"[2] Filmmaker Spike Lee characterized it as having "brilliantly cracked the DNA, the code, the artistry of Michael Joseph Jackson.
"[7] Vogel has published several books, including This Thing Called Life: Prince, Race, Sex, Religion, and Music, James Baldwin and the 1980s: Witnessing the Reagan Era and The Obama Movement.
Vogel received his PhD from the University of Rochester, and was associate professor and Chair of the English Department at Merrimack College in Massachusetts.
Vogel made national headlines in 2004 when, as Student Vice President of Academics at Utah Valley University, he invited film maker Michael Moore to speak on campus.
[10] An award-winning documentary, This Divided State (in which Vogel appears), also recounts the story of Michael Moore's controversial visit to Utah Valley.