Michael Jackson of My Time

It's not difficult to relate to the worldwide outpouring of grief and tributes to the fallen music icon whom they call the " king of pop". After all, he lived in my time and I grew up with his music and artistry. He was 5 and I was 8 when he started to anchor as lead singer of a "brothers act" known as the Jackson 5. The rest is history.

In my teenage years, we would mimic his falsetto voice and studied in guitar their songs which we would sing in private and in gatherings, including caroling. To cite my favorites, Happy, La la la Means I Love You, I'll Be There, Ben, Maybe Tomorrow, Music and Me, and of course Little Drummer Boy, and Give Love on Christmas Day which I would still sing every Christmas.

His One Day in your Life came out in my senior year in college, at the time when we were grappling with the thought that soon we'll be entering the real world and part with friends. His melancholic " Out of My Life" somehow reflected my own love life in those days, so how could I not feel sad and sentimental when now it is being played and replayed all over again?

Then came the 80's and by now going solo, Jacko hit the top. Discos were filled with his signature danceable hits, Billie Jean, Beat It, Thriller, the highest selling album of all time, with over 50 million sold out copies. To me he revolutionized or even originated the MTV.

As a young professional by then, we hooped and wooped it out. They say he broke up the barriers of race and culture, black and white, as his songs transcended all these. He also somehow broke up political ideologies. I was in Communist Soviet Russia in 1984, the year the Thriller album was released. Anything Western, including music, especially American were of course a disdain to the Communists. But I would often hear Billie Jean in the air waves, and that alone was already phenomenal.

Heal the World, the song he said he would dedicate to the Filipino people was a message universally addressed to the world (in addition to the 1984 We Are The World Single of USA for Africa which he and Lionel Richie and Quincy Jones composed). Heal the world, make it a better place for you and for me. This is the song which our group, Philipine Institute of Chemical Engineers (PIChE) , Iligan Bay (Philippines) Chapter sang with glee and passion during the fellowship night of the PIChE National Convention which we co hosted in Cagayan de Oro City.

I write this tribute to Michael Jackson, not the man (for I didn't like his private life) but the musical genius who had touched those of us who lived in his time. He was up there in the hierarchy of music legends, along with the other genius whom I adore, the Beatles.

We've been together for such long time in music. Now he's out of our lives. His was not a small way to change the world. We'll surely remember him and his place, one day in my, in your life.