HUMMELS WHARF — Michael Jackson will be remembered for his “Thriller” work and Farrah Fawcett, her hairstyle, Valley residents said of the two entertainment giants who died Thursday.
Jackson was “a legend,” said Joel Philius, of Selinsgrove. “He made history with some of his earlier recordings. ‘Thriller’ is a great album. I could dance to it right now.”
Jackson, 50, died at the UCLA Medical Center. Fawcett, 62, died after a long battle with cancer.
“(Producer) Quincy Jones is such a real influence in the music world, and when he started taking over working on the details, he really made Michael into the king of pop,” said Grammy Award winning drummer Steve Mitchell, 63, of Lewisburg. “Michael Jackson was the complete performer, singer, dancer, songwriter. He deserved the title of king of pop. Quirky as he was, he was an enormous talent. When you listen to those old Jackson 5 songs, you just recognize him as one of a kind that comes along once in a generation.
Jackson “wrote some great music. ‘Thriller was the best,’ said Keenan Sweigart, of Hegins. “They called him the prince of pop for good reason.”
Jeremy Hummel, 35, of Selinsgrove, a professional drummer and instructor, was a co-founding member of platinum-selling rock group Breaking Benjamin.
“Without a doubt, (Jackson) was the one of the top three most influential pop artists of all time, if not the most the most influential,” Hummel said. “What he did for music and for the pop culture was not only about the music, but it was about the dance. He was the first guy to put together the music along with the dancing and choreography. The thing I remember distinctively from my childhood was the video for ‘Thriller.’ The original version was 20 minutes long. He was the first guy who put together the whole package, the songs, the dance, everything. He was the guy who invented the Moonwalk.”
Jackson “really developed a whole new way of moving in the late ’70s and early ’80s,” said Kitty Moyer, 51, co-director of Moyer Institute of Dance in Sunbury and a professional dancer for eight years.
“He had his own unique style of dance that everyone copied, branched out and ran with,” said Moyer, of Sunbury, who has taught dance for 28 years. “His unique spins. His sharp moves. It has a lot of influence on music today. People are still doing those today. Pop stars weren’t dancing like that back then, but the dancing was so popular everyone started to do it. He influenced how pop dance culture has evolved.”
Jake Daniels, of Lykens, says he’ll remember Jackson for his songs and not the child molestation allegations brought against him in the early 2000s.
“I’ll remember him for his music,” Daniels said. “‘Thriller.’ ‘Bad.’ ‘Billie Jean.’ And not for all the other things that were said about him. He ought to be remembered for his ‘Thriller’ album. It was a classic.”
As was Fawcett’s hairstyle.
“I still have a customer who likes her Farrah Fawcett hair,” said Heather McHugh, 34, owner of Enlighten Salon in Sunbury. “(Fawcett) was the definition of the feathered, sexy look. To get her hairstyle it required a lot of work. Not everyone could pull that off, but everybody wanted to. I remember some of my clients said they tried to wrap their hair in soup cans to try to get that look. They would even sleep with the soup cans in their hair.”
Every generation has its hairstyle, McHugh said, the “epitome of their generation.”
“In the ’90s it was Jennifer Aniston. In the ’80s it was Madonna and Cyndi Lauper. And in the ’70s it was Farrah Fawcett. We will probably see some resurgence in that hairstyle. Everything cycles around every generation or so.”
Teresa Ulrich, owner of Teresa’s in Northumberland, agrees.
“History repeats itself,” she said. “The Farrah hair is in right now. The long, layered look. It was absolutely the style of the ’70s. I would have to say we all tried to get that long, layered, flipback look. Typically you have to have the right kind of hair to wear that.”
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