I See Dead People

When Michael Jackson died, his music suddenly went up the charts like nuts. His classic songs were top of the charts for weeks, mainly thanks to massive, massive numbers of downloads, and record sales of his old albums.

Last week Antonie Kamerling - actor, singer, local celebrity - died, and his music, his television shows and movies flew off the shelves en masse. Again it earned him - posthumously of course - another number one-hit billing.

What's the fascination with buying music from recently tragically deceased artists? Especially in the time of the iPod and music downloads it's not like the shop's gonna run out of stock. Of course, there will never be proper new material, but the old material will remain in some shape or form. And it's not like the material magically got better. Songs that in life were barely breaking even, become post-mortem cash cows, just by having the artist shed his mortal coil.

For me indeed either Jackson's or Kamerling's or anyone's demise is tragic. It doesn't automatically make me want to spend money on their work more than when they still trucked along on this earth. I remember them, perhaps a prayer for their loved ones. But their music is not suddenly 100 percent better. If they made sucky movies in life, the movies still suck when they are dead.