Michael Jackson was one of the only (if not the only) true international superstars the world has ever known, and the combination of his massive success and the bizarre sideshow life has made him one of the most famous people who has ever lived. At this point in time a lot of the super success of Michael Jackson post-mortem has been from a new found acceptance of him from people who were sickened by who Michael Jackson became.
I once saw a pretty in depth analysis of musicians and bands performance past their prime which tried to analyze how popular Michael Jackson would have been had his insanity not ruined his career; the conclusion that they came to was that he could have remained one of the top 10 most popular musical acts in the world for decades after his prime without ever producing another album anyone wanted to hear.
