Beat It, Michael Jackson. (A tribute)

This year marks the 5th year of the death of Michael Jackson. For me he's probably THE musician of the 20th century, together with Igor Stravinsky (Stravinsky wasn't even born in the 20th century) who I admire the most of that fascinating century. He was a symbol of perfection in everything he did. I admire him not only as a musician, but of course as a dancer as well, and he will be long, very long remembered for these 2 fields in his art. If Stravinsky revolutionized classical music, then MJ revolutionized pop music. Both with the elements of the music itself : the melodies (sometimes so simple : like those simple ones in IS's Rite of Spring and MJ's They Don't Care about Us). Still listening to him, I thought it's just appropriate to write a few lines about him in this month, June, of his assasination, 5 years ago. Dr. Conrad Murray, who had been caring for the pop star at the time of his death, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter on November 7, 2011, later receiving a four-year prison sentence. .............................................................................................................................................. I remember the first thing of him that took my breath away was in fact not his music, but something else. Here's the scene: Michael Jackson, dressed in white suit and hat like a gangster guardian angel walks into a bar full of thugs, gamblers, and flappers, the music stops and everyone stares at him; he reaches for a gun - no, it's just a quarter, which he flips all the way across room where it slides perfectly into a jukebox coin slot. The song starts with a synthesized crash: As he came into the window / it was the sound of a crescendo....You've been hit by a Smooth Criminal. Dancing, fighting, dramatic pauses, a weird slow-motion interlude, and more dancing and fighting follow. Then it happened: Michael gives a smile, tilts his hat, and leans. Yes, he LEANS. He leans an amazing, impossible lean. It seems so simple but it's just. so. cool. When I saw it for the first time on screen, it was surely the coolest thing I had ever seen on TV. Later I believe he received a patent for the special device he used to do it. .............................................................................................................................................. But then of course his musical side was the thing that attracted me the most. Those riffs in Billie Jean, Bad and Thriller are just amazing ; they are the predecessors of the rhythms of today's Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and even Shakira. The album "Thriller" alone mixed the dark, serpentine bass and drums and synthesizer approach of "Billie Jean," the grinding Eddie Van Halen guitar solo on "Beat It," and the hiccups and falsettos on "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'." There are until now two works of mine that paid tribute to MJ : one is that short piece Thriller Fugue & Postlude (based on the name "Randy Ryan", my young pianist friend who's now studying at the Juilliard School in New York), and Vivaldi's Winter of Discontent (based on the music of Vivaldi's Winter, and a MJ-ish ostinato bass. In fact that ostinato was made up by myself, but it certainly wouldn't have existed without MJ's music. If you wanna listen to it, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik1IeZfMRKI ). .............................................................................................................................................. It's been 5 years, but it seems a long time that we have missed a really fresh, innovative and daring kind of music. Rest in Peace, Michael Jackson.