If Michael Jackson were to speak from the grave, he probably would have one reaction to all the obloviating going on from all corners about his sudden death: “Shut up and play the music.”

Listen to it. Dance to it. Michael isn’t gone. His legacy is there. The spirit is in the grooves, or in this digital age in the unique 1/0 patterns that merged rhythm and blues, pop and rock.

For the last 40 years, Jackson was the eccentric Pied Piper. While some continued to follow him, many got turned off by the sideshow.

But death is redemptive. Now people are remembering what it was that first compelled them to watch, listen, and pay attention.

He was a pop artist and entertainer like no other. Michael once told a reporter that the worse thing you can do when trying to dance is to think. Thinking kills. It’s the music. Listen to the music.

In the last 40 years, Jackson’s music changed American society, broke race barriers, brought people together.

Now it’s the soundtrack of the global mourning for the King of Pop.