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Re: Michael Jackson's This Is It Discussion
I just thought of something. Does anyone know if slash has said anything? I'd be interested to hear his thoughts.
EDIT: Nevermind I just answered my own question:
Really sad news about Michael, he was a talent from on high. #fb
about 15 hours ago from txt
Re: Michael Jackson's This Is It Discussion
News of Jackson's death first spread online
Many did not believe news until announced by established organizations
By Jake Coyle
The Associated Press
updated 11:43 a.m. ET, Fri., June 26, 2009
NEW YORK - It was a where-were-you moment in a digital age. Michael Jackson's death was not learned from a fatherly TV news anchor. Instead, the news first spread online.
Some of the initial reports from various outlets were confusing: Was Jackson still alive? Was he in a coma? They spread like wildfire across news sites, social media networks and Twitter.
The celebrity Web site TMZ.com. site broke the news of Jackson's death at 5:20 p.m. Thursday.
It was a huge scoop for the AOL-owned TMZ, though many did not believe TMZ's report until it was matched by more established news organizations.
"Everything starts with a tip," said Harvey Levin, managing editor of TMZ. "We wouldn't have put it up if we weren't positive."
Jackson's death was confirmed by the Los Angeles Times and then The Associated Press just minutes before the nightly network news began. The anchors relayed the news at the top of their broadcasts, though CBS and ABC quickly moved on to their prepared obituaries for Farrah Fawcett, who died earlier Thursday.
MTV, the channel that had so much to do with Jackson's incredible rise to fame, played Jackson's iconic music videos "Beat It" and "Thriller," and continued with a Jackson marathon.
Jackson dominated the discussion on Twitter, generating the most tweets per second since Barack Obama was elected president in November.
"We saw over twice the normal tweets per second the moment the story broke as people shared their grief and memories," Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said in an e-mail.
The tweeting tripped up Twitter briefly, but engineers quickly responded to keep the service running. At times Thursday night, Jackson-related search topics were the most popular on the site.
Celebrity users on Twitter — including Lindsay Lohan, Ashton Kutcher, John Mayer, Ryan Seacrest and ?uestlove of the Roots — posted their remembrances.
"I will be mourning my friend, brother, mentor and inspiration," tweeted MC Hammer. "He gave me and my family hope. I would never have been me without him."
Comedian Rob Corddry, the former "Daily Show" correspondent, joked: "I wish it had been Michael Jackson that broke the story of TMZ dying."
Others sought to corrupt the memorializing of Jackson. A false rumor was spread that actor Jeff Goldblum had died. His publicist had to release a statement saying that Goldblum was fine.
Blogger Perez Hilton also caused a stir when he initially doubted that Jackson had gone into cardiac arrest. In a post since removed from PerezHilton.com, the blogger speculated that Jackson was pulling a stunt. (Hilton didn't immediately return an e-mail requesting comment late Thursday.)
Akamai's Net Usage Index, which monitors global news consumption online, found that Web traffic to news sites increased by about 50 percent, peaking around 6:30 p.m.
So many people wanted to verify the early reports of Jackson's death that the computers running Google's news section interpreted the fusillade of "Michael Jackson" requests as an automated attack from about 5:40 p.m. through 6:15 p.m.
As a defense mechanism, Google's news section responded to requests for information about Michael Jackson with squiggly letters known as a "captcha." Just as online ticket buyers regularly do to complete their purchases, the Michael Jackson searchers had to enter the letters correctly to see Google's new results.
Searches made through Google's main search engine were unaffected, according to company spokesman Gabriel Stricker.
On the Google Inc.-owned YouTube, traffic flowed to music videos of Jackson, while thousands posted videos of themselves sharing their thoughts on Jackson.
Others were using Facebook to organize vigils and celebrations of Jackson. One in San Francisco with nearly 50 confirmed guests hoped to recreated the "Thriller" dance.
Within a few hours of the news of Jackson's death, his 1982 album "Thriller" was the No. 1 album on iTunes. Several of his discs were also in the top 10 of the digital store.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Re: Michael Jackson's This Is It Discussion
Cool that Thriller is once again number one. Would be really cool if it could top the Billboard charts next week.
As far as his death goes, we're obviously gonna have to wait for the autopsy. When this first happened, they acted like he just had a heart attack. Obviously he was already dead when paramedics arrived, so anything is possible at this point.
Re: Michael Jackson's This Is It Discussion
She came out of her shell during Rhythm Nation. Lyrically was out of her shell with Control but she hadn't refined her image yet.
She's the only Jackson that could come close to Michael's level.
Has Latoya been spotted since MJ's death? If not, maybe the rumor was true after all....
- tejastech08
- Rep: 194
Re: Michael Jackson's This Is It Discussion
I feel a little sad today watching all the footage on tv, I'm not a huge fan but actually more of a fan than I realised.
I never believed any of the allegations made against him, I always felt he exploited because of his eccentricities and wealth.What a catalogue of music that guy has though, such a talent. I actually remembered today for the first time in decades, lying out my back yard during a scortching hot summer when I was a boy with my wee gang of friends, sun bathing and listening to Thriller which one of them had brought along on cassette.
Growing up in the 80's and 90's though, there is so many MJ songs and videos I see now that bring memories of my youth flooding back.
There cant be many people who would command such a blanket media coverage when they die, its a global event. I was looking at russian, french and asian news channels this morning and they are all covering it.
I usually hate the media, but in this instance I am grateful that they are using this as a way to teach younger people about things they weren't around for. Michael Jackson's career was basically over 15 years ago, give or take. Many teenagers out there don't realize how much of a part of the culture he was during the 70's, 80's, and early 90's. He became a punchline with the surgeries and the pedophilia allegations, but I don't think younger people really realized how big of an impact he had during his heyday. I was born in '85, but I remember "Black or White" being an absolutely huge hit and I remember how big of a star he was back then. Even though the peak of his success was before my time (Thriller), even as a kid it was impossible to ignore how popular he was. I had a friend that lived down the street who was obsessed with MJ. Tried to dance like him and such.
