Steve Bacher, who often sends in interesting questions for this page, sent two related ones…
You asked rhetorically: "Can you listen to Michael Jackson music after this?" and answered in the negative. I have a couple of followup questions…
1. What about music by the Jackson Five, when Michael hadn't even reached puberty at the time? (There have lately been TV ads for a drug called Trelegy which featured the J5's "ABC" with rewritten lyrics. As soon as the newsers started to cover the Leaving Neverland story, the commercials disappeared, which I expected would happen…until they reappeared recently. Of course, the original lyrics for "ABC" now seem a lot creepier in the light of what we know.)
2. What about radio stations (on the air and online) and stores that have taken down Michael Jackson product? Is he going to be erased from musical history? (If this trend persists, more than a few classical composers and jazz artists could receive the same treatment, though I suppose murdering your wife's lover as Gesualdo did in the 16th century perhaps doesn't rise to the same level of moral depravity.)
I suspect with time, Michael Jackson music will become a little more acceptable but not much. There are no strict rules about this kind of thing. Bill Cosby will forever be branded a rapist, whereas I haven't seen any indications that Mike Tyson is unwelcome anywhere. He went to prison for rape and now he has a kids show. And yes, he may have been innocent and merely made the mistake of hiring Alan Dershowitz as his attorney.
I don't think most people boycott things like Michael Jackson music because they want to punish posthumously. I think it just has a negative, unpleasant air about it now and since there's plenty of other music that doesn't, why not just play something else for now? One does not even have to consider if you'll start playing it again next month or next year or next decade. We can decide that next month or next year or next decade.
I'm curious if Michael has been yanked from the playlists of places in Las Vegas where "elevator music" is piped in while you gamble or dine. He was once one of the most-heard performers in those venues and now he'd be more of a distraction and probably bring some complaints from guests. I've sent a query to someone who might know and I'll report back here if I get an answer.
For now, I don't think we'll be hearing as much Michael as we once did but some of that will pass. It may seem unfair to abandon Jackson 5 music since obviously Michael wasn't sleeping with kids much younger than himself when "Never Can Say Goodbye" and "I'll Be There" were recorded…but the point isn't to punish those songs because the lead vocalist turned into a bad guy. If they're dropped, it will be because they reminded people of him and if that makes someone uncomfy, there's no real downside to any radio station that decides to now exclude those tunes.