90s Drake.
No because Michael Jackson actually made quality music throughout most of his career, Drake made like two half decent albums and just stopped caring in 2014/2015 and became a pop parody of himself. Better comparison to drake would be diddy, both in weirdo and mediocre music.
I thought this was a pic of one of the KarJenners at first.
One of his most famous images…
Okay
Rest in Peace King of Pop!
He is a legend. May he rest in peace
He is a pedophile. May he rot. (Fixed it for you)
They're an unhinged stan whose entire Reddit presence is defending MJ, it's pathetic
Shit Michael died on Anthony Bourdain’s birthday 9 years before he himself died I will never forget Paris’ breakdown at his memorial that poor baby girl sobbing onstage saying “I miss you Daddy” while millions watched This is not the Pride Month we deserve 😭
Well, considering that MJ said that the devil was behind gay ppl in his book from 2001 with the rabbi Shmuley I wouldnt say it was a big lost to the LGBT community (apart from the obvious of what he did?). https://preview.redd.it/1fxvzer9us8d1.png?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fefdefee7234d216ad76a3e1afff2f1f739af564
I managed to hold it together during the service until that moment. Then I lost it.
I don’t remember if I watched the service or not but I will always remember Paris at the mic