I’ll miss you Michael

As the whole world pauses to remember one of the greatest entertainers the world has ever known I sit over a week after finding out that he had passed still misty eyed, still in disbelief… I have been a Michael Jackson fan almost since birth and now he’s gone. It makes me so sad that it took Michael leaving this world for people to realize what a great gift he gave us all through his music. Never in my lifetime has an entertainer been able to make the whole world pause the way that Michael Jackson has. Everyone I know has a Michael Jackson story or special memory because his music has been a contributor to the soundtrack of the lives of two, three, maybe even four generations. Michael Jackson is the only musician that I know of that both my mother and I were huge fans of. She and I went to my very first concert together, the Jackson 5 Triumph tour in 1981. I wasn’t even 5 years old yet but I remember them singing Can You Feel It. That song still gives me chills to this day. I remember my whole family watching Michael Jackson on TV when I was a little girl and seeing my, then twenty something, mother screaming and crying like a those people you see on TV at a MJ concert. I’ve never seen her react that way to any other artist since…(and she will barely admit that she reacted that way then).

For the past 15 years or so, amist all the controversy, the world forgot just how wonderful MJs music was. I never stopped being a fan but I hadn’t dug in the crates and listened to just how broad his music collection was until after he died. Two days after he died I attended a Michael Jackson tribute party and I was just amazed at how many great songs he made that I had forgotten about. How many artists can you think of that you can throw an entire party playing nothing but their music and keep the party going for hours on end. I can’t name another artist that comes close.

To touch the whole world through not only your music but also your humanitarian deeds in only 50 years on earth is a feat that not too many can claim.  I hope that I can somehow in my life time touch just a small fraction of the people he touched in some way through something I do. I’m already 32 years old so it looks like I have a lot of catching up to do. I also pray that in watching one of the greatest pass away from this world a new generation will be inspired to not just be good at whatever they do but try be the best ever at what they do. And then follow that up by taking whatever gift they have and try to make the world better.  I know I am inspired.

Michael, if you can see us, know that even though we haven’t shown it in many years, so many of us love you and will always love you. I hope you’re up there teaching all the angels how to moonwalk.

Ghetto culture touches the world

Makes music that's more popular than the Beetles?????

I was talking to my brother today and he quoted a statistic that was just unbelievable to me. He claimed that friend of his read that a song by Flo Rida was the most popular song in the world ever. Really ever? So your friend believes Flo Rida made a song that beat out Happy Birthday and everything ? Of course the researcher in me was not about to take a third hand statistic like that as fact without doing some verification.  As I expected the statistic that the guy reported was slightly off since he failed to put a very relevant qualifier in front. But the real statistics were still pretty amazing to me. Apparently the single “Low”  by Flo Rida was the best selling digitally downloaded song to date* with over 4.5 million downloads.  It held the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 longer than any other song in 2008. And get this… It went #1 on the charts in Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand, France, and Thailand. It was also in the top ten in several other countries. Ireland????

What I think of when I think of Irish girls dancing

I wonder if Flo Rida had any idea he’d have the Irish Lassies and the girls down under getting low when he made that song. The success of stuff like this is a testament to the influence that urban culture has not just on America, but on the entire world.

On one hand I see where people who complain about the images of black culture that the rest of the world get exposed to are coming from. In far too many cases these are the only images of black American culture that some of these people have. But on the other hand it shows that young black kids have real power because the whole world watches to see what they like.  Maybe someone needs to figure out how  this power can be used for the good of the black community instead of complaining about it?

 I also think it’s hilarious how so many non-black people critisize  “ghetto culture” while their kids are posting videos of themselves on Youtube getting low low low low.

At any rate I get excited when someone unexpected has a global impact. We saw what happened with Soulja Boy and Crank Dat. Whether you love the song or hate it you have to give the kid credit for the global impact his song had. Even prisoners in the Phillipines were Cranking that Soulja Boy. I can’t wait to see what the next ghetto thing to go global will be.

Will we see videos’ of kids in the villages of India doing the Stanky Leg?

* Apparently this stat is based on U.S. sales or maybe songs made in the U.S. because the actual number 1 most downloaded song in the world is a song by a Japanese girl that had over 7 million downloads in Japan. If something is number one in an Asian country with all those people you may as well say it’s number one in the world. Even if the rest of the world has never heard of it.

 

All my single ladies!!

What is it about that danged Beyonce song “Single Ladies (Put a ring on it)” that makes you think you’re a trained dancer! Or maybe that’s just me. Well me and all the gay dudes on Youtube. Every time I hear the song this urge to do the dance from the video comes over me. Then next thing I know I’m sweating like R Kelly at junior high school cheerleading camp from the workout. If this song stays as popular as it is I will never gain those 6 pounds I’ve been trying to gain. Here watch it and tell me it doesn’t make you want to get up and dance like an HBCU majorette.