Still in disbelief

One day after I turned a year older, the man who the world knew as the King of Pop went into cardiac arrest and departed this Earth.

The fact that Michael Joseph Jackson is gone still hasn’t quite sunk in just yet. As they were paying tribute to him on the radio yesterday, the tears just started coming.

Crying and driving down the highway, I started thinking just how much of an impact this man’s music has had on my life.

See, I grew up on Michael Jackson. He was to my generation what James Brown was to my parents. His songs provided the soundtrack for my elementary and middle school years.
Off the Wall was released when I was 4 years old, and ironically it was playing on my iPod right before I found out he had passed.

Thriller – released when I was in the second grade – changed music forever. Michael gave us a classic that is still the world’s best selling album of all time.

Here is an album that you play from beginning to end. There’s no skipping of tracks; there’s no “this is my favorite song on the album” because all of them are so good it’s hard to choose just one.

Do you know understand just how difficult it is to create an album like that?

MJ created a music video (Thriller) that had movie-like qualities and transformed how artist utilized the visual medium to sell their music.

Michael changed music forever, and no matter who tries to imitate or be like him, there will never, and I mean NEVER be anyone that will come close to what Michael Jackson gave the world.

Although his music will live on, I wish he would have as well.

There are just some people you can’t fathom will die in your lifetime – and for me, Michael was one of them.