Michael Jackson Killed During the 9/11 Attacks

What if Michael Jackson had instead of calling off a meeting he had in the twin towers of the World Trade Center on 9/11 is instead trapped and killed during the attacks?
 
Michael Who? In 2001, Jackson hadn't released any new music for 10 years. His first trial for child molestation ended 5 years ago, his next trial wouldn't start until - 2003 I believe?- and his antics weren't so wild out yet as in his later years. If anything had happened to him in 2001, before September it would make the news for three days, and then he'd be forgotten. If anything would have happened to him on September 11th, it would not even make the news.
 
What if Michael Jackson had instead of calling off a meeting he had in the twin towers of the World Trade Center on 9/11 is instead trapped and killed during the attacks?
By 9/12 the coverage becomes a mixture of the 9/11 attacks and tributes to the martyred Saint Michael Jackson, possibly reaching the point where I cancel my cable subscription and drop my TV off the balcony.

Pressure to rename the proposed USS New York is successfully resisted or I make plans to emigrate to New Zealand.

Bush the Lesser and his cabal invoke Saint Michael Jackson so many times that I seriously consider methods of assassinating him (and Cheney and Wolfowitz and as many others as possible.)

I terminate all relations with anyone who remarks about how horrible it was that Saint Michael Jackson was killed,

I base all this on my original reaction to the coverage Jackson's death, considering it worth no more than a 30-second blurb on the Evening News.
 
2001 was when public attitudes towards MJ softened again. For my generation, it was when we rediscovered his classics after being turned off by his cheesy aesthetics and overuse of New Jack Swing in the early 90s. (best summed up by his "cameo" in Addams Family Values) The Martin Bashir documentary in 2003 is when things swung back in the other direction.

Michael Who? In 2001, Jackson hadn't released any new music for 10 years. If anything would have happened to him on September 11th, it would not even make the news.

PFFFFFFFFFT BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Actually, he was promoting a new album at the time. His last real one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson:_30th_Anniversary_Special

Madison Square Garden comeback concert and he dies the next day? Dude. Elvis and Tupac's posthumous careers would look like a joke. Invincible goes RIAA Diamond easy. CBS stretches their footage into a mini-series and cleans up in the Nielsens. The largely forgotten IOTL collaboration with Jay-Z becomes a huge hit. Even when his American popularity was at a nadir, he was still insanely popular everywhere else in the world....particularly Arab/Muslim regions. So really, as dumb as this may seem, him dying in 9/11 would be a psychological hammer blow that "makes it personal" for many many people across the globe. 9/11 Trutherism ascends to a new astral plane of batshit ofc.

Remember - this was a real Ghostface Killah verse on Wu-Tang's album after 9/11:

[Ghostface Killah]
Who the fuck knocked our buildings down?
Who the man behind the World Trade massacres, step up now
Where the four planes at huh is you insane bitch?
Fly that shit over my hood and get blown to bits!
No disrespect, that's where I rest my head
I understand you gotta rest yours true, nigga my people's dead
America, together we stand, divided we fall
Mr. Bush sit down, I'm in charge of the war!

Try to imagine that verse ITTL.

Considering that James Brown was a consummate patriot and personal friend of Michael (and still very active, saw him perform twice around that time and he was INCREDIBLE) I see him doing some sort of badass funk analogue to OTL's Toby Keith Angry American song. Perhaps that finally gets him his #1 hit.

Dubya cynically milks MJ's corpse for every last drop of Iraq War support he can get, of course.
 
Michael Who? In 2001, Jackson hadn't released any new music for 10 years. His first trial for child molestation ended 5 years ago, his next trial wouldn't start until - 2003 I believe?- and his antics weren't so wild out yet as in his later years. If anything had happened to him in 2001, before September it would make the news for three days, and then he'd be forgotten. If anything would have happened to him on September 11th, it would not even make the news.

You know how the world reacted in 2009 despite the trial of 2003. This will be that x 10. Also, his third child would be born five months after he died. Paris will not be able to have such an emotionall speach like OTL becauce she was 5 in 2001.
 
I base all this on my original reaction to the coverage Jackson's death, considering it worth no more than a 30-second blurb on the Evening News.

How much coverage did John Lennon's death get?
MJ had created the best selling album of all time, and was undisputed 'King of Pop' for about 18 years. His death is a big deal, whether you think it ought to be or not.
 
If he was trapped in there I'm wondering if they wouldn't have tried some insane rescue to get him out of the buildings before they collapsed. Then again, if they'd have rescued him and no one else that might've led to a pretty nasty backlash.
 
How much coverage did John Lennon's death get?
MJ had created the best selling album of all time, and was undisputed 'King of Pop' for about 18 years. His death is a big deal, whether you think it ought to be or not.
I don't recall how much coverage John Lennon got, probably a lot more than the 45 seconds I'd consider it warranted.

Note that I described my personal reaction; others' reactions may be different.
 
I don't recall how much coverage John Lennon got, probably a lot more than the 45 seconds I'd consider it warranted.

Note that I described my personal reaction; others' reactions may be different.

Out of curiosity, do you believe the media should report anybody's death for more than 45 seconds? These are two of the most famous and successful musicians ever to have lived.
 
As others have stated, MJ was musically active at the time and had released a new album, entitled Invinsible. Despite the album itself being Medioca at best, Invinsible is going to be a much bigger deal TTL than historically. It won't be anywhere as big as 'Off The Wall', but it could potentially out-cell 'Dangerous'-and the rest of his most recent material to that point.

Oh-and the 'Tribute 9/11' rendition of Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' won't be recorded as it was OTL-they'll find the most appropriate MJ track possible and redo that.

I do wonder whether this would speed up the popularity of Downloading music-in OTL, a lot of people downloaded his music after his death-ITTL, the Download market is still taking off.

I think the coverage of his death in itself will be quite different, though will be slightly more muted than OTL-at least inicially, for practical reasons if nothing else. Yes Michael Jackson has died, but there is also the fact that unlike OTL-and unlike with Lennon and Elvis, his death is not an isolated incident-and is part of the very real horror of the 9/11 attacks. So the coverage into his death will be interlinked with 9/11-and on the news channels at least, there'll be a lot less time for the continuous tributes to him that there was in OTL. That's not to say there won't be any, but not to the extent you may think.

So basically, although the coverage of his death will be more muted at first, there will be more long-term coverage-and you can bet both Bush and MJ's management will want to play up the image of Michael Jackson the hero, who died with so many others on 9/11 etc.
 
Out of curiosity, do you believe the media should report anybody's death for more than 45 seconds? These are two of the most famous and successful musicians ever to have lived.
Not for people in the entertainment or sports industries. Important people should rate a minute or maybe even two - Philo Farnsworth, Grace Hopper, Nicola Tesla, Robert Oppenheimer, Richard Feynman, Robert Bussard, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur Clark, etc. Assassinated Presidents and other heads of state and people like Lady Diana maybe a 12-minute segment.

I guess I have different priorities.
 
Not for people in the entertainment or sports industries. Important people should rate a minute or maybe even two - Philo Farnsworth, Grace Hopper, Nicola Tesla, Robert Oppenheimer, Richard Feynman, Robert Bussard, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur Clark, etc. Assassinated Presidents and other heads of state and people like Lady Diana maybe a 12-minute segment.

I guess I have different priorities.
"America, I have some sad news, President John F. Kennedy has been assassinated."

[twelve minutes later]

"Well, that's the last we'll cover on this story, other than a ten second mention of his assassin being gunned down."
 
"America, I have some sad news, President John F. Kennedy has been assassinated."

[twelve minutes later]

"Well, that's the last we'll cover on this story, other than a ten second mention of his assassin being gunned down."

Haha! I especially like the "I guess I just have different [better] priorities" bit. So if you happened to miss that news broadcast that's it, hard lines?
Nixon dies, the 6pm news cover it mentioning China and Watergate (only got 12 mins so need to pack it in quick) but it doesn't get carried in the 10pm news.
 

Vahktang

Donor
After the Titanic sank one of the NY papers' huge headlines was: John Astor Dies, ignoring Guggenheim and the hundreds of others.
MJ dying in 9/11 will put a slight multiplier on the tragedy.
Meanwhile, Seth MacFarlane was supposed to be on one of the planes that hit a building (he overslept and missed the flight).
Think of the impact: no American Dad, no Cleveland show, no Ted movies.
Family Guy would certainly be canceled much sooner, may not even make it into syndication.
Probably no Bob's Burger's and Mila Kunis's career would be significantly lessened, relegated to best friend and sister roles, no longer a lead actress.
(Just wishful thinking upon my own part for the last two).
 
Top