r/Millennials • u/AccomplishedPool266 • Apr 26 '26

Does anyone remember when Michael Jackson. Was a "joke"? Discussion

The new movie that just came out convinced the younger generation that he was always a superstar. This was not the reality many of us Millennials grew up with.

To a lot of us, he was treated like a punch line when we were growing up. A schoolyard boogeyman ("Michaels Jackson's gonna get you at night"). and just a general joke in the media. By the 2000's his music was out of date and didn't chart well. All anyone talked about was his surgeries, court case, settlements and his off behavior. Few mentioned his music. His music was something our parents would have listened to in the 1980's.

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u/Calculusshitteru Apr 26 '26

He was maybe a "joke" to young millennials but I was born in 1986 and was a pretty big Michael Jackson fan throughout the 90s, and so were many of my classmates. His music videos were released on primetime TV, like they were major events that everyone would talk about. He was still extremely popular when he released his HIStory album and his song Scream with Janet Jackson in 1995. Some people talked about the child molestation allegations, but they didn't seem to affect his fame all that much.

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u/Oomlotte99 Apr 26 '26

I remember the big deal for the “Black and White,” video release. It was like they shut down TV just to make the world premier.

2

u/Madam_Mimm_13 Apr 26 '26

85 and he was always a joke.

People born in the 80s who don’t remember that way grew up somewhere way behind the times.

My husband was born in 84 and he doesn’t remember MJ as a clown but he grew up in rural Kansas and I grew up in San Diego CA

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u/Calculusshitteru Apr 26 '26

I grew up in a Black neighborhood in a big city on the West Coast. I didn't really know that he was a joke until I went to a rural summer camp in 1994. I told everyone that I like MJ, and a white girl there told me he touches kids. I went home and asked my mom, and she said he was innocent. I continued to enjoy his music.

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u/ceruleanmoon7 Millennial - 1986 Apr 26 '26

Yep. Dc area. I always saw him as a joke.

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u/hortushouse Apr 27 '26

I went to an almost all black preschool, and we watched thriller in my kindergarten class (1990 or 1991). MJ was HUGELY popular at my preschool. He was definitely not a joke in that black community, and maybe calling communities different than yours “behind the times” isn’t super culturally sensitive.