The Destruction and Creation of Michael Jackson

by Ellis Cashmore

Michael Jackson died in 2009, but he has never really left us and there are no signs he ever will.

A globally acclaimed child star in the 1970s, the world's premier entertainer in the final decades of the 20th century, a perplexingly odd character in the 21st century, Jackson defied every known category and became borderline incomprehensible. To remedy this, in The Destruction and Creation of Michael Jackson , Ellis Cashmore reflects the restless, unorthodox and mysterious life Jackson led in order to understand more about him as well as his cultural impact.

Exploring how Jackson emerged from the post-civil rights era when America was searching for someone who symbolized a new age as it struggled to unburden itself of racial inequality, Cashmore's book is the first to examine Jackson's career through the prisms of American racial politics and celebrity culture.
Uniquely structured, beginning in the present and journeying back to Jackson's birth, The Destruction and Creation of Michael Jackson will excite and enliven debates on this controversial figure, one that very much continues to remain embedded within our culture.

556 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 19, 2022

About the author

Professor Ellis Cashmore is visiting professor of sociology at Aston University, in Birmingham, England. He was formerly a professor of culture, media and sport at Staffordshire University’s Faculty of Health Sciences, which he joined in 1993. Before this, he was professor of sociology at the University of Tampa, Florida; and, before this, lecturer in sociology at the University of Hong Kong.

Cashmore’s Elizabeth Taylor: A Private Life for Public Consumption is published by Bloomsbury. Among his other recent books are Beyond Black: Celebrity and race in Obama’s America, and Martin Scorsese’s America. His Celebrity/Culture is in its second edition.

Reviews

[J Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Destruction and Creation of Michael Jackson, by Ellis Cashmore, covers Jackson's life (in the broadest sense to include his death and subsequent posthumous life) through the lens of the culture and society within which it took place.

I'll state upfront that some diehard fans may not enjoy this book, it is even-handed but is not meant to be the typical celebrity biography. While the highs and positives are certainly included, the lows are what largely drive the analyses. A reader simply wanting to relive their youth and adoration of Jackson will be put to the test.

I'll also give some indication of where I stand on the MJ spectrum. I grew up with him as a part of my background. He was about a month older than me so I started with the Jackson Five. As a solo artist, he was never my favorite even though I bought several of his albums (Off the Wall by far my favorite). I saw one of his shows only because the person I was seeing at the time got them through her work. I am one of those who find it hard to believe that all of his accusers lied while I also understand that for whatever reason inconsistent testimony is plenty reason for acquittal. So, in sum, I was fond of his music, enjoyed his entertainment persona, and had no real feelings one way or the other about the person until the accusations started, in which case I was uncertain but leaned, as I usually do, toward believing an alleged victim's story. Musically, I preferred what I saw as a much more talented performer, Prince. But I was never an either/or fan, I could appreciate both. Okay, enough about that, you have an idea where I stand in coming to this book.

I found the reverse chronology a little unusual but quickly found it to be quite functional. Yes, there are a lot of names and dates, but a career as long as popular as Jackson's will have involved a lot of people. Add in the degree to which he associated outside of the music industry and you have a lot of people. Yet even with that being said, it isn't hard to follow who is who, Cashmore does a good job of refreshing the reader's memory if a person is being mentioned for the first time or hasn't been mentioned in a while. I think a lot of the complaints about too many names is rationalizing for those who don't want to look at Jackson's flaws but just celebrate his positives.

I will also add that Cashmore, in relating this to the broader scope of society (mostly US in his early career and ultimately global later), mentions a number of other figures that are not directly related to the Michael Jackson story. The vast majority of these are names (and events) that we have all heard and become familiar with simply by living through the period. Yet it is bringing some of these seemingly unrelated things into contact with Jackson's career that he presents his ideas on what drove both Jackson's immense popularity as well as the vicious destruction of his legend especially after his death.

On the topic of Cashmore's ideas I am of mixed opinion. I don't know to what degree I find some of his specific arguments persuasive, though I do think he does make a strong case for the role of race, especially for a popular Black male performer, in how Black celebrities are perceived by a country that is still, to this day, a white supremacist country. I guess what I am saying is that I am not fully convinced on every point even if I agree on the overall argument.

I would recommend this to fans with the understanding that this is an analysis of Jackson within the society he lived and thrived. This is not a biography in the usual sense though the reader may come away with a better understanding of why Michael Jackson was who he was. For those doing cultural studies this is a fascinating look at potentially what a society does to its celebrities in both raising them up and tearing them down. I even think there might be some interesting tidbits for those doing any fandom studies, though the focus here is not on the fans.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Lucy · Rating 1 out of 5]

So, I found this one very difficult to read, I took so long that I wasn't sure I would even get through it as some points, like a mammoth weight was leaning on me when I came to pick it back up again. I finally won but it seriously didn't feel worth it.

I expected it to have a bit more meat to it than it really did, it felt like a play by play of Jackson's life but with out all the personality and the character of a book written by someone who even liked him, it just didn't feel like there was even any personality of the author.

Lots of dates and events in Jackson's life and that's what made it so hard to read, it was more like a timeline, I did think that it would have been more like a perspective biography, with thoughts and perspectives as it couldn't be a like for like from the author's mouth biography as clearly MJ has been dead for a while now but it just seemed to lack any structure or even feeling of the person it was writing about.

I couldn't tell if the author liked or felt anything for the superstar it just seemed like the author at points wanted to talk about how black celeb's have had difficult and tragic person lives and went on about that a lot and then in between lots of dates about things it touched on everything we have all read and seen in the public eye so there is nothing new to add, and really whether you love or hate Michael Jackson, I can't really see what difference it would make to someone interesting in reading about this book,
Also the title to me seems a little off, I did expect the author didn't really like MJ as it starts with the "Destruction" of MJ and then later on the "Creation" - surely you would start with the creation first as the destruction came a lot later than he was created, it seems a little odd, to put it first reads as though Cashmore has some kind of beef already with the author.

It seemed that Cashmore just wanted to get his name out there off the back off Jackson by producing a book about a well known musical legend that went south towards the end for his own financial gain.

The only piece of information I found interesting in this book was how much MJ made during his life in comparison to his death, the only fascinating piece in the whole book.

I'm not really sure who anyone could recommend this book to, it doesn't really add anything to the conundrum that MJ was and there certainly isn't any new information, it's not like it can be recommended to fans because there is nothing to give to the fans.
I don't think I'd recommend it to anyone as I struggled to even finish it myself.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Bloomsbury Academic for the free ARC in return for my review.

[Vanessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Destruction and Creation of Michael Jackson by Ellis Cashmore I enjoy reading books like this but I just found this book a big let down from start to finish. There is so much informations within this book, was it all true about him?....or was it just fantasy? I find People are just making money out of Michael Jackson and his life.

Thank you NetGalley, Bloomsbury Academic and Ellis Cashmore for giving me the opportunity to read this book, in exchange for an honest review.

[Federica · Rating 2 out of 5]

It always pains me when I can't give a great review, and unfortunately this is the case.
I love biographies and autobiographies, but there was something in the writing style that didn't work well for me: too many dates and facts and information that made it hard to read.
It might probably be someone else's cup of tea for sure, but not for me.

[Aria Harlow · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an interesting read and I was interested in the facts that were presented, unfortunately though there was just so much of them and it made this book feel like hard work, like I was reading it for school and not for pleasure. The writing style was hard to gel with as well sadly.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have no idea where to begin with this review. I would give this book 2.5 stars; as whilst informative and interesting it is a very very heavy read and I was ready to DNF on numerous occasions but I struggle to do this for any book as I don’t find it fair on the author.
The story itself is saddening and largely left me feeling sorry for MJ as opposed to horrified by his behaviour. We will never truly know what actually went on behind closed doors and instead there will continue to be speculations, accusations and fabrications of stories which may or may not have happened.
If you want to know more about the life of MJ, both the extraordinary and the obscure then this is a great example and really well written. It just might take awhile or need to be read in instalments.

[Kerry Hennigan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book tries to be clever but fails at the outset due to misinformation (or lack of information) and the fact that it reads as an exercise in fence-sitting by the author. Cashman doesn't know what to make of Jackson. Let me explain. His observations about Jackson's life, career and legacy are invariable followed by some kind of rider... like "or maybe not"/"or was he?" What may seem like an attempt to walk a tightrope of academic objectivity merely comes across as a cop-out. What the author DOES realise though is that there was, and still is, money to be made and attention to be gained by talking about and writing about Michael Jackson, even though he has been gone over 13 years now (as at Jan 2023). Anyone wondering about his continuing relevance in today's world only need consider the number of times Jackson's name still appears in headlines or book titles to appreciate just how "present" he still is in the world of media and entertainment, and in a lot of people's lives. This book was written post Leaving Neverland, which gets plenty of mentions, and the author may not have anticipated the thorough dismantling of the narrative of the HBO hit piece by anyone who could do real research. This is not to be found by reading - or referencing - Maureen Orth, whom he calls "Anne Orth" when using a 1994 quote from her to begin Chapter 2. That made me laugh; to quote one of Michael's most outrageous tabloid critics and get her name wrong had to be some kind of ironic justice! In that same chapter, in talking about Michael Jackson as a historically significant figure, Cashman explains that: "He didn't fight or assuage racism or position himself as an icon of black struggle. In later life, he and we were unsure whether he was black at all." It was about this time that I wished I'd had a hint of the contents of this book before I bought it. I give it two stars for the text being well written (excluding the errors) and using the clever (but not original) idea of working backwards through Jackson's life and career, and even proposing possible scenarios if Jackson hadn't died when he did. (These I found mildly interesting, though based on what, I wondered, given the errors and misjudgements made in the bulk of the book). Anyone wanting to read Cashman's book should make sure they are knowledgeable enough about the subject matter to detect the inaccuracies and lack of comprehension by the author about Jackson (which of course, is the entertainer's fault, because, after all, he was/is completely incomprehensible, Cashman suggests). The bibliography of referenced works includes some folks whose writing on Jackson I really admire - e.g., Susan Fast, Joseph Vogel and Zack O'Malley Greenburg. Unfortunately, in each case it is merely a single article (while Orth rates three), rather than the complete books each of these writers has written on Jackson. These books offer better understanding and deeper illumination of his life and art. My suggestion is for anyone who is seeking information on Michael Jackson to read Fast, Vogel and Greenburg's books and Elizabeth Amisu's "The Dangerous Philosophies of Michael Jackson," Veronica Bassil's eBooks, of which there are three, and Willa Stillwater's "M Poetica. Michael Jackson's Art of Compassion and Defiance" another eBook. Also, read Michael Jackson's own autobiography "Moonwalk" (1988) and his "Dancing the Dream" (1992) - both of which are curiously absent from Cashmore's bibliography!