Summer Of Death 2009

A sad but unmistakable truth is that, the dead seems to receive more flowers than the living. Celebrities are no exception to this, being on a much higher scale. Why is it that many only started listening to Whitney Houston's songs after her death? Or the time when the media only became curious about the king of pop upon the news of his death headlining the front page of every newspaper? The famous will forever be frozen in our minds as they were in their prime time, basking in the glory of the spotlight. It is, however, the ugly truth that we have to face: the fact that people only ever take initiative to appreciate celebrities after their death, when it is too late. 

 Summer is typically associated with sunshine and the enthusiasm of the holiday mood. But today, let us take a moment to reminisce and pay respect to the respectable figures who passed away in the Summer of 2009, infamously known as the Summer of Death. Sadly stating, the Summer of Death of 2009 holds the highest record of passing celebrities, surpassing even the heart-wrenchingly large number of deaths in the Summer of Death of 2003. With the unexpected deaths of iconic figures, fans all over the globe shared the pain of losing these heroes in their lives as they mourned in grief. 

 Hands-down, the most monumental death that sparked a huge flame across the world, was the death of Michael Jackson. Everyone who have been exposed to music has definitely heard of the legend himself. The king of pop has a fanbase coverage throughout the entire globe. So it was inevitable that his death took a huge toll on the world, evidently seen by the events that took place after the news of his death was released. Web giant Google had even admitted that when the news first broke, it fearfully thought it was under attack from hackers and had to shut down for about half an hour. 

 As fans shakily search for sources to verify Jackson’s death, most running websites such as CNN, Wikipedia, and Twitter eventually slowed down and crashed. It was reported that the Google News service was inaccessible for a period of time. At its peak, Google Trends rated the Jackson story as volcanic. Meanwhile, TMZ also experienced several outages after it was the first to break the news to the world. CNN reported a staggering fivefold rise in traffic and visitors in merely over an hour, receiving 20 million page views in the hour the story broke. Several other websites such as Los Angeles Times and BBC News also crashed. ”It could go down as the biggest mobile event in history," AOL consumer advisor, Regina Lewis stated. 

 Michael Jackson has sold more albums since his death than over the past 13 years of his life. In the immediate aftermath of his death, his album and digital sales skyrocketed. As ironic as it seems, this trend of strong sales has been continuing ever since to many other passing celebrities. This reflects on how we are, - that grief and regret are more powerful than appreciation. Like the act of showering the dead with more flowers than the living, we only wait until it’s too late before putting in the effort to do something. The Summer of Death of 2009 is sending an important message: do not wait until time runs out; appreciate your loved ones with all your heart not because they are dead, but because they are living.