Appreciation: Michael Jackson

It's such a tragedy that Michael Jackson has turned into such a caricature that people seemed to have forgotten how great he was. There was a time when Michael was truly the biggest star in the world, I mean REALLY big, perhaps bigger than any religion. Kids nowadays will never understand because there hasn't been anybody who came close after that (combine the popularity of Britney, Justin, the Backstreet Boys, the freaking internet and the iPod, and you're still nowhere near). The 80s would have been unimaginable without him and his videos and music. When we were kids, me and my brother would even dance in front of our TV set when his videos would come on, attaching medals and other stuff on our shirts a la Michael. Whatever Michael does next to his face and to his reputation, he will still earn the respect of a lot of people because of his songs with the Jackson 5 and the early solo stuff especially from Off The Wall and Thriller.