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Strollerderby
Guess Who’s Buying Michael Jackson’s Thriller
Even as Michael Jackson’s death reportedly “broke the Internet,” the downloading craze might have been worse than those of us trying to pull up (or in the case of Babble writers, write up) the latest details.
On Friday morning (just hours after the announcement), MJ had officially taken over the top five spots on iTunes sales. More than one TV anchor pondered what kind of fan didn’t already HAVE Thriller on their playlist. The answer?
We can’t say for sure, but I’m going to put the major onus on parents. Because if the mean age of a mom having her first baby is twenty-five, that puts the bulk of American parents with young kids in the Michael Jackson generation. And it puts our kids very much into the post-Michael Jackson era.
Our kids have absolutely no idea WHO he is (or was). Part of that is no doubt the molestation allegations that really took hold in the late nineties – before much of America’s living-at-home set were born.
Which meant that when we turned on MTV on Thursday night (for the first time in a LONG time actually finding music videos on music television) and started moonwalking across the living room, our kids looked at us like we were nuts. “Hey Mom, Dad,” they asked, “who IS this Michael Jackson anyway?” Since we don’t want to share MJ’s crotch grabbing with our kids, YouTube wasn’t our the best option for answering all the questions.
So we moved straight to iTunes, where as of Friday morning, Billboard reports: “The Essential Michael Jackson” was No. 1, followed by “Thriller” at No. 2, “Number Ones” at No. 3 and “Off The Wall” at No. 4. “Thriller (25th Anniversary Edition)” was at No. 5, with “Bad” at No. 9 and “The Ultimate Collection” at No. 10.
If you haven’t already done so, check out this list of must-have shares with your kids. Or maybe you’ve already made it through that list and gone on. How did you explain WHO Michael Jackson was to your kids?
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2 Comments
[...] For one thing, it took Scott Campbell three days to realize there was ANOTHER side to the tape. No foolin’. Because apparently Dad (it was a nostalgic father, natch, who set this thing up) didn’t give him one of “newer” walkmans that would automatically switch to the other side of the tape and continue looping back and forth as long as the battery held out (or until you tired of Thriller). [...]
Kid Trades His iPod for a Walkman, Shock Ensues | Strollerderby commented on Jun 30 09 at 11:28 amLolaLane commented on Jun 30 09 at 4:23 pmanother generation will moonwalk after all: Our boys, ages 3 and 4 were MESMERIZED by MJ’s “Moonwalker” film last night and haven’t stopped talking about it since.
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