Even though I'm the pop lover around here, Michael Jackson was never really part of my musical education growning up. I think it was mostly because my parents didn't like him (who fed me a pretty strict diet of classic rock) and then I grew up with his other issues in the forefront of my mind and only have gone back over the past few years to listen to how much of a pop visionary he was (I think it's impossible to listen to Junior Senior or Justin Timberlake without noticing his influence).

James Brown's death a few years ago (on Christmas) hit me harder than Michael Jackson's, mostly because even though Jackson was much younger, I always saw his death as sort of inevitable because he struck me as an all-American tragedy and watching him age as a middle-aged adult was difficult, so I couldn't imagine seeing him in his seventies. He's had so many problems throughout his life that I think it would be impossible for him to endure throughout another 25 or 30 years. James Brown to me was invincible, while Michael Jackson was always really frail.

I really do wish he held out a few months longer because he sold out fifty (50!) shows in England this summer and I wish his fans would have gotten to see him perform one final time.

A handful of years ago I saw Little Richard play a show at the EMP and it was heartbreaking because he could only remember the choruses to his songs, but his voice still sounded fantastic. Shortly after that show, he became my favorite rock legend of that time and the day that he dies (he's 76 now and I hope has another 20 years plus in him), I know that I'll need to go home from work and take the next day off and will need to be left alone for quite awhile thereafter.

When Morrissey dies it will literally kill a few hundred people, and leave thousands more paralyzed.

Beautiful words, Liz. For me, the youth icon triumvirate is (was?) MJ, Prince, and Madonna. Losing one of them has definitely packed a wallop in a global, day-the-music-died sort of way.

But when Nick Cave or Stephin Merrit goes, it will be personal.

What a sad, weird day. Any astrologers out there have an interpretation of what the heck was up yesterday? (And can you let us know if the craziness has passed?)

Well said Liz - it is interesting to think about how we'll annoint pop (and other) icons in an environment of sneeze-and-you'll-miss-it career.

I think the list you came up with is fairly comprehensive. Only others I could think of are maybes:
- Elton John
- Courtney Love (as "wife of grunge lengend Kurt Cobain")
- Bono?
- Mick Jagger

And oh, um, I hate to say it as they don'tresonate with me - maybe Barbra Streisand/Liza Minelli/Bette Midler type crowd?

On my personal "losing you is personal" list: Michael Stipe +1, Tom Waits.

Well there's Cher of course. Everybody knows who she is - both a pop icon and a gay icon, so there you go.

Liz- that was incredibly sweet. Very true too.

There are just not as many phenomenons that grip the world like Madonna and MJ, etc anymore. I wonder if that is reflective of the quality of mainstream music coming out right now.

People the world will freak over-
1) Madonna
2) Bono
3) McCartney
4) Jagger / Richards

People I freak over-
1) Leonard Cohen
2) Tom Waits
3) Jarvis Cocker
4) Mick Collins
5) Prince
6) Bowie

Nicely done, Liz.

I already weathered the passing of Joe Strummer and Joey Ramone. There's no celebrity death that can personally compare to either of those, especially Strummer. Mick Jones' death is going to cut me deeply, too.

The thing about this big hoopla about MJ's death is that I never saw his music as particularly important. It's not like he was a John Lennon, Joe Strummer, Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Bono or Ian MacKaye. Someone whose music wasn't just about music, but offered a whole new way to look at the world. Again, I'm not a fan, so maybe I'm wrong about this, but it seems really disingenuous to try to compare Jackson's music to anything that totally turns 16-year-old listeners' world upside down.

Like Mimi, Prince would have affected me a lot more personally, though I do realize the shared cultural trauma of Michael's decline and sudden passing. (I also shared most of the rest of her list as well. Cohen, Waits, and I'd add Costello will really suck when they go.)

Bad Wolf's mourning for Joe and Joey is shared; most of all for me will probably be the death of Lou Reed, who isn't seen as too worthwhile by most punters in the past few years due to spotty output and weird public image (hmmm, "our" MJ?) but the combined "meh" from the masses with how much his earlier music/voice means to me will be hard to deal with.