He created the soundtrack to our lives, and even if it’s no longer blaring from every speaker, it left a mark on the black community, on the world, that’s more indelible than that of any music legend, with the exception of Elvis Presley and The Beatles. Jackson is a 50-year-old cultural movement that remains perpetually in motion. She rides musical trends with deft awareness, but she doesn’t invent them the way Jackson did. While Beyoncé’s Beyhive has taken unconditional fandom to extremes, the cult of Bey revolves more around her starpower than unprecedented creative brilliance. It made him the biggest superstar in the world and catapulted him to near-mythic status. Whether we believe them or not, most of us will never again be able to listen to Jackson’s music in the same way.īut here’s the catch: The music still holds up. His oddness perhaps made him more vulnerable to the abuse allegations that have so damaged his legacy. An eternal outsider, he was like the man-child who fell to earth. The tabloid media dubbed him “Wacko Jacko,” and he was regarded as something of a mad genius, the wizard of weird. Jackson, for all his legendary-ness, was simultaneously a joke.
Critics and fellow artists are as enamored of her as fans, and although her personal life makes headlines, unlike Jackson, her legacy is untarnished by scandal. She can headline Coachella in California and Glastonbury in England (the first black woman to do either) and still bring down the house at the Apollo in Harlem. Blige, Bey dares to go there in a way Jackson - who became figuratively and literally more colorless as time went by - never did.Īt just 37, and 22 years into her career, she’s opening more doors and breaking down more barriers than any living black music star. Though her black consciousness can seem choreographed and calculated at times, especially when compared to earthier forerunners like Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, and Mary J. In paying homage to black womanhood, she’s brought it into white living rooms in a way no other performer before her has. This isn’t to understate Beyoncé’s musical and cultural significance. It still reverberates today, louder than any musical salvo Bey has yet fired. Jackson was a black revolution, and that was its opening shot heard around the world.
Jackson had broader mass appeal that spanned all races, ages, continents, and languages. Perhaps he has the edge over Beyoncé because he came to prominence during a different era, before fragmentation and declining sales compromised artists’ ability to transcend demographics and before social media inflated our perception of popularity. “Leaving Neverland” may have damaged his legacy irreversibly, but it’s impossible to erase him from black history.
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In future centuries, he will serve as an example of how to remain a beloved star despite ever-mounting negative press. His perennial success has been against substantial odds. As he proved with his career-making moonwalk on “Motown 25” in 1984, he didn’t need a battalion to leave a lingering impression. He worked with accomplished producers but composed many of his greatest hits solo. Jackson was more of a self-contained, independent artist. Her talent as a singer and performer is often jaw-dropping, but it takes a village to make a Beyoncé hit. That both have been so difficult to mute post-“Leaving Neverland” is a testament to their artistry and enduring importance.īeyoncé is an undeniable creative force, but she’s first and foremost an entertainer. Beyoncé has driven some of the pivotal pop culture moments of this millennium – from “Independent Women” to “Single Ladies” to “Lemonade” to her Coachella “Homecoming” performance – but nothing in black entertainment in the last half century can match the impact of Jackson and “Thriller,” the all-time best-selling album by a black musician. Both assumed the title of music royalty.īut where one is celebrating and making black history, the other is black history – five decades of it. Both boosted their reps with groundbreaking music videos. Both broke out from successful groups to become even bigger sensations on their own. Both were raised in red states (Beyoncé in Texas, Jackson in Indiana) by fathers who played a heavy hand in their early careers. In some ways, Jackson’s and Beyoncé’s origin stories are eerily similar. The scene would seem to be set for a new supreme musical hero – or heroine – to take over. Is that Mission: Impossible, or Mission: Accomplished … and then some? Has the next Michael Jackson now surpassed him in standing in the black community? “Leaving Neverland” and the stain its sexual abuse allegations tattooed on Jackson’s reputation have left his legacy vulnerable.
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