As a fan of music from the 80's and the early 90's, I didn't believe it at first when one of my friends told me that Michael Jackson died. Since TVs were rare where I was at the time, my first instinct was to check CNN.com. As soon as I got confirmation, I found a TV and was glued to one of the news-only channels to get all the latest updates on the death of one of my music idols.

TV coverage of Michael Jackson's death was worldwide and every source of media. The news of his death, the coroner's investigation, the rumors that his death may have been faked (see the video after the jump), the news of where he would be buried, the details of the various tributes, as well as coverage of the special funeral ceremony, etc., made Michael Jackson's death one of the 2009 events that got the most air time around the world. Even as huge an MJ fan I am -- I do have about 30 of his hits on my MP3 -- I can admit that this event got too much air time.

During the many hours of coverage about Michael Jackson's death, we were treated to ton of footage from his concerts, appearances, weird events -- such as the holding of his baby on the balcony, trials and lawsuits, music video clips, and guest appearances, including one on FOX's The Simpsons.

This coverage brought back a lot of memories, but it was too much. If I didn't have specialized cable channels, I would have been stuck with MJ news on almost every channel! And remember that I have French-Canadian and English channels (both US and Canada) so that's a LOT of air time for Jackson.

No matter if you loved or hated Michael Jackson, one thing is certain, the King of Pop not only changed music and dance -- how many people re-enacted the famous "Thriller" dance on YouTube, in movies and on TV shows? -- during his prime, but he also helped revolutionize video clips that aired on TV channels such as MTV. Just think of music videos like "Thriller," where we were treated to a great and fun zombie story, and "Black or White," which was one of the first videos that used that sort of blending/morphing feature to have faces change without us noticing it too much.

Jacko was a wacko at times, but what he brought to music, dance, and video clips, is why his death got so much TV coverage over the summer.