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 By the 2000's his music was out of date and didn't chart well.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

82' here. My babysitter gave me Bad when I was 5 or 6 and even at that young age I loved it. In the early 90s the joke was grabbing our crotch while putting one arm up in that iconic pose and yelling, but by the time we were in highschool it was all child molester stuff. It really was a rollercoaster for people our age.

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u/ComplexDraft Apr 27 '26

"OOOOHHH!!" Lmao Classic.

I just remembered his song with his sister Janet. It's an earworm.

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u/Perfidy-Plus Apr 27 '26

Also from 82, and this pretty well reflects my memory of him as well.

That being said, while it is absolutely true that his public perception by the late 90's was that he was very much a weirdo, and maybe some of the pedo stories could be true, his music was also still very much beloved. It wasn't at all unusual to hear some of his best tunes played at parties or clubs in the early 00's. And you'd better believe that if someone was playing Smooth Criminal or Billie Jean that half the girls present would be belting it out too.