このページはフレーム対応ブラウザ用に作成されています。下のリンクは非フレーム使用ページですのでそちらをご覧ください。
この記事をプリントする
ワクワクさせてくれたポップの王様
マイケル・ジャクソンが突然の死を迎えた。
音楽界で数々の金字塔を打ち立ててきた「ポップの王様」は、しかし過去20年の間、スキャンダルにまみれた私生活を面白おかしく暴き立てられてきた。
すべての王は常に危険と紙一重なのだ。
マイケルもその例外ではなかったと筆者は語っている。
Thriller
It's near midnight, dark, and moonless, with gusts of wind violently shaking the trees. I'm alone, huddled entirely beneath the bedcovers as tree branches tap the windowpanes. Something snaps a twig just outside, and I hold my breath. While this might sound like a scene right out of Michael Jackson's 1982 "Thriller," the best-selling album of all time, it's actually the scenario of how I used to listen to his music.
While still in third grade, I made my first major purchase in life with money I had saved arduously in a tube sock. Dramatically emptying the sock at a local sundries store, I bought a Panasonic transistor radio. It was about the size of a sandwich, with black plastic casing and a metallic silver front that carried the mysterious message: "Solid State." But the most important detail of the radio was its little white earphone attachment. On stormy nights when I couldn't sleep, I would tuck the radio under my pillow, put in the earphone, and drift off to Motown tunes, or Michael singing "Got to be there in the morning, when she says hello to the world." I thought this was what "Solid State" meant, the feeling of comfort brought on by music.
Michael Jackson's passing has brought up all kinds of memories for many of us, touchstones in time. I learned to dance to "Rockin' Robin," marveled at the music moving like lightning bolts through Jackson's ankles in "Billie Jean," and applauded the unambiguous, anti-discriminatory message of "Black or White."
Over the last two decades, Jackson's plastic surgery garnered ridicule and dissection in the press. As Jackson's skin paled and his nose disappeared in snippets, magazines and TV comedians had a field day. Was he black or was he white, victim of vitiligo or vanity? During this time, celebrity media went through an equally unattractive transformation, letting loose clouds of mosquito-like paparazzi — cynical, intrusive, and at times flat out cruel. While their coverage may have highlighted the pitfalls of cosmetic surgery, it simultaneously raised the stakes on fame, suggesting that if you want a piece of it, you have to be willing to be taken to pieces.
Then there were molestation charges against Jackson, murky and weird, which occurred in the same decade when first-grader Jonathan Prevette was suspended from school for kissing a classmate on the cheek, and two 13-year-old boys were charged with felony-level sexual abuse for slapping girls' behinds. Jackson, with his ostentatious wealth, bizarre appearance, eerie falsetto, and unusually demonstrative affections toward children shouldn't have been surprised to find himself targeted. Though acquitted legally, Jackson and his reputation never fully recovered in the eyes of the general public.
Kings of all kinds live under swords, and no one's perfect. The King of Pop, as Jackson was dubbed by Elizabeth Taylor, was clearly no exception to either of these conditions. However, when I think of Jackson, I think of his reign of music, the compelling choreography of his dance, and the 110 percent he put into every performance. I miss those stormy nights, half asleep, when Michael Jackson was in Solid State.
- gusts of wind
- 突風
- huddled
- 縮こまって隠れた
- snaps a twig
- 小枝を折る
- scenario
- 状況
- arduously
- こつこつと
- tube sock
- かかとのない長靴下
- sundries store
- 雑貨店
- Solid State
- トランジスタやICのこと(Solid には「安定した」の意も)
- drift off to 〜
- 〜を聞きながら眠りにおちる
- Motown tunes
- モータウンレーベルの曲
- passing
- 死去
- touchstones in time
- 時代を思い起こさせてくれるもの
- lightening bolts
- 稲妻
- plastic surgery
- 整形手術
- garnered
- 〜を集めた
- dissection
- 詳細な分析
- paled
- 白くなった
- disappeared in snippets
- 少しずつ小さくなった
- had a field day
- お祭り騒ぎをした
- vitiligo
- 白斑
- vanity
- 虚栄心
- intrusive
- 土足で踏み込むような
- flat out 〜
- もろに〜
- have highlighted
- 浮き彫りにした
- pitfalls
- 落とし穴
- cosmetic surgery
- 美容整形
- raised the stakes on 〜
- 〜が抱えるリスクの度合いを高めた
- be taken to pieces
- ずたずたにされる
- molestation
- 性的虐待
- murky and weird
- 不透明で奇怪な
- felony-level
- 重罪レベルの
- sexual abuse
- 性的虐待
- slapping girls' behinds
- 女の子のおしりをひっぱたく
- ostentatious
- これ見よがしの
- bizarre
- 異様な
- eerie falsetto
- 変わった高い声
- demonstrative
- 露骨な
- acquitted
- 無罪を宣言された
- Kings of all kinds live under swords
- 「王といわれる者は、幸福にみえても、髪の毛一本で吊られた剣の下で暮らしているようなものだ」という意味。ギリシャ神話の「ダモクレスの剣」に由来
- reign of music
- 音楽を支配していた時代
- compelling
- 人の心をつかんで離さない
- choreography
- 振り付け