TIME Magazine -- U.S. Edition -- March 19, 1984 Vol. 123 No. 12

"A sickening cover story on Jackson in the March 19 Time takes as its theme that there is something wonderful about being an incompetent human being." - Michael Kinsley

Half his life ago, at age 25, Michael Jackson was a media darling: "The numbers, which are incredible, are also becoming indelible. How many Beatles were there? How many homers did Babe Ruth hit? How many Grammy Awards did Michael Jackson win on Feb. 28? How many copies of Thriller have been sold? Well, the Grammys are easy. Jackson won an unprecedented eight. The album question is tricky, simply because the record keeps selling, long past the point anyone expected it to: Epic Records sells more than a million copies a week worldwide; to date it has sold more than 30 million copies." - Time Magazine

Poor dead Jacko! Hardly any fan support in the way of purchasing his product ober the last 20 years or so. His demise is making SOMEBODY rich. Clueless people are paying to download Jackson mp3s by the bazillions, as if they were going to suddenly disappear in a New York Minute.

Is that what the Internet has taught us? To be hoarders of digital material, dysfunctionally distrustful of the web? That may be why those web-based operating systems eventually will fail. You never can be ceratin that something won't happen to the servers holding your data, photos, music, etc. Once it is gone, it may be gone forever!

TOP SECRET! You don't have to spend your dollars, euros, pesos, pounds or yen on the coveted March 1984 Michael Jackson article in TIME. READ IT FOR FREE (until Time figures out they can make money charging people to read it!) The actual title of the article is "Why he's a Thriller" --- STOP! Did you know that as far back as March 1984, people were asking serious questions about Mr. Wacko Jacko?

Michael J. has developed weird androgynous looks and a high falsetto voice. He favors an eccentric half-military, half-debutante style of dress. His keepers deny that he takes female sex hormones, but admit that he's had plastic surgery to give his face a softer look. Does he mind appearing schizophrenic? "I don't mind. I feel I'm Peter Pan as well as Methuselah, and a child."

That quote comes from an april 16, 1984 article in The New Republic, entitled THE PRISONER OF COMMERCE, written by Michael Kinsley.

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Tags: Michael jackson in Time Magazine, Time Magzaine March 1984