Jacko music flies off shelves

KOLKATA: The sudden death of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop', has led to unprecedented sales of his albums as shocked fans in Kolkata embark on a journey of musical nostalgia. Music stores in the city are running out of stock, radio stations are belting out his hits through the day and musicians are grieving the death of a perpetual inspiration.
"Sales of Michael Jackson's albums have increased 4-5 fold.Although we procured from the market and also asked for new consignments, the upsurge in sales is making it difficult to get the required amount of stock. I haven't seen anything like this in the recent past," Chetan Arora of Music World said.
The sales situation was no different at other stores. "It's been a phenomenal weekend. The sales have been huge, especially at the mall stores. We've run out of stock," Kohinoor Chakroborty of Planet M said.
At stand-alone stores, too, demand for MJ was outstripping supply. "MJ's album sales have gone up by 500%. People are snapping up his MP3 collections, VCDs and all other concert videos. There are no stocks left. If we had more, I'm sure we would have sold them all by now," Vishal Gupta of M Biswas & Symphony revealed.
The aberration caused by Jackson's demise also found its way into Kolkata's radio waves. At Radio Mirchi which is almost exclusively a non-English station convention was set aside to line-up a tribute to MJ on its Friday evening show. "We only did this because it's Michael Jackson," programming head Indrani Chakroborty divulged.
It was ditto at another city radio station where requests for Jackson's chartbusters poured in unabated. "We usually don't get requests for his songs, but the numbers have shot right up. We've not only dedicated our retro music show to him, but we've had to play a couple of songs otherwise because of public demand. The response is overwhelming," the station's programming head said.
But it weren't just the musical masses that were moved. The city's artistic gentry seemed no less affected by the going of a man who many considered a timeless icon.
"When I got my first cassette tape player in 1986, I went through a few artists before discovering MJ. And once I did, I kept on listening to him. My move into English music, and subsequently the evolution of Bangla rock, might not have happened without MJ," Cactus frontman Sidhu admitted.
For Krosswindz lead guitarist Tuki, though, MJ's all-pervasive presence will continue to contribute as much to his legacy as his musical genius. "Even a decade back, when we performed in rural Bengal, people knew who he was. I even remember seeing a poster of MJ on the wall of a house in Purulia. His passing so early is a crime."
The king might be dead, but not his music. Not in Kolkata, at least.