I"m not a Michael Jackson fan. I'm more into music of the 60's including the earlier Motown groups such as the Temptations.

However, I believe Jackson should be buried at
Neverland Ranch. His fans will want to go his final resting
place much like the fans of Elvis Presley do. Neverland is as much
associated with Michael as Graceland is with Elvis. There's
even a song about visiting Graceland.

They could get around the California law prohibiting burial on private
property by transferring at least a portion of the property
to local or state government. The property might be
donated for a tax write off, or it could be sold with payment
coming in the form of a portion of an admission fees or
sale of memorabilia at the site if some type of sales building
were
included. Another alternative would be to donate property then
lease it back for a portion of admission fees, etc.

Transferring property to government would eliminate the need to pay
property taxes on it. California could benefit from a
major tourist attraction and Neverland as Michael Jackson's
burial place would become one. It could also become the location
of a Michael Jackson theme park.

Some of the tributes to Jackson have misrepresented his
accomplishments. Jackson's contribution was in the video presentation
rather than its audio presentation as some comments implied.

For example, he wasn't the one combine soul, R & B
and pop. He came out of a musical climate in which they were
already combined. The Motown sound, particularly the Temptations, had
already done that before the Jacksons began performing. In fact in
the 60's just about everything was
combined to some degree from country to R & B. Elvis Presley even
combined R & B and country.

Jackson
continued the tradition of combined music. Jackson also continued
the tradition of social commentary in lyrics that the Temptations had
used in songs from "Runaway Child..." through "War!" However, Jackson
primarily used simple phrases repeated many times instead of
explanations. Jackson also continued the Temptations use of complex
instrumental music.

One tribute falsely compared Jackson to Elvis Presley and the
Beatles. Elvis Presley and the Beatles were singers. As a
singer Jackson wasn't in their class, but Jackson wasn't just a singer.
Jackson was in a different category of performers. He was a
"song and dance" man along the lines of Gene Kelly
and Sammy Davis, Jr.

The best comparison would be to George M.
Cohan. Jackson, like Cohan, started show business early as
part of a family act. Cohan performed with his parents and
sister, Jackson with his brothers. Jackson eventually eclipsed
his family as Cohan had before him.

Cohan helped change music through a shift from vaudeville to the
musical theater which combined performers with songs, dancing and
dialog around some central theme instead of as individual acts.
Jackson helped bring back and popularize the art form of music
videos which had been called "soundies" in the early days of sound
movies.

Jackson also brought back dance as a popular art form. The
demise of variety shows had largely removed dance from public view
except in old movies. The Lawrence Welk shows kept dancing
available through the 70's until the series "Fame" debuted in
1982.

Jackson's well choreographed music videos reestablished
dance as a popular art form

Jackson was an innovator like Fred Astaire who had also done some
singing. Astaire figured a way to appear to dance up the walls of
a room by using a revolving stage. Jackson invented the moon walk
among other things.

Music in the 60's had been primarily an audio event. Jackson
transformed it to a video event for a generation that had never known a
world without television. Jackson reversed the decline in
popularity of music in the early 80's and made MTV a popular cable
channel.