[lbo-talk] MoDo

[c b]

A billion people listened/listen to Michael Jackson and found it
entertaining. Perhaps he could have used this popularity to inform the
public on politics. Or perhaps bringing some listening pleasure (even
if it is not obscure enough to be sophisticated) is enough to make
someone a non-cipher?

--ravi

^^^^
CB:  Jackson organized "We are the World" , which was pretty good
politically for a pop musician in the mid-1980's.

" also co-wrote the charity single "We Are the World" in 1985 with
Lionel Richie, which was released worldwide to aid the poor in the
U.S. and Africa. It became one of the best-selling singles of all
time, with nearly 30 million copies sold and millions of dollars
donated to famine relief"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson#Pepsi.2C_.22We_Are_the_World.22_and_business_career_.281984.E2.80.9385.29

Also, Jackson's approach was very much toward promoting racial
integration.  Not just in songs like "Black or White"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_or_White, but marrying Lisa Marie
Presley, daughter of Elvis Presley, a kind of  symbolic union with the
leading white family of pop music -The King of Pop marries the
daughter of the King.