I hadn’t seen Thriller until two nights ago so can’t comment on that.

At the end of the day one can’t convince anyone else that any particular music is good or bad, “worthy” or not. All I can say that’s “true” is that I don’t dig MJ’s sound. Glitter ain’t my thing. I hope I can say that without it being perceived that the music I listen to is more “serious” or “significant” – I love simple from Leadbelly to the Trashmen. You should be able to say you prefer Thompson or Ornette without fear of being branded snooty – that’s not what it’s about. The question is whether MJ’s music feels real and true. It sure doesn’t to me.

1. The line between funk and disco is sometimes fuzzy. I remember some musical comrades dismissing George Clinton and Grandmaster Flash as “disco.” The Clash were accused of “selling out to disco” for starting Sandinista with a funk/ rap number, even though it’s the album’s angriest song. Our writers at this site remain divided over whether Prince is funk or disco.

2. Music lovers haven’t just suddenly admitted love for MJ. Although I didn’t vote for Thriller in the 1983 Village Voice critics’ poll, it won in a landslide, and I do think (stylistic criticisms aside) that its effect on racial and geographic divides was remarkable.

3. I’d place Off the Wall (and to a lesser extent, Thriller) in the same category as Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours: i.e., not really my style, but an unusually well-made representation of that moment in pop music. Boasting about how I was busy listening to Richard Thompson and Ornette Coleman would have seemed snooty. Instead, I tried to find context for my ambivalence about MJ’s musical and cultural legacy.

4. I find the “cheesy pickup scenes” as distasteful as Dan does. But if we avoided all who took part in them, our record collections might be pretty thin. Dizzy Gillespie once tried to hit on my sister. Robert Christgau recently recalled Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn’s great story about a member of the Descendents who had asked him where he could find a groupie for some action. Finn’s response: “If we knew that, what would we be doing at a Descendents show?”

Suddenly I wake up and discover that all these people who lived through the same 80s as me were neither indifferent to nor actively disliking his music, but actually liking it. I never in a million years would have guessed that about my own friends. Was it some kind of secret passion everyone kept to themselves? I *assumed* that most people I know/knew felt the same way about 80s disco as I did. As evidenced by the hot water I got into on Facebook recently after calling Jackson’s 80s/90s hits “atrocious,” I could not have been more wrong.

I’ve never understood how MJ’s music earned him the mantle “King of Pop.” Yes, his childhood music was heartbreakingly sweet and wonderful. Yes he was an amazing dancer. And yes, he had an influence on music to come. But no, I don’t see what’s likable about his 80s/90s disco-pop. That’s 100% subjective of course; I just thought most people shared my opinion on this.

That doesn’t mean I don’t love and respect people who like his music. I’m just surprised to learn that they do. Thank god for friends.

Funk, on the other hand, while sharing a good patch of the same sonic turf as Disco, did not and does not suck. Funk is not all about cheezy pickup scenes, it’s a much deeper thing. The Jackson 5 were funky!

RIP Michael, you bloody great freak.