Jackson - 'forever tainted'
2003-11-20 13:29
Los Angeles - Fresh child sex allegations against the "King of Pop" Michael Jackson are likely to seriously damage his already shaky public image and legendary musical career, industry experts said.
US authorities on Wednesday ordered Jackson, 45, one of the world's best-known entertainers, to surrender to police and hand in his passport saying he faced charges on multiple counts of child abuse.
"This is not good for his career, to say the least," said Daily Variety music writer Phil Gallo of the charges against Jackson that each carry a maximum penalty of eight years in jail.
"There is not a lower crime to be accused of. Artists can recover from murder allegations, from drug addiction and jails sentences, but the fact is that when you have a stigma of mistreating children, it sticks with you."
After spending 30 years building up a global image that has made billions of dollars, the latest charges will taint Jackson's image forever, said Peter Montoya, an author on personal branding.
Poisoned
But, he said, some die-hard fans will remain doggedly loyal to the "Gloved One", just as supporters of onetime celebrity murder suspect OJ Simpson stuck by him.
"For most in the mainstream, Michael Jackson's brand will forever be poisoned by his bizarre, reprehensible, and possibly criminal behaviour, but his hard-core fans will surely rally around him and make charges of racism and persecution," he said.
Jacko, as he is known to many fans, has faced a litany of very public legal problems in recent years, including accusations in 1993 that he molested a 13-year-old boy, and is likely to go on the offensive against the latest charges, Montoya predicted.
The singer has already alleged a conspiracy to scupper the success of his first album in a year, Number Ones, that was released on Tuesday just as police raided his Neverland Ranch in search of evidence.
Battered image
Jackson's image has been battered in recent years by increasingly eccentric behaviour, including a reclusive lifestyle, penchant for wearing face masks in public while covering his three children with veils and dangling a baby from a fourth floor hotel window.
All that leaves Jackson, whose record sales and fortune have seriously declined from their record-breaking peak over the past 10 years, with a badly tarnished image and a career that is under threat.
"These new charges will hurt his record sales in the long run in terms of his catalogue - and he's mainly a catalogue artist now because its been a long time since he put out a sucessful new record - because nobody is going to want to be in the Michael Jackson business," Variety's Gallo said.
"People are going to want to be very, very careful of using his music, especially licensing it for with anything to do with children. You will want to be very sure that his songs can't be misinterpreted in any way, shape or form."
The entertainer is likely to disappear from music radar for some time, irrespective of what happens with the allegations against him, Gallo said.