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He was great with the Five but seriously overrated thereafter. Thriller was entertaining but nothing more. He was not influential in the sense that many others would cover his music for years to come as other true greats' songs will be. I feel for him in that he was clearly a troubled soul but the incident with the balcony and the child is a boundary passed too far for me. Those who are upset - I wish you well but he is not worth all the press space that is likely to follow! James Brown, Smokey and Marvin hit the notes for me and were truly groundbreaking.

Michael Jackson's most valuable legacy, and one which will probably be ignored, is the very public proof that the denial of a normal childhood and of normal childhood activities will inevitably lead to abnormal, disturbing and ultimately tragic adult behaviour.

It is over for him now, he has passed on, and is hopefully now at peace. I've no criticisms or judgements to make - just simply wanted to say:

Rest Well Michael Jackson and Thanks for the music.

It was often said that Michael Jackson wanted to be like Peter Pan and live forever. In a way he achieved that, the Quincy Jones era Michael Jackson, who produced 3 of the greatest and most influential albums ever made will indeed live forever in the same way that people remember George Best as a hugely talented footballer rather than what he became. That's how I want to remember Michael Jackson, the talented singer, performer and showman who wowed millions of people rather than the tabloid caricature he turned into. We all know about his troubled upbringing and the demons which afflicted him, perhaps as with Best tremendous talent comes at a terrible price, in any case he has now found peace.

R.I.P. Michael, you were the greatest!!!

Fair enough, he was a good musician. I merely make the point that if one judges musical success by record sales [and most critics would reject that] then middle-of-the-road bands like the Eagles and Bee Gees must have sold truckloads of records and his sales numbers alone don't make him unique.

But he did make some genuinely original and outstanding music, but as so many will point out, when one has that much success, that early in life, it is always going to be very difficult to remain 'grounded'.

I would also question your reference to 'R&B' - this seems to me to be a very different genre to 'Rhythm and Blues' and I wouldn't drag Jackson to the level of the bland vapidity of most 'R&B' badged music which is dull, inane and almost instantly forgettable. Jackson was better than that.

Truly a very sad occasion, it became clear from the various news reports over the last few days that Michael had a very traumatised and sad upbringing.
Please RIP Michael.

sad, confused man with talent. Poular music is just that. Each generation has it's own.

Blog posted at midday Razia, and yet this is only blog no 8. That must be telling us something... I guess the Elgin marbles has it in terms of cultural icons....

He will and should be remembered for his songs and dance routines, and his sheer enjoyment in entertaining others. But there is a strange discrepancy between what people knew of him, and the actual man. The leaked (but never-the-less apparently correct) autopsy results show a very frail person, taking painkillers and pills, with no hair, and clearly worried about his health, and yet Uri Geller has been quoted as saying 'he was in good health'... Protecting a man from himself is one thing - and friends (by definition?) should be honest with each other, but it seems that no-one, but no-one was able to be honest with Michael, nor was he to his fans, because it seems clear to me that he was in no position medically to undertake 5 concerts, let alone 50. Something is wrong there, and those who were close to Michael prob should be feeling that they let him down. Just some thoughts.

Boring.