Thursday, June 25, 2009, 7:32 PM
Music, Celebrities, In the News
By Kevin Moreau

Never can say goodbye

As The Sunday Paper was going to press on the evening of June 25, reports began streaming in that Michael Jackson had died after suffering cardiac arrest. 

Despite the caricature he became in the last two decades, Jackson was the biggest and arguably the most influential pop star since Elvis Presley, a title I contend he still holds—yes, even above Prince. And it goes without saying that for all their talent, Usher, Beyoncé and Justin Timberlake are merely stewards, inhabiting the template he forever defined. 

Where Prince, the closest thing he had to a rival, integrated various genres into an exciting mishmash, at his best—“Billie Jean,” “Beat It,” just about anything from “Thriller” or “Off the Wall”—Jackson took pop music and its iconography in exciting directions others are still exploring. In the end, I hope that’s how we’ll remember him.