Michael Jackson

I thought I'd get in on the eulogising too. I used to be a huge Michael Jackson fan back in the '80's. I remember seeing the Thriller video when it was released - my uncle went and rented it so we could watch it, and I hid behind the sofa because it scared me. For my best friends birthday one year, we went to see Moonwalker at the cinema, and I remember getting Dangerous on vinyl one Xmas, alongside Iron Maiden's No Prayer For The Dying. I'm not going to be alone in having memories like this.

Regardless of what music you like, even if you're the most kvlt black metaller, if you grew up in the '70's, '80's or '90's, Michael Jackson's music will have touched you in some way. It was like a security blanket, the one thing that would always be there. I don't think I ever considered that he would die so young, and not on the eve of making a comeback.

The demonisation of Michael Jackson the man has taken some of the sheen off of his career, perhaps deservedly, perhaps not. As a child star he was never going to have a normal life, and it has been well documented how that could easily have contributed to his problems later in life.

Regardless of what people thought of him in the end, whether you loved him or hated him, he was a one of a kind pop star. The first true pop star of the video age, the first to suffer the trial by media that has become so common these days. His death leaves a void in the music industry that not many will be able to fill.

In ten, twenty years time, people will remember where they were when they heard Michael Jackson had died, much like another generation remembers the death of Elvis. Rightly so. Few have ever achieved as much as Michael Jackson did in his life.