Jackson and old age

Here's a partial guest list from the Jackson memorial:

Larry King, Dionne Warwick, LeVar Burton, Spike Lee, Wesley Snipes, Lou Ferrigno, Chris Brown, Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton, Smokey Robinson, Queen Latifah, Martin Luther King III, Bernice A. King, Shaheen Jafargholi, Pastor Lucious Smith, Ron Boyd, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Mickey Rooney and wife, Jan Chamberlin, Mario Lopez, Corey Feldman, Mariah Carey; Berry Gordy, Magic Johnson; Martin Luther King III, Bernice A. King, John Mayer; Lionel Richie, Smokey Robinson, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Brooke Shields, Pastor Lucious Smith (family friend), Usher, and Stevie Wonder.

All right, now check out the celebrities with the most friends on MySpace (as of late last year):

Zach Braff, Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez, Paris Hilton, Ashton Kutcher, Jenna Fischer, Criss Angel, Hayden Panettiere, Shanna Moakler, Travis Barker and Lauren Conrad.

Notice the age differential? Keep in mind that Jackson was working on his comeback tour and that his last number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 charts was in 1995. "Billie Jean" came out 26 years ago, barely into the PC age. Point is, we're hearing from lots of folks in their 40s, 50s and beyond - and less from those in their 20s who really didn't know much about him, other than his unmitigated strangeness.

Author John McWhorter says Jackson managed to generate so many fans for so long "because he made sure not to be anyone." From the NYT's Room for Debate:

The surgery, the falsetto speech and the costumes were someone keeping himself at a distance. We saw a ghost who could sing up a storm and dance better - but so weightlessly in both cases, with the airy voice and always the moonwalking. He was so willfully nonspecific that he became a distillation of brilliance of no race, gender or age, just mesmerizing. His art inhabited the real world only in a gestural sense. Let's face it, as good as the songs are, the person snarling "Beat It" has never been in a fight, and it's hard to imagine the singer of "Billie Jean" fathering anything. All of America could love him -- because he made sure not to actually be anyone. It was a fascinating trick and it sticks with us.

Thing is, Jackson's death comes at a time when there is little need for a mask.