Michael Jackson, Superstar The international grief that the death of Michael Jackson, the musical phenomenon, has generated since it occurred on June 25, reminds us pointedly about the universality of music as language and icon, and the sheer incandescence of Jackson's achievement. He was in every sense a true artist, who changed the nature and meaning of artistic performance and a medley of genres: pop, hip hop, even soul, and in the full scope of his talents: songwriter, composer, producer, dancer, singer, instrumentalist, entrepreneur, he was a living advertisement of rigorous, multi-level self-application. Born and raised as a prodigy, he grew to the level of genius and in his active, productive years, he raised music to such a metastatic, ethereally energised platform that made him one of the living masters of the art. Now that he has passed on like a meteor, he proves the philosophical point in retrospect about how in living, we are in the midst of death, ...
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