I still remember the day that Michael Jackson
died. I was at home painting my room bright green, because I was a middle
school girl who thought that having a room with a toxic green glow would be the
coolest thing ever. I had been painting for a few hours when I began to get
tired, so I told my mom I was taking a bathroom break, which turned in to a
thirty minute break complete with snack and drink. I opened my mom’s laptop to
watch some funny YouTube videos, when I read the breaking news on her internet homepage: Michael Jackson had been found dead in his Los Angeles home. The king of pop. Gone. I rushed upstairs
to tell my mom, and she didn’t believe me at first. It’s hard to think that
someone so famous and influential could be gone so quickly.
When I was deciding what artist and album to
look at, I immediately thought of Michael. Last post I looked at Madonna, which was released in 1983.
This week I’ve decided to look at Michael Jackson’s career during the 1980s.
During that decade, he released two albums: Thriller
(1982) and Bad (1987), which reflect
the change in culture of that decade. Their release made his status increase
dramatically, as Thriller sold
sixty-five million albums, and with Bad selling thirty five million albums.
Culture during the 1980s was a time of
rebuilding. The United States had just gone through Vietnam, economic decline,
and overall unrest in the country. However, out of the troubled times emerged a
new group of people: the yuppies, “a baby boomer with a college education, a
well-paying job and expensive taste” (“The 1980s"). The baby boomers were a
generation that emerged from parents who had suffered through or really felt
the effects from the Great Depression. Now that they were grown adults with
well-paying jobs, they wanted to buy the materialistic things that made them
happy. My parents remember the 80s well, as they were in their teens and
twenties. When I talked to them recently, they said they remembered the yuppies
and how concerned they were with having the best and most expensive luxuries.
In fact, Newsweek declared 1984 the Year of the Yuppie. (Dorsey, 594)
But the materialism wasn’t just with the yuppie
movement. The early 1980s was a time characterized by lots of greed and loose
morals. Sex wasn’t just something taught in school, kids were learning about it
from watching cable. People spent money on small things, such as going to the
movies, or large things like buying a second house. (Dorsey, 594) It sounds to
me that people were simply spending money because they could. As someone who
grew up the daughter of a banker, I know this frivolous spending would drive my
dad crazy. And as much as people think these ‘possessions’ will make them
happy, they probably won’t. Popular TV shows and movies, such as “The Big
Chill,” (1983) suggested that young people were also anxious and unhappy. Furthermore,
not everyone was prospering from this movement. The poverty level grew from 1.4
million in 1979 to 2 million in 1986.
Thankfully, traditional values made a
comeback in the late 1980s. “Newsweek noted that ‘Nearly 50 percent of
respondents to a recent Gallup Poll say they are involved in charity or
volunteer work, up from 31 percent in 1984.” (Dorsey, 594) It appears that
people finally got their senses back and realized how selfish they were being
in the early 1980s. I find so much gratification in charity, that I am sure
they remembered that satisfaction and wanted to go back to it. Overall, it
appears that the eighties was a diverse spectrum of wealth and values. Where
did Michael Jackson fit in to this spectrum? And how did his music reflect his
beliefs on wealth and charity?
After completing some research, I found that
Michael Jackson embraces some of the yuppies’ values, but then also experienced
that shift back to traditional values in the mid to late eighties. Thriller is
the best-selling album of all time. His elaborate music video for the title
song boosted sales and increased his stardom. The album as a whole doesn’t
reflect value in material things, but Jackson does sing about love. And it’s
not of everlasting love, but of hook ups and groupies, such as in, “Billie
Jean.” Michael Jackson makes it very clear that he did not father a child, and
that Billie Jean is not his lover, just an obsessed fan. He is too good for her and would not be so
reckless as to get her pregnant.
Michael Jackson continued to partly be a
yuppie throughout his entire life. Even until his death, Michael Jackson lived
an extravagant life. He continued to produce successful music and tours,
building up his wealth along the way. If you look at pictures of him from the
1980s, his clothes are always fashionable make a statement. The jacket he wore
for the Bad tour (picture below) featured gaudy accessories with the silver
plates and buckles. Michael Jackson had the wealth, so he flaunted it. He could
have worn a simple outfit and mainly focused on the vocals and choreography,
but he didn’t. My parents remember watching his music videos on MTV and how
they were like mini movies because of their complex story lines and digital
effects. And the premiers were such a big deal that you planned out time to
watch their release on television.
But like the yuppies, Michael Jackson moved
away from extravagance in the mid 1980s. That change probably started with the
release of, “We are the World,” in 1985. Jackson helped write the song, whose
proceeds went to help the people in Africa, who were starving due to famine.
The theme continued in his album Bad. In “Another Part of Me,” Jackson calls
for a world-wide movement to help one another. He sings, “This is our planet.
You’re one of us,” and “Can’t you see? You’re just another part of me.” Then
in, “Man in the Mirror,” Michael Jackson looks at himself and realizes he needs
to change. This is the song the really captures the change seen in the yuppies.
By looking at ourselves and evaluating our lives, we can become better people
and change the world. It sounds cliché, but I believe it. Doing something good
for someone else can start a chain reaction of good deeds.
It appears that Michael Jackson falls into
this grey category, as he doesn’t always fully embraces the values of being a
yuppy. “He was listed in the 2000 edition of the Guiness Book of World Records for
breaking the world record for the "Most Charities Supported by a Pop
Star." He had supported 39 charitable organizations either with monetary
donations, through sponsorships of their projects or the participation in their
activities” (“Charity”). At the same time, he built an amusement park at his
home for him to use whenever he liked. So it appears that Michael Jackson is almost in the extreme ends of the scale. He spends thousands of dollars on silly things, but then gives tremendous sums of money to charity. Michael Jackson is not the type of
person you can fit neatly into a box. My mom remembered how unique and diverse
he was, which allowed him to appeal to so many different groups of people.
What I think we can take away from Michael
Jackson and the culture of the 1980s is a simple lesson: material things do not
always make you happy. The economy is always fluctuating, and there will always
be times of economic growth and wealth. But just because you have the money,
doesn’t mean you need to spend it. My dad always emphasized that instead of
spending money on material things, spend it on trips and things that you will
always remember. It took some time, but the people of the eighties finally
realized that. Going forward, I think yuppies still exist today. They did not
die with Michael Jackson, but will continue to be a part of every culture.
However, if someone as wealthy and talented as Michael Jackson can change, so
can a bunch of young professionals worshiping their designer handbag.
Works Cited
"Charity." True Michael Jackson. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.
Dorsey, Eugene C. "Giving Yourself
Away." Vital Speeches Of The Day 54.19 (1988): 593-596. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.
"The 1980s." History. A&E Television Network. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.
"The 1980s." History. A&E Television Network. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.
