SAN FRANCISCO - MYSPACE said on Thursday that Michael Jackson's death has given birth to a young new generation of fans of the artist at the online social networking site.

The number of comments and messages regarding Jackson at MySpace has topped 8.5 million since the 'King of Pop' died on June 25th, and nearly 75 percent of all related status and mood updates have been from users ages 13 to 24, the site said.

MySpace Karaoke has logged 4,000 new videos of members singing Jackson songs since his death, with 'You Are Not Alone' among the most popular.

And Jackson's works have remained six of the Top 10 professional music videos at News Corporation-owned MySpace for about two weeks.

Previously, Jackson wasn't among the top artists at MySpace, where favourites were more along the lines of younger favourites Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and the Jonas Brothers.

A MySpace Music official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the attention lavished on Jackson as an unprecedented break from usual patterns at the social networking service that indicated a wave of young users are tuning into the pop icon's works for the first time.

'These users are, for the first time, beginning to create playlists with Michael Jackson tracks, record karaoke videos, and add him as a friend,' the official said. 'We have never seen this activity from this generation on our site with Michael Jackson content.'

Jackson's public memorial service on Tuesday in Los Angeles was streamed at MySpace, and members of the service added more than 2.4 million of the late artist's songs to playlists on profile pages on that day.

'When you think about what makes up culture and music; when there is someone as interesting and defining as Michael Jackson, his music really transcends generations,' said Angela Courtin, senior vice president of marketing, entertainment and content at MySpace.

'Yes, he was odd. A lot of people are odd; that is part of what made him so enigmatic and why we were so drawn to him. Now, you have a generation of youth that are wondering what this is all about.' - AFP.