Michael Jackson, The King

Early yesterday, if you had asked me to name the biggest celebrity in the U.S., I would have said Obama, hands down.

The unexpected death of Michael Jackson makes it clear that Obama isn't in the same league.

King of Pop Michael Jackson succeeded in pushing Obama out of the spotlight.

I wonder what ABC would have done if Jackson's death had occurred a day earlier. Would ABC have scrapped its day-long Obama infomercial marathon? Probably not, but I'm sure the network would have been troubled that it was committed to stick with Obama and health care rather than exploit the death of Michael Jackson.

Quiz Americans on Cap and Trade and quiz them on Jackson's life and career. Is there any doubt how they would fare?

The coverage of Jackson's death, the worldwide reaction, has been excessive.

However, given the decades that Jackson has spent as a public persona and the contributions he has made as a musician and performer, I don't think it's entirely out of line that Jackson would capture so much attention in death.

It was such an unexpected event. Sure, Jackson has appeared so frail and so troubled for years; but death didn't seem near. The shock factor, the untimely death, can't be dismissed in explaining the magnitude of the reaction.

From the New York Times:

For his legions of fans, he was the Peter Pan of pop music: the little boy who refused to grow up. But on the verge of another attempted comeback, he is suddenly gone, this time for good.

Michael Jackson, whose quintessentially American tale of celebrity and excess took him from musical boy wonder to global pop superstar to sad figure haunted by lawsuits, paparazzi and failed plastic surgery, was pronounced dead on Thursday afternoon at U.C.L.A. Medical Center after arriving in a coma, a city official said. Mr. Jackson was 50, having spent 40 of those years in the public eye he loved.

The singer was rushed to the hospital, a six-minute drive from the rented Bel-Air home in which he was living, shortly after noon by paramedics for the Los Angeles Fire Department. A hospital spokesman would not confirm reports of cardiac arrest. He was pronounced dead at 2:26 pm.

As with Elvis Presley or the Beatles, it is impossible to calculate the full effect Mr. Jackson had on the world of music. At the height of his career, he was indisputably the biggest star in the world; he has sold more than 750 million albums. Radio stations across the country reacted to his death with marathon sessions of his songs. MTV, which grew successful in part as a result of Mr. Jackson’s groundbreaking videos, reprised its early days as a music channel by showing his biggest hits.

From his days as the youngest brother in the Jackson 5 to his solo career in the 1980s and early 1990s, Mr. Jackson was responsible for a string of hits like “I Want You Back,” “I’ll Be There” “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” “Billie Jean” and “Black or White” that exploited his high voice, infectious energy and ear for irresistible hooks.

As a solo performer, Mr. Jackson ushered in the age of pop as a global product — not to mention an age of spectacle and pop culture celebrity. He became more character than singer: his sequined glove, his whitened face, his moonwalk dance move became embedded in the cultural firmament.

His entertainment career hit high-water marks with the release of “Thriller,” from 1982, which has been certified 28 times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and with the “Victory” world tour that reunited him with his brothers in 1984.

But soon afterward, his career started a bizarre disintegration. His darkest moment undoubtedly came in 2003, when he was indicted on child molesting charges. A young cancer patient claimed the singer had befriended him and then groped him at his Neverland estate near Santa Barbara, Calif., but Mr. Jackson was acquitted on all charges.

When you think of Michael Jackson, do you think of his incredible talent and remarkable musical achievements?

Do you think of the truly bizarre behavior, the plastic surgery, and the freak show stuff? Do you think of the child molestation charges?

It's like two different lives, entirely different people.

Did Jackson's celebrity status bring him happiness or was it a curse? Did it blind him? Did it enable him to do things and make choices that were not at all in his best interest and possibly criminal?

I don't like watching big stars self-destruct. It's tragic the way they're eaten alive by the public. And it's tragic that they seem to want that.

It's so sad, and weirdly American.