One month later: Michael Jackson is still news!

So today I was reading the news online and I must've found like two thousand different articles on Michael Jackson. If it wasn't some freaking audience to determine the fate of some movie deal, or some random paternity claim from some dude, it was some recycled biographic story that most likely everyone has read at least ten or twenty times already. It was weird, because, you know, the dude has been dead for like, what, more than a month now?

I understand that he was the king of pop and all that shit, and I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I was exposed to his music when I was little, but seriously. My first reaction was to blame it on the money-hungry media, because this is exactly the kind of thing they'd milk for all it's worth, but then I have to remind myself that, well, it is the media... this is what they do. And if they're doing it, there's a reason for it, and it all became clear when I checked iTunes and other music sites and saw that MJ's record sales are going through the roof!

So, clearly, it's not that the media is obsessed with Michael Jackson. It's that WE are obsessed with Michael Jackson and the media is just being the good provider/crack dealer that it's always been, and spoon-feeding us these news because they know we'll take it with a grin. So it's clearly not their fault. It's ours.

Seriously, world. Sometimes I wonder how we've survived so long and invented stuff like cars and the internet when our attention span is oh! so limited! If this is all that matters to us right now, then what does that say about us as a whole? Is humanity really this shallow? Because if we are, then we're really, really lucky that we've made it this far.

Now, I don't hate Michael Jackson. I think he was a great artist, and as far as the allegations go, to me it's innocent until proven guilty, which he never was, so I have no reason to judge him on that. But it's a damn shame that he had to DIE for people to remember again how incredible he really was. It's just sad. But I guess that's the way it goes, right? You never know how great something really is until you no longer have it.

Crying Lightning...

One of my favorite bands in the world (in fact, my favorite band at the moment) is a little group from the UK called Arctic Monkeys. If you live in the U.S. or Canada is probably that you haven't heard about them before, but if you live pretty much anywhere in Europe and in certain parts of Asia and Australia, you're most likely well-acquainted with their music.

I've been listening to their music for about three years now, and not once have I found a song or video of theirs that I dislike. I really, really like their work, and one of the main reasons why I do, is because it's very much in your face, simple, and free of any pretensions. And of course, it doesn't hurt that Alex Turner is a lyrical genius. Now, they're about to release a new album in less than a month; however, for some reason, something tells me that this one isn't going to be as good as the previous two.

I've only heard three songs from the album so far, two of which I genuinely liked, and one that I couldn't really get into that much. But even with the songs I did like, I felt a certain air of, I don't know, I guess you could call it "unnecessary artsy-fartsiness" that very much clashes with the way their sound was in their previous records. I was willing to let it go because I got the same feeling from Alex Turner's last year's side-project, The Last Shadow Puppets, which turned out to be actually really good, but then I saw the video for Arctic Monkeys' first single of their new album.

The song is called "Crying Lightning" and I do like it, but from the video I got the same sensation that I got from the song at first. And I have to wonder if this is going to set the tone for the rest of the album, because if it does, then it's going to take a bit of time to get used to, if I ever do.

I understand that bands need to reinvent themselves and try new things all the time if they wish to stay relevant, but is it straying so far away from what made them good in the first place a good idea? Holding on to some of that would be better in my opinion.

Anyway, I leave you with the aforementioned video. Watch it and decide on your own: