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George Michael has died
- ajamesm 10y agoI guess this will be his... Last Christmas.
- ruminasean 10y agoAll the papers seem to have lost the bet on this one, there have been no prepared obits like with older musicians.
- danso 10y agoDoesn't really make much sense to prepare obits for people who aren't near the age of death, or otherwise aren't near death. The NYT prematurely prepared with Castro in 2006 -- who was thought to be near death -- and had to throw entire sections of their reporting out. [0] Most other newspapers, the Castro obit writers were no longer employed by 2016. It's basically journalism's version of cache invalidation, which is also one of journalism's hardest problems. OTOH, I'm sure many news orgs have a Carrie Fischer obit prepared by now. [0] http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/29/insider/fidel-castros-obituary.html http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/29/insider/fidel-...
- golergka 10y agoLast Christmas reference is, of course, cheesy, but I can't think of better way to remember a great musician than with his music.
- DanBC 10y agoHere's a nice article about an appearance of his and Morrissey's on an 80s tv show. http://www.post-punk.com/morrissey-george-michael-talk-about-breakdancing-and-joy-division/ http://www.post-punk.com/morrissey-george-michael-talk-about... He's spot on about Morely.
- diego_moita 10y agoAnd does it matter? Is HN turning into a Redit 2? He was just a pop star. There are dozens others. In 10 years very few will remember he ever existed. All he made will be forgotten.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- tudorw 10y agoWham! sold more than 25 million certified records worldwide from 1982 to 1986
- yakshaving_jgt 10y agoPopularity is seldom a good indicator of quality. I mean, Avril Lavigne has sold twice that many records. Not that I'm saying George Michael wasn't any good; he was. The point is, bringing those kinds of metrics into art is a slippery slope.
- tudorw 10y agoWhat is your measure of quality? I guess the point is that for millions he represented their view of quality, just because that does not meet the definition of other people's idea of quality does not make them wrong.
- Chinjut 10y agoEverything everyone has ever made will eventually be forgotten, Ozymandias style. But George Michael has been, for decades, far, far better known than most of the people, startups, etc., that are discussed on Hacker News. Which doesn't mean the latter oughtn't be discussed, but there's certainly no reason to refrain from discussing George Michael either.
- oxide 10y agoWell, since he was popular I suppose it's okay. Fucking christ, all hope is lost.
- jstewartmobile 10y agoThey ended his obit with the Beverly Hills bathroom incident. Way to stay classy BBC! His music has been continuously played everywhere from shops to bars to events throughout the western world -- almost as a form of crowd control -- for almost two generations now. It will probably continue to be a staple of western audio-soma for at least another generation, and there is no denying his genius for it. Not a good year for pop stars. Rest in peace.
- nikolay 10y agoSadness! Careless Whisper is among my favorite songs!
- melling 10y agoWe flag killed two stories about Carrie Fisher's heart attack yesterday. And today George Michael is an important story. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13247567 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13247567
- racl101 10y agoMaybe people think George Michael is more significant than Carrie Fisher. He's certainly way, way, way more talented that's for sure.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- DanBC 10y agoI'm not sure why you're telling me. I haven't upvoted this story; I haven't tried to defend this submission.
- sctb 10y agoWe detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13256198 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13256198 and marked it off-topic.
- toyg 10y agoA lot of people will find out today that this icon of modern Britishness was, in fact, the son of an immigrant from an EU country. It's very apt, and extremely sad, that he died on the year of Brexit.
- wyclif 10y agoI was going to make a snarky comment along the lines of "yeah, but when Leonard Cohen died earlier this year, a much more talented songwriter and musician, his obit didn't make the HN front page." Then I went and searched Leonard Cohen, and it did make the front page. Oops!