RIP Michael Jackson

So as gushing over the death of Michael Jackson is all the rage, I thought I'd jump on the mourning bandwagon. Never one to miss a trend, me!

Anyway, borderline sarcastic intros aside...

Michael Jackson's music was a huge part of my childhood. I spent a lot of time as a kid cracking out Bad (possibly my favourite album as a child). I'm sure there were many failed attempts at moonwalking (seriously, how the hell do you do it?)

Basically, the point is I listened to his music a lot. I always remained a fan, going as far as to spend far too much money on the "Visionary" singles collection a few years ago and buying the 25th anniversary re-issue of Thriller when it came out. Why? Because his music was awesome. It was just pop music very well done. The best pop music you're ever going to find. The writing was spot-on. His voice was spot-on. Everything about it was, well, perfect.

Obviously his life was plagued with personal drama and accusations. I'm not going to write any more about that as I never knew him as a person and, as such, am not well placed to speculate whether he did or didn't do certain things. All I will say, though, is that he was never found guilty of anything so surely that has to count for something?

In a warped way, his death means we'll never know if his planned 50-gig run would have happened. Would he have lasted all 50 gigs? Would he have even played one? I'll admit, I had massive doubts that the first gig would ever happen, let alone all 50. The doubts just increased after the first few dates got re-scheduled. Still, I guess this is all irrelevant given that a man with young children is now dead.

For better or worse, there will never be anyone like Michael Jackson ever again.

Rest in peace.