- For other people with the same name, see Michael Jackson (disambiguation)
Michael Joseph Jackson (born August 29 1958, in Gary, Indiana), is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, actor, entertainer, and philanthropist, arguably the most successful solo artist in music history. He began his career as the lead singer Motown's The Jackson 5 in the 1960s. He began his solo career in 1971. His distinctive dance moves, music videos, and pop appeal have inspired and influenced many of today's singers, such as Usher, Beyoncé, and Justin Timberlake, and is considered by some to be the greatest dancer of all time. He came to be known as the "King of Pop" after Elizabeth Taylor referred to him as such at an awards ceremony.
Jackson has won many of music industry's highest honors, including 18 Grammys, and has been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice: in 1997 as a member of the Jackson 5, and in 2001 for his solo accomplishments. He was awarded certifications from World Music Awards, for 1993, 1996, and 2000. Jackson has sold 250 million records as a solo artist and 170 million as a member of the Jacksons and Jackson 5. MTV and Rolling Stone magazine, in a list compiled in 2000, named four of his songs among the 100 greatest pop songs of all time: "Billie Jean" number 5, the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" number 9, "Beat It" number 22, and "Rock with You" number 82. [1] His 1982 album Thriller is the world's all time best-selling album, with over 59 million copies sold. Many music industry critics consider the music video for Jackson's 1983 "Thriller" single to be the greatest music video of all time and a large step forward in artistic quality for music videos.
Jackson is also noted for his humanitarian efforts, and has often used his music, including the all-star single "We Are the World" (1985), "Man in the Mirror" (1987), and "Heal the World" (1992), to support and promote various causes. He is fond of children, and, apart from having his own, he has had friendships with a number of other children, ranging from disadvantaged children to child celebrities. He has invited many groups of children to his ranch and has sponsored a number of charity drives for children.
However, Jackson's relationship with children, both his own and others, have been controversial. Jackson's sleepover parties at his mansion, Neverland Ranch, have received widespread critical media coverage, especially after he revealed that he sometimes slept in the same bed with several unrelated children. He has been accused of sexual molestation multiple times: a 1993 case was settled out of court before a trial began, another settlement was made with an ex-maid's son, and finally another one in 2005 went to trial, where Jackson was acquitted of all charges on June 13 2005. A civil suit over allegations of abduction and sexual assault of a man is currently pending in Louisiana, with the next court date set for August 17 2005.[2]
He has also been dogged by media fascination with his alleged androgynous, transracially-changing physical appearance and what some perceive as an eccentric lifestyle, which have earned him the nickname "Wacko Jacko".
Childhood and early professional musical career
Jackson was born the seventh of nine children in Gary, Indiana, to Joseph and Katherine Jackson. The entire family – including older siblings Rebbie, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, LaToya, and Marlon, and younger siblings Randy and Janet – lived in a tiny two-bedroom house, and Jackson's father earned a meager living working in a steel mill. At the behest of their mother but against Joseph's wishes, the Jackson children were raised as Jehovah's Witnesses and practiced door-to-door evangelization. Due to Joseph Jackson's strict rules, the children were kept locked in their house while he worked the night shift. However, the children would sneak out of the house to their neighbors’ homes, where they practiced singing and playing music. The older Jackson brothers would sometimes sneak and play Joseph’s prized guitar while he was at work. Eventually, Joseph found out about their musical abilities and decided to capitalize upon it in order to leave Gary for California. Joseph organized Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and two unrelated neighborhood youths, Milford Hite (on drums) and Reynaud Jones (on keyboards), as an act called "The Jackson Brothers" in 1962. Michael and Marlon were considered too young to participate, but by 1964 both were members, and by 1967 Michael, considered by the family to be a talented dancer, had replaced his brother Jermaine as the lead singer, and the group was later renamed The Jackson 5.
The Jackson 5 built up a following by playing at clubs and bars throughout the Midwest, even winning an Amateur Night competition at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. The Jackson 5 signed their first recording contract with the local Steeltown label in 1967, and had a regional hit with "Big Boy" in 1968. They were discovered by both Gladys Knight & the Pips and Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, who brought them to Motown Records in 1968. Label head Berry Gordy bought out their Steeltown contract and signed the group to Motown in March 1969. Gordy then moved the Jackson family to Los Angeles, California, and proceeded to turn them into international stars. In fall 1969, The Jackson 5 were presented to the public by Diana Ross and were officially launched as the next big Motown act. The group's first four singles all became #1 hits in the U.S., the first time ever for a group. With Motown Records, the Jackson 5 made fourteen albums, and Michael also recorded four albums as a solo artist. Among Michael's early solo hits were "Got to Be There" (his 1971 solo debut); "Rockin' Robin", "I Wanna Be Where You Are", the number-one hit "Ben" (all 1972),"With a Child's Heart" (1973), "We're Almost There", and "Just a Little Bit of You" (1975).
In 1976, the Jackson brothers signed a deal with CBS Records, first joining the Philadelphia International division and later moving over to Epic Records. The new deal with CBS provided more creative freedom and larger royalties that they were not allowed at Motown. By leaving Motown behind, they lost the rights to use the "Jackson 5" name and logo. Additionally Jermaine, who had married Berry Gordy's daughter Hazel, opted to remain at Motown for a full-time solo career. Now known as "The Jacksons", and featuring younger brother Randy in Jermaine's place, the brothers continued their successful career, touring internationally and releasing six albums between 1976 and 1984. Hits during this period included "Enjoy Yourself" & "Show You The Way To Go" (1976), "Find Me A Girl" (1977), "Blame It On The Boogie" (1978), "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" (1979), "Can You Feel It" & "Heartbreak Hotel" (1980) and "Torture" & "State of Shock" (1984). In 1978, he co-starred in The Wiz as the Scarecrow and worked alongside Diana Ross and others on a soundtrack album composed by Quincy Jones. After Jackson signed a solo contract with Epic in 1978, he began work on his first of several albums with Jones.
Solo career
Off The Wall to Thriller
Michael Jackson's 1979 album Off the Wall was a worldwide hit and spawned the number-one hit singles and music videos "Rock With You" and "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough". The ballad "She's Out Of My Life" also reached the top ten in 1980. With that accomplishment, Jackson became the first solo artist to spawn off four Top Ten hit singles from a single album. The album went on to sell over seven million copies in America, firmly establishing Jackson as a musical force without his brothers.
In the 1980s, Jackson released a progression of solo albums of slickly-produced synthesizer-heavy pop. In what was perhaps the "Golden Age" of the video clip, some of Jackson's videos were virtual short films with considerable plots and impressive special effects that featured Jackson's distinctive dance style. In fact, Jackson is in the habit of referring to his videos as "short films" on his DVD releases.
His Thriller album was released in 1982, produced seven top-ten hit singles, and quickly became the world's best selling album ever. The "Billie Jean" music video, released to promote Thriller, became the first video by a black artist to be aired on MTV, and the "Thriller" short film, included with The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller, became the world's best selling home video at the time.
"Billie Jean", "Thriller", and "Beat It", were the three music videos released from the album, and have since become three of MTV's most significant videos in history, placing highly on several MTV and VH1 countdowns, and receiving substantial airplay on MTV2 to this day. The album's other singles were "Human Nature" and "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)", both of which were also hits, despite neither having music videos.
While performing "Billie Jean" during the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever special on television on May 16, 1983, Jackson publicly performed the moonwalk for the first time, stunning TV audiences. In January 1984 at the American Music Awards, Jackson was nominated for nine awards and won a record eight. In February at the Grammy Awards Jackson was nominated for twelve awards and won a record-breaking eight: seven for Thriller and one for his narrative on The E.T. Storybook. In May, Thriller was certified by the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest selling popular music album of all time. In addition in 1984, he was also awarded the H. Claude Hodson Medal of Freedom at the NAACP Image Awards, feted at the White House by President Ronald Reagan with the Presidential Special Achievement Award and in November was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. by 2005, Thriller had been certified 27x platinum in the U.S.
"We Are the World" to Dangerous
Inspired by Band Aid, Jackson was instrumental in organizing the single "We Are the World" (co-written with Lionel Richie) in 1985. "We Are the World" was sung by forty-four different singers including Harry Belafonte, Cyndi Lauper, Diana Ross, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder and sold 7 million copies in the United States, becoming the best selling single of all time (eclipsed by Elton John's "Candle In The Wind" in 1997), to raise money for USA for Africa – a charity working to raise awareness about and help starving people in Africa.
Jackson starred in the George Lucas/Francis Ford Coppola 3-D film Captain Eo in 1986, which was shown in Disney theme parks until 1998. Minute for minute, the 17-minute short film was the most expensive film ever produced at the time, costing an estimated seventeen million dollars to make. The film contained the songs "We Are Here to Change the World" and "Another Part of Me".
In 1987, Jackson released Bad and began his first solo world tour, performing to sold out audiences at each concert. Bad was another smash success for Jackson, though not as big of a success as Thriller. Its singles and music videos "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror", "Dirty Diana", "Another Part of Me", "Smooth Criminal" and "Leave Me Alone" provided Jackson with another string of hits. The album's only relatively unsuccessful single, "Liberian Girl", remains to this day as one of Jackson's least seen music videos and least heard singles. Nonetheless, he made history by becoming the first artist to generate five number one singles off of one album. Of the seven singles released in the USA, the first five went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, "Another Part of Me" peaked at eleven (number one on Billboard's R&B charts) and "Smooth Criminal" went to number seven. The title track from Bad was originally intended as a duet with longtime rival Prince. Prince was approached and briefly considered taking part in the project, but eventually decided against it because of the first line ("Your butt is mine"). He later remarked that the album was called "Bad" because "they didn't have enough room to spell 'Pathetic'". Years later, Quincy Jones told a different story when he said that Prince told him and Jackson he didn't want to participate because "it would be a hit without (him)".
In 1988, Jackson released a movie entitled "Moonwalker" and an autobiography entitled Moon Walk.
Jackson was awarded a record breaking $890 million contract by Sony and released an album Dangerous in 1991. During the Dangerous world tour Jackson announced the creation of his Heal the World Foundation. "Black or White" was the most memorable video from the album. Ten minutes long, it premiered simultaneously on November 14 1991, on MTV, VH1, BET, and ABC, becoming one of the most-watched music video premieres in history. The last four minutes of the video depicted Jackson doing his infamous crotch-rubbing, smashing store windows, and destroying a car with a crowbar, which caused a good deal of controversy among parents of young children. MTV and other music video stations decided to cut out the last four minutes of the video for all subsequent airings, and Jackson issued an apology statement to those who had been offended. To date, the final four minutes of the "Black or White" video has only since re-aired in America on MTV2 between the hours of 01:00 and 04:00, as part of their special uncensored airing of the "Most Controversial Music Videos" of all time, however the extended version is available on Jackson's DVDs. A few years ago, VH1 Europe aired them in daytime, but now cuts them out. The video was parodied by the sketch comedy show In Living Color and by the band Genesis in their video for "I Can't Dance".
Dangerous also contained the singles "Gone Too Soon" (a tribute to young AIDS victim Ryan White), and "Will You Be There", which would later become the theme song to the movie Free Willy, as well as "Jam", "Remember the Time", "In the Closet", and "Heal the World". As was becoming the standard for Jackson, the album's music videos were among the most costly, creative, and innovative of their time. "Give in to Me" featured Slash from Guns n' Roses in its video. Several of the other videos had complex storylines and dance sequences, and featured cameo appearances by celebrities. The video for "Jam", directed by David Kellogg, showed Jackson and Michael Jordan playing basketball and dancing together, while "Remember the Time" was set in an ancient Egyptian palace and starred Eddie Murphy as the king of the palace who was trying to entertain his wife, played by Iman. Magic Johnson played the king's chief guard. Jackson and Naomi Campbell played lovers in "In The Closet". While in the U.S., sales for the album only reached seven million worldwide, it eclipsed "Bad" as the second biggest-selling album of Jackson's career reaching over twenty-nine million.
HIStory to Invincible
HIStory, a double-disc album, was released in 1995, featuring fifteen of his greatest hits and fifteen new songs. Its two new hit singles and videos in America included "Scream", a duet with his sister Janet whose futuristic music video, with a seven million dollar price tag, is the most expensive music video ever made, and "You Are Not Alone", which, thanks to a change in Billboard's chart policy, became the first song to ever debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. The video featured Jackson's then-wife, Lisa Marie Presley. The album's other singles and videos had limited success in America, and performed far better in Europe. "Childhood" was used as the theme song to Free Willy 2. "They Don't Care About Us" caused a stir when it was released due to controversial lyrics which were considered by some to be anti-Semitic. This caused American MTV and VH1 to ban the song's music video, even though it garnered heavy airplay on many of America's Boxnetworks. The lyrics "Jew me, sue me/Kick me, kike me" were modified on the album's official release in response to the criticism. Apart from the video for "Scream," singles and videos from HIStory today garner little airplay in America, making the album a failure overall by Jackson's standards, though it has sold over eighteen million double albums by 2004. It was branded a failure very quickly in the U.S., spending only two weeks at the top with unspectacular sales. On the other hand, the album spawned his biggest hit ever in the UK, "Earth Song", which stayed at the top of the chart for six weeks and sold over a million copies.
In 1997 Jackson released Blood on the Dance Floor, a remix album of several of the tracks off of HIStory, which also included 5 new songs and has since become the biggest-selling remix album of all time. The album only had one single and official music video, the title track, which failed to catch on in America, and again proved a far more popular hit in Europe. However, Jackson also produced "Ghosts", a forty-minute short film, which was shown in several movie theaters and uses the songs "Ghosts" and "2 Bad" in the film. The short film "Ghosts" is occasionally played as an hour-long special, with space made for commercials, on MTV and VH1, especially during the Halloween season. Four years later, Jackson was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 as a solo artist.
Jackson's 2001 album Invincible, speculated to be the most expensive album ever produced, debuted at number one on the U.S. charts, selling two million copies in the United States and eight million worldwide. While the numbers seemed impressive, the sales figures were nonetheless disappointing, considering Jackson's previous success and the cost of the album. As opposed to his earlier albums which each spawned at least six singles, most of which were generally worldwide smashes, Invincible produced only the singles "You Rock My World" and "Butterflies" in America. "Cry" was also issued as a third single in Europe. "You Rock My World" managed the top ten in America, but only for a week, and its big-budget, fourteen-minute music video received only sparse airplay, usually in a shortened, five-minute version. "Butterflies" was a top-twenty hit in America as well as a number-two hit on the R&B charts, but did not reach the top ten, despite a popular radio remix featuring rapper Eve. The song's relative lack of success also allowed no budget for a music video.
In June 2002, Jackson was inducted for his work as a songwriter to the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In November 2002 Jackson received in Berlin Germany's Millennium Bambi 2002 award, in recognition of his status as the world's "greatest living pop icon". The awards recognize outstanding personalities and performances in various fields, including show business, film, politics and sport.
One More Chance
On November 20 2003, Jackson released a new song, "One More Chance," written by R. Kelly. It was the only new track on his Number Ones greatest hits album. "One More Chance" went on to become the number-one track on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales chart for three straight weeks. The song was also featured as a montage video on the CBS TV special "Michael Jackson Number Ones" The special was then released on DVD as "The One". As well as the montage, there is also an original music video shot for "One More Chance" that remains unreleased.
Personal life
Michael Jackson had continued to practice door-to-door Jehovah's Witness evangelization after becoming famous, but in disguise. His career and flamboyant style led to friction with congregation elders. At one point, his sister LaToya was shunned by Jehovah's Witnesses, and in 1987, he formally left the religion.
Jackson resides at the Neverland Ranch in Santa Ynez, California, an eleven square-kilometre (2,600 acre) property named after the magical kingdom Neverland featured in the children's story Peter Pan, which he purchased in 1988. An ardent Disney fan, Jackson built an amusement park on the ranch and frequently welcomes sick and poor children there, claiming that he likes to be surrounded by children because of their sense of innocence, which he feels he lost too soon. His song "Childhood" includes the lyric "It's been my fate to compensate, for the childhood I've never known" ''History'', 1995, Sony Music. Jackson, who was often seen with a chimpanzee named Bubbles and a snake called Muscles in the 80's, is fond of animals and owns a private zoo at Neverland. Neverland has inspired much of Jackson's work. He once told an interviewer that he likes climbing trees and wrote songs like "Will You Be There" and "Heal the World" while sitting in his favorite tree called Giving Tree because "it's inspiring".
The "Heal the World" foundation was created by Jackson in 1992, with assistance from former President Jimmy Carter. Michael is also the godfather of Lionel Richie's adopted daughter Nicole Richie.
Jackson's marriages and children
In 1994 Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley. The marriage was severely criticized by the media for being staged, and lasted less than two years. Despite some comments questionning the validity of this union, Lisa Marie Presley has consistently rebutted critics by maintaining they both shared a normal couple'a life during their time together.
In 1996, Jackson married Deborah Jeanne Rowe, with whom he had a son, Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr. (who publicly goes by the name "Prince"), and a daughter, Paris-Michael Katherine. They were divorced in 1999. Rowe later said that she wanted Jackson have the children as a "gift", which she had offered even while Jackson was married to Presley. Rowe had given up her parental rights to the children, but as of 2005 a family court case is under way regarding visitation. The godparents of these two children are Macaulay Culkin and Elizabeth Taylor.
Around February 2002 Jackson had another son, Michael Joseph Jackson III, also called "Prince Michael II" and "Blanket", apparently with a surrogate mother whose identity has not been disclosed. In late 2002, Jackson stirred up controversy while staying at the Adlon hotel in Berlin by briefly dangling him over the edge of a balcony. Jackson defended his actions, saying that he held the child very tightly. Jackson's children are veiled or masked when they appear in public with him, which he describes as a security measure. Rowe said it was her idea from the beginning.
There have been rumors that Jackson was having children by various women. One woman claimed that she was giving birth to quadruplets, and the father was Jackson's. They were later confirmed not to be his at all. Jackson suffered the same problem two decades earlier with a woman claiming Michael was a father to one of her fraternal twins, from which his memorable hit "Billie Jean" was derived.
Controversies
Skin color
Although Jackson's skin color was a medium brown tone for the entire duration of his youth, his skin has lightened gradually since 1982, and is today a light cream color. Jackson has attributed his changing skin color to vitiligo, a skin disease in which the body develops antibodies against its own pigment, resulting in light patches and an eventual loss of melanin. The public first learned of Jackson's condition when he revealed it in a 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey. Several members of the media refused to believe Jackson has vitiligo, often accusing him of bleaching his skin, which Jackson denies. Even Jackson's family members backed up his claim, with Joseph Jackson stating that his own father (Michael Jackson's grandfather) had also suffered from vitiligo.
Jackson has been shown in various pictures over the years to have suffered from the disease. In several early-1980s concert photos, there was a white blotch showcased on Jackson's neck which could easily explained Jackson's lightening condition. After going to a hospital, he finally received the news when his doctor said he was diagnosed with the disease in 1986. Ever since then, Jackson has been seen wearing long-sleeved shirts and pants under an umbrella to hide from the sun, which he says he's allergic to because of his condition.
Plastic surgery
It has been rumored that Jackson has used extensive plastic surgery to modify his appearance, although he claims to have had only three operations: Two rhinoplastic surgeries, the first of which he claims was to repair a broken nose.
Some close to Jackson have speculated that Jackson's surgeries and behavior have been attempts to model hiimself after the androgynous, perpetually young Peter Pan, alleging, for example, that the high-pitched voice Jackson is known to use in public is different from the voice he uses in private, which is much deeper.