Michael Jackson will die as he lived....in the horrid glare of the media spotlight

Earlier this year, in an astute study of the media reaction to 'famous' deaths, Charlie Brooker called the U-turn surrounding the news of Jade Goody's imminent death 'so big you could see it from space'. I suspect a similar reaction will follow the news of the more famous and talented Michael Jackson dying from a heart attack.
Give it a few days and the death of Michael Jackson will be in the same league as JFK and Elvis Presley in terms of remembering 'where you were' when you heard the news. The difference that exists, perhaps, between the deaths of these earlier figures and Jackson is that while Kennedy and Presley died in the 1960s and 1970s, Michael Jackson has died in an era that he himself was one of the architects of. Already news websites are referring to Jackson as a figure of what is known as 'the MTV generation'. MJ revolutionised the music industry; the 'Thriller' album has influenced countless others and Jackson even demonstrated a business acumen that saw him become bigger than the Beatles when he bought their back catalogue.
These are all things that the media will tell you in the days to come, as the reasons for and circumstances surrounding his death will be analysed and over analysed. The 'controversy' surrounding the kind of man Jackson had become, will also no doubt be a massive topic for discussion. His affection for the children he invited to his Neverland ranch will be discussed, possibly even revised, as the public perception of this superstar alters to fit his death.
The saga of Michael Jackson's life in the public eye will never fully be analysed by the media because Jackson's childhood rather accurately anticipated the age of 'Britain's Got Talent', 'The X Factor' and arguably began the whole vicious cycle of it.
The rise of Michael Jackson was the rise of pop, the taking off of the mass-marketed record industry and the rise of the superstar living under the microscope. The only thing preventing a LivingTV or MTV docusoap on Jackson was his status as a recluse and the fortress-like nature of his ranch. Yet coverage of Jackson's increasingly puzzling behaviour was beginning of a long line of ugly, boring and paradoxical programmes on 'celebrity lives' which has culminated in Katie and Peter, Kerry Katona and the aforementioned Jade Goody. The tragedy is that Michael Jackson was more talented than all of them combined. Yet the manner in which that talent was fostered was so entrenched in the 'industry' of music, that his life became a freak show. The footage of him dangling a baby out of his hotel room in Germany was looped and looped until it culminated in an interview conducted by Martin Bashir (who to be fair, tried to give it some relevance and gravitas). The death of Michael Jackson may have helped his public image. Tonight the debate over his life will begin in earnest. It may be better than the dismissal of him as a simple 'paedo'. Rest assured that the dust will settle in time for The X Factor in August, when we can sit back and watch the latest spin-offs of the Jackson story - the story of a fragile, talented person given too much to do, too soon in life.