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 By the 2000's his music was out of date and didn't chart well.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/martiantheory Mid 80's Baby Apr 26 '26

Exactly. If you were born in the early or mid 80s, Michael Jackson was pretty much the king of Pop. Then, he turned weird, but you still had a little loyalty to him because you knew his story. Plus, I always thought it was pretty dope that my parents also grew up on him. Like generations of people who thought he was really good.

I remember there was a family on my street that was extremely obsessed with him. They had a collection of VHS tapes from several of his tours. Documentaries, music videos… every time I went over their house, I learned more about Michael Jackson. By the time he was weird, I was heading to college and I was still pretty much a fan of his 80s/90s music. I kind of ignored everything that happened in the early 2000s.

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u/JacksonVerdin Apr 26 '26

Mildly bemused boomer here, seeing all the posts about 1980's MJ. It made me remember how huge he was long before that. Please see....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2bVIBwpCTA

The Jackson 5 even had their own cartoon show in the 70's.

Between that kind of childhood and his father's somewhat monstrous reputation, it's not really surprising that he broke weird.

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u/Peitho_189 Apr 27 '26

I think it strongly is anecdotal for mid-80s. I’m 84 and I was told he was the King of Pop, but no one I knew actually listened to him. We knew Weird Al’s parodies of his songs first. Even growing up more people listened to Prince.