by Kevin Lockett

Created on: June 27, 2009   Last Updated: July 02, 2009

It is always interesting when an artist dies.

It doesn't matter if it is a singer, actor, painter, or a rapper, the work of someone who is immensely creative, tends to be appreciated more in death than in life.

Nearly a week after his tragic death, Michael Jackson took the top nine positions on Billboard Magazine's Top Pop Catalog Albums totaling 415,000 copies.

His greatest hits package "Number Ones," was #1 with 108,000 copies sold, followed by "The Essential Michael Jackson" (102,000) "Thriller" (101,000), "Off The Wall" (33,000) the Jackson 5's "The Ultimate Collection" (18,000), "Bad" (17,000), "Dangerous" (14,000), HIStory - Volume 1" (12,000) and the 2004 box set "The Ultimate Collection" (11,000).

Since his death, Jackson also sold 2.3 million digital downloads on Apple's ITunes and Amazon.com, compared to only 37,000 the week before, (although 2.3 million is an outstanding number, the fact that MJ sold 37,000 downloads without a current album or video proves that Jackson was still relevant to music fans around the world).

On the U.S. ITunes chart, Jackson classics "Man in The Mirror", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Billie Jean" and "Black White" made the top ten, battling out with current hits by artists who grew up watching the "King of Pop" like Lady Gaga("LoveGame") and the Black Eyed Peas ("I Gotta Feeling", "Boom, Boom Pow").

On France's ITunes charts, Jackson's "We are the Word" and "Thriller" make an appearance in the top ten, along the top two songs "Billie Jean" and "Beat it", which is very reminiscent when both songs from "Thriller" dominated the Billboard singles charts back in 1983.

However, as the days, weeks and the months go by, Jackson's current musical dominance will soon fade, but not completely.

Much like iconic artists like Elvis Presley, James Dean, Kurt Cobain, Basquiat, Marilyn Monroe and Tupac Shakur, there will always new Michael Jackson fans. Ones who will be amazed the first time they will see the "Thriller" video or try to imitate the clean Fosse-like moves on Beat It".

These new fans will then be compelled to download Jackson songs and albums and as will another who will embrace Jackson's music on something other than CD's and MP3's.

This is why art is such a wonderful thing.

It doesn't when it was created, there will be new people who embrace its complexity, its beauty as well its brilliance from generation to generation and beyond.

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