A STATEMENT UPON THE DEATH OF MICHAEL JACKSON [1958-2009]:
"The death of Michael Jackson comes as a shock, in part because like Peter Pan he seemed never really to grow up. And like Peter Pan he was a figure of myth.
Jackson was the subject of great fascination for fans, detractors, the media and scholars alike because his identity constantly played along cultural borderlines: Was he racially black, or white, or some transitionary position in between? Was he a serious artist or a master of schlock? Was he a child or a grown man? And of course the identity borderline he tread most complexly was sexual identity. Was he straight or gay, androgenous, or some queer category without a name? Was he a sexual innocent or a sexual predator? Could he have been both? He claimed to have been an abused child, and others claimed he became an abuser.
The sexual ambiguities, of course, led to his tragic fall from the King of Pop to an object of ridicule. Fairly or not (and perhaps now in death we will find clearer answers) his celebrity and his great wealth could not shield him from the suspicion that his fascination with children took forms even many of his most loyal fans could not accept.
His shape-shifting appearance, the result of multiple surgeries and rumored disease and/or skin-bleaching, played into a time when fluid identity was becoming a major cultural theme. In his appereance, his being, his music and fandom, he crossed racial lines and pioneered the current era misnamed "post-racial." While we remain a world deeply deformed by racisms, Jackson's appeal did chip away at racial divides, despite or perhaps in part because of his often bizarre personality.
Michael Jackson was a boy/man of great talents - as a singer, composer, dancer, fashion icon, performer and, for a very long time, master image-maker. But the public loves to tear down icons as much or more than it loves to exalt them. Jackson's lasting contributions to pop culture will include some breathtaking performances, great songs, stunning dance moves and choreographic creativity, and a role as co-inventor (via the "Thriller" mini-film) of the long-form music video genre. His contributions and roles as a human being will take much longer to assess, and will no doubt always remain somewhat shadowed in doubt and filled with controversy." - T.V. Reed
The website provides resources for the critical analysis of popular culture in the
US, including the impact of that culture beyond national
borders.
Resources include sites on various forms of popular culture
including music, film, television, advertising, sports, fashion,
toys, magazines and comic books, and the medium in which this message
moves, cyberculture.
The site focuses on issues of race, ethnicity,
class, gender, sexuality, cultural imperialism and censorship, as
shaped by and reflected in various mass media.
This site also includes sections that introduce and give resources
for four main types or elements of popular culture analysis: production
analysis, textual analysis, audience analysis, and historical analysis
(of the first three dimensions as they change over time).
I have also included links to on-line pop culture courses, to
journals treating popular culture, to other key sites for cultural
analysis, and to media activist resources.
Use the navigation bar on the left to reach sites
in all these areas.
As with all Internet sites, the locations referenced vary in quality
and usefulness. Some are commercial sites valuable more as objects
of knowledge than as producers of knowledge. Others are academic
sites that teach ways to analyze pop culture, or offer substantial
resources for doing your own analyses.
Since the Internet seldom, if ever, provides all the information
needed on a given topic, I also strongly recommend that you consult
my bibliography
of books on popular culture, and use that old-fashioned, non-virtual
space known as the library.
On most pages in this site you will find parodies of advertisements.
Some are aimed at the specific advertising practice represented,
and some at questionable practices of the corporation sponsoring
the ad. And all are aimed to remind us that a precious new public
space, the World Wide Web, is in danger of becoming another space
where only corporate free speech is protected. Most of the parodies
are courtesy of AdBusters, with a few from other parody sites found
on the "Advertising" page.
SPECIAL RESOURCES: The tragic events of September 11th have generated
a flurry of "coverage" in the mass media and popular culture. For
an excellent website seeking to sort out and analyze these media
messages see, re:constructions.
The current war/occupation in Iraq has also generated crucial media questions. On this topic, I recommend the Critical Media Literacy in a Time of War site.
