Michael Jackson Is Anti-Recession

Since the news that all tickets for Michael Jackson’s concerts—sold out in just one city—made a huge splash around the world, many articles in newspapers have been devoted to this event. Estimates say that Michael’s concerts could help the UK economy by as much as 500 million pounds. This has also become material for European cartoonists. It was reported that more than 1.5 million people from 220 countries registered to buy these tickets before they could all sell out. One of these articles, titled “Is the record just a story?” published on OhmyNews, is below: Michael Jackson Is Anti-Recession With the global economic crisis deepening, attracting private investments toward financial activities is becoming very difficult. But in the entertainment and programming industry, when our star—Michael Jackson, the undisputed king of pop music—is involved, there is no recession. It seems his popularity hasn’t been affected by the crisis. The undeniable fact that 750,000 tickets disappeared in 4 hours is proof of this man’s greatness as the most influential symbol in the entire history of pop music. Michael Jackson has sold all tickets for 50 concerts that will be held at London’s O2 Arena as a historic comeback starting this July. The concerts begin on July 8 and continue through September. The second series of concerts will take place in January and February next year. The 50-year-old king of pop will take the stage at the 20,000-seat arena in a venue near Docklands. O2 previously hosted artists such as Prince, with 21 concerts. According to a report published by Bloomberg, with the global crisis, people around the world are not very willing to spend their money and the level of demand has dropped significantly. But it seems the economic recession has had no effect on Michael Jackson’s fans. Apparently, Michael Jackson is anti-recession. Governments around the world are struggling to revive their economies. The World Bank predicted 2009 as the worst year for the world economy, and no definite solution has yet been found to save the crisis. In such conditions, nobody—even Jackson himself, who has sold 750 million albums and won 13 Grammy Awards—would have imagined that 750,000 tickets would sell out in only 4 hours. But it happened. The king of pop, who had held his last world tour in 1996 and 1997, is now on his way to conquering the music world. But is recession just a story? After witnessing the flood of crazy money spent on buying expensive Michael Jackson concert tickets in London—the country that has been badly hit by the recent crisis—we should ask ourselves this question. On one hand, they say the world is trapped in a crisis, and on the other hand, Michael’s concert tickets run out. We have to ask: what happened? How did 750,000 tickets vanish in such a short time? This truth is hard to swallow, isn’t it? But maybe it’s a sign that the world knows what a great artist is. These people are willing to pay a lot to see Michael Jackson, but why aren’t they willing to spend a little more to boost demand and help their economy? Maybe they believe more in Michael Jackson and the power of his stage presence and entertainment than in the economy and stability. Maybe Michael Jackson’s concerts will also have a positive effect on Britain’s shaky economy. Source: eMJey / ohmynews.com