The Michael Jackson Influence...

Today marks two years to the day that Michael Jackson died. Even though I never had the opportunity to meet him in person or see him live in concert, his life had a tremendous influence on mine. As I reflect back on the past two years since his death, I have come to realize that his influence did not die when he did and that makes me smile. Before I go any deeper into this post, I want to say to the people that don't like Michael Jackson to stop reading here because this post is not for you. This post is for the people that have the ability to open their minds up to how big of an impact this man had on the world. He was a giant among men and to somehow minimize that would not be fair to his memory. Let's face it, it will never be another Michael Jackson. He was not perfect and neither is anyone else so I will digress.

As a child born in the 1970s, this is the only time in my life that I know that Michael Jackson will not be releasing a album, guest appearing on a awards show, or being honored for breaking a record for something. Throughout every decade of my life, Michael Jackson was on the charts, releasing new videos, or performing on stage during a live event. As far back as I can remember, each time I knew Michael was going to be involved in a event, I was glued to the television. Why? Because I knew I would see something that I never saw before. Some of my favorite childhood memories include Michael. My cousins and myself used to play a game with the Rockin' Robin lyrics. I know I am not the only one that used to practice his video dance moves. He made me fall in love with dancing. Even now, when I hear Beat It or Thriller I try to go back and do the dance steps to those videos. I cannot forget as a kid when me and my bestie practiced the moonwalk during recess the day after we saw it for the first time during the Motown 25 celebration in 1983. Yes, this little country girl from the South became a fan in one night. That is all it took.

Thinking back on my life I cannot recall of one time that I have ever heard a Michael Jackson song and didn't have a happy memory. The only exception was that damn Thriller video that scared the living crap out of me. I am still not a fan of scary movies so the dancing zombies were not my thing. When I hear music today or see videos there is a Michael Jackson presence still that is obvious to a real music lover. Song after song I hear references to Michael so I know his influence on today's music will live on. Some examples that come to me right off the top of my head are: "She Michael Jackson Bad" - Lil Wayne; "Got the gold thriller, Mike Jackson on these n****s, all I need is a f*****g red jacket with some zippers." - Drake; "This is bad, real bad, Michael Jackson" - Kanye West; "I'm off the wall, I'm like a young Michael Jackson" - Jay Z...see my point is Michael Jackson will live forever. Even my 7 year old knows the words to majority of his songs and recently requested for more of his songs to be on her iPod. The music will live forever and so will he because one thing that does not age is good music. The one thing that Michael Jackson had plenty of, was good music so play on Michael play on!