Michael Jackson as a King of Pop
Name - Michael Jackson
Full Name -Michael Joseph Jackson
Nick names - "King of Pop",Mike
Birth Place-Gary, Indiana
Date of Birth -August 29, 1958
Death Date- June 25, 2009
Place of Death- Los Angeles, California
Occupation - Singer, Music Producer, Songwriter
Height - 5' 9" (1.75 m)
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Jackson was born Michael Joseph Jackson in Gary, Indiana on August 29,
1958, and entertained audiences nearly his entire life. His father Joe Jackson
had been a guitarist, but was forced to give up his musical ambitions,
following his marriage to Katherine (Scruse). Together, they prodded
their growing family's musical interests at home. By the early 1960s,
the older boys Jackie, Tito and Jermaine had begun performing around the
city; by 1964, Michael and Marlon had joined in.
Michael's father, Joe Jackson, was a crane operator during the 1950s, in Gary, Indiana – a place in which, according to Dave Marsh's Trapped: Michael Jackson and the Crossover Dream,
quotas were imposed on how many black workers were allowed to advance
into skilled trades in the city's mills. Michael's mother, Katherine
Scruse, was from Alabama but was living in East Chicago, Indiana, when
she met Joe. She had grown up hearing country & western music, and
although she entertained her own dreams of singing and playing music, a
bout of polio had left her with a permanent limp. Joe and Katherine were
a young couple, married in 1949, and began a large family immediately.
Their first child, Maureen (Rebbie), was born in 1950, followed by
Sigmund (Jackie) in 1951, Toriano (Tito) in 1953, Jermaine in 1954, La
Toya in 1956 and Marlon in 1957. Michael was born on August 29th, 1958,
and Randy was born in 1961. Janet, the last born, wouldn't arrive until
1966.
Michael and his siblings heard music all the time. Joe had a strong
inclination toward the rowdy electric urban blues that had developed in
nearby Chicago, and also for early rock & roll. Along with his
brothers, Joe formed a band, the Falcons, and made some modest extra
income from playing bars and college dances around Gary. When the
Falcons folded, Joe retired his guitar to a bedroom closet, and he
guarded it jealously, just as he did everything in his domain.
Katherine, though, sometimes led her children in country-music
singalongs, during which she taught them to harmonize.
Soon he was working all his sons into an ensemble. Though Joe was at
heart a blues man, he appreciated that contemporary R&B – Motown and
soul – was the music that attracted his sons. Joe groomed Jermaine to
be lead singer, but one day, Katherine saw Michael, just four at the
time, singing along to a James Brown song, and Michael – in both his
voice and moves – was already eclipsing his older brother. She told Joe,
"I think we have another lead singer." Katherine would later say that
sometimes Michael's precocious abilities frightened her – she probably
saw that his childhood might give way to stardom – but she also
recognized that there was something undeniable about his young voice,
that it could communicate longings and experiences that no child could
yet know.Michael was also a natural center of attention. He loved singing and dancing, and because he was so young – such an unexpected vehicle for a rousing, dead-on soulful expression – he became an obvious point of attention when he and his brothers performed. Little Michael Jackson was cute, but little Michael Jackson was also dynamite.
By Joe's own admission he was unrelenting. "When I found out that my kids were interested in becoming entertainers, I really went to work with them," he told Time in 1984. "I rehearsed them about three years before I turned them loose. I saw that after they became better, they enjoyed it more." That isn't always how Michael remembered it. "We'd perform for him, and he'd critique us," he wrote in Moonwalk. "If you messed up, you got hit, sometimes with a belt, sometimes with a switch…I'd get beaten for things that happened mostly outside rehearsal. Those moments – and probably many more – created a loss that Jackson never got over. Again, from Moonwalk: "One of the few things I regret most is never being able to have a real closeness with him. He built a shell around himself over the years, and once he stopped talking about our family business, he found it hard to relate to us. We'd all be together, and he'd just leave the room."Around 1964, Joe began entering the Jackson brothers in talent contests, many of which they handily won. A single they cut for the local Steeltown recording label, "Big Boy," achieved local success. "At first I told myself they were just kids," Joe said in 1971. "I soon realized they were very professional. There was nothing to wait for. The boys were ready for stage training, and I ran out of reasons to keep them from the school of hard knocks." In 1966, he booked his sons into Gary's black nightclubs, as well as some in Chicago. Many of the clubs served alcohol, and several featured strippers. "This is quite a life for a nine-year-old," Katherine would remind her husband, but Joe was undaunted.
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"I used to stand in the wings of this one place in Chicago and watch a lady whose name was Mary Rose," Michael recalled. "This girl would take off her clothes and her panties and throw them to the audience. The men would pick them up and sniff them and yell. My brothers and I would be watching all this, taking it in, and my father wouldn't mind." Sam Moore, of Sam and Dave, recalled Joe locking Michael – who was maybe 10 years old – in a dressing room while Joe went off on his own adventures. Michael sat alone for hours. He also later recalled having to go onstage even if he'd been sick in bed that day.Michael and his brothers began to tour on what was still referred to as the "chitlin circuit" – a network of black venues throughout the U.S. (Joe made sure his sons kept their school studies up to date and maintained their grades at an acceptable level.) In these theaters and clubs, the Jacksons opened for numerous R&B artists, including the Temptations, Sam and Dave, Jackie Wilson, Jerry Butler, the O'Jays and Etta James, though no one was as important to Michael as James Brown. "I knew every step, every grunt, every spin and turn," he recalled. "He would give a performance that would exhaust you, just wear you out emotionally. His whole physical presence, the fire coming out of his pores, would be phenomenal. You'd feel every bead of sweat on his face, and you'd know what he was going through…You couldn't teach a person what I've learned just standing and watching."
The most famous site on these tours was the Apollo in New York, where the Jackson 5 won an Amateur Night show in 1967. Joe had invested everything he had in his sons' success, though of course any real recognition or profit would be his success as well. While on the circuit, Joe had come to know Gladys Knight, who was enjoying a string of small successes with Motown, America's pre-eminent black pop label. With the encouragement of both Knight and Motown R&B star Bobby Taylor, Joe took his sons to Detroit to audition for the label. In 1969, Motown moved the Jackson family to Los Angeles, set them up at the homes of Diana Ross and the label's owner, Berry Gordy, and began grooming them. Michael remembered Gordy telling them, "I'm gonna make you the biggest thing in the world…Your first record will be a number one, your second record will be a number one, and so will your third record. Three number-one records in a row."
In 1959, Gordy founded Tamla Records – which soon became known as Motown – in Detroit. By the time he signed the Jackson 5, Motown had long enjoyed its status as the most important black-owned and -operated record label in America, spawning the successes of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Temptations, Mary Wells, the Four Tops, and Diana Ross and the Supremes, among others. In contrast to Stax and Atlantic, Motown's soul wasn't especially bluesy or gritty, nor was it a music that spoke explicitly to social matters or to the black struggle in the U.S. By its nature the label exemplified black achievement, but its music was calibrated for assimilation by the pop mainstream – which of course meant a white audience as much as a black one (the label's early records bore the legend "The Sound of Young America"). At the time, rock music was increasingly becoming a medium for album-length works. By contrast, Motown maintained its identity as a factory that manufactured hit singles, despite groundbreaking albums by Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. Gordy was looking for a singles-oriented group that would not only deliver hits for young people, but would also give them somebody to seize as their own, to identify with and to adore. The Jackson 5, Gordy said, would exemplify "bubblegum soul."
The Jackson 5's first three singles – "I Want You Back," "ABC" and "The Love You Save" – became Number One hits as Gordy had promised, and so did a fourth, "I'll Be There." The group was established as the breakout sensation of 1970. Fred Rice, who would create Jackson 5 merchandise for Motown, said, "I call 'em the black Beatles…It's unbelievable." And he was right. The Jackson 5 defined the transition from 1960s soul to 1970s pop as much as Sly and the Family Stone did, and at a time when many Americans were uneasy about minority aspirations to power, the Jackson 5 conveyed an agreeable ideal of black pride, one that reflected kinship and aspiration rather than opposition. They represented a realization that the civil rights movement made possible, and that couldn't have happened even five or six years earlier. Moreover, the Jackson 5 earned critical respectability.
And though they functioned as a group, there was no question who the Jackson 5's true star was, and who they depended on. Michael's voice also worked beyond conventional notions of male-soul vocals – even worked beyond gender. Cultural critic and musician Jason King, in an outstanding essay, recently wrote, "It is not an exaggeration to say that he was the most advanced popular singer of his age in the history of recorded music. His untrained tenor was uncanny. By all rights, he shouldn't have had as much vocal authority as he did at such a young age."
For at least the first few years, Michael and his brothers seemed omnipresent and enjoyed universal praise. But soon they experienced some hard limitations. The music they were making wasn't really of invention – they didn't write or produce it – and after Michael was relegated to recording throwback fare like "Rockin' Robin," in 1972, he worried that the Jackson 5 would become an "oldies act" before he left adolescence. The Jackson 5 began pushing to produce themselves and to create their own sound. Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye had demonstrated an ability to grow and change – and sell records – when given creative leeway, and with 1974's "Dancing Machine," the Jacksons proved they could thrive when they seized a funk groove.
Motown, however, wouldn't consider it. "They not only refused to grant our requests," Michael said in Moonwalk, "they told us it was taboo to even mention that we wanted to do our own music." Michael understood what this meant: Not only would Motown not let the Jackson 5 grow, they also wouldn't let him grow. Michael bided his time, studying the producers he and his brothers worked with. "I was like a hawk preying in the night," he said. "I'd watch everything. They didn't get away with nothing without me seeing. I really wanted to get into it."
In 1975, Joe Jackson negotiated a new deal for his sons – this time with Epic Records, for a 500 percent royalty-rate increase. The contract also stipulated solo albums from the Jacksons (though the arrangement did not include Jermaine, who married Gordy's daughter Hazel and stayed with Motown, creating a rift with the family that lasted for several years). Motown tried to block the deal, and in the end stopped the brothers from using the Jackson 5 name; the group would now be known as the Jacksons.
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Epic initially placed them with Philadelphia producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, but it wouldn't be until 1978's Destiny that the Jacksons finally seized control over their own music and recast their sound – sexy and smooth in the dance-floor hits "Blame It on the Boogie" and the momentous "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)," and reflecting a new depth and emotional complexity in songs like "Push Me Away" and "Bless His Soul."Destiny, though, was merely a prelude: By the time the album was finished, Michael was ready to make crucial changes that would establish his ascendancy as a solo artist. He fired his father as his manager and in effect found himself a new father, producer Quincy Jones, whom Michael connected with while filming The Wiz (a reworking of The Wizard of Oz). Jones was a respected jazz musician, bandleader, composer and arranger who had worked with Clifford Brown, Frank Sinatra, Lesley Gore, Count Basie, Aretha Franklin and Paul Simon, and he had written the film scores for The Pawnbroker, In Cold Blood and In the Heat of the Night. Jackson liked the arranger's ear for mixing complex hard beats with soft overlayers. "It was the first time that I fully wrote and produced my songs," Jackson said later, "and I was looking for somebody who would give me that freedom, plus somebody who's unlimited musically." Specifically, Jackson said his solo album had to sound different than the Jacksons; he wanted a cleaner and funkier sound.
The pairing proved as fortuitous as any collaboration in history. Jones brought an ethereal buoyancy to Jackson's soft erotic fever on songs like "Rock With You" and "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough," and in a stunning moment like "She's Out of My Life," Jones had the good sense to let nothing obscure the magnificent heartbreak in the singer's voice. The resulting album, Off the Wall – which established Jackson as a mature artistic force in his own right – has the most unified feel of any of his works. It was also a massive hit, selling more than 5 million copies in the U.S. alone by 1985.
Michael Jackson had in effect become one of the biggest black artists America had ever produced, and he expected Off the Wall to win top honors during the 1980 Grammy Awards ceremony. Instead, it received only one honor, for Best Male R&B vocal. The Doobie Brothers' "What a Fool Believes" won for Record of the Year, and Billy Joel's 52nd Street won Album of the Year. Jackson was stunned and bitter. "My family thought I was going crazy because I was weeping so much about it," he recalled. "I felt ignored and it hurt. I said to myself, 'Wait until next time' – they won't be able to ignore the next album…That experience lit a fire in my soul."
Jackson told Jones – and apparently others as well – that his next album wouldn't simply be bigger than Off the Wall, it would be the biggest album ever. When Thriller was released in November 1982, it didn't seem to have any overarching theme or even a cohesive style. Instead, it sounded like an assembly of singles – like a greatest-hits album, before the fact. But it became evident fast that this was exactly what Jackson intended Thriller to be: a brilliant collection of songs intended as hits, each one designed with mass crossover audiences in mind. Jackson put out "Billie Jean" for the dance crowd, "Beat It" for the white rockers, and then followed each crossover with crafty videos designed to enhance both his allure and his inaccessibility.
Yet after hearing these songs find their natural life on radio, it was obvious that they were something more than exceptional highlights. They were a well-conceived body of passion, rhythm and structure that defined the sensibility – if not the inner life – of the artist behind them. These were instantly compelling songs about emotional and sexual claustrophobia, about hard-earned adulthood and about a newfound brand of resolution that worked as an arbiter between the artist's fears and the inescapable fact of his fame. "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'?" had the sense of a vitalizing nightmare in its best lines ("You're stuck in the middle/And the pain is thunder/Still they hate you, you're a vegetable/They eat off you, you're a vegetable"). "Billie Jean," in the meantime, exposed the ways in which the interaction between the artist's fame and the outside world might invoke soul-killing dishonor ("People always told me, be careful of what you do/'Cause the lie becomes the truth," Jackson sings, possibly thinking of a paternity charge from a while back). And "Beat It" was pure anger – a rousing depiction of violence as a male stance, as a social inheritance that might be overcome. In sum, Thriller's parts added up to the most improbable kind of art – a work of personal revelation that was also a mass-market masterpiece. It's an achievement that will likely never be topped.
Except, in a sense, Jackson did top it, and he did it within months after Thriller's release. It came during a May 16th, 1983, TV special celebrating Motown's 25th anniversary. Jackson had just performed a medley of greatest hits with his brothers. It was exciting stuff, but for Michael it wasn't enough. As his brothers said their goodbyes and left the stage, Michael remained. He seemed shy for a moment, trying to find words to say. "Yeah," he almost whispered, "those were good old days…I like those songs a lot. But especially—" and then he placed the microphone into the stand with a commanding look and said, "I like the new songs." He swooped down, picked up a fedora, put it on his head with confidence, and vaulted into "Billie Jean."
This was one of Michael Jackson's first public acts as a star outside and beyond the Jacksons, and it was startlingly clear that he was not only one of the most thrilling live performers in pop music, but that he was perhaps more capable of inspiring an audience's imagination than any single pop artist since Elvis Presley. There are times when you know you are hearing or seeing something extraordinary, something that captures the hopes and dreams popular music might aspire to, and that might unite and inflame a new audience. That time came that night, on TV screens across the nation – the sight of a young man staking out his territory, and just starting to lay claim to his rightful pop legend. "Almost 50 million people saw that show," Jackson wrote in Moonwalk. "After that, many things changed."
He was right. That was the last truly blessed moment in Michael Jackson's life. After that, everything became argument and recrimination. And in time, decay.
At the time, we knew that Michael Jackson was an immensely talented young man – he seemed shy but ambitious, and he certainly seemed enigmatic. Nobody knew much about his beliefs or his sex life; he rarely gave interviews, but he also didn't land himself in scandals. He did, however, describe himself as a lonely person – particularly around the time he made Off the Wall. Former Los Angeles Times music critic Robert Hilburn recently wrote of meeting Jackson in 1981, when the singer was 23, that Jackson struck him as "one of the most fragile and lonely people I've ever met…almost abandoned. When I asked why he didn't live on his own like his brothers, instead remaining at his parents' house, he said, 'Oh, no, I think I'd die on my own. I'd be so lonely. Even at home, I'm lonely. I sit in my room and sometimes cry. It is so hard to make friends, and there are some things you can't talk to your parents or family about. I sometimes walk around the neighborhood at night, just hoping to find someone to talk to. But I just end up coming home.'?"
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In any event, Michael Jackson seemed clearly reputable – eminent though not heroic, not yet messianic, and certainly not contemptible. Thriller placed seven singles in Billboard's Top 10 and also became the biggest-selling album in history (presently around 50 million copies or more), and at the 1984 Grammy Awards, Jackson finally claimed his due, capturing eight awards, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year. Then, months later, it was announced that Michael would be setting out on a nationwide tour with the Jacksons. He hadn't wanted to undertake the venture but felt obliged ("Those were slim shoulders on which to place such burdens," he wrote of his lifelong family pressures).It was during this period that a backlash first set in against Jackson, though from the press more than from the public. The mid-1980s was a time when many in the music press had misgivings about mass popularity – especially if it seemed to represent a homogenized or acquiescent culture. Michael Jackson, after all, wasn't an artist with a message of sociopolitical revolution, nor did his lyrics reflect literary aspirations. To some then – and to some now – he represented little more than an ambition for personal fame.
But there was a trickier concern at play. The racial dimensions of Jackson's image proved complex beyond any easy answers at that time, or even since. Some of that was attributable to charges that Jackson seemed willing to trade his former black constituency for an overwhelmingly white audience – otherwise how could he have achieved such staggering sales figures in the U.S.? But what probably inspired these race-related arguments most – the terrain where they all seemed to play out – was the topography of Jackson's face. With the exception of later accusations about his sexual behavior, nothing inspired more argument or ridicule about Michael Jackson than that face.
In his childhood, Jackson had a sweet, dark-skinned countenance; many early Jackson 5 fans regarded him as the cutest of the brothers. J. Randy Taraborrelli, author of Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness, has written, "[Michael] believed his skin…'messed up my whole personality.' He no longer looked at people as he talked to them. His playful personality changed and he became quieter and more serious. He thought he was ugly – his skin was too dark, he decided, and his nose too wide. It was no help that his insensitive father and brothers called him 'Big Nose.'?" Also, as Jackson became an adolescent, he was horribly self- conscious about acne. Hilburn recalled going through a stack of photos with Jackson one night and coming across a picture of him as a teenager: "'Ohh, that's horrible,' [Jackson] said, recoiling from the picture."
The face Jackson displayed on the cover of Thriller had changed; the skin tone seemed lighter and his nose thinner and straighter. In Moonwalk, Jackson claimed that much of the apparent renovation was due to a change in his diet; he admitted to altering his nose and his chin, but he denied he'd done anything to his skin. Still, the changes didn't end there.
Over the years, Jackson's skin grew lighter and lighter, his nose tapered more and more and his cheekbones seemed to gain prominence. To some, this all became fair game for derision; to others, it seemed a grotesque mutilation – not just because it might have been an act of conceit, aimed to keep his face forever childlike, but more troublingly because some believed Jackson wanted to transform himself into a white person. Or an androgyne – somebody with both male and female traits.
Michael Jackson wanted his next album to be bigger than Thriller, which was of course too much to ask. Jackson was also seeking vindication. He felt misjudged and maligned by much of the criticism heaped on him after the 1984 Victory Tour. Some of the scrutiny he received about his "freakishness" – his devotion to his animals as if they were his friends, his ongoing facial reconstruction, scornful charges that he slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to maintain his youthfulness – was judgmental, even moralistic. Worse, too much of it came from reporters and gossip columnists, even political commentators, who displayed little if any real appreciation for Jackson's music and little respect for the sheer genius of his work.
At that time, Jackson's art was still his best way of making a case for himself. In 1987, he released Bad, his much-anticipated successor to Thriller. If not as eventful and ingenious as Off the Wall and Thriller, Bad was as good as any album he ever made. It was taut and funky, it had snap and fever, it radiated rage and self-pity but also yearning for grace and transcendence – particularly in "Man in the Mirror," a song about accepting social and political responsibility, and about the artist negotiating his way back into the world. Bad sold millions and launched five Number One singles, three more than Thriller, but because it couldn't match the accomplishments of Thriller, it was viewed as a flop.
Jackson then staged his first solo tour later that year. On several nights, I saw him turn in inspiring performances that also served as timely reminders of a sometimes overlooked truth about him: Namely that whatever his eccentricities, Michael Jackson acquired his fame primarily because of his remarkably intuitive talents as a singer and dancer – talents that were genuine and matchless and not the constructions of mere ambition or hype.
Though he had the lithe frame of Fred Astaire, the mad inventiveness of Gene Kelly, the sexy agony of Jackie Wilson, the rhythmic mastery of James Brown – or of Sammy Davis Jr., for that matter – nobody else moved like Michael Jackson. Certainly nobody else broke open their moment in one daring physical display like Jackson. He didn't invent the moonwalk – that famous and impossible backward gliding movement from his Motown 25 performance of "Billie Jean" – but it didn't matter. He had defined himself in that moment and dared anybody else to match it, and nobody ever did. During the Bad tour his moves were breathtaking, sometimes unexpected.
In 1988, he was again nominated for key Grammy Awards including Album of the Year, but he was up against hard competition. Artists like U2 and Prince had fashioned the most ambitious and visionary music of their careers – music that reflected the state of pop and the world in enlivening ways. More to the point, in 1988 there was suspicion among many observers that Jackson's season as pop's favorite son had passed. He would win no Grammys that year. In the Rolling Stone Readers' poll, Jackson placed first in six of the readers' "worst of the year" categories (including "worst male singer"); in addition, The Village Voice Critics' Poll failed to mention Jackson's Bad in its selection of 1987's 40 best albums. This was a startling turnaround from four years before, when Jackson and his work topped the same polls in both publications.
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Michael Jackson never really regained momentum or ambition after the negative reaction to Bad. He had finally left the family home in Encino and built his own fortress estate known as Neverland, about 100 miles north of L.A., with an amusement park and train rides redolent of Disneyland. It became a place where he brought the world to him, or at least that part of the world he seemed to care about, which mainly included children – the people, he said, he felt most at home with, since part of him wanted to experience and share the childhood he felt his father and entertainment career had deprived him of. But it was also Michael's appetite for the company of children that would create the most lamentable troubles in his life. In 1993, a story broke that Jackson was accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy with whom he had kept frequent company.It was a terribly serious accusation, and given his fondness for the company of children, the charges seemed all too credible to some observers. The story played big in not just tabloid newspapers but in some mainstream media as well. No criminal charges were filed, but in 1994 Jackson settled the matter out of court (reportedly for something in the vicinity of $20 million), which struck many as a tacit admission to the allegations. Jackson, though, categorically denied the claim. He later told British journalist Martin Bashir that he simply wanted to put the issue behind him.
The episode did enormous damage to Jackson's image, and perhaps to his psychology as well. It was during that time that, according to some, he developed a dependency on medications that stayed with him through the rest of his life. (Jackson's need for drugs may also have stemmed from pains attributable to various surgeries.) That same year he unexpectedly married Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of rock & roll's most eminent pioneer, Elvis Presley. Some saw it as an effort to both rehabilitate and bolster his image by asserting a heterosexual authenticity, and by linking his name to even greater fame. The marriage lasted 18 months.
Presley has never spoken negatively of Jackson, only affectionately, saying in the days after her ex-husband's death that she left him only because she felt she couldn't save him from himself. Jackson married again in 1996, this time to a nurse from his dermatologist's office, Debbie Rowe. The couple had two children, son Prince Michael Jackson and daughter Paris Michael Katherine Jackson. Apparently, the children were the true objective of the marriage for Jackson; the couple divorced in 1999 and Rowe gave up custody of the children. (Rowe has admitted in the past that Jackson wasn't the children's biological father, but rather that they were conceived by artificial insemination.)
Through the course of all this, sadly, Jackson's musical drive fell off, and the music that did emerge was only sporadically successful. His new music was often a testament of self-justification. In "Childhood," a song from 1995's HIStory: Past, Present and Future, he put forth his case for his otherness: "No one understands me/They view it as such strange eccentricities/It's been my fate to compensate/For the childhood I've never known/Before you judge me, try hard to love me/Look within your heart, then ask/Have you seen my childhood?"
His hurt and anger also began to come out more in his body over the years. Sometimes his expression looked terrified, his eyes peering over surgical masks or from behind the cover of a burqa. Other times he moved with an explosive fury, as in those moments at the end of his infamous but incredibly successful 1991 video for the song "Black or White." Those movements seemed so different from the joyful ones of years before.
But despite good moments – and too many treacly and self-aggrandizing ones – Michael Jackson's 1990s music had no real presence in the ongoing current of popular culture. His final album, Invincible, from 2001, yielded a few adventurous tracks – Jackson was finally accommodating the stylistic and cultural innovations made by hip-hop and other urban music forms – but overall it wasn't enough to live up to its title. This isn't to say that Michael Jackson was no longer a huge star but rather that his legend had transmuted: He was now known for his excesses and bad choices. He lived in a castle; he contracted another baby, Prince Michael II (whose mother has never been identified); and he then recklessly dangled the baby over a balcony in Berlin. Sometimes you had to wonder whether Jackson had any real idea how his actions struck the world – which is perhaps OK, unless you expect the world to love you unconditionally.
Jackson's most egregious lapse of judgment became evident in a notorious 2003 interview with Martin Bashir, in which the singer professed that he still shared his bed at Neverland with children who were not his own. During one point in the broadcast, Jackson sat holding the hand of a 13-year-old boy, a cancer survivor, and explained what he saw as the innocent and loving nature of that behavior. The public response was swift and hypercritical; many thought that despite the accusations he had faced in 1993, Jackson could still act as he wanted with impunity. The reaction was so devastating to Jackson that, according to some rumors, later that year he attempted a morphine overdose; at the very least, some observers declared Jackson had committed career suicide.
The controversy became as serious as possible when the boy in the video accused Jackson of fondling him. This time, the matter went to trial. The horrible drama that Jackson had landed in was in keeping with the dominant themes of his life and art: his obsessions with stardom, mystery, hubris, fear and despoiled childhood. If the charges were true, one had to wonder what Jackson truly saw when he looked at the childhoods of others. Was he capable of disrespecting their innocence, just as his own was once ruined? But if the charges weren't true, then one had to ask what measure of satisfaction could be won in his ruin?
The 2005 trial was the spectacle everybody expected it to be – a drama about justice and celebrity, sex and outrage, morality and race. Even though it dragged on, it was clear the prosecution didn't have a case so much as it had umbrage. The trial was a farce – it's dismaying the case ever made it to trial – and Jackson was acquitted on all charges. But the damage done seemed, in many ways, final. Jackson walked out of the courtroom that day a shaken, listless man. His finances were also coming undone; he had been spending ludicrous sums and he'd mismanaged his money – which took some doing, since he had made such a vast fortune.
The biggest star in the world had fallen from the tallest height. He left the country and moved to Bahrain; he was only occasionally seen or heard from. Nobody knew whether he could recover his name, or even preserve his considerable music legacy, until early 2009, when he announced an incredibly ambitious series of 50 concerts – which he described as the "final curtain call" – to take place at London's O2 arena, beginning July 13th.
On June 24, 2009, as Rolling Stone reported, "Jackson ran through a six-hour dress rehearsal of his concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. More than a dozen people who witnessed the final rehearsal -- from his promoter to his choreographer to his musicians -- all agree on one thing: Jackson was better than he'd ever been. He popped, just like he had in his glory days, singing and out-dancing the young pros that surrounded him. 'He was so brilliant onstage,' recalls his tour director, Kenny Ortega. 'I had goose bumps.'"
The next day he was dead. Reports in the aftermath of Jackson's death revealed a disturbing dependence on Ambien and other prescription drugs. Jackson's autopsy report ruled his death a homicide, stating that Dr. Conrad Murray – Jackson's live-in physician -- wrongfully administered the sedative propofol to his patient. On February 8, 2010, Murray was charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Jackson's 2002 will stated that his estate would give 40 percent to both his mother Katherine and Michael's children; the remaining 20 percent would go to charity. As of February, 2010, Jackson's estate had earned 100 million since his death, though claims on the estate exceeded $22 million. Joe Jackson was not named as a benefactor in the will. This Is It, the documentary that covers the rehearsals for the O2 shows, grossed more than $250 million worldwide, and with vaults of unreleased music due out in the future, the Jackson estate will likely surpass Elvis Presley's in terms of earnings.
In the days that followed his death, Jackson was everywhere. Makeshift memorials sprung up around his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and outside Harlem's Apollo Theater. His music blared from radios all across the world and his CDs flew off the shelves. 1.6 million people registered for a chance to win tickets to Jackson's public memorial at the Staples Center. At the memorial, Magic Johnson, Brooke Shields, and other celebrities paid tribute, and Stevie Wonder sang "Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer." The most moving moment came from Jackson's eleven-year-old daughter Paris, who made her first ever public statement: "Ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine," she said. "And I just wanted to say I love him — so much."
In the wake of his death, everyone in the world seemed to talk of his or her favorite Jackson song, or favorite Jackson dance move or favorite Jackson video. I'll never forget that night back in early 1983, when onstage in Pasadena, California, at the Motown 25th anniversary show, Michael Jackson gave his first public performance as a mature artist staking his own claim, vaulting into that astonishingly graceful, electrifying version of "Billie Jean." Dancing, spinning, sending out impassioned, fierce glares at the overcome audience, Jackson did a powerful job of animating and mythologizing his own blend of mystery and sexuality. I'd never seen anything quite like it before. Maybe I never will again. Michael Jackson didn't just grab the gold ring: He hooked it to a new bar and set it even higher, and nobody has yet snatched it with quite the same flair or results.
Michael Jackson's Childhood
In 1964, Michael Jackson joined his brothers, playing congas for their group. He later became their background singer and occasional dancer before eventually climbing to the position of lead singer when he was eight years old.
The band toured Indiana and won a local talent show, which then led to them playing a string of professional gigs, many of which were in black clubs known as the 'chitlin' circuit.'
They signed a contract with Motown Records and their first four singles ('I Want You Back', 'ABC', 'The Love You Save' and 'I'll Be There') shot them to stardom. Jackson released four solo studio albums on Motown whilst still a member of the group.
Following a name-change to The Jacksons, due to legal wranglings with Motown, Michael was the lead songwriter from 1976 to 1984 and during this time, he made acquaintance with Quincy Jones, who agreed to produce Jackson's first solo album in four years
Michael Jackson's solo albums: Off The Wall - Invincible
Off the Wall (1979)
This album made music history by being the first ever to contain four top ten hits. Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney both have writing credits on the album. The album eventually sold over 20 million copies worldwide.
Thriller (1982)
Thriller is the best selling album of all time and sent Jackson's fame global. It also became the first album in history to contain seven top-ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100. The video for 'Billie Jean' was the first video by a black artist to receive regular MTV airplay, whilst the 13-minute video for 'Thriller' was revolutionary for its time and became the best-selling music home video ever, when it was packaged with the featurette Making Michael Jackson. Whilst performing 'Billie Jean' in 1983, he debuted his signature dance move, the 'Moonwalk.'
Bad (1987)
Dangerous (1991)
The anticipation of Dangerous was marked by the theft of 30,000 copies of the album being stolen at Los Angeles International Airport before it was officially released. The biggest hit from the album was 'Black or White', which was accompanied by a controversial video, which featured several scenes which were construed as having a sexual and violent nature. The 14 minute video was edited to remove the offending scenes. The video was premiered in 27 countries simultaneously and had the largest ever viewing figures for a music video (around 500 million)
HIStory (1995)
HIStory received four Grammy nomination and won one Grammy. It sold over 18 million copies worldwide, which earned it the title of the biggest selling multiple disc album of all time by a solo artist. More than four and a half million people attended the accompanying promotional tour. The first disc was a greatest hits package, whilst the second contained fifteen new numbers. At the Brit Awards, Michael Jackson was awarded the title Artist of a Generation, but his performance at the ceremony was interrupted by Jarvis Cocker, singer of the band Pulp, who leapt onstage and made rude gestures. Cocker was arrested on suspicion of assault but released without charge.
Invincible (2001)
Debuting at number one in 13 countries, Invincible went on to sell nearly eight million copies worldwide. Shortly before the album's release, Michael Jackson told Tommy Mottola, the head of Sony Music Entertainment, that he would not be renewing his contract with them. All subsequent single releases, video shoots and promotions for the album were then cancelled. This led to Jackson tagging Mottola as a 'devil' who did not support African American Artists, and used black artists for his own personal gain. His increasingly eccentric image and the lack of promotion for the album conspired to make this album less successful than his previous releases.
In September 2001, Usher, Whitney Houston, 'N Sync, the Jacksons and Slash performed at Jackson's 30th Anniversary celebration at Madison Square Gardens.
Michael Jackson's Private Life
Jackson's father, Walter was a strict disciplinarian and many of the Jackson family have stated that they were spanked and whipped by their father for misbehaving.
Michael Jackson then went on to marry his dermatologist's nurse, Deborah Jeanne Rowe, with whom he had a son, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. (also known as Prince) and a daughter, named Paris Katherine Jackson. The couple divorced in 1999. Jackson's third child, Prince Michael Jackson II (also known as Blanket) was born in 2002.
Michael Jackson attracted a media frenzy when he was pictured holding his baby outside a hotel window, with a cloth draped over the child's head. He was accused of being an irresponsible father, to which he responded "I love my children.I was holding my son tight."
Jackson's physical appearance has also garnered much press attention over the years. Throughout his youth, his skin was a medium-brown colour but in 1982, his skin started to become gradually paler. Some elements of the media claim that he was bleaching his skin, though he dismissed these claims on The Oprah Winfrey Show, stating that he had the disease vitiligo. The physical structure of his face also changed amid speculations that he has undergone several cosmetic procedures.
Child molestation charges were brought against Michael Jackson when he was reported to be allowing children to sleep over at his Neverland ranch. In 1993, Jordan Chandler, represented by a civil lawyer accused Jackson of child sexual abuse. The case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum, rumoured to be US$20 million. The family then dropped the charges against Jackson.
Later in 2003, Jackson was charged with seven counts of child molestation and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent, all regarding one boy, named Gavin Arvizo, who was under 14 at the time of the incidents. Jackson was acquitted on all counts.
Michael Jackson's Finances
In 1985, Michael Jackson purchased ATV Music Publishing, which owns the publishing rights to The Beatles' songs, among others. In 1995, Sony Music Publishing merged with Jackson to create Sony-ATV. Jackson's 50% share is rumoured to be worth US$500 million. He also owns all of his own publishing, called MiJac which contains all of his own music catalogue and that of Sly & The Family Stone.
In 2006, state labor officials from California closed Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch. He was fined US$ 69,000 for failing to provide employment insurance. He is also liable for up to 10 days pay for the 69 employees who are now no longer allowed to report to Neverland for work. Thirty Neverland employees have sued Michael Jackson for unpaid wages, totaling $US 306,000
Also in 2006, a federal judge allowed a $48 million claim against Jackson for unpaid fees and breach of contract, relating the refinancing of Jackson's debts and claiming a larger stake in the library of Beatles songs.
Michael Jackson's Death
On 25th June 2009, it was announced that Michael Jackson had died of a cardiac arrest. He had been at his rented home in Los Angeles when he stopped breathing. His personal physician was with him and attempted to resuscitate him but to no avail. He was pronounced dead at around 2:25 pm local time.
The incident happened less than a month before Michael Jackson was set to undertake a mammoth 50-date residency at the O2 arena in London.
A memorial was held for Michael Jackson on 7th July 2009 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Amongst the performers were Mariah Carey, John Mayer, Jennifer Hudson, Usher, Stevie Wonder and Lionel Ritchie.
The Trial of Conrad Murray
In 1964, Michael Jackson joined his brothers, playing congas for their group. He later became their background singer and occasional dancer before eventually climbing to the position of lead singer when he was eight years old.
The band toured Indiana and won a local talent show, which then led to them playing a string of professional gigs, many of which were in black clubs known as the 'chitlin' circuit.'
They signed a contract with Motown Records and their first four singles ('I Want You Back', 'ABC', 'The Love You Save' and 'I'll Be There') shot them to stardom. Jackson released four solo studio albums on Motown whilst still a member of the group.
Following a name-change to The Jacksons, due to legal wranglings with Motown, Michael was the lead songwriter from 1976 to 1984 and during this time, he made acquaintance with Quincy Jones, who agreed to produce Jackson's first solo album in four years
Michael Jackson's solo albums: Off The Wall - Invincible
Off the Wall (1979)
This album made music history by being the first ever to contain four top ten hits. Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney both have writing credits on the album. The album eventually sold over 20 million copies worldwide.
Thriller (1982)
Thriller is the best selling album of all time and sent Jackson's fame global. It also became the first album in history to contain seven top-ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100. The video for 'Billie Jean' was the first video by a black artist to receive regular MTV airplay, whilst the 13-minute video for 'Thriller' was revolutionary for its time and became the best-selling music home video ever, when it was packaged with the featurette Making Michael Jackson. Whilst performing 'Billie Jean' in 1983, he debuted his signature dance move, the 'Moonwalk.'
Bad (1987)
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Bad received over two million advance orders before it was released and was his final album to be produced by Quincy Jones, who forced him to cut the 30-strong collection of Michael Jackson songs down to 11. The album generated more Billboard number 1 hits than any other album ever released. His accompanying tour had record-breaking attendance figures, playing 123 concerts to over 4.4 million fans. The level of fame that he now enjoyed drew parallels to The Beatles and Elvis Presley.Dangerous (1991)
The anticipation of Dangerous was marked by the theft of 30,000 copies of the album being stolen at Los Angeles International Airport before it was officially released. The biggest hit from the album was 'Black or White', which was accompanied by a controversial video, which featured several scenes which were construed as having a sexual and violent nature. The 14 minute video was edited to remove the offending scenes. The video was premiered in 27 countries simultaneously and had the largest ever viewing figures for a music video (around 500 million)
HIStory (1995)
HIStory received four Grammy nomination and won one Grammy. It sold over 18 million copies worldwide, which earned it the title of the biggest selling multiple disc album of all time by a solo artist. More than four and a half million people attended the accompanying promotional tour. The first disc was a greatest hits package, whilst the second contained fifteen new numbers. At the Brit Awards, Michael Jackson was awarded the title Artist of a Generation, but his performance at the ceremony was interrupted by Jarvis Cocker, singer of the band Pulp, who leapt onstage and made rude gestures. Cocker was arrested on suspicion of assault but released without charge.
Invincible (2001)
Debuting at number one in 13 countries, Invincible went on to sell nearly eight million copies worldwide. Shortly before the album's release, Michael Jackson told Tommy Mottola, the head of Sony Music Entertainment, that he would not be renewing his contract with them. All subsequent single releases, video shoots and promotions for the album were then cancelled. This led to Jackson tagging Mottola as a 'devil' who did not support African American Artists, and used black artists for his own personal gain. His increasingly eccentric image and the lack of promotion for the album conspired to make this album less successful than his previous releases.
In September 2001, Usher, Whitney Houston, 'N Sync, the Jacksons and Slash performed at Jackson's 30th Anniversary celebration at Madison Square Gardens.
Michael Jackson's Private Life
Jackson's father, Walter was a strict disciplinarian and many of the Jackson family have stated that they were spanked and whipped by their father for misbehaving.
Learn Best Information technology tutorials
In 1994, Michael Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley. They divorced less than two years later, amid rumours that their marriage was a sham and had not been consummated.Michael Jackson then went on to marry his dermatologist's nurse, Deborah Jeanne Rowe, with whom he had a son, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. (also known as Prince) and a daughter, named Paris Katherine Jackson. The couple divorced in 1999. Jackson's third child, Prince Michael Jackson II (also known as Blanket) was born in 2002.
Michael Jackson attracted a media frenzy when he was pictured holding his baby outside a hotel window, with a cloth draped over the child's head. He was accused of being an irresponsible father, to which he responded "I love my children.I was holding my son tight."
Jackson's physical appearance has also garnered much press attention over the years. Throughout his youth, his skin was a medium-brown colour but in 1982, his skin started to become gradually paler. Some elements of the media claim that he was bleaching his skin, though he dismissed these claims on The Oprah Winfrey Show, stating that he had the disease vitiligo. The physical structure of his face also changed amid speculations that he has undergone several cosmetic procedures.
Child molestation charges were brought against Michael Jackson when he was reported to be allowing children to sleep over at his Neverland ranch. In 1993, Jordan Chandler, represented by a civil lawyer accused Jackson of child sexual abuse. The case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum, rumoured to be US$20 million. The family then dropped the charges against Jackson.
Later in 2003, Jackson was charged with seven counts of child molestation and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent, all regarding one boy, named Gavin Arvizo, who was under 14 at the time of the incidents. Jackson was acquitted on all counts.
Michael Jackson's Finances
In 1985, Michael Jackson purchased ATV Music Publishing, which owns the publishing rights to The Beatles' songs, among others. In 1995, Sony Music Publishing merged with Jackson to create Sony-ATV. Jackson's 50% share is rumoured to be worth US$500 million. He also owns all of his own publishing, called MiJac which contains all of his own music catalogue and that of Sly & The Family Stone.
In 2006, state labor officials from California closed Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch. He was fined US$ 69,000 for failing to provide employment insurance. He is also liable for up to 10 days pay for the 69 employees who are now no longer allowed to report to Neverland for work. Thirty Neverland employees have sued Michael Jackson for unpaid wages, totaling $US 306,000
Also in 2006, a federal judge allowed a $48 million claim against Jackson for unpaid fees and breach of contract, relating the refinancing of Jackson's debts and claiming a larger stake in the library of Beatles songs.
Michael Jackson's Death
On 25th June 2009, it was announced that Michael Jackson had died of a cardiac arrest. He had been at his rented home in Los Angeles when he stopped breathing. His personal physician was with him and attempted to resuscitate him but to no avail. He was pronounced dead at around 2:25 pm local time.
The incident happened less than a month before Michael Jackson was set to undertake a mammoth 50-date residency at the O2 arena in London.
A memorial was held for Michael Jackson on 7th July 2009 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Amongst the performers were Mariah Carey, John Mayer, Jennifer Hudson, Usher, Stevie Wonder and Lionel Ritchie.
The Trial of Conrad Murray
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