Michael Jackson died in 2009. But he has never left us and there are no signs he ever will. Even by today’s standards, Jackson lived a weird life and an even weirder afterlife. A globally acclaimed childstar in the 1970s, the world’s premier entertainer in the final decades of the 20th century, a perplexingly odd character in the 21st century, Jackson defied every known category and became borderline incomprehensible. Ellis Cashmore’s venture to render him comprehensible reflects the restless, unorthodox and mysterious life Jackson led.
Cashmore’s is no ordinary biography: for a start, it begins in the present and journeys back to Jackson’s birth, then even deeper. Cashmore’s task is to reveal Jackson in his times, specifically the post-civil rights era, when America was rebuilding and searching for someone who symbolized a new age as it struggled to unburden itself of racial inequality. Jackson was created. Cashmore explains how – and why. In the process, he uncovers the influences of Elizabeth Taylor, Whitney Houston, OJ Simpson, Elvis, Princess Diana, Madonna, Bill Cosby, Oprah and Michael Jordan on Jackson and the world he, for a while, seemed to dominate. But did he? Or did it dominate him? Cashmore’s provocative answer will excite and enliven debates on Jackson. This is not a book designed to comfort: it will force readers to see Jackson in a past that leaps frighteningly into the present.
The book is enriched with a comprehensive timeline of Jackson’s life and a Who’s Who of the key figures of the Jackson era. There is also a Spotify playlist of all the songs mentioned in the text.
