Becoming A Celebrity Is Overrated

This World Is Not As It Seems

The Music Industry is designed to Destroy You

The music industry is overrated in itself. Everything is designed to keep you in a specific program; on a specific frequency. All we hear about nowadays is sex and teenage love. We rarely hear music talking about detachment, patience, and pure love. The hype of being seen as a “baddie” or “him” has corrupted our people. And this is intentional. Not only the government, but any person ruling over a country wants to use you all as resources; as bait for their own success. These celebrities are slaves as well. They may look like they’re living their best lives and maybe some of them are, but most of them are struggling. 

The Plot To Destroy

Don’t any of you notice the theme of each and every person who becomes a “star”. The theme of them getting on drugs, having sicknesses, looking apathetic or aloof. 

Celebrities Who Were/Are allegedly on drugs:

• Brittney Spears: A singer/ actress who got into the music industry when she was 16 years old. Her first single was “kiss me baby one more time.” It makes me sick typing this. A 16 year old telling a boy to “kiss me baby one more time”… And her parents are okay with that.

I understand that teenagers have love lives, but not all 16 year olds are exposed to boyfriends, sex or romantic lovers. And I know a teenager shouldn’t broadcast their personal pain to the world. (OR HAVE A BOYFRIEND! I DON’T CARE IF I’M BEING CONTREVERSIAL!

As I was saying before; her parents are okay with this. Brittney said out her own mouth that she is no longer catholic, she is an atheist. She said “My parents and my children don’t treat me well. There’s nothing to believe in.”

Her parents sold her to the industry at 16 years old and they have been controlling her life ever since. 

• Michael Jackson: A legend who they say started it all. Well he lost the decision to make his own choices for his life at 5 years old. His father had him singing only 5 years after he was born. He saw a check as soon as his boy could talk. (Does anyone see the problem in this or just me?)

He was 11 years old when he got famous and he was 20-21 years old when he decided to sing on his own. He was singing “I want you back” at 11 years old. Why is an 11 year old singing about wanting someone back or being in love with someone? 

To make it clearer for people who find this okay: Music, and words condition your actions. They condition your entire life. 

FACTS: 

• Michael Jackson wrote a song called “Dirty Diana”

• Michael Jackson had a mentor named “Diana Ross”

• Michael Jackson deeply admired Diana Ross.

• Diana Ross introduced The Jackson 5 to Motown and she knew Berry Gordy. 

• Michael grew up with these adults around him. (Influences)

• Berry Gordy is a part of the record label “The Corporation”.

• The song “Big Boy” was about a young boy saying he’s mature enough for an older “girl” (These songs were created by an alleged pedophile by the way)

• Berry Gordy had allegations against him that he touched a young boy and there were allegations that Berry hid a sexual assault that Jermaine was involved in.

Yes, I understand these are allegations that were neglected. But we see this happens all of the time. People LIE!

My argument is simple: the entertainment industry has repeatedly taken children who are already living inside complicated, controlling, unstable, or abusive environments and placed them into another environment where adults, corporations, managers, parents, producers, and executives have enormous power over their money, image, bodies, schedules, careers, and identities. I am not saying every child star is abused, that every adult in the industry is a predator, or that there is one organized conspiracy controlling every celebrity. I am saying that there is a recurring structure that deserves to be examined. Look at Michael Jackson. Michael did not enter the entertainment industry as an adult who had the freedom to make an informed decision about becoming famous. He was a child. Joe Jackson began pushing his sons toward professional performance while Michael was extremely young, and the Jackson 5 were already performing professionally when Michael was still a little boy. By the time they auditioned for Motown in 1968, Michael was only nine. (Detroit Historical Society) And before Motown, the Jackson 5 had already crossed paths with major figures in the music industry. They encountered Gladys Knight while performing around the country; Gladys Knight helped bring attention to them and encouraged the Motown connection. Bobby Taylor of the Vancouvers also played a major role in getting them in front of Motown. Michael himself later acknowledged that Gladys Knight was the first person who tried to get them to Motown, while also crediting his father for pursuing the opportunity. (Biography) Then came Motown, Berry Gordy, and Diana Ross. Michael was approximately ten when he first met Diana Ross, who was already an adult superstar and roughly 14 years older than him. Ross became a mentor and role model to Michael, and the Jackson 5 were publicly associated with her through Motown’s promotional machinery. (ABC News) The group was signed by Berry Gordy in March 1969, and Motown’s first major Jackson 5 album was literally titled Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5. (Detroit Historical Society) So when people tell the story as though Michael simply became famous because he was talented, I think we miss something important: a child with extraordinary talent was entering a system already controlled almost entirely by adults. Joe controlled him at home and as his manager; Motown controlled the professional environment; Berry Gordy controlled the label; producers and songwriters controlled much of the material; and Diana Ross became one of the adult figures Michael admired and looked up to. Michael was 11 when “I Want You Back” was released and became the Jackson 5’s breakthrough hit. He was 11 when “ABC,” “The Love You Save,” and “I’ll Be There” were recorded/released in that early Motown period. He had already performed “Who’s Lovin’ You” at the group’s 1968 Motown audition when he was only about ten, and “Big Boy” had been recorded when he was approximately nine or ten. (Detroit Historical Society) And this is where I ask a question that I don’t think people ask enough: why are we so comfortable with children being placed inside adult emotional worlds simply because they can perform them convincingly? “I Want You Back” is a song about romantic heartbreak and wanting someone back. “Who’s Lovin’ You” is about romantic loss. Michael was an extraordinary vocalist, but his ability to communicate adult emotions does not mean he had an adult’s understanding of those emotions. Talent does not equal maturity. A child can convincingly perform words written by adults without possessing the life experience behind those words. And most of these early Jackson 5 songs weren’t even written by Michael. “I Want You Back,” “ABC,” and “The Love You Save” were written and produced by The Corporation—Berry Gordy, Freddie Perren, Fonce Mizell, and Deke Richards. “I’ll Be There” was written by Berry Gordy, Hal Davis, Bob West, and Willie Hutch. “Who’s Lovin’ You” was written by Smokey Robinson. That means an entire network of adults was participating in the creation of the material, sound, image, and performances of a child. (Biography) Even “Big Boy,” recorded when Michael was approximately nine or ten, involved material portraying a young boy as mature enough for an older girl. I am not saying that proves sexual abuse or proves that any particular songwriter was a pedophile. Those are allegations that require evidence and should not be presented as established facts. But I absolutely think the existence of adult-created, adult-themed material being performed by very young children deserves scrutiny. The same applies to the allegations surrounding Berry Gordy. There have been published allegations involving Gordy and a 14-year-old former Motown staffer, as well as other allegations concerning his conduct, but allegations are not convictions, and I will not pretend they are proven facts. (Los Angeles Times) What is documented is that Gordy had tremendous institutional power, that Motown signed extremely young performers, and that Motown controlled artists’ careers, presentation, and music. Gordy even had a documented romantic relationship with Diana Ross and later acknowledged having a daughter with her; Ross had entered his professional orbit as a teenager. (Biography) Again, I am not claiming that this proves anything criminal happened between them as teenagers. The documented timeline actually places their romantic relationship later, when Diana was an adult. But the power dynamic is still worth examining: a roughly 30-year-old businessman encountered Diana when she was a teenager, became her employer and mentor, heavily supported her career, and eventually became romantically involved with her as an adult. That is a complicated power structure regardless of whether someone believes it was abusive. And Michael grew up surrounded by these relationships and influences. He was a child watching adults build careers, relationships, identities, and businesses around him. He later spoke publicly about the harshness of his father’s treatment, and accounts of the Jackson family’s childhood describe Joe’s discipline as severe and abusive. (KPBS Public Media) Michael’s childhood therefore wasn’t simply “a talented kid gets discovered.” It was a child coming from an extremely controlling home environment and entering an extremely powerful adult-controlled industry.

And this is where Britney Spears becomes important to my argument, because she shows that this isn’t simply an old Michael Jackson story. Britney entered entertainment as a child too. She joined The Mickey Mouse Club at 11 and was already working professionally long before she became the Britney Spears the world knew. (Biography) Her childhood home was also complicated. Accounts of her life describe her father Jamie’s drinking, verbal abuse, abandonment, and erratic behavior, and Spears has described her childhood as difficult. (The New Yorker) She eventually became one of the most profitable pop stars on Earth. But instead of gaining more autonomy as she became more successful, she ultimately ended up under a conservatorship controlled substantially by her father for approximately 13 years, from 2008 until 2021. (Biography) Her memoir and subsequent reporting describe an adult woman who felt profoundly controlled over her career, personal life, medical decisions, relationships, reproduction, finances, and ability to make ordinary decisions for herself. (The Guardian) That is what makes Britney’s story so important to my argument: the system did not necessarily teach the child how to become an autonomous adult; in some respects, the system continued to treat the adult as someone whose autonomy could be managed by other people. Michael and Britney are not identical cases. Their families, careers, personalities, circumstances, and forms of control were different. But the recurring pattern is striking: child → vulnerability → adult control → extraordinary financial value → enormous public exposure → diminished privacy/autonomy.

And then there is the part people often misunderstand when survivors don’t immediately expose what happened to them. People ask, “If something bad was happening, why didn’t they just say something?” Research does not support the idea that victims necessarily disclose abuse immediately or confront the person hurting them. Reviews have found that approximately 55–70% of people reporting childhood sexual abuse delayed disclosure until adulthood, while other research finds that disclosure can be delayed for years or never occur at all. (PubMed Central (PMC)) A 2025 Australian national study found that 45.2% of people who reported childhood sexual abuse had never previously disclosed it before participating in the study. (PubMed) Research also describes disclosure as an ongoing, complicated process affected by fear, shame, self-blame, relationships, age, family dynamics, and whether the person believes they will actually be helped. (ScienceDirect) So when someone says, “But nobody came forward,” that isn’t the evidence they think it is. Silence does not automatically mean nothing happened. At the same time, delayed disclosure also cannot automatically prove that an allegation is true. Both things can be true: survivors may genuinely delay disclosure, and individual allegations still have to be evaluated on their own evidence.

That distinction is especially important when discussing the allegations surrounding Motown, Berry Gordy, Michael Jackson, or anyone else. I am not saying, “An allegation exists, therefore it happened.” I am saying, look at the environment in which these children were operating. Look at the age of the performers. Look at who controlled their careers. Look at who wrote their material. Look at who made money from their success. Look at the parents, managers, producers, mentors, record executives, and other adults surrounding them. Look at what happens when a child becomes financially valuable. Look at what happens when that child grows into an adult and tries to reclaim control. Then compare Michael Jackson to Britney Spears and ask whether we are really looking at isolated celebrity tragedies—or whether we are looking at a structural problem with the way society treats exceptionally talented children.

Because that is ultimately my argument: I don’t think the entertainment industry necessarily creates vulnerable people from nothing. I think it can recognize vulnerability, talent, family dysfunction, ambition, and financial potential and then place those things inside a system where adults have vastly more power than the child. Sometimes that system may nurture the child. Sometimes it may exploit them. Sometimes it may do both simultaneously. Michael Jackson could have been genuinely loved by people who also benefited financially from his talent. Britney Spears could have genuinely loved her family while also describing profound control and harm. Diana Ross could have genuinely cared about Michael while simultaneously occupying a powerful adult position in his life. Berry Gordy could have genuinely believed he was building something extraordinary while still creating relationships and business structures worth scrutinizing. People are complicated, and abuse of power does not require every person involved to be consciously evil. Sometimes the most dangerous systems are the ones where everyone can convince themselves they are simply doing their job, protecting the talent, building the career, making money, or “helping” the child.

So no, I cannot honestly say that the evidence proves my entire theory. It doesn’t. What I can say is that the evidence proves enough of the underlying pattern to make the question legitimate: children have repeatedly entered entertainment through controlling family circumstances, become enormously profitable, been surrounded by adults with substantially more power than them, and in some cases later described severe struggles with autonomy, exploitation, abuse, or control. Michael Jackson and Britney Spears give us two of the most recognizable examples. The allegations surrounding other industry figures raise additional questions, but allegations must remain allegations until substantiated. My point isn’t that every famous person was abused. My point is that when a child becomes a product, we need to ask who owns the product, who controls the child, who profits from the child, and what happens when that child finally says, “I want control over myself.”