The following pieces were written completely independently of each other – in fact, the writers didn’t know the others were tackling the subject at all. [Ed. Note: We should probably communicate better around here.] In the interest of full disclosure, we present them all here for your edification.
First up, A. Friend:
I’ve never known exactly what true students of the craft think about the music of Michael Jackson. Folks like the Notorious E.P.C., who has friends in high places in the world of music criticism, surely have a view of his catalog, but whether they love it or hate it, I don’t know.
Nor do I care, because my enjoyment of music owes its very existence to Michael Jackson and, more precisely, Thriller. Everyone has certain pop culture markers that define eras of their life, and Thriller was the first, and remains one of the biggest, of mine. I remember being on the school bus at the tender age of 7, when a classmate brought the album (as in, actual vinyl) to school one day for show-and-tell. He was unquestionably the coolest kid in school that day, basking as he was in the reflected coolness of the coolest album, made by the coolest guy, in the universe. I remember wanting his red leather jacket and his sequined glove, and there is a picture, famous in my family, of young A. Friend asleep on the couch one Christmas evening with the glove on one hand and a 1984 Michael Jackson wall calendar in the other.
Posted by The Notorious E.P.C. 
