The reports are in. Michael Jackson has died, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

Facebook and Twitter are full of activity as people reminisce about listening to his records during their childhood years. Heck, I still have a vinyl album of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” in my collection that I listen to occasionally.

I can’t help but wonder: Will death steer people back to his records? 

Certainly death has provided a boost to the sale of records and memorabilia for other musical artists.

This year marked the 50th anniversary of Buddy Holly’s death. The linked article, from Time magazine notes that just before his death, his last single “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore,” had sluggish sales.

Right after the plane crash that led to Holly’s demise (along with the Big Bopper and Richie Valens), the song began going up the charts. A greatest hits album proved successful.

Beyond tangible sales, Holly has proved influential to other artists who covered his songs and wrote songs about him. Don McLean's "American Pie" references Holly’s death. In 1994, rock band Weezer had one of its first hits with “Buddy Holly.”

A more modern version of this phenomenon is the deaths of rappers Christopher Wallace and TuPac Shakur, who performed under the names of Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac.

Before their deaths, they were mostly known for being on opposite sides of a violent East Coast-West Coast hip-hop feud. But after their deaths, they, too, experienced success with a slew of unreleased material, documentaries and other music-related items.

Notorious B.I.G. was even featured on Michael Jackson’s 2001 album, “Invincible.” Ironically, that was Jackson’s last studio album. (Talk about rapping beyond the grave!)

Will Michael Jackson have the same success postmortem? I guess we’ll see.


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