I vividly remember when MJ's album History (1995) hit the stores, I was in 11th standard then. It was a 2 cassette pack costing Rs 150/-. I could not buy it then as I had no pocket money and most importantly my parents did not encourage western music. It was partly due to my mother’s migraine and they also considered it as jarring and juvenile. Like any other boy in his teen, who was born and bred in a small town like Lalgudi, undoubtedly Michael Jackson (We pronounced Michael as Michale) would have been the first, foremost and only known face in the popular western music then. My first introduction to western music was the song Dangerous from the album named Dangerous. I secretly managed to tape that song and would have listened to it a million times. I would come to know of Thriller, his biggest ever hit album, only after I entered med school. There I would try "the moon walk" with the aid of talcum powder on the floor, but was unsuccessful. We would have watched his videos infinite number of times and once we even planned to perform one of his on stage acts with Gugi as MJ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC1TTz2bMmM&feature=related . We had to abandon it later due to lack of funding and also we could not get the full tape. Later, we managed to incorporate few steps of his in one of our stage performances.
I was only appalled when he became the epicentre and embroiled in many controversies. Nevertheless he remained an icon to me. Last night the news came as quite a shocker as I had a surreptitious plan to make it to one of his 50 concerts in London O2 arena and it was my childhood wish to attend one.
Well, now i think it is time for me to buy MJ’s History album at least.
