Photo via @he.is.michael.jackson/TikTok
November 10, 2021, 3:09 pm
A resurfaced video of the late pop sensation Michael Jackson stopping his whole concert in order to make sure a bug he spotted on stage is removed carefully to a safe place, insisting that security not kill it, has drawn comparisons to the Astroworld tragedy in which at least eight people were killed by a crowd surge. Travis Scott, the headlining rapper of the festival, has been blamed by many for failing to stop the show even though evidence suggests he did receive indications during his performance that something was wrong and audience members were getting hurt.
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The video, now going viral, was posted to TikTok by a Michael Jackson fan account, praising him for “even paying attention to a bug, let alone his own fans.”
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“Security!” Jackson calls as the crowd screams. “Could you get this bug? I don’t want, I don’t want anybody to step on this.”
“Don’t kill it, though. Don’t kill it!” he says to the security guard who comes to remove the insect. The guard literally has to show the singer that the bug is alive and well in his hand before he moves on with the concert.
In contrast, details on the 2021 Astroworld keep coming out that suggest Travis Scott and concert organizers repeatedly glossed over or skipped safety measures and created dangerous conditions for the concert-goers every step of the way. Records recently obtained from the city of Houston, where the festival was held, show that the venue managers filed some of their plans for the concert just days before it was to begin, forcing city officials to review them in record time.
Email records also appear to show some arguing between venue managers and city officials on the subject of some last-minute changes, according to a Washington Post report. One such official complained that the requests were filed “extremely late to run through typical steps.”
Rushed or absent safety measures have been largely blamed for the tragedy which left hundreds injured, including two young people currently in critical care whose outcomes remain uncertain on top of the eight who died. Scott has said that he was left “devastated” by what happened but has been accused of ignoring signs of distress from the crowd and telling a security guard to “help, jump in real quick” to help attendees but then “keep going” and continuing the show.
Some have claimed that Scott would have had trouble recognizing the danger to the crowd with lights in his eyes and devices in his ears to help him hear the music but has drawn multiple comparisons to other performers in similar situations. Chester Bennington and Michael Kenji Shinoda of Linkin Park once stopped their concert in the middle of a song when they saw a fan falling down in the mosh pit in front of the stage, instructing the crowd to look out for one another and remember to consider safety.
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“We gotta look out for safety first, for real,” says Shinoda in a video that spread on Twitter.
“We know we been stressing all night about being cool, and this is the reason why,” Bennington reminds the crowd. “Let’s go over it one more time: When someone falls, what do you do?”
“Pick them up!” the fans shout back.
The more footage like this comes out in the wake of Astroworld, the flimsier Scott’s excuses seem to be.
“Travis Scott couldn’t pay attention to 8 dead people and this man noticed a bug,” wrote a commenter on the Michael Jackson video.
“That bug grew up to be Travis Scott,” joked another.
*First Published: November 10, 2021, 3:09 pm
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