As a 51 year old white woman I’ll admit that the Jackson 5 was one of the first 45s I bought (Temptations Ball of Confusion was my first record). Grew up with bubblegum pop and Motown.
In gym in grammar school our teacher played pop music for us to run laps to. I remember “A B C”, “Stop the Love You Save” and oddly enough, “Take a Letter, Maria”, by some one-shot wonder whose name eludes me.
I remember the dawn of MTV as I graduated college and hit the working world. My new husband & I enjoyed Thriller and some “new wave” music.
Lost track of the newer music and I have become primarily a classic rock fan with a little of the new music thrown in. Jackson got just too weird for me to be able to watch or listen to. A shame; he was a talented performer and probably would have been able to leave a positive social mark with all his wealth if he hadn’t gone nuts.
Got a kick out of hearing my kids sing “I’ll be There” for their middle school graduation and thinking that Michael Jackson was from their generation.
I grew up listening to that stuff, too! Caught all the legendary AM stations (this side of the Mississippi) after sundown.
“Zooooooooo, 89 WLS Chicago”
“WABC (sound of chime)”
Listen, I usually wouldn’t run down Jackson like I am, but I’ve always resented people claiming a certain entertainer means more than they actually do. I think Sinatra is a far superior singer to Jackson, but I’m not a big Sinatra fan either. I like ABBA a lot, but I make no claims that ABBA was the musical act of the century. They weren’t. But I’ll watch Agnitha and Anna Frid a lot longer than I will Jackson.