MJ 2.0 – Remembering Michael Jackson via Social Media

Tuesday, July 7th 2009. TECHAFFAIR was fortunate to have attended Michael Jackson’s “INAUGURAL PUBLIC MEMORIAL SERVICE” at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.  The 20,000-seat facility for MJ’s public memorial was free of charge with swarms of invited media documenting the historic event. Millions watched the televised event, you know the story.

But even more intriguing, the millions upon millions of internet users at home, on their computer streaming the event live at CNN.com facilitating an open, interactive forum for adorning fans all across the globe… with the help of Silicon Valley, social networking giant, Facebook.

Michael Jackson will forever be immortalized not only as the King of Pop, but the King of Social Media. TECHAFFAIR crowns Michael Jackson MJ 2.0.

CNN claims hundreds of thousands of fans were logged into the Facebook widget (Facebook Connect) and 6,000+ status updates were coming in every 60 seconds (totalling over 6,000,000 status updates) – think instant feedback.  Fact check: that was more than during the Obama inauguration, an inauguration that took months of preparation, not days.

Remember Twitter (and nearly the entire Web) collapsed at the breaking news of Michael Jackson’s death and since then, the impact of new social media including real-time phenomenons such as Twitter; have become intertwined into daily life as a source of communication and news / social gathering.   

One thing is for sure, CNN gets the social data revolution and is utilizing these real-time tools correctly. Perhaps the immediate use of social media in response to the death of Michael Jackson can only be compared to the power that the Vietnam War gave television. Yes, MJ 2.0 is that powerful.

Michael Jackson transcends age, race, religion, borders, and now, music technology. MJ lived and survived through all of the music media transitions: from LP’s, to cassette tapes, to compact disc, to MP3.

Let’s take a brief look at a timeline of the history of music media:

1877 - Thomas Edison invents the phonograph, the first medium for recording and playing back sound. It used cylinders instead of discs

1887 - Emile Berliner invents the gramophone, the first flat record player

1900 – Eldredge Johnson perfects mass duplication of pre-recorded flat record discs

1906 – RCA Victor introduces Victrola model record player, which had variable turntable speed control that accommodated the wide range of records produced at the time

1908 – Columbia introduces the first double-sided phonograph records

1912 – Disc recordings become more popular than cylinder recordings

1924 – Electrical records replace acoustic discs

1928 – The 78.26 rpm speed becomes standard for all phonograph records.

1946 – German magnetic tape recorders are copied for commercial use by AMPEX

1948 – The 33 1/3 LP is introduced by Columbia

1949 – RCA Victor introduces large-hole 45 rpm records. It became the preferred medium for singles

1952 – The Recording Industry Association of America is formed.

1955 – 12" LPs become more popular than 10" LPs

1962 – Multi-track analog tape recording begins in recording studios

1963 – Phillips develops compact stereo tape cassettes and players

1982 – The compact disc is introduced. The first CD is released in Japan. It is Billy Joel’s “52nd Street.”

1983 – The first CDs are released in the United States

1986 - CDs overtake LPs as top-selling medium in the United States

1999 – Recordable CD-R discs become available

2000 – Napster is created. This is also the first year that recording sales declined, and the recording industry blames online music sharing.

2001 – Napster is slapped with a lawsuit by the RIAA. In October, Apple introduces its iPod portable music player.

2003 – Apple introduces its online music store iTunes, offering free music downloads at 99 cents per song.

2006 – In February, iTunes sells its billionth song.

2007 – Just over a year later, in July, iTunes crosses the 3 billion songs sold mark.

2008 – Present – The digital revolution has just begun…

Talent. Moonwalk. Thriller. 100+ Million Sold. Music 2.0. Technology. Twitter. Enter MJ 2.0.