You see, my ring tone is Michael Jackson's hit tune: ‘Don't Stop Till You Get Enough'.

Now, don't lie, you've judged me too. But before you judge me too harshly, let me just say that my ring tone has always been a Michael Jackson song    long before the great star and pop icon passed away.

As the world reels from the passing of such a huge icon, I cannot help but question all the people who now claim to be so greatly affected by his death. ‘Where were you when the media hated him? Where were you in all those little pockets of time when he had no new songs? Did you love him then? Did you? Did you? ,' I scream at them (silently of course, in the confines of my mind). I must confess to being a huge fan of Michael Jackson's. I have most of his songs on my iTunes, and the songs I don't have, I avidly listen to them on Youtube. When he passed away, I listened to his songs for two full days exclusively (before realizing that my obsession was getting a bit too much).  Forgive me, then, for my unsympathetic criticism of his fans that were swayed by the media's portrayal of Michael Jackson.

Whether or not you have loved or hated him - you can't deny that Michael Jackson is the King of Pop (as cliché as this phrase may be). Not because he may have been one of the founders of modern Pop, or because he had amassed the most number of hits (13 Grammy's, may I remind you!), but because of the sheer global mass appeal of his songs and music videos.

Michael Jackson has made such a great global impact on music because he consciously portrayed themes of equality, love, and rock star attitude in his songs and music videos. These themes transcended the superficial boundaries of race, culture and geography that have divided much of our world.

His passion for this equality is reflected in many of his songs. Most notably, in ‘Black or White'. However, other songs also replicate this equality. As he sings in ‘We are the World', ‘We can't go on pretending day by day, that someone, somewhere will soon make a change, we are all a part of God's great big family, and the truth, you know, love is all we need'.

His worldwide appeal can also be easily found in Youtube, where you can find Indian recreations of ‘Thriller' and Philippine prison inmates dancing to his songs. (I know you're interested, so check out the web pages below)

Michael Jackson has also stamped his presence on the tiny little red dot we call Singapore. It wasn't very long ago (in 1993, actually) when MJ performed before a roaring crowd doing the Kallang wave at our own National Stadium.

While MJ has earned no tiny sum from his records and from royalties, his death has triggered off a huge jump in sales of his albums and records. As many as three of MJ's songs, according to news reports, have each hit the 100,000 sales mark since his passing.

All in all, I feel that Michael Jackson deserved all the outpouring of love and concern after his death.. And as for all of you who judged my ring tone and I, all I have to say is, ‘Beat it, just beat it'.

Web pages:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtJRNyPK-lc&fmt=6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTSueUEaQo0&feature=fvsr
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGcGgddj23U