Video: Remembering Michael Jackson One Year Later

By Zach Dionne Posted Jun 24th 2010 02:45PM

Tomorrow (Friday, June 25) marks the one year anniversary of Michael Jackson's death, and perspective is a funny thing. For some, his eccentricities and scandals have fallen behind louder, happier memories of his music and flair. For others, not so much.

"After all those years of tabloid ugliness and oddity, I think a lot people forgot how it all began, and it's sad that he had to die to remind them," Entertainment Weekly music critic Leah Greenblatt tells PopEater. "I think there will always be a group of people who can't forgive Michael for what he did, or what they believed him to have done, in terms of the molestation charges. But by and large I feel like there was a pretty massive sea change in the public's perception of him almost immediately after he died."

RadarOnline.com creator and executive vice president David Perel tells PopEater he believes in death, Jackson "achieved something he could not in life" -- namely, focus on his talent, his legacy, his music. "There is a much greater recognition of his role as a family man and devoted father. Much of his music has been rediscovered and a new appreciation for the artist and his immense talent has emerged."

We took to the streets of New York City to find out how the public remembers the King of Pop a year after he left us. See the video after the jump!

"It's a shame that he's gone. He was a real, incredible talent," one interviewee told us. Another person's first thought? Oddly enough, Jackson's pet monkey, Bubbles.

"I really enjoy hearing him now," a German woman visiting New York said. Another added, "His music lives on after him --he's still on my iPod."

EW's Greenblatt remembers the week after Jackson's death, when it was impossible to walk a single New York City block without hearing the star's tunes emanating from delis and stoops. "It was just this great collective moment of celebrating and remembering -- we still have the music and the dancing and this indelible, incredible persona that he created from the time he was seven years old. I really do wish he could see that now."

"While we're all still interested in his kids, his eccentricities, and his dysfunctional family, the one thing that binds everyone globally are the songs. In any club in the world, a DJ just has to put on 'Billie Jean' or 'Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough' to get people dancing -- the whole room is charged with electricity," Roger Friedman, the columnist behind ShowBiz411, tells PopEater. "The bad stuff has fallen away, and Michael's music has become the lasting legacy."

"Suddenly we weren't thinking of the plastic surgeries or the court cases or the vitiligo," Greenblatt says. "We were just immersed again in these amazing songs, and these memories so many of us have from childhood-this pure joy and nostalgia for when he was literally the greatest pop star on the planet, and all we wanted to do was figure out how he did the moonwalk, and how to get our parents to buy us a pleather knockoff of that crazy red jacket."

Michael Jackson

Not all the less savory Michael memories are fully forgotten, though -- particularly the bizarre and unexpected nature of his passing. "Sadly, Michael was the architect of his own demise. He played Russian Roulette with his life," Friedman says. "The victims are his children, who have been left to navigate a very choppy sea. I can only hope they will survive."

RadarOnline's Perel expounds: "Remembering Michael now is a bittersweet experience for many people. His talent and his devotion to his children have become even more starkly apparent, but the factors that led to his death and knowing they were avoidable continues to haunt many. The shock, surprise, pain and anger are still remarkably raw for his fans and others who loved him. The passing of a year seems to have done very little to diminish those emotions everyone felt when first hearing the news."

As long as people are grooving to 'Smooth Criminal' and prisons are collaboratively reenacting the 'Thriller' dance, it seems the anniversary of Jackson's passing will be marked for years to come.

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Comments

(27)

Thursday 24 June

By UK

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you are such a tosser.

By Marsha

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If he were indeed a child molester he would have been proven guilty and sentenced, but he wasn't. Men who seduce children don't start in their mid 30's they start in their teens. If he were a pervert there would have been more than 2 kids with money grubbing parents crawling out of the woodworks. Get over it dude Michael was innocent. I don't know what parent in their right mind would take money instead of beating him down or killing him for messing with their child.

AGREE MICHAEL IS INNOCENT HE WAS NEVER PROVEN GUILTY IN A COURT OF LAW.

Friday 25 June

By Tell It Like It Is

Or you could jump on your hog, and ride off into sunset.... and out of here. Please.

iddiot-taw "Conficted"? It is APPARENT, you are Appalachian, racist, hate-infected, ignorant, backwoods, never-seen-a-school, little house on the prairie trash. Raped by stupidity.

Toss only iddiottaw. Real tosser. Not dictionary. King great. Can NEVER toss him.

Saturday 03 July

By lady

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Michael never did anything wrong. Shame on people that follow the media instead of following the truth. He was a wonderful human being and will be missed by all of the good people who loved him. Our world is a very sad place.

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