Everlasting loveBen East
Last Updated: June 06. 2010 7:12PM UAE / June 6. 2010 3:12PM GMT
Michael Jackson’s father Joe is definitely Startin’ Somethin’. Last week he announced plans for a Jackson family museum in Gary, Indiana – where the late singer first moonwalked into the world in 1958.
A huge area of land was given over to the Jackson Family Foundation by a town mayor, no doubt rubbing his hands at the prospect of a tired industrial suburb of Chicago becoming a place of pilgrimage for Michael Jackson’s millions of fans. There was talk of an exhibition space, a concert hall, and a performing arts centre.
Except there was a slight problem. Michael Jackson’s estate – run by lawyers for The Michael Jackson Family Trust – jealously guard everything from his music to his likeness. And they haven’t given the go-ahead for Joe Jackson’s plan – probably because they are planning their own “world-class museum,” likely to be thousands of miles away in California.
All of which leaves a slightly sour taste in the mouth. Essentially, music museums are less about celebrating the classic songs and the people who wrote them, and more about the money that such endeavours generate.
In America, only The White House receives more visitors than Graceland, Elvis Presley’s home in Memphis – $34 (Dh125) buying a look inside the colonial-style mansion the King Of Rock’N’Roll died in nearly 33 years ago.
It is an interesting experience, but for the wrong reasons. It is, in effect, a voyeuristic journey into how ridiculous Presley’s life had become – there’s even a tour of one of his huge private planes, of which the lasting memory is that it only sat four people.
The various visitor attractions across the dual carriageway from Graceland are even more tacky, not so much celebrating his music but his fame. The unintended by-product of all this – despite the rather charming house – is that Elvis comes across as slightly odd.
Given that Jackson was up there with Elvis in the famously unhinged pop star stakes, it’s a moot point whether any museum based around Jackson would truly get to the heart of why Billie Jean is such a great song.
And that’s the real problem with any museum with music at its heart. How musicians made such era-defining music and why that music is important is lost in the fame and celebrity.
It’s what makes The Beatles Story in Liverpool (£12.95, Dh69) such an uneven experience: we all know that The Beatles went to America in the mid-1960s and kicked off Beatlemania in grand style. But why and how it was that I Want To Hold Your Hand became their first US Number One seems beyond this admittedly entertaining story of The Beatles.
It means you don’t go away with the instinctive brilliance of the song burned on your brain, but the fact they sold out a concert at Shea Stadium in 17 minutes.
It’s true that America curates its pop heritage better than most – Memphis’ Sun Studio, where Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash laid down timeless tracks, is intimate and atmospheric. Detroit has a Motown museum and Seattle a Jimi Hendrix experience.
But these places quickly date; freezing their heroes in a particular time, when music is all about the thrill of the new. Of course, running museums is expensive, and constantly updating them is impossible. At least most of these American museums have a specific artist, genre or fanbase to cling on to.
In the UK, The National Centre For Popular Music in Sheffield lasted just 18 months before collapsing into insolvency – the obvious lesson being you don’t need to build a nebulous £15m (Dh80m) centre to explain how important pop music is: it’s already pretty clear.
Today, the much smaller British Music Experience at The O2 Arena (£15, Dh80) is about as comprehensive as these things can get – featuring everything from Iron Maiden to dubstep. You have to wonder, though, why anyone would actually travel to an unlovely corner of South East London to learn about stuff they could get on Wikipedia – unless they really must see a vintage Amy Winehouse dress.
Perhaps we’re over analysing: in the end, these museums are entertainment for people who like their music and want to know a bit more about the stars that made it. No harm in that.
But there is something counter-intuitive about the energy of musicians and bands being categorised, filed away and contained in glass boxes.
Most of our heroes began their long journeys to stardom by wildly kicking against the norms. That’s what made them interesting, not how they decorated their living rooms.
In the end, it’s the music that should be the lasting legacy, not the museum – and you can do that right now, by digging out Michael Jackson’s Bad and pressing play.
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LoginI think this part is interesting, if true:
Except there was a slight problem. Michael Jackson’s estate – run by lawyers for The Michael Jackson Family Trust – jealously guard everything from his music to his likeness. And they haven’t given the go-ahead for Joe Jackson’s plan – probably because they are planning their own “world-class museum,” likely to be thousands of miles away in California.
Randy addressed this issue::
randyjackson8
My siblings & I knew nothing about this foundation or museum in Gary, nor r we a part of it. I do have concerns & I will be addressing it.
about 9 hours ago via web
This foundation/museum issue also reminds me of the "Belts Issue": You are not allowed to view links.
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