Dead man’s chest

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Michael Jackson became the richest dead celebrity last week. The legend who’s days ended as he grappled with debt and depression earned more than $250 million last year. And this is not tallying up the proceeds from the sales of the documentary This is It and the projected profits from the highly-anticipated release of Michael — a collection of previously unheard tracks!

Being a (not living) legend is lucrative business. Ask anyone who handles the estates of Marilyn Monroe, John Lennon, Elvis Presley, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and more recently Heath Ledger — they captured the imagination of the world, with the way they lived and by the way they died and in their mortality, were tinged with an almost poetic nostalgia.
Like Cobain who famously said, ‘It’s better to burn out than fade away’ several died at the age of 27. In a morbid tribute, Club 27 is a term used to refer to this group, the most famous of whom are Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Brian Jones.
But what makes the bucks roll in post kicking the bucket? Do fans in grief and mourning make registers go ka-ching? What makes the dear departed immortal of money?
It’s worth dwelling on the stark contrast between Michael Jackson alive and dead. The star of the Jackson 5 rose steadily and worthily to the title of King of Pop only to be scarred and sullied by the moniker Whacko Jacko — he endured the best and the worst of fame. But fans and critics came together to mourn when the man, broken by failure, surrounded by sycophants passed on.
Like with other celebrities — Marilyn Monroe most famously — as tabloids rake in the money vying to speculate on the enigma surrounding his last moments, the bare, ugly truth remains that Michael Jackson has fared better in death than life. “The value of a person is never known when he’s alive because he continues to make magic,” Aparajita, a student suggests. “Only when he dies you realise that the miracle can’t be worked again, which is why whether it’s Kurt Cobain or MJ, they become spectacular after they died,” she adds. Ksheera M A, another student quips, “The end is linked to the beginning. Nothing represented MJ in life than did the legacy that he left behind.”
Like Monroe, Lennon, Presley, Cobain, even Tupac Shakur, Michael Jackson has indeed left a legacy. His kids will be moon-walking to the bank. An irreplaceable gift in MJ but his essence continues to live on in the scores of music that he has left behind. In a way he hasn’t really left.