
RIP Michael Jackson - jmtame
http://www.tmz.com/2009/06/25/michael-jackson-dies-chat/
======
diego
This is somewhat hacker-relevant: During a 30-minute window, 22% of all tweets
mentioned Michael Jackson (with the correct spelling).

[http://twist.flaptor.com/trends?gram=michael%20jackson&s...](http://twist.flaptor.com/trends?gram=michael%20jackson&span=24&start=2009062519&end=2009062600)

It's the highest peak we've seen for a person since we started tracking.

~~~
delano
Twitter has now disabled search altogether which is the first time I recall
that happening. I'm sure that's one of the reasons for the decline in the
graph.

~~~
diego
I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Even now, 8 hours after the news
broke, 6% of all tweets are still mentioning Michael Jackson. That's
comparable to the peak mentions for the Lakers when they won the NBA title and
Facebook during the name rush.

~~~
delano
Oh, I was referring to the "Trending Topics" and search box on Twitter itself.
They were removed and I suspect that would reduce overall Twitter activity
(b/c it's more difficult for people to see what other people are saying).

------
joel_feather
That's just so...shocking. It always seemed like these type of people stay
around forever to be made fun off and prodded - and then when you read about
their death.

It brings things into perspective - we're all just blobs of flesh, here by
chance, and we will all be gone, washed away and forgotten before very long.

------
icey
How is this even remotely hacker news?

~~~
TomOfTTB
Obviously only pg can decide for sure and to be honest I personally wouldn’t
have submitted this. That said...

There are events in this world that permeate the public consciousness. They
are so big that they make all other topics seem irrelevant. Michael Jackson,
whose prime was before my birth by the way, is the Icon of icons. His exit
from the world is a once in a life time event that affects everyone.

I choose to make Hacker news my community of choice because it’s a community
that holds rationality above all else. It is not rational to stick to strict
rules no matter what. The corner stone of a community is shared experience and
an event that has a profound effect on almost everyone should surely justify a
rare exception to the "Tech only" rule.

So, if we assume it is rational to occasionally put the rules aside, the
question becomes "is this event big enough to justify such an exception?" As
has been pointed out several times here this story is the lead on every news
based web site in existence. It’s being covered on every news station and even
radio stations built around aloofness (JackFM) have dedicated commercial free
hours to play only Michael Jackson music.

To me that signals an event that justifies a rational exception to the rules.

~~~
aquateen
Michael Jackson was a celebrity has-been who made mediocre music.

His death _truly_ affects few, let alone profoundly.

The fact it's covered on every news station indicates it's probably not news
and reason enough not to include here.

~~~
zimbabwe
I'm going to disagree with you about his music, even though I'm not a huge
Michael Jackson fan, because he had a killer groove. But Jackson was never a
musician first and foremost. He was a dancer. He was the best dancer of this
last half century, bar none. He was the dancer that inspired enormous
movements in dance. When he performed for Motown, none other than Fred
Astaire, king of the old dancers, called him to congratulate him. I'm not a
big fan of dance, but watching Michael in action was like watching a man defy
physics. The way he moved inspired me to start working out and treating my
body properly; because of him I want to learn to dance. I'll never dance like
him, but he showed me that my body was an instrument as much as anything
manmade can be.

To his death, he still had those moves. Just because he became the center of a
freakish media circus doesn't mean he'd lost all talent. In fact, he's one of
the few celebrities who never seemed to like his celebrity. He didn't get
coked up or destroy things. The controversies surrounding him are all ones he
wished would go away. He remained famous first and foremost for his incredible
talent.

~~~
madh
Fantastic dancer and killer vocalist. One of the best male vocalists ever.

~~~
zimbabwe
In the Jackson 5 and up to Thriller he had a gorgeous voice, even if his pop
wasn't exactly cutting-edge in any other way.

------
apsurd
Never thought I'd see the day when any link from TMZ would be on hacker news.

~~~
jmtame
tmz was the first/original on this one -- not nytimes, cnn, or anyone else in
this case

------
brianmckenzie
Well, now we know just how famous you have to be for the HN admins not to kill
a TMZ link reporting your death.

~~~
jmtame
he sets the bar pretty high: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-
selling_albums_wor...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-
selling_albums_worldwide)

------
tptacek
The best summation I think you'll read of Michael Jackson comes from Bill
Wyman; today, abbreviated but current:

[http://www.hitsville.org/2009/06/25/michael-jackson-and-
the-...](http://www.hitsville.org/2009/06/25/michael-jackson-and-the-ultimate-
crossover/)

and from 1992, with much more detail:

<http://www.chicagoreader.com/michael_jackson/>

It's not a happy story (and not for the reasons you assume; for instance,
search the latter story for "South Korea"). Bill Wyman tells it better than I
think anyone else can, as an expert and well-regarded music journalist writing
outside the confines of any mainstream music publication.

------
rewind
Should be "RIP Your Posting Rights" for even considering putting that here.
I'm having a good laugh over the fact that it's #1 though. I love hearing how
people explain how something is relevant to hacker news when they post stuff
like this.

I don't even care that you posted it, but I'd love to hear what your rationale
for doing so was... if for nothing else than to get another laugh.

~~~
BvS
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=674621>

~~~
rewind
I think that can turn into a bit of a slippery slope form of justification,
but on its own it's a good argument and you explained it well.

And by the way, when MJ was in his prime, we were all running around
elementary school wearing silver gloves on one hand and thought we were the
SHIT.

------
pg
<http://www.scoopler.com/search/#%22micheal+jackson%22>

~~~
johnnybgoode
I'm trying to figure out if you misspelled his name on purpose, to slow down
the rate of results being returned or something. ;)

~~~
aristoxenus
Funny: after a couple minutes of watching that feed for both spellings, the
"Micheal" one is actually a lot more active.

And indeed if you look at the "hot topic" list, the wrong spelling is winning
;)

~~~
gojomo
Gossipy people don't spell very well?

------
bcater
CNN says that he is in the hospital:

[http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/06/25/michael.jackson/...](http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/06/25/michael.jackson/index.html)

~~~
BRadmin
CNN just updated that link... confirms he's dead.

~~~
paulgb
I think it's a pretty sure thing at this point, but for what it's worth, CNN
still hasn't confirmed it, they're just reporting that others (LA Times and
AP) are reporting it:

"CNN has not confirmed his death."

edit: they're now reporting on the broadcast that they have just confirmed it.

------
yan
As much as I like to distance myself and really not care about the deaths of
people I don't know, I do feel myself saddened by this. He contributed a great
deal to a huge number of lives and completely changed what people thought of
pop and pop stars. Hacker news or not, I feel having this space as a place for
discussion is worthwhile imho.

------
dinkumthinkum
You all complaining about this submission are being pretty ridiculous. Despite
all the disgusting derision about so-called mediocre music, this is actually a
big deal.

Probably the most famous living person in the world died a few hours ago. This
is not just some other celebrity news story. It's just a HN submission. It's
not as if someone, heaven forbid, changed the Google home page in memory of
Michael Jackson, that would be crazy (rolls eyes). Furthermore, he was very
talented; though such an evaluation is subjective, it seems somewhat strange
and incredulous to deny this much.

I hope the people making these weird derisive comments aren't involved in any
kind of social networking or related startups as probably your only hope is
that understanding something about people has nothing to do with building
social software for them.

~~~
ErrantX
The most famous living person in the world?

Nah.

Maybe in the past but in recent years before his trial he had slipped out of
knowledge. Even after the trial he slipped back into obscurity until recently.

I dont think he can be compared _globally_ to, for example, David Beckham in
modern times.

~~~
Goladus
Jackson had been famous since he was 10 years old.

Sure, he hadn't been stealing recent headlines from Lindsay Lohan, but it's
not like the millions of people familiar with him at some point during the
70s, 80s, or 90s just forgot about him.

------
Silentio
TMZ is a pretty terrible source but the NYT is reporting this as well:
[http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/michael-
jackson...](http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/michael-jackson-
hospitalized/?hp)

------
JMiao
for jmtame:

"thrilla" <http://www.thesixtyone.com/Villains/song/Thrilla/493/>

"michael jackson (calvin harris remix)"
[http://www.thesixtyone.com/TheMitchellBrothe/song/Michael+Ja...](http://www.thesixtyone.com/TheMitchellBrothe/song/Michael+Jackson+%28Calvin+Harris+Remix%29/1030/)

~~~
jackchristopher
A guy hacked the NES and sent his wife this classic:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px06aFDlJrs>

------
luckyland
MJ hacked music in his own little way during my childhood and I feel better
for it.

------
kingkawn
man made such good music in his prime it still gives you shivers.

------
socratees
I feel bad for what the media has done to him, calling him names and what not.
It's all over now. Rest in peace Michael. we loved you.

------
gruseom
I agree with Andrew Sullivan:

 _There are two things to say about him. He was a musical genius; and he was
an abused child._

[http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/06...](http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/06/thinking-
about-michael.html)

~~~
ComputerGuru
And 3rd, he was a child abuser himself.

Downmod me only if you would have done the same while he was alive. Being dead
doesn't forgive you what you've done.

~~~
gruseom
That's a good point; many (though far from all) abused children turn into
abusers later. Still, I decided a long time ago in the absence of first-hand
information to withhold judgment about Michael Jackson. It could be that the
terrible stuff that was reported about him was true, in which case it was
probably the tip of the iceberg. But don't underestimate our society's
capacity to demonize a weird person, especially when you throw in an inhumane
media and extreme celebrity. It's easy for the popular conclusion to be wrong
in such cases, adding one injustice to another.

~~~
invisible
Furthermore, the speculative nature of parents should not be underestimated
when they allow a weird, rich person to be friends with their child. So yeah,
either he was very weird (definite) or he was a child molester (possible).

------
nav
"Speechless", "I Can’t Help It"... "Another part of me" doesn’t want to
believe it but as much as we want one can’t "beat it". You didn’t "stop till
we got enough", "rocked our world" and "healed it"... - RIP MJ ...you’re "gone
too soon"

------
johnyzee
Strange that he would have a heart attack at the age of 50, particularly
considering that he cared obsessively about his health and was usually at peak
physical performance for his shows. There must be more to this story.

~~~
invisible
I guessed at the time of the event that he was on drugs. He lost everything
and was in more debt than some may think is possible for an individual. Turns
out that is likely the cause, but I'm sure we will be hearing about this for a
long time to come.

------
JshWright
So, is it just me, or has CNN been "Jackson-dotted"?

Edit: It appears to just be the mobile site.

------
asimjalis
Perhaps the technology take on this is that Twitter was also briefly dead.
Also this might have implications for marketing: did news sites that announced
his death before it was confirmed get more page views than websites that
waited?

------
chanux
So many RIP news on HN lately :( .

RIP MJ.

------
poppysan
I appreciate him and his quirks... RIP

~~~
gnaritas
You mean like liking children waaaay too much?

------
arien
RIP :(

------
lyime
I hope this is not true.

------
eterno
listened to free willy ost on way to office and then came the sad news.

RIP MJ.You were as genius as humans come.

------
zen53
Wanna be startin something? <http://bit.ly/aYDXm> R.I.P Michael

------
gjizzle
i heard that they were going to melt him down to make toys so the kids can
play with him for a change

------
ctingom
Just to clarify: The King of Pop died and not the King of Snap, Crackle and
Pop.

