The Last Castrato
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Just about everything that needs to be said about Michael Jackson (RIP) was said by Michael Kinsley 25 years ago:
What’s happened to Michael Jackson isn’t too different from what they used to do to young male singers in Europe a few centuries ago, to keep their voices sweet. In another way, it resembles the exploitation of child stars like Judy Garland in the heyday of the Hollywood studios. In fact, what American capitalism has done to Michael Jackson is even a bit like what the Soviets do to their women athletes.
That’s one reason not to credit claims that Jackson was a pederast — nothing in his monstrously overexposed public or private life suggested any sex drive at all.
(I didn’t know Kinsley could write like that, by the way. Jackson wasn’t the only one at his peak in the ’80s.)
About his place in pop music, well, the records speak for themselves, though Robert A. George gets at something interesting here:
He became the Rosa Parks of MTV — forcing the then-new music channel to play videos by black performers. MTV insisted that it was a “rock” station, and “black” music didn’t fit the format. But Michael Jackson was a product of a generation that grew up with both “black” and “white” music. Having Eddie Van Halen play the guitar sol on “Beat It,” may have been a gimmick, but it was one that worked and “fit.” As a result, Jackson ended up leading an early-’80s pantheon that appealed to a broader cross-section of music fans than any before or since: Jackson, Prince (my personal favorite), Madonna, Bruce Springsteen all could be heard on Top 40 radio, the last moment before the industry began to segregate itself again.
The sense of fluid identity in ’80s pop culture actually fit the Reagan era’s political culture well, since the latter also said that you could be anything you wanted to be — and get rich, too. Even the “nationalism” of politics in 1984, the stuff of “Morning in America” and Reagan’s re-election landslide, had a parallel in pop music’s promiscuity and impulse to integrate. Different identities could be melted together, politically or musically.
But other ’80s figures who played at self-invention did so as adults; Jackson, as Kinsley says, had been somebody else’s product since age 10. Once he had the means to remake his life, he remade it in the only image he knew, that of a 10-year-old.
My title for this post, I should note, is a bit unfair to the actual “last castrato,” Alessandro Moreschi, who had a relatively normal life. He sells fewer records, though:
He could do with some Quincy Jones production:
Of course, ’80s music + operatic vocals = Klaus Nomi:
Beat that, emo kids.
Filed under: Pop culture, the dead
I have observed, assessed and screamed MJ’s a typical castrato for years exactly as you declared.
Just another eunuch episode in the soapy opery, BUT,
Thanks for the versimilitaritude.
I have been saying this for years, and in fact have used your exact title in conversation. I, however, have meant it quite literally.
Here’s my essay about the theory:
http://www.itwaslost.org/2007/04/special-report-is-michael-jackson.html
I had never seen that Kinsley quote – whoa!
I see the similarities. Alessandro Moreschi could front Radiohead.
Michael Jackson is said to have suffered emotional and physical abuse from his father. He is quoted as saying that his childhood was taken away from him. Jacob Weisberg thinks because of Michael Jackson’s arrested development that he sought to reclaim his childhood by being a real life Peter Pan.
http://www.slate.com/id/2120889/
I agree wiith this theory, have for years.
It’s interesting if you look into bodily features of castratos, elongated hands,fingers and limbs…and postural effects, which could be seen on MJ. I agree he was a great entertainer but a disturbing man.
No way was Michael Jackson a castrato. Castrati had round, feminine bodies — Jackson was all muscle…lean, but muscular. Also, Jackson’s high voice was a show. Here’s a great video showing his real voice, which was well within the normal male range.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsSp78gq8UQ
Also, Lisa Marie claimed that he was incessantly pushing her to get pregnant, and that the end of their relationship came when he informed her that if she would not have his kids, he had found someone who would (Debbie Rowe). Why would he be urging her to get pregnant if there was no way for that to happen? Granted, she could be lying, but she’s always been forthright about their relationship, both the good and the bad. I tend to believe her.
I don’t believe it for a second.
If you look at the features of MJ’s supposed children, they appear to have no African American traits at all. I have suspected MJ to be Castrato since watching “Farinelli”, a movie based on the real life story of Carlo Maria Broschi, a popular Opera singer of the 18th century, who happened to be Castrato. I suspected when MJ’s children were born, that the real father was someone else, because my theory was that MJ could not conceive children due to being Castrato.
I know I’m very late to the party, but I want to write these things down somewhere anyway:
I believe it’s *possible* that he took some sort of female hormones or something like that (I’m really not an expert on these things) when he was a younger, or even that he just has some sort of natural hormonal thing going on, but I don’t believe he was *literally* castrated – not least because the coroner’s report allegedly revealed that he wasn’t (though I can’t confirm that for certain.)
As ‘no, no, no’ above says, he doesn’t actually have the body type of a castrato. Admittedly, my understanding of this comes from Wikipedia, but apparently, castratos tend to not only have long limbs as ‘another in agreement’ says, but tend to be unusually tall (though he sometimes looked tall, Michael was only 5′9″), have elongated ribs (which Jackson *definitely* did not have – his torso is flat as can be), and accumulate fat in feminine areas, i.e. the chest, the hips and thighs. Michael was a stick figure, he did not have a feminine body.
Also as ‘no, no, no,’ says, it’s become clear that Michael’s unusually high voice was not natural. For whatever reason, he chose to speak like that, but it doesn’t seem to be the case that he *had* to, as every here and there you can find clips of him speaking at a lower pitch.
As for his children – even if those kids aren’t his biologically, that doesn’t automatically serve as evidence that he *couldn’t* have fathered children biologically. Maybe he just didn’t want to, for one reason or another.
I see credit in what some of you say but still feel that there is just a little bit more to the story. I don’t see Lisa Marie as a very serious relationship and it may have been to put off the fact that Jackson never really showed intimacy like I do and some of you would. The other thing is I think castrato is possible except of course he doesn’t display the body type or some of the other. But we have to remember this man was made of hollywood and in hollywood things like weight, body shape, and visible human features can be changed at the blink of an eye, Pamala Anderson knew it, Jolie knew it, and Jackson couldn’t make up his mind on when to stop it. Perhaps he was born as a hermaphrodite and struggled with balancing hormones? We have to remember that there are many factors to consider and also things that occurred over the course of time. Perhaps whatever really was going on with him would explain why he didn’t undergo so much surgery till later on? Would any of the things suggested so far (Castrato, Hormone Issues, wtf happened to his skin color and facial features and why does he always sound congested or nasally but trying to hide it? ) The man maintained control over the pitch of his voice and would have been good at doing it. He was kept very shielded despite media coverage this is why there was so much confusion over those children in neverland ranch, nobody really got to know too much about him (I mean casually like what food did he like most often, what was his shoe size, did he like onions or prefer pickles etc). I think if we considered him more like ourselves we’d notice things that would provide more clarity on the subject. Really good posts btw keep up the good work.