"Ma ma se, ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa."

Perhaps that refrain from Michael Jackson's hit "Wanna Be Startin' Something" played in your head after the news on June 25 that he had died, two weeks before his series of comeback concerts were set to begin in London. People everywhere, it seems, could relate to something about the man who was arguably America's biggest pop culture export.

Shock. Grief. Denial. Celebration. Fellow celebrities, Jackson's friends, and people who never met him reacted to the megastar's death with a collective response unlike that seen since perhaps the tragic accident that killed Britain's Princess Diana. When she died, though, no one had the Internet, Facebook, and Twitter to broadcast story after story, or their personal feelings, around the world. For almost three days, the Jackson story occupied prime real estate on both CNN and the New York Times' websites, two of the most visited news outlets online.