By Sione M
A few weeks ago, Michael, the 2026 musical biopic about the early life of Michael Jackson, hit cinemas. It is showing in NZ cinemas throughout the month of May.
Newspaper critics gave it terrible reviews. The film opened with a 27% rating on the review website rottentomatoes.com, although its score has since climbed to 39%.
Defying the critics, Michael smashed the box office record for the opening sales of a musical biopic, with $97 million (US dollars) in the US and $121 million overseas. As of mid-May the film has made around $500 million in sales.
People are raving on social media about how much they love Michael. People are claiming to have watched it two, three, five times. People have flooded rottentomatoes.com with 5-star reviews to give it a whopping 97% audience approval rating.
The mainstream media and the masses on social media seem to be living in different worlds.
Michael Jackson has a core of diehard fans who have pushed back against media attacks on him. They were always going to turn out en masse for the “King of Pop”. But this grassroots pushback is coming at a time where there is a complete disconnect between official narratives and sentiments of working class people on the ground. The authority of the establishment is at an all time low. So if establishment mouthpieces tell people to not watch a movie, that will more likely spur them to go and buy tickets!
Addressing the chasm that separates critics from movie-goers, Eileen Jones writes in Jacobin magazine: “…critics are more and more aware of the biopic as a rotten film formula, while the viewing public tends to like biopics, though they’re just about the lowest form of all currently popular genres.
“They’re typically deliberately dishonest, sticking to rote fantasy narratives about saintly talented figures who withstand personal crises and societal prejudices in order to become stars of such unquestioned superiority, it’s as if God himself had willed their canonization. The interesting, complicated, and controversial aspects of the celebrity’s life and social circumstances are almost invariably suppressed.”
The controversial aspects referred to are the child sex allegations that dogged Michael Jackson from the early 1990s to the mid 2000s. More about those later. However, the movie itself conveniently ends around 1987-88, shortly after Michael Jackson left The Jacksons (the group consisting of him and his brothers) to concentrate on his solo career.
I haven’t watched Michael myself yet so I won’t comment further on the merits or otherwise of the movie itself. Apparently Jaafar Jackson, playing Michael, gives an Oscar-worthy performance. (I might update this article after watching the movie.) The unprecedented success of this movie has seen a renewed interest in the music of Michael Jackson, especially among Generation Z who have grown up in the years since 2009, when he passed away.
Marxists take an interest in art, music, and culture. Art imitates life, and great art holds up a mirror to society and reflects reality at a deep level.
In the 1980s Michael Jackson was a phenomenon who took popular music to new heights, with a style of music that combined catchy tunes and beats with signature dance moves like the moonwalk. He became the “King of Pop”.
Rise to Fame
Michael Jackson was a poster boy for the American Dream, up there with other celebrities such as Michael Jordan and Oprah Winfrey. The Jackson 5 (with Michael the youngest member, who started performing at 5 years old) were a group of brothers from a black working class family from Gary, Indiana. Through hard work and sacrifice they had made it in the music business.
Off the wall, released in 1979, was Michael Jackson’s first solo album in which he had complete creative control. The “Motown sound” of the Jackson 5—a blend of pop, gospel and R&B—was replaced by something else. This album introduced Michael Jackson’s unique style which combined disco, rock, pop with black music to create something qualitatively different.
Off the Wall was the top album in the US in 1980, exceeding expectations and establishing Michael Jackson as a superstar.
He followed this up with Thriller in 1982, featuring the classic songs Billie Jean and Beat it. This album turned Michael Jackson into a global phenomenon. Thriller went on to become the best selling album of all time—a record it still holds and will continue to hold for the forseeable future—no other album comes close.
As well as breaking new ground in music, Michael Jackson redefined the music video, turning it into an art form. Up until that time, most music videos simply showed artists performing their song and dance routine. But the videos for Billie Jean, Beat it and Thriller were short films that told a story. From then on, cinematic storytelling and special effects became an essential part of music videos.
In 1987 Bad was released. This album cemented Michael Jackson’s dominance of 1980s popular music. The movie ends right about here, when Michael was at the top of the music world.
Michael Jackson and the Music Industry
Michael Jackson also had some good business sense. Between 1982-84 he earned 140 million dollars from album sales, merch, endorsements and concerts. In 1985 at just 26 years old, he used these earnings to finance the purchase of ATV music for 47.5 million dollars. ATV music at the time owned the rights to over 4,000 songs, including the whole Beatles catalog. An artist buying a whole music publishing company was unheard of at the time. ATV would end up earning billions for Michael, and was eventually bought out by Sony Music after his death.
Michael Jackson was first and foremost an artist and entertainer. His 1980s songs were harmless stuff compared to hip hop artists such as Public Enemy. To the extent that he dealt with political issues, his message was more about “helping each other” rather than “overthrowing the system”. He was involved in philanthropy. He followed the rules. But he was financially independent and an upstart in music publishing.
This young black artist was no longer under the control of industry heavyweights. His music could move masses of people. At the height of his career he had said that he wanted to concentrate more on filmmaking, which presumably meant music videos. There was seemingly nothing stopping him from producing films that could send whatever message he wanted. He could splash out millions on actors, directors, and special effects. This would have set off alarm bells in sections of the ruling class, who not only guard their property but their monopoly on ideology. To see if their fears were well-founded, simply watch his music videos, some of which are linked below.
Press attacks and allegations
The press who had earlier built up his image could cut him down to size. Most of the dirty work was done by the tabloids.
Starting in the late 1980s, myths were spread about Michael’s skin bleaching, the extent of his plastic surgery, and his bizzare purchases. In the beginning Michael went along with some of these myths to get free publicity, until they took a turn for the worse.
In 1993 he was hit with allegations of child sex molestation from the family of a boy he had befriended. The LAPD opened a criminal investigation. Corporate sponsors of Michael, like Pepsi, withdrew their support.
Michael Jackson and the Chandler family settled a civil suit out of court in 1994. After that, the Chandlers declined to participate in the criminal investigation. The case was dropped a few months later without going to trial. But the tabloid media used this as a springboard to print all sorts of speculative details and rumours painting Michael as a child molestor. From that point on, he was under a cloud of suspicion.
In 2003, he would be hit with more charges of child molestation, this time from the family of another young boy (Arvizo). Another criminal case was opened, and this one did go to trial in 2005. The trial played out all over the media with many commentators framing Michael as guilty, and playing down all the weaknesses in the prosecution case. But at the end of the trial, the jury acquited him on all counts.
By all accounts Michael Jackson had a rare gift for connecting with children. Most allegations against him are of a grooming nature, that is, in his failure to set proper boundaries in relationships between himself as an adult, and children that were not his own. In interviews he said that through his friendships with kids, he wanted to live the childhood that he never got to experience as a child star.
In his later years Michael became addicted to opioids and various drugs to treat chronic pain, anxiety and insomnia. Eventually, in June 2009, an overdose of propofol administered by his private doctor killed him. He was not perfect, but I believe he was far from the monstrous pedophile painted by the tabloids.
After the 2005 trial Michael would not be investigated again in his lifetime, but there have been three more civil lawsuits against the Jackson estate in 2013, 2014 and 2026. These new lawsuits for sex abuse and trafficking are by people who had strongly supported him in 2005 (Robson, Safechuck, the Cascio siblings). We can keep an open mind on the allegations in these lawsuits and see what evidence is actually provided. Trials are set for 2026. But it is impossible to ignore the blatant double standards in the way the media covers allegations against Michael Jackson, compared to the Epstein files.
Later music
From the catchy songs and dance music on Thriller, Michael Jackson was drawn to more profound themes – war, racism, hunger, and the fight for a better world.
Man in the Mirror was Michael’s favourite song from the Bad album. Its message is about the individual – in order to change the world you have to change yourself. But it is a call to action because the world does need changing. The music video holds up a mirror to capitalism, with scenes of war, poverty, nuclear testing, and mass struggle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PivWY9wn5ps
Some of Michael Jackson’s greatest songs were created in the 1990s. It would be interesting to see the stories behind them in a movie sequel.
Heal the World deals with the impact of war, especially on children. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWf-eARnf6U
Earth song deals with environmental destruction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAi3VTSdTxU
They don’t care about us deals with the media and establishment. One would be hard pressed to find an anti-establishment rant on youtube that has 1.3 billion views, but here we are! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNJL6nfu__Q
Against a background of media attacks, legal troubles and health issues, Michael Jackson set his sights higher. The music videos for these later songs are powerful short films. They were made more than 30 years ago but they continue to send a message. People from all over the world who encounter these music videos for the first time automatically connect them to current issues: the genocide in Gaza, the climate crisis, and the Epstein files.
Despite being vilified in the media, Michael Jackson had fans from all over the world who were inspired by his music. When he passed away in June 2009 there were mass outpourings of grief. The scale of mourning was compared to the deaths of Elvis Presley, Princess Diana, and John Lennon. People instinctively recognised in him something different. And now, as a result of the movie biopic, younger generations are discovering him for the first time.
Michael Jackson’s songs do not give solutions other than vague calls for more love, empathy, and self-improvement. A real solution can only come with a socialist revolution. But the raw material of the revolutionary organisation are the radicalised workers and youth. And music can reach these people at a deep emotional level.
Underlying Michael’s songs and videos is the spirit of internationalism. They outline in an embryonic form a new world culture that will only realise its potential through the world revolution.
“The breaking down of all barriers in the way of human communication and intercourse in turn creates the conditions for an internationalisation of culture. National narrow-mindedness becomes increasingly impossible. We see the beginnings of world culture, world literature, art and music. This is the starting-point for a new stage in human development. But under capitalism it inevitably has a one-sided and distorted character. It appears as the domination of one culture which subordinates all the others to itself. The “Americanisation” of culture appears as a plague that spells the death of national cultures, commercialisation and cultural impoverishment. Yet “American culture” is not confined to Coca Cola and MacDonalds. It also includes things like computers and Internet, things which potentially provide us with the instruments for revolutionising the entire base of human civilisation. Marxists are therefore not “anti-American”, any more than we are anti-Russian, anti-French or anti-Chinese. We are against capitalism and imperialism, and for socialism and internationalism.
“Capitalism destroys national culture just as it breaks down the barriers to trade which stand in the way of its universal domination. True internationalism – that is, socialist internationalism – does not mean the domination and oppression of small nations by big ones. It means a harmonious international order based on a common plan of production that would pool the vast resources of the planet in the interests of all. In such a world order, every nation would contribute with all its resources to the general good – not just economic resources, but also human and cultural ones. In every nation – even the smallest one – there is a wealth of talent and cultural and artistic potential. The way to develop this potential, however, is not, as narrow-minded nationalists assume, by shutting themselves off from the rest of the world, but by uniting the particular to the general, by contributing the cultural riches of every people to the general store of human knowledge, and thus enriching the whole of humanity.” (Alan Woods, Marxism and art: introduction to Trotsky’s writings on Art and Culture, 20 December 2000.)