The career of Michael Jackson – through sight and sound

It’s always easier to critique a bad presentation than a good one, and that’s just what I’m about to do.

I’m not really a huge fan of Michael Jackson, but I stumbled across this audio/visual presentation about the career of the Prince of Pop a couple weeks ago when all the media coverage about his doctor’s trial was taking place. And while I don’t know a single person who won’t sing along to “Thriller” or “Billie Jean” when they come on the radio, I think his full career spans a lot larger than the casual listener can appreciate. With this slideshow by CNN, originally published back in 2009, there was a lot of opportunity to delve into his lesser-known catelog, highlighting the man’s true pop artistic genius instead of just highlighting the most popular hits.

The visuals for this aren’t exactly riveting. Utilizing mostly only covers of his singles as they play in the background, the images presented are ones even the pop culture-deprived would recognize. In the times after his death, we as fans and consumers of media appreciate being presented little-known facts or rarely seen memorabilia from his life, which this presentation fails to do.

Additionally, as I already mentioned, most of the singles highlighted are those everyone would recognize. If I as a consumer am going to invest two minutes of my time into watching this video, I would prefer to gain something from it other than a feeling of sadness. Of course, this may have been the intended purpose of the video in the first place – after a famous icon passes, the media tend to pounce on the emotions of the public as a means of driving traffic to their respective websites.

This video does, however, provide interesting information in the brief captions. Despite my desire to see more photos accompanying each caption, the captions themselves give detail where the visuals are lacking, such as the fact that Jackson’s first single “Ben” was used as a theme song for a movie by the same name.

In one instance, however, I found myself wishing to learn more information than the brief captions could provide. For example:

A whole story could be written about this quick caption. In fact, perhaps a better use for this audio slideshow would have been to accompany a text-based story, such as an obituary, detailing the life and recording career of Michael Jackson. Again, after a celebrity’s untimely demise, I find myself wishing to learn more about the artist, not reminisce on information I already know. In this case, an interesting story about Jackson’s process for writing and recording his popular, and not-as-popular, tunes, which this caption hints at, would have worked well with this presentation.

Overall, this video seems quick and sloppy – like CNN’s attempt at being the first to have a “Michael Jackson remembered” page with content. It doesn’t serve a true purpose, nor is it very well made, featuring stock photos and captions with information that could have been found on Wikipedia.

Additionally, as can be seen on the page, a section for comments is lacking. If this video’s purpose was solely for fans to stop and remember the superstar, a section for viewers to post their comments should have been provided. Otherwise, what is the point?