I think this will change in time. I hope that the younger generations that are coming up now will hear more about his legacy and less about the scandals and myths, now that he has passed. RIP MJ.

I'm sixteen and my mom introduced me to him at a young age. Ive been listening to him ever since. I have loved his music and i'm really sad that he's gone. He has impacted my life positively.

I have the SAME fears, as far as my children know.. he is just a Mii on the Wii (don't ask). They have yet to make the connection between the Jackson Five's "ABC's" and the "white" man on TV every now and then.
I, too, am a part of that generation that used to try to moonwalk and learn all the steps to Thriller. As weird as he was.. he is the most consistantly creative artist.. ever. R.I.P. Mike...

I'm 19.

I definitely admire him as an entertainer and I don't think he was a bad person, but definitely a very troubled person.

I think people will have more sympathy for him now that he's died, actually.

sad day in the music world, lucky I have some "legende de Michael Jackson"
spray so I will always smell like Mike

It is sad that the younger generations have been left out of such an iconic figure and period of time. Such things are completely unrelatable to them, because they've lived a good portion of their lives in the 00's. Can anyone think of a pop figure that will define the 00's? I can't. Can anyone think of a music or style which will define those generations? I feel fortunate to have the memories I do of music videos, revolutionary musicians and icons, and songs that everyone on the planet can sing along to.

So maybe he wasn't the sanest, or most innocent person on earth...but his songs and videos practically defined my childhood. There are memories attached to every one. And that's why his death deserves the attention it's getting.

I'm 23. Even though the molestation allegations came out early in my youth, they never really fully registered at the time. Probably because I was too into the Thriller video. I spun Off the Wall and Thriller last night. The records hold up, and I think that's what ultimately counts in the end.

His "better days" were his whole career. I'm not going to buy into allegations of child molestation OR believe that he was a "weirdo" or strange because of what the press and media force feed people. And as far as the plastic surgery goes, that's his own business. No one makes a big deal out of it when Joan RIvers does it. Simply put? He's arguably the greatest music entertainer of all time and certainly on a par with Elvis, The Beatles, and anyone else. And contrary to what the media may have us believe, he has made GREAT music post "Thriller". R.I.P always Michael. The world loves you, will always miss you, and never forget you. You are the greatest ever.

I'm 21, and I remember when "Black or White" came out, and I was obsessed with the man. Nobody else will have the impact that he had.

The cruel irony of the man who made black music mainstream shunning his own black appearance might have said as much about the maladies of American society as the personal frailties of Jackson himself..Sure, soul singers such as James Brown and Aretha Franklin had made the big time before,but he adapted soul and Motown to the mainstream.He touched fashion, dance and - most of all - he pioneered the age of the video...Jackson's albums penetrated into places that lay beyond the reach of pop in the days of Elvis or the Beatles.Youth culture has fragmented since, while the internet has eaten into record sales, so the 65m copies of Thriller that he shifted will surely never be surpassed. He touched the lives of hundreds of millions of people across the planet with his talent. His music reached across borders and between generations..From the shanty towns of Shanghai to the back streets of Brasilia, cassettes, CDs and records are being dusted down after the death of Jackson.Now everyone realized that HE gave himself to the music And left nothing but blood on the dance floor. He became the most significant mainstream dance icon since the mid-century heyday of Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly..Jackson's tale is a fable of the ultimate emptiness of victory.....

Thriller was the first ever album that i bought !! Then i ve changed my direction in music so many times but he remained somewhere in me as a childhood memory (ironically ,he is gone because he had no chance to live a normal childhood) ..
This is a tragedy of a wasted talent like so many others..not altogether contradicted by one's experience of rock stars, that most showbiz entertainers never really manage to develop, in terms of character, beyond the stage at which they first became famous. It's as if they become trapped by their public image, which strangles the real personality, like foot-binding....
Celebrities are there to perform and externalise our feelings, our ambivalences, our desires, our passions for us. Pop music provides not just the soundtrack to our lives, as the cliché goes; it releases our emotions and helps us to articulate them. This is why music is so important to adolescents, who are struggling with questions of identity and self-expression..Music – not just the lyrics, but the music itself – expresses confused or illicit passions: rage, lust, envy, frustration, channelling these energies and creating an outlet for them. This was Jackson's genius. He changed the face, the look, the sound, the style of pop music.He redefined the crossover of American pop music,Chuck Berry was pioneering rock'n'roll before Elvis, but it took the white boy from Tennessee to grab middle America's attention. No one had to make the breakthrough for Jackson..These days the idea of a single pole position in pop - measured in No 1s or packed stadiums - has gone with Him... And as with Elvis Presley or the Beatles, it is impossible to calculate the full effect Jackson had on the world of music.....
Michael was truly something rare, the last of an endangered species. That he is the best entertainer who ever lived on this planet.....