I called it a tie. Both were fabulously talented and innovative, extremely popular, crazy as a shithouse rat, and died from prescription drugs enabled by unscrupulous physicians, and their sycophantic entourages. I think the difference is that Elvis's impact was positive, and Jacko's just the opposite. Elvis made black R&B and country blues mainstream stuff in the white community, and enabled generations of talented black performers to make tons of money.
Jacko, on the other hand, popularized ridiculous large-scale stage productions with coordinated dancing, multiple costume changes, and insipid jerky dancing. In short, he revived the huge Broadway musical stage production and updated it for the modern pop scene, enabling generations of so called "artists" who didn't have a fraction of his vocal talent. The point is, that without Michael Jackson, Britney Spears would be delivering hamburgers on roller skates, where she belongs. Michael Jackson put on a show. The Who *were* a show. That's a huge difference, and I prefer the latter. In that sense, Jacko was the modern entertainment equivalent of Howard Hughes. He was rich enough to hire people who wouldn't tell him he was crazy, and it cost him his life.-Richie
