“History moves fast. You might say this person was a drug addict or did this or that. But art exists beyond people’s lives in the end. So this show doesn’t surprise me. I suspect that there’ll be a Jackson show in 500 years regardless,” says Edwards. This view of Jackson was clear when I interviewed Grammy-winning songwriter and producer Glen Ballard earlier this autumn. Ballard worked on Jackson’s Thriller, Bad and Dangerous albums. I asked Ballard whether his opinion of Jackson had changed given what has been alleged in recent years.
He said that none of it changed his view of Jackson as one of the best entertainers that has ever lived. “I don’t think you could take that away from him no matter what,” he said. However he added: “I mean, Wagner was not a nice man and I love his music. So you have great artists who have this duality, right?”
However, this is not mere cancellation of an artist with unsavoury views; the allegations against Jackson are particularly serious. That is where a more complex psychological reason for his enduring appeal comes into focus: the “rebound effect”. This, according to Dean Burnett, a neuroscientist and author, is a phenomenon that occurs when someone’s core beliefs are challenged – and they double down to defend those beliefs in the face of attack.
This can particularly be the case when it comes to music, which is emotionally evocative. “No one can deny that Michael Jackson’s music career was a massive phenomenon. Once it becomes a huge part of your life, if you hear stuff which is negative about the person you’re invested in, then it’s a subconscious thing to say, ‘No, I love Michael Jackson, that can’t be right,’” says Burnett. For millions of music fans, cancelling Jackson would mean cancelling their own memories, their own past. And no one wants to do that.
John Branca is the attorney who worked with Jackson for decades and is now co-executor and manager of his estate. He tells me from Los Angeles that the allegations contained in Leaving Neverland (which he dubs a “tabloid piece”) are “provably false, as it is an infomercial for a failed lawsuit”.
