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archytas's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
This was originally published in 2007 - before Jackson's 2009 death, but after his 2006 acquittal on abuse charges - and Jefferson added a preface in 2017. It is also worth noting that Jefferson wrote a Guardian piece in 2019 expressing regret and shame that she did not acknowledge that Jackson was "almost certainly a sexual predator". It is interesting to me, however, that reading this book before that article, I certainly assumed she thought he was.
Jackson has become a discordant figure for popular culture. While figures such as Kevin Spacey, Rolf Harris and Gary Glitter have shifted in our lexicon into bywords for abuse, featuring prominently in-jokes and otherwise about predation, a lingering awkwardness and often silence remains around the King of Pop. In part, this may be because he was acquitted at trial, and died before more accusers emerged. But also in part, I think, it is because Jackson was a child star, and so many watched him grow into the world's biggest pop artist. A man who gradually shed every scrap of the appearance of that bopping boy filled with apparent joy on stage, and whose slide into increasingly bizarre and red-flag behaviour was carried out in front of a global audience. We could explain away anything as long as his talent for music, for dance, for reinvention, for using spectacle to question who we are, shone out. And perhaps it is because all that means we know Jackson is as much likely victim as he was perpetrator. A boy whose own abuse the world ignored before they ignored that which he perpetrated.
Jefferson's book drew me, despite my feeling that this was better left alone, because it appeared to delve into the mess, and it did - brilliantly and courageously. While she does not explicitly state that she believes his accusers, she doesn't exonerate him either. That is not the point of this book, which is to explore the cultural phenomenon of a man whose art was for a while one of the most influential in the world. She looks at how Jackson's work explores the spaces around race, and gender. She documents how he built off the work of queer artists, always unacknowledged (even Little Richard, who Jackson never mentioned), deconstructs how all his music videos build off the idea of transformation and polarity and how deeply that speaks to a society anxiety ridden about how to come together on anything like equal ground. She leans perhaps into the idea of this as a way of finding freedom, when it is also easy to view this as a result of dissociation and discomfort. But this is the smartest take I've read on Jackson (with the possible exception of the grief-infused 1991 Alice Walker poem Natural Star, with its unforgettable opening "I am in mourning. For your face." and it feels like these are conversations that need to accompany our attempts to understand what he meant to us. We are not good at navigating conversations about cycles of abuse, never mind what culpability a society might have for wanting to believe a joyful lie.
Which is a way of saying I think a revised version of this book, contextualised at least by the content of Jefferson's essay, would be a great accompaniment to any biopic or attempt to write a cleaner story. To quote from Jefferson's 2019 Guardian piece (if it is still online, go read it, it is great): "What makes us love _and_ hate an artist, feel pleasure and unease, confusion and bliss all at once? What private needs and longings do we each bring to the work we love? When the dark materials of a life pervade, even taint the work, does that mean we must cast it off? It might mean that, but it might also mean that we fight for the parts of it that matter to us. We gather our resources in all their plenitude and variety: intellectual, emotional, moral; aesthetic, political. And we use them to analyse and demystify the work, to probe its clashes and contradictions, feel their power without being at their mercy. No evasions, no simplifications. The task is to read the art and the life fully as they wind and unwind around each other, changing shape and direction."
Jackson has become a discordant figure for popular culture. While figures such as Kevin Spacey, Rolf Harris and Gary Glitter have shifted in our lexicon into bywords for abuse, featuring prominently in-jokes and otherwise about predation, a lingering awkwardness and often silence remains around the King of Pop. In part, this may be because he was acquitted at trial, and died before more accusers emerged. But also in part, I think, it is because Jackson was a child star, and so many watched him grow into the world's biggest pop artist. A man who gradually shed every scrap of the appearance of that bopping boy filled with apparent joy on stage, and whose slide into increasingly bizarre and red-flag behaviour was carried out in front of a global audience. We could explain away anything as long as his talent for music, for dance, for reinvention, for using spectacle to question who we are, shone out. And perhaps it is because all that means we know Jackson is as much likely victim as he was perpetrator. A boy whose own abuse the world ignored before they ignored that which he perpetrated.
Jefferson's book drew me, despite my feeling that this was better left alone, because it appeared to delve into the mess, and it did - brilliantly and courageously. While she does not explicitly state that she believes his accusers, she doesn't exonerate him either. That is not the point of this book, which is to explore the cultural phenomenon of a man whose art was for a while one of the most influential in the world. She looks at how Jackson's work explores the spaces around race, and gender. She documents how he built off the work of queer artists, always unacknowledged (even Little Richard, who Jackson never mentioned), deconstructs how all his music videos build off the idea of transformation and polarity and how deeply that speaks to a society anxiety ridden about how to come together on anything like equal ground. She leans perhaps into the idea of this as a way of finding freedom, when it is also easy to view this as a result of dissociation and discomfort. But this is the smartest take I've read on Jackson (with the possible exception of the grief-infused 1991 Alice Walker poem Natural Star, with its unforgettable opening "I am in mourning. For your face." and it feels like these are conversations that need to accompany our attempts to understand what he meant to us. We are not good at navigating conversations about cycles of abuse, never mind what culpability a society might have for wanting to believe a joyful lie.
Which is a way of saying I think a revised version of this book, contextualised at least by the content of Jefferson's essay, would be a great accompaniment to any biopic or attempt to write a cleaner story. To quote from Jefferson's 2019 Guardian piece (if it is still online, go read it, it is great): "What makes us love _and_ hate an artist, feel pleasure and unease, confusion and bliss all at once? What private needs and longings do we each bring to the work we love? When the dark materials of a life pervade, even taint the work, does that mean we must cast it off? It might mean that, but it might also mean that we fight for the parts of it that matter to us. We gather our resources in all their plenitude and variety: intellectual, emotional, moral; aesthetic, political. And we use them to analyse and demystify the work, to probe its clashes and contradictions, feel their power without being at their mercy. No evasions, no simplifications. The task is to read the art and the life fully as they wind and unwind around each other, changing shape and direction."
mistercrow's review against another edition
4.0
This book is more on the psychology and transformation of Michael Jackson than his life story. It's a brilliant read.
senholto's review against another edition
4.0
There is no doubt in my mind that this book is an unbiased look at the variables that influenced and shaped Michael Jackson. The authors flirts with both sides of various arguements in relation to the infamous 2005 Molestation Trial and it is this the last chapter in the book that should be read as an introduction to this horrible circus of a trial. Especially those who were convinced that Jackson was a predatory paedophile.
artinyourworld's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
fast-paced
4.0
"To understand the canon of fame, media, and race relations we are currently stewing within, On Michael, is the book to read. To understand any feather of society, Margo Jefferson is the author to read."
To read my full review: https://artinyourworld.com/2023/02/21/on-michael-jackson-by-margo-jefferson/
To read my full review: https://artinyourworld.com/2023/02/21/on-michael-jackson-by-margo-jefferson/
zilfworks's review
2.0
Terrific premise; disappointing execution. I think it's a great idea to examine Michael Jackson - as a persona, performer and phenomenon - from a multifaceted cultural perspective (including the histories of entertainment, race, family culture, legal precedent and more), which is exactly what this book does. The problem here is that although the perspective is broad and far-reaching, the author just doesn't delve very deeply into any of her subjects, and the result feels more like a brief outline of possible topics than a true examination of any of them.
claire60's review against another edition
3.0
I found this book very interesting, it starts with a critique of Barnum, whom Jackson was obsessed with and how Barnum exploited Black and disabled people in order to make money. Looking at Motown and the abusive Joe Jackson with the same intellectual clarity, before turning to Michael himself with thought provoking considerations of his videos. There is a fascinating breakdown of the Jackson's individually and she makes interesting points about MJ's physical changes in relation to what they say about his views on race and gender. Much has been written about his imagined sexuality so it was refreshing to have gender discussions. The last chapter is about the trial that he faced at the end of his life on child molestation charges, her view is nuanced, considered and allows space for you to make up your own mind. Most of all I appreciated the intelligent cultural exploration of the times and live of Michael Jackson, which has been missing in the rabid condemnation or unseeing hero worship that surrounds him and is indeed present in some reviews of this book.