One of my earliest television memories involves sitting around the television catching Kids Incorporated on Saturday mornings and flipping over to MTV to watch the Thriller video. We had cable, but certain channels were off limits. (Hi, Mom!) I'm sure I would have gotten into lots of trouble at the age of 6 or 7 watching MTV in our house. (My in-laws, who are missionaries, must have allowed MTV at their house because Mr. Bean recognized nearly all the music videos we watched last night as soon as the opening scenes began.) The zombies always scared me a bit, so I never watched the whole thing. Last night it was on television and I watched it in its entirety with Mr. Bean. I laughed at how well zombies dance and how un-scary it is. Perspective is everything I guess.
I had two friends who lived on my block as a kid: Brooke and Amber. I remember sitting in my front yard singing with them Bad and the Weird Al version Fat. Those were the days. Of course we didn't hear the song that often, so we didn't know the verses, just the choruses. I think we also became blood sisters back then. Oh, the 80s. A magical time indeed.
Recently, I taught a 2nd grade class. One little boy, Robert, had a keen interest in karaoke. His favorite song to sing? Billie Jean.
I won't even pretend to be a connoisseur of Michael Jackson or even know very many of his songs (lets face it, if it wasn't on Bad or Thriller, we're lucky if I have even heard of it). I'll leave that honor to my sister-in-law and my husband.
Be prepared for snide remarks from Filbert who is not a fan of MJ. Tsk, tsk. How can he be part of Generation X?!
