With everyone's Facebook news feeds inevitably monopolised by MJ comments, an unsurprising divide was seen over such a polarizing individual. Whilst most comments ranged from polite "RIP"s to devastation and passionate tributes, an emerging handful of detractors were telling us to get a grip, that he was "only a musician, not Gandhi", that Army fatalities were more worthy of tributes, disbelief at how much this was dominating the news coverage, making sarcastic comments and tired paedo/plastic-related jokes. Interestingly, it was the negative jibes that generated the most "Like"s (the authors perhaps said what others were thinking but didn't have the balls to write).

For many if not most people, music is an important facet of life, and can clearly bring happiness to both individuals and communities plagued with poverty or other misery. Given this, the detractors should note that the far-reaching positive impact he had on half a billion people's lives can only be rivalled by perhaps the Dalai Lama and the Pope. There was nobody more universally famous, with humble villagers in every continent growing up to his music, and perhaps only Barack Obama has the potential if he gets things right to rival MJ's status (until his post-1993 downfall) as a multi-talented, charismatic, universal superman.

The evolution of his music over four decades - seamlessly spanning multiple genres - is phenomenal and unprecedented, his contribution to accelerating mainstream access for black musicians is underappreciated (the first black musician to feature on MTV and the cover of Rolling Stone), his influence on musical style, dance and video production for decades of R&B / pop artists and choreographers probably underplayed.

Michael Jackson has provided the soundtrack to my life, and I'm sure tens of millions of others. Born in the year the Thriller single was released, Bad was the first CD I'd unanimously see in everyone's households, whilst the Moonwalker film, video games and Do The Bartman gave him elevated status during my infancy. I vividly recall the massive built-up hype and subsequent panther-related controversy of the Black or White premiere on Top Of The Pops, watched with my parents at age 7 and discussed with everyone the next day - likewise for his follow-up releases from Dangerous, the live Oprah interview, and continuing through the decade with HIStory's release and its groundbreaking Scream video.

Invincible was on repeated play during a miserable few months at 6th form, and the next year I remember late nights in my first term at Oxford with Aruna et al watching the pioneering videos from the 80s, jaws dropped at the flawless Motown 25 performance where the moonwalk was debuted, and as I built up the entire back catalogue Off The Wall proved to be a great feel-good album to work to.

Whilst most fans love the upbeat pop hits from Thriller and Bad the most, I find tracks such as Billie Jean (sung along night after night at every student union club across the country without most having a clue what the lyrics mean) somewhat overdone compared to many of the ballads and softer tracks that have been largely overlooked. From the simple, beautifully melodic She's out of My Life, One Day in Your Life and Human Nature from earlier albums, to the breathtaking, flawlessly produced Break of Dawn, Butterflies, Heaven Can Wait and Cry from Invincible, I can't think of a better ballad artist - these are certainly worthy of a revisit. Similarly my favourite album's Dangerous, where the later tracks Who Is It, Give In To Me (a powerful record featuring Slash), Will You Be There (from the Free Willy soundtrack) and the fitting Gone Too Soon didn't get the recognition they deserve.

As for all the infamous oddities, it surprises me that these seem to be universally met with ridicule without an ounce of sympathy. How do you expect someone with such an utterly surreal upbringing - and entire life for that matter - to behave normally? Nobody except the kids in question and alleged witnesses know for sure, but it seems to me from the Bashir interview and other statements that his inappropriate closeness with children was just an innocent, naive attempt to claim back the childhood he never had rather than actual paedophilia. Incidentally there's hundreds of Twitter posts right now about Jordan Chandler admitting he lied for his father about being molested, though I'm not sure how credible the source is.

In a shallow bubble where looks can matter more than talent, with his father teasing him through childhood about his nose, plastic surgery to attempt to overcome insecurities shouldn't be that surprising - its just a shame that the work emerged so horrifically botched in recent years. Similarly it is a fact that he had vitiligo, and it seems any bleaching / lightening attempts were just to smoothen things out rather than be covered in patches of different tones. Finally, he's hardly the only one who would lack financial astuteness when dealing with such unheard-of sums - at least he genuinely meant well with several philanthrophic ventures.

Regardless of your opinions over all the controversies, his unparalleled contribution, influence and inspiration to every aspect of the contemporary music industry over more than four decades (with more to come) - genre, style, dance, theatrical videos and breaking down barriers - cannot go unnoticed. It is awesome to see him bag 43(!!) of the UK Top 200 singles this evening, plus the #1 album; perhaps the best tribute video to him is the archive footage from his last hit single: