Introduction and findings:
The American legend, Michael Jackson, was born in 1958 in Indiana and died on the 25th of June 2009 at the age of fifty. He started his journey as a pop and disco star at the age of eleven with his brothers but soon went solo in 1972 with the album Got to Be There. In this case, I will be discussing the reasons behind Michael Jackson’s death and how his death caused dramatic increase in the sale of his recordings in the market.
Initial reports stated that Michael’s death was a homicide due to overdose of painkillers in his body. Some say that his personal physician Conrad Murray was the reason behind his death, where the real reason is still unknown and not clear for many. Murray was charged with unconscious murder by prosecutors in Los Angeles, but denied the charge and pleaded not guilty, on February 8, 2010.
Michael’s death caused great grief around the world, but on the other hand, the sales of his recordings augmented radically right after his death. Jackson’s CDs had sold out from the website and The Jackson 5 was out of stock just after few minutes of the breaking news said Bill Carr, Amazon’s associate president for video and music. In addition, the demand for Jackson’s music since his death had exceeded John Lennon and Elvis Presley‘s demand for their music after their unexpected deaths. “Sales of his music topped the leading online music sellers, iTunes, Amazon and Zune Marketplace, taking over most of the top twenty spots. A total of 13 countries pushed Number Ones to the number one spot on their iTunes chart.” (1). The Essential Michael Jackson ranked the number one on the American iTunes melody chart after his album Thriller, while additional nineteen albums made it to the top 40. On the other hand, six of his albums ranked SoundScan Japan’s Top
(1) http://www.jackopedia.com/wiki/Death_of_Michael_Jackson
200 Albums chart in Japan, and Thriller 25 was ranked one of the firsts on the national album chart and was reinstated by King of Pop the subsequent week in Poland.
Jackson had sold around “3.8 million albums and 7.6 million tracks” in the United States by August 5. After few weeks of his death, Number Ones became the top selling album. By the end of the year 2009, Jackson had become the best selling artist of the year, selling a total of 8.2 million albums in the United States.
All of what is discussed previously is the reason behind good marketing and advertising, where exaggerating Michael’s death had made his fans and other people feel that they are close to Michael, to the extent that some people committed suicide to show how much they love him.
In addition, in Michael Jackson’s case, recording companies and T.V. channels played more of Michael’s songs, placed more pictures for him everywhere, kept on showing his funeral and concerts over and over again, so that people, who were used as consumed consumers by the companies, will feel gloomy and depressed about his death and buy his CDs in order to remember him.
Conclusion:
Finally, Michael Jackson’s death, which was caused by the overdose of painkiller drugs found in his body, was viewed by companies and marketers as an opportunity to increase their sales, knowing that Michael have many fans all around the world. They seized this opportunity and used people’s weak point, which in this case their emotions, and made them feel that buying Michael’s CDs would make them remember this legend and make him rest in peace, and by this accomplished their goal which is clearly seen through the massive increase in sales after his death.are in raw documents. Please place <h3>tags</h3> around subtitles/headings in the document to make the essay presentable