I have to admit that it took Michael Jackson dying on Thursday for me to remember that he had still been alive. Still, one doesn’t need to have been a fan of Jackson to be affected by his passing or to relate to the various discussions surrounding his untimely (?) death. Those of us born around 1980 became aware of the wider world while Michael Jackson was at the peak of his celebrity. As many of the commentaries on his life and death have maintained, this was a new type of celebrity, quantitatively and also qualitatively different from those preceded it.  Similarly, his death eclipses those of other global superstars like Elvis, John Lennon, Princess Diana or James Brown. The texts linked below – with varying degrees of personal sentiment and theoretical density – are all engagements with the life and death of Jackson. This is obviously a very partial list and suggestions for further reading would be appreciated.

Perhaps the best of the bunch, the always insightful K-punk:  “… and when the groove is dead and gone…”

Steven Shaviro (author of The Cinematic Body and most recently, Without Criteria: Kant, Whitehead, Deleuze and Aesthetics) on his blog The Pinocchio Theory.

Gary Younge in The Guardian: We span, shuffled and combed our hair up high – to be like the boy on Bandstand.

 Critic Ernest Hardy on his blog Blood Beats.

Owen Hatherley of the blog Sit Down Man, You’re a Bloody Tragedy and the recently published Militant Modernism: We are the only World.

Annalee Newitz at io9.com: Michael Jackson’s Science Fictional Life.

Charlie Brooker, also in The Guardian: Michael Jackson’s death hit Glastonbury hard -– and the news channels harder.

Various critics at Salon: Don’t stop ’til you get enough.