Michael Jackson

I remember going over to a friend’s house to watch the premiere of the Thriller video on MTV. I was in grad school in Rochester, and my classmate was one of the only people I knew who had cable. The video was weird, and very cool. We were entranced; none of us had ever seen anything like it. Night of the Living Dead meets MTV.

As his star rose and fell, his appearance, which was perfectly normal when he started out, became increasingly bizarre. From the first nose job, when he emerged looking more like Diana Ross than Diana Ross herself, to the many botched cosmetic surgeries that followed, his outer self seemed to be an accurate representation of the damaged soul within. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to watch him navigate the next 30 years, and how that journey would have manifested itself on his face.

Although I was never a huge fan, there are a few songs that stand out—Beat It, Billie Jean, Man in the Mirror, Ain’t No Sunshine, Human Nature, Black and White, among others. And I will never forget his appearance at Motown’s 25th anniversary celebration in 1984—amazing, wonderful, incredibly hip, completely electrifying. It still is.