The many narratives of Michael Jackson
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This year, for the first time in NPR's history, public media is operating without federal funding. That means NPR needs your support now more than ever. I'm Brittany Luce from It's Been a Minute. Please do your part to keep independent, reliable news coverage strong and support the podcasts that get you through the day by making a gift for public media giving days. Head over to donate.npr.org. A warning, this episode contains discussion of sexual abuse. In early 2019, an audience sat in the Times Center Auditorium in Manhattan for a preview screening of Leaving Neverland. That's Dan Reed's controversial HBO documentary about Michael Jackson. The film's approximately four hours of testimony from James Safechuck and Wade Robson, who allege in great detail that the pop star groomed and abused them when they were children.
Secrets will eat you up. You feel so alone. I want to be able to speak the truth as loud as I had to speak the lie for so long.
Many of the audience members at that screening were sexual abuse survivors. And once the final credits had rolled, the house lights came up and Oprah Winfrey took the stage, joined by Safechuck, Robson, and a psychological trauma consultant for a Q&A. The filmed conversation was meant to help everyone in that room process what they'd just witnessed, and it aired later on HBO as the special after Neverland.
For me, this moment transcends Michael Jackson. It is much bigger than any one person. This is a moment in time that allows us to see this societal corruption.
It's like a scourge on humanity. So I was at that taping as a member of the press. I was a TV editor at The New York Times. And this was a huge story we were covering from multiple angles. But like so many people, I'd also been a lifelong Michael Jackson fan.
What are the controversies surrounding Michael Jackson's legacy?
He was my first and most intense pop cultural obsession. I'd devoured all the music and video choreography and archival footage I could. I'd bawled when he died in 2009. And I'd always doubted the allegations of child abuse.
How did the documentary 'Leaving Neverland' impact public perception of Jackson?
Watching Leaving Neverland and being in the room for that Oprah conversation removed pretty much all of my doubt. And for that brief moment around the documentary's release, it seemed, to me at least, as if the general public might finally reckon with Jackson's complicated legacy, that in the midst of the Me Too movement, one of entertainment's biggest stars could fade a bit. Maybe.
Ready whenever you are, Michael.
Or maybe I was wrong. Michael, a glossy, estate-approved biopic directed by Antoine Fuqua, is headed for theaters this month. Big stars are involved. Coman Domingo and Nia Long are playing Joe and Katherine Jackson. And Michael's own nephew, Jafar Jackson, Jermaine's kid, has been cast to channel his uncle's persona. Spread love, joy, and peace. That is what I want the world to feel. Magic. He's big on Broadway, too. The hit Tony-winning show MJ the Musical has been filling seats since 2021. It focuses on Jackson's artistry and less on his biggest controversies, which makes it even harder to feel leaving Neverland's impact, if there was any at all. Artist biopics, especially ones that come authorized by their subjects or their subjects' estates, are usually meant to function as a legacy reset.
Obviously, there's the financial incentive. Send those old songs back up the charts, sell more merch, etc. But there's also an intent to cement a narrative about creative genius and individual triumph. Ultimately, the point is to make you admire them, even if that means sanitizing the truth. Michael Jackson's especially tricky to try to sanitize, and his public persona has always ebbed and flowed. And I have to wonder if it's even possible to start over again with him. What even is his legacy now? I'm Aisha Harris, and on this special episode of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, we're talking about Michael Jackson, the many stories that have been told about his life, and the mythical spell he still seems to cast today.
We'll be right back after the break.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:54
2
What are the controversies surrounding Michael Jackson's legacy?
1:54–2:09
3
How did the documentary 'Leaving Neverland' impact public perception of Jackson?
2:09–12:29
4
What is the significance of the upcoming biopic 'Michael'?
12:29–16:39
5
How do biopics shape the narrative of artists' legacies?
16:39–31:20
6
What themes are explored in 'An American Dream' miniseries?
31:20–38:57
7
How did Michael Jackson's public persona evolve over the years?
38:57–43:35