From prodigy to tragedy, Michael Jackson lived inescapably in the public domain, the quintessential superstar turned staple tabloid fodder, the object of near-religious worldwide devotion and the butt of a million standup jokes.

His shocking death at age 50 sets off a battle of images that may rage longer than his sensational 40-year career. Will he be best remembered as the premier performer of a seminal era in popular music, or as a blanched, gaunt semi-recluse given to bizarre eccentricities and tarred with child-molestation allegations?

As the international outpouring upon his death is demonstrating, there is no controversy as to Jackson's degree of popularity — or notoriety. Nor can there be any doubt as to his talent. From the time he handled lead vocals for the Jackson 5 at an age in the single digits, his command of stage and studio was total and his audience appeal boundless. He was still a child when success impelled the family to move from Gary, Ind., to the West Coast, and yet it can be argued that he's the best-known native Hoosier of all time.

He also is a poster child for the steep price of fame, much like the poster girl of the 1970s, Farrah Fawcett, whose death also came on one week ago.

Each of these icons knew glamour, wealth and ego gratification beyond the imagining of the average fan. Each worked at shaping and then reshaping the public perceptions that formed the gilded cage of celebrity. Each felt the media's unwelcome glare as well as the limelight, having survived into a time in which there is no "off" switch for the gossip machinery.

Nor is there any end to psychoanalysis at a distance. Michael Jackson, who has said he was abused as a child and who never knew a "normal" childhood in any case, is a prime subject for speculation about sexuality, maturation, parental relationships and a smorgasbord of other issues raised by his odd, sometimes disturbing, behavior. Even many of his most loyal followers will join in that idle pursuit.

Ultimately, though, what matters about the King of Pop is his art — the voice, the rhythm, the choreography, the steps, the production quality, the impact on mass culture as it was molded by Top 40 radio in the 1960s and '70s and then MTV in Jackson's triumphant '80s.

Whether "I'll be There" and "Billie Jean" will outlast "Jacko" and Neverland in folk memory is anyone's guess; but the good, the weird and the ugly all have lessons to offer. For those of us in the crowd, judgment is not an option. For the Man in the Mirror, like the Girl on the Poster, peace has come now that the crowds are gone.

REPRINTED FROM THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR.