I find it all very sad to be honest.
Not just his death, but his life as well. Clearly a very troubled soul.
There is little doubt in my mind that he was an immensely talented artist, and certainly deserves to be up there with the greats.
But I also think he was the one that was abused, denied a childhood, then thrust into a very difficult media driven world without the mental maturity to deal with it. Add to that millions of $$'s to live out any fantasy you wish and the end result is bound to be trouble.
While on one hand it can be argued that there is no smoke without fire, I find the child abuse cases difficult to believe. Partly for the reasons some have said here, but I also believe he probably did have kids sleeping in his room/bed, though for him it was probably not sexual (not like in a glitter way) though clearly totally inappropriate. And of course wouldn't you try an hide it? MJ was quite open about it. Take the Bashir interview! His responses showed an innocent naivety that was very 'childlike'
Like many of us here whether fans or not, MJ's music was the background soundtrack for our younger years, especially through the 80's
For me his music is closely linked to collecting, and many of his songs remind me of my childhood and collecting. I remember buying my first Jackson 5 album at the same time I was hit by the star wars collecting bug at 19. I can't listen to a song from there without thinking of my collection and the flood of nostalgia is immense.
Like i said at the beginning of this post, I think it's all very sad, his death at 50 and the life he lead up to it. It's a pity he could not have made a come back or maybe found some peace for once in what must have been a very troubled life.
