Thais join world in mourning King of Pop

Thousands of messages popped up on community and news Websites, while Sony Music Entertainment (Thailand) said the local demand for Jackson's CDs had risen sharply.

Users of social-networking site Facebook also quickly created new pages in the pop star's honour with a page called "Michael Jackson RIP", which according to Agence France-Presse notched up almost 30,000 members in just a few hours.

Among the Facebook features related to Jackson is the quiz "Which Michael Jackson Hit Song Are You?"

Like the rest of the world, Jackson's work inspired figures in Thailand's entertainment industry, not only for his music, but every facet of his performances.

"I was first attracted to Michael Jackson's music video 'Thriller' directed by John Landis," says filmmaker Prachya Pinkaew, who started out making music videos before moving on to action movies like "Ong-Bak".

"I really loved the dancing and production. After that I always followed his new music videos. I think it was then a phenomenon that every time he released a new album or single, he always came up with a new creative music video and it worked every time to get fans' attention."

Prachya says that he learned new things from Jackson's videos. "His 'Black or White' is a revolution of computer graphics and morphing technique."

DJ Yuthana "Ted" Boonorm writes "sad sad day" and posts his personal CD collection of the King of Pop on Facebook.

Rathasak "Golf" Wongnern, a 28-year-old three-time champion of the "B-Boy Battle of the Young" dance competition, calls Jackson's death a great loss for the world.

He has been a big fan of Jackson since the age of 10 and was inspired by the King of Pop's ground-breaking choreography, which has since become standard in music videos and pop concerts.

"The way he walked and danced on stage was very impressive. I could see there was a hip-hop movement to his steps."

Filmmaker Alongod Uabhaibool also followed the news of his favourite artist and delivered his electronic tears on Facebook.

He writes: "Sad Sad Sad I love u Michael Jackson. Rest in peace." He said he followed the news on CNN and says the footage of Jackson's body being transported in a van made him very sad.

Brian L Marcar, managing director of BEC Tero, who organised a Jackson concert in Bangkok in 1993, said he was shocked by the news of Jackson's death.

Jackson is a genius in the entertainment world with excellent skills for singing, dancing, song authoring and entertaining, according to Marcar, who added that Jackson was a nice and optimistic guy.

Kriengkrai Kanchanapokin, chief executive officer of Index Creative Village, an event organiser, shared the same opinion, adding that Jackson's comprehensive skills were unique and unprecedented.

Prangnee Chaipidej of Serm Suk, the local bottler of Pepsi, which co-organised the Jackson concert here in 1993, said Jackson left a very strong impression among Thai fans during his performance.

Meanwhile, Sony Music said its Thai operation had an inventory of 1,000-2,000 CDs for each of Jackson's albums, but there was no plan to reproduce these CDs at this stage.