Politicolor » Michael Jackson http://www.politicolor.com The Color of Political Theory Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:26:26 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 What the King of Pop did with Politics http://www.politicolor.com/2009/06/what-the-king-of-pop-did-with-politics/ http://www.politicolor.com/2009/06/what-the-king-of-pop-did-with-politics/#comments Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:53:29 +0000 stepwinder http://politicolor.com/?p=395 As a music fanatic, I am contemplating what pop music would be today without Michael Jackson. Cable news is busy retelling 1,000 sordid details of his tragic life, but I urge you to turn to MTV instead and consider what he contributed to the world of music. One of those contributions is harnessing the power of pop music to make statements about “what is” in world events and “what could be” through taking action.

There is some piece of my own activism that can be traced back to Live Aid and We are the World.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Another potent contribution from Jackson includes the images of the hungry in Africa, homeless in America, MLK, John and Bobby Kennedy and even John Lennon in the video for “Man in the Mirror.” In addition to confronting our ideals with reality, pop music also works to unite groups. The Michael Jackson sing-a-long at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin sold out last night and the NYTimes posted a video of people dancing in the street outside the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

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