Michael Jackson's Death and Why It's Not a Loss for Music

First, sure it's sad when people die. However I don't agree that music lost a great artist today for two reasons: Jackson didn't play any instruments and he didn't write a lot of his own music, especially later in life. He danced and sang, he was an entertainer, which is a fine thing in its own right, but he wasn't a major musical artist. But my bigger point is that even if he HAD done those two things, people wouldn't care because our priorities are all wrong in terms of real musical artists today. I have to wonder if Shostakovich had lived into our time and died, perhaps the greatest composer of the past century, would it get more than a passing mention on the CNN crawler? I don't know.

The only reason Jackson's death should garner such attention is because he was a Citizen Kane of his time. In his own way he was a minor titan of capitalism, and a controversial figure -- which I won't go into here because it's not relevant.

The media is mourning because soon they won't have the antics of Michael Jackson to cover any longer -- but if this is all about music, why should I care?