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At Michael JacksonÂs boyhood home in Gary, Ind., where he lived until age 11, a steady stream of fans visited throughout the day. News outlets nationwide streamed the memorial service online, and many cities held large public gatherings to take part in the event. (Scott Olson / Getty Images / July 7, 2009) |
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Reporting from Conyers, Ga., and Detroit -
It was a moment shared by perhaps 1 billion people.
They gathered Tuesday in London, Las Vegas, Berlin, Conyers, Ga., the Jackson hometown of Gary, Ind., swaying together to the music flowing out of Staples Center, murmuring as classic videos of the young Michael were projected onto the screen.
Through the sunshine of Los Angeles and the darkness of the early morning in Beijing, they all shared a moment.
A poem by Maya Angelou, read at the ceremony by Queen Latifah, captured the day:
Today in Tokyo, beneath the Eiffel Tower, in Ghana's Black Star Square,
In Johannesburg and Pittsburgh, in Birmingham, Ala., and Birmingham, England,
We are missing Michael.
The moment was a confluence of high technology and pop culture, creating something both global and intimate in real time.
When one sighed, there were sighs around the world.
At a multiplex theater in Conyers, east of Atlanta, 500 people ooohed at footage of the lithe Jackson moonwalking and spinning, complementing the cheers that arose in Staples Center. They shouted their affirmation when Stevie Wonder told them that God was good.
They clapped at "You Are Not Alone." And at that moment in Las Vegas, Gwendolyn Benton, 60, teared up and rummaged through a Starbucks bag for a napkin to dry her eyes.
AEG Live, which organized the memorial service at Staples Center in Los Angeles, said the televised broadcast probably reached about 1 billion people worldwide. But there was no way to know the full reach of the event. The BBC estimates that 2.5 billion people watched the televised memorial service for Princess Diana in 1997, but that was before the advent of Twitter, blogs and other new media.
The Jackson memorial was telecast on hundreds of websites and carried by a number of mobile telephone platforms, including Apple, CBS Mobile and Sprint TV.
It was as if the distance to Los Angeles from wherever viewers were didn't exist.
"I JUST GOT CHILLS," wrote Regina Lopez on a Facebook site that allowed fans to leave messages while watching a live feed of the event.
Laurie Maloney posted one second later: "Here comes the tears."
The world has shared other moments -- the Apollo moon landing, World Cup soccer matches. They have become more frequent, even mundane. But this was different.
In many ways, it made no sense that so many people journeyed to movie theaters and arenas -- or social websites -- when they could have watched the memorial on television by themselves.
But for those who joined in the moment, there was a powerful logic.
To his most devoted fans, there was nothing like seeing Michael Jackson in person, not just for his radiating charisma but for the communal experience. So it seemed natural that, as his fans mourned his death, they gathered, sometimes by the thousands. It made sense to celebrate a life spent on a stage, before thousands of people, cheering and clapping to the music.
They gathered Tuesday in London, Las Vegas, Berlin, Conyers, Ga., the Jackson hometown of Gary, Ind., swaying together to the music flowing out of Staples Center, murmuring as classic videos of the young Michael were projected onto the screen.
Through the sunshine of Los Angeles and the darkness of the early morning in Beijing, they all shared a moment.
A poem by Maya Angelou, read at the ceremony by Queen Latifah, captured the day:
Today in Tokyo, beneath the Eiffel Tower, in Ghana's Black Star Square,
In Johannesburg and Pittsburgh, in Birmingham, Ala., and Birmingham, England,
We are missing Michael.
The moment was a confluence of high technology and pop culture, creating something both global and intimate in real time.
When one sighed, there were sighs around the world.
At a multiplex theater in Conyers, east of Atlanta, 500 people ooohed at footage of the lithe Jackson moonwalking and spinning, complementing the cheers that arose in Staples Center. They shouted their affirmation when Stevie Wonder told them that God was good.
They clapped at "You Are Not Alone." And at that moment in Las Vegas, Gwendolyn Benton, 60, teared up and rummaged through a Starbucks bag for a napkin to dry her eyes.
AEG Live, which organized the memorial service at Staples Center in Los Angeles, said the televised broadcast probably reached about 1 billion people worldwide. But there was no way to know the full reach of the event. The BBC estimates that 2.5 billion people watched the televised memorial service for Princess Diana in 1997, but that was before the advent of Twitter, blogs and other new media.
The Jackson memorial was telecast on hundreds of websites and carried by a number of mobile telephone platforms, including Apple, CBS Mobile and Sprint TV.
It was as if the distance to Los Angeles from wherever viewers were didn't exist.
"I JUST GOT CHILLS," wrote Regina Lopez on a Facebook site that allowed fans to leave messages while watching a live feed of the event.
Laurie Maloney posted one second later: "Here comes the tears."
The world has shared other moments -- the Apollo moon landing, World Cup soccer matches. They have become more frequent, even mundane. But this was different.
In many ways, it made no sense that so many people journeyed to movie theaters and arenas -- or social websites -- when they could have watched the memorial on television by themselves.
But for those who joined in the moment, there was a powerful logic.
To his most devoted fans, there was nothing like seeing Michael Jackson in person, not just for his radiating charisma but for the communal experience. So it seemed natural that, as his fans mourned his death, they gathered, sometimes by the thousands. It made sense to celebrate a life spent on a stage, before thousands of people, cheering and clapping to the music.
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