My girlfriend and I went to see the new biopic a few days ago and it made me revisit the Leaving Neverland discourse online. It’s really gotten me thinking about his fame and how he basically embodied every single major demographic or type of person at some point in his life.
His appearance is obviously the most jarring. His racial progression essentially goes from Afro wearing black man -> Jheri curl show biz black man -> something of a feminine looking Hispanic man, like maybe your average gay tio who has style -> K-pop star -> drug addicted suburban white woman -> drug addicted John Travolta.
He was publicly straight, married to women, sang about women, etc. while also being a gay Mo Lester while also being potentially asexual.
He was a poor kid from the Midwest while also being a pampered adult man in Hollywood.
He was a down to earth human who loved animals and sang about saving the earth and caring for youth while also having an alien-like aura to an extent.
His music also had the range to somehow hit every corner of the earth and never allowed itself to get too geared in on one target demographic.
I don’t know how much of this was purposefully curated but it seems to boil down to the perfect recipe for fame.
The most talent humanly possible to possess all wrapped up in an omniracial, omnisexual maybe even omnigender person all at once, strictly as far as optics go. It’s so fascinating.