It was, but he wasn't mourned by so many different age groups. MJ has been around for 50 years. He has a lot more followers from years of performing. Its always on the news because, no offense, but most newscasters and news stations are run by older people, and the older people say Michael in his prime 20 or 30 or 40 years ago, when they were young and he was the most famous entertainer. He is from their time (not trying to be rude) so they think of it as bigger news than someone who's 14 (like me) who is just like "Oh that's really sad, I love Thriller..."