By now the Michael Jackson cover has been out long enough for us to receive some reader mail in response. Let’s take a look!
Natalie Trott of Shrewsbury, Mass. writes in with the following rhetorical zinger: “Might I look forward to future issues featuring Britney Spears’ schoolgirl skirt, Buddy Holly’s glasses, Madonna’s cone bra and Elvis’ cape?”
Neil Carver of Miami is thinking along similar lines: “MICHAEL JACKSON’S GLOVE? Puh-leeze! What’s next? Madonna?...The first shock was Kanye West on the September cover, now this.”
And one Don H. of Milwaukee wondered whether our cover was a joke: “I subscribed to Paste to avoid wasting my time on pop-trash artists like Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson personifies what was wrong with mainstream music in the 1980’s. Albums such as Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Bad, Wham’s Make It Big, Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet and New Kids on the Block’s Hangin’ Tough were all Top 5 albums in their given year. Meanwhile quality bands like Bauhaus, Love and Rockets, Ween, The Cult, Concrete Blonde, Pixies, Cowboy Junkies, Sonic Youth, Husker Du, the Replacements and countless others, were largely ignored. Even bands like R.E.M., Echo and the Bunnyman and the Cure who enjoyed a small measure of mainstream success were given second-class status by the music industry at the time. And now Paste wants to slap these bands in the face by putting Michael Jackson on the cover?”
So then, where to begin?
All three of these letters seem to take issue with Paste choosing a mainstream artist for our cover. And I can see where they’re coming from, since Paste has such a strong history of supporting indie musicians and filmmakers. But as our editor-in-chief says in his forthcoming editorial, Paste is about finding signs of life in the mainstream and independent worlds. They’re not mutually exclusive.
With all due respect Don H., I think it’s possible to enjoy both Sonic Youth and Michael Jackson. To enjoy both MJ and the Pixies. I certainly do. And in a music world where so many music fans play their personal soundtracks on shuffle, I wouldn’t be surprised if tracks from Thriller bump up against songs from Daydream Nation or Doolittle on many of our readers’ iPods.
I assume that, for most art lovers, this paradigm works the same way with movies. I adore Noah Baumbach’s arty, cerebral films. But if I forced myself to only watch indie flicks, I wouldn’t be able to worship The Godfather—and what kind of movie-going life would that be?
To take Natalie Trott’s question seriously: It’s pretty unlikely that we’d do cover stories on Madonna, Britney or Elvis. Then again, if the great Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick wants to pitch us a smart story about The King, I’d be willing to listen. And as for Buddy Holly’s glasses, they seem to me like a natural fit for Paste. After all, where would indie-rock fashion be without them?
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Probably trite for me to agree on here, but because I tend to arrive on the music scene a little late I enjoy this kind of retro-ish coverage. It was shocking, but in a good way. Maybe I’m the only one who gets tired of another cover story on the band/actor/etc. of the month, but considering music that’s been a fixture throughout my entire life is a nice way to break away from that style.
I was being snarky, mostly in reaction to Josh’s “aging boomer” remark in his editorial letter in the issue.
I’m waiting patiently for him to scratch his head when some younger writer wants to reminisce about those good ole days when The Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus ruled.
I say embrace diversity over rigidity, especially in music. Where would we be if country hadn’t embraced the blues—without Hank Williams probably—and if hip hop hadn’t embraced Don Cherry, or jazz hadn’t looked south and into Latin America. Besides, part of what makes any mental book shelf or music library interesting is the vibrancy of its juxtapositions.
MJ’s Thriller era was revolutionary, and transcended genres much the same way as Prince’s 1999 and Purple Rain eras. I had Clash t-shirts in the closet and Doc Martens under the bed, but you better believe this non-fan was glued to the TV for the premiere of the “Thriller” video on MTV - the same medium that brought otherwise little-known alternative rock such as the Cure and Bauhaus into suburban America.