Next month marks the ninth anniversary of Michael Jackson's passing. In the ensuing years, fans and the media alike have all taken looks back at the musician's life and death, but a new documentary has drawn the ire of Jackson's estate, who have spoken out against the new film just a day before it is set to air. As Rolling Stone reports, The Last Days of Michael Jackson is set to air on the American television network ABC on Thursday night, and will feature never-before-seen interviews as well as an in-depth look at the musician's final days, including the controversial circumstances surrounding his death. However, Jackson's estate are none too pleased with the new documentary, stating it was made without their authorisation. “We want consumers to know that The Last Days of Michael Jackson, a television special airing on ABC TV (a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company) tomorrow May 24th, is not sponsored or approved by the Estate of Michael Jackson,” a statement from the Jackson estate explained. “It is particularly disheartening that Disney, a company known to strongly believe in protecting its own IP rights, would choose to ignore these rights belonging to the Estate.” Rolling Stone notes that Jackson's estate also took issue with ABC's use of “a copyrighted photo and silhouette image” of the singer, which has been subsequently removed from promotional materials. “We are told ABC intends to use music and other intellectual property owned by the Estate such as photos, logos, artwork, and more in the program itself, without having licensed the rights to any such material,” the estate said. “Imagine if this was done with any of ABC's intellectual property,” Jackson's estate concluded. “We believe the special to be another crass and unauthorized attempt to exploit the life, music and image of Michael Jackson without respect for Michael's legacy, intellectual property rights or his children.” ABC has since responded to the claims, noting that “The program does not infringe on his estate's rights, but as a courtesy, we removed a specific image from the promotional material.” At this stage, the special is still set to air on Thursday night (US time). Michael Jackson passed away at the age of 50 in 2009 from what was ruled to be a heart attack brought on by “acute propofol intoxication”. Conrad Murray, Jackson's physician at the time, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in 2011, and was sentenced to two years in prison for the musician's death. Back in February, a US medium claimed that he had made contact with Michael Jackson during the filming of an episode of Hollywood Medium With Tyler Henry (infer from that what you will). “It's still one of the most surprising, bizarre, surreal experiences in my life,” explained medium Tyler Henry. “What I thought was so interesting when Michael connected to LaToya was that I was kind of expecting Michael Jackson to come through like moonwalking with like a whole audience full of people and a lot of feeling of like celebrity. But when he came through he was quite the opposite.” “He came through very vulnerable, very private. He came across just like a brother trying to connect with his sister and it really wasn't that different than if I were connecting any random person to their brother,” Henry continued. “And it was just really special because it showed universally these connections are all something we can relate to. And even if we're a celebrity in life, they still connect on a personal level on the other side.” Check out Michael Jackson's 'Thriller':
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John Legend performed his new single "A Good Night" at the Billboard Music Awards tonight, backed by a crew of white-clad dancers including both adults and children. The song, originally released in April, is a collaboration with producer, songwriter, and regular Justin Bieber collaborator BloodPop. At the conclusion of Legend's performance, a photo of his newborn son Miles…
Ever since System Of A Down reunited after a four-year hiatus in 2010, the question on everyone's lips has been about when the group are releasing a new album. While the idea of a new record isn't dead in the water yet, the group's guitarist has revealed that the band aren't making albums at the current time. Last month, it was announced that System Of A Down guitarist Daron Malakian has revived his solo project Scars On Broadway, a project which blossomed as SOAD entered its 2006 hiatus. Of course, with the group entering a new stage of its existence, Malakian has found himself speaking about his wide variety of musical projects. Speaking to Kerrang! recently, the guitarist explained that he finds himself writing music for a number of his different projects, regardless of whether he has an outlet for it to be released at the current time, and confirmed that System Of A Down aren't working on any new music right now. “I don't really write for people, and if no one heard what I wrote, I would still write songs,” Malakian explained. “It's just what I do. If I'm not writing I feel like I'm not doing what I'm here to do. So I have a lot of music that's still to be released in the future, whether it's with System or Scars. I have a lot of material.” “I think the Scars stuff tends to take more of a rock direction, even though I would say there's a lot of material on [the upcoming Scars On Broadway] album that I think has more of a System of a Down flavor in it than maybe the first Scars album did.” “As of right now, System's not making albums, so this is the project through which I'm releasing my songs.” Of course, the topic of a new System Of A Down album has been rather contentious for some time. Back in December, frontman Serj Tankian seemed to indicate that any of his future projects will be wholly instrumental, explaining that he's “tired” of writing lyrics and that he “wrote so many lyrics that it stopped to be interesting.” Tankian later confirmed that the band do indeed have new music, but they can't seem to reach a consensus on how they should move forward as a group. “We've discussed it and we've played each other songs, but we still haven't come eye to eye on how things should be done for us to be able to move forward with it. That's where it's been,” he explained to Rolling Stone in December. “When people don't see a record, they assume the worst about your internal relationship. But the truth is we're actually better friends-at least I'm better friends with everyone than I've ever been.” However, despite these rather negative-sounding updates, Malakian seems to remain the most optimistic of the band's members, stating last month that the band have in no way abandoned the idea of recording a new album. “No, it's not abandoned. But as of right now, not everyone is on the same page,” he explained to Rolling Stone. “Trust me, man, I'm probably the biggest System of a Down fan in the world. I mean, I named the band [laughs]. So I'd like to see something like that happen.” “But we're all friends. We all still go out. We play the songs live. We enjoy it. But doing an album is a totally different thing than playing the songs we already have live,” he continued. “It takes a little bit more togetherness, a little bit more commitment from everybody, and I'm not sure everybody is ready to commit to that right now. And it is what it is, man. I can't force anybody to do anything they don't want to.” So while we're all still hanging out for that new record (to put it in perspective, even Tool have released an album since System Of A Down's Hypnotize was released in 2005), you can rest assured knowing that despite there being no action on that front right now, the band have in no way given up on giving fans new music sometime in the future. Check out System Of A Down's 'Toxicity':British electronic producer Jon Hopkins has released his new album, Singularity, on all streaming services. The long-awaited album comes five years after his debut, Immunity, and is his fifth studio album. Hopkins has teased the album over the past couple months with a unique four-minute trailer and two singles, including the ambitious 10 minute track "Everything…
Future Islands have released a new song titled "Calliope" for the Adult Swim Singles Program. The track was recorded during sessions for their 2017 album The Far Field. The song is a groovy, synth-heavy disco record full of energy and grandiose arrangements. The band is currently on a world tour that will end with a date in…
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Maureen Lave
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