Michael Jackson (and/or Jackson Five)
BORN: August 29, 1958, Gary, IN
Michael Jackson was unquestionably the biggest pop star of the '80s, and
certainly one of the most popular recording artists of all time. In his prime,
Jackson was an unstoppable juggernaut, possessed of all the tools to dominate
the charts seemingly at will: an instantly identifiable voice, eye-popping
dance moves, stunning musical versatility, and loads of sheer star power.
His 1982 blockbuster Thriller became the biggest-selling album of all time
(probably his best-known accomplishment), and he was the first black artist
to find stardom on MTV, breaking down innumerable boundaries both for his
race and for music video as an art form. Yet as Jackson's career began, very
gradually, to descend from the dizzying heights of his peak years, most of
the media's attention focused on his increasingly bizarre eccentricities;
he was often depicted as an arrested man-child, completely sheltered from
adult reality by a life spent in show business. The snickering turned to
scandal in 1993, when Jackson was accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy;
although he categorically denied the charges, his out-of-court settlement
failed to restore his tarnished image. He never quite escaped the stigma
of those allegations, and while he continued to sell records at superstar-like
levels, he didn't release them with enough frequency (or, many critics thought,
inspiration) to once again become better known for his music than his private
life. Whether as a pop icon or a tabloid caricature, Jackson always remained
bigger than life.
Michael Joseph Jackson was born August 29, 1958, in Gary, IN. The fifth son
of steelworker Joe Jackson, Michael displayed a talent for music and dance
from an extremely young age. His childhood was strictly regimented; from
the start, he was to an extent sheltered from the outside world by his mother's
Jehovah's Witness faith, and his father was by all accounts an often ill-tempered
disciplinarian. Joe began to organize a family musical group around his three
eldest sons in 1962, and Michael joined them the following year, quickly
establishing himself as a dynamic stage performer. His dead-on mastery of
James Brown's dance moves and soulful, mature-beyond-his-years vocals made
him a natural focal point, especially given his incredibly young age. Dubbed
the Jackson 5, the group signed to Motown in 1968 and issued their debut
single in early 1970, when Michael was just 11 years old. "I Want You Back,"
"ABC," "The Love You Save," and "I'll Be There" all hit number one that year,
making the Jackson 5 the first group in pop history to have their first four
singles top the charts. Motown began priming Michael for a solo career in
1971, and his first single "Got to Be There" was issued toward the end of
the year; it hit the Top Five, as did the follow-up, a cover of Bobby Day's
"Rockin' Robin." Later in 1972, Jackson had his first number-one solo single,
"Ben," the title song from a children's thriller about a young boy who befriends
Ben, the highly intelligent leader of a gang of homicidal rats. Given the
subject matter, the song was surprisingly sincere and sentimental, and even
earned an Oscar nomination. However, the momentum of Jackson's solo career
(much like that of the Jackson 5) soon stalled. He released his fourth and
final album on Motown in 1975, and the following year, he and his brothers
(save Jermaine) signed to Epic and became the Jacksons.
In 1977, Jackson landed a starring role alongside Diana Ross in the all-black
film musical The Wiz, a retelling of The Wizard of Oz; here he met producer/composer
Quincy Jones for the first time. Encouraged by the success of the Jacksons'
self-produced, mostly self-written 1978 album Destiny, Jackson elected to
resume his solo career when his management contract with his father expired
shortly thereafter. With Jones producing, Jackson recorded his first solo
album as an adult, Off the Wall. An immaculately crafted set of funky disco-pop,
smooth soul, and lush, sentimental pop ballads, Off the Wall made Jackson
a star all over again. It produced four Top Ten singles, including the number
one hits "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Rock With You," and went platinum
(it went on to sell over seven-million copies); even so, Jackson remained
loyal to his brothers and stayed with the group.
No group could have contained Jackson's rapidly rising star for long; however,
there was still no sign (if there ever could be) that his next album would
become the biggest in history. Released in 1982, the Quincy Jones-produced
Thriller refined the strengths of Off the Wall; the dance and rock tracks
were more driving, the pop tunes and ballads softer and more soulful, and
all of it was recognizably Michael. Jackson brought in Paul McCartney for
a duet, guitarist Eddie Van Halen for a jaw-dropping solo, and Vincent Price
for a creepy recitation. It was no surprise that Thriller was a hit; what
was a surprise was its staying power. Jackson's duet with McCartney, "The
Girl Is Mine," was a natural single choice, and it peaked at number two;
then "Billie Jean" and the Van Halen track "Beat It" both hit number one,
for seven and three weeks respectively. Those latter two songs, as well as
the future Top Five title track, had one important feature in common: Jackson
supported them with elaborately conceived video clips that revolutionized
the way music videos were made. Jackson treated them as song-length movies
with structured narratives: "Billie Jean" set the song's tale of a paternity
suit in a nightmarish dream world where Jackson was a solitary, sometimes
invisible presence; the anti-gang-violence "Beat It" became an homage to
West Side Story; and the ten-minute-plus clip for "Thriller" (routinely selected
as the best video of all time) featured Jackson leading a dance troupe of
rotting zombies, with loads of horror-film makeup and effects. Having never
really accepted black artists in the past, MTV played the clips to death,
garnering massive publicity for Jackson and droves of viewers for the fledgling
cable network. Jackson sealed his own phenomenon by debuting his signature
"moonwalk" dance step at the end of 1983 on Motown's televised 25th anniversary
special; though he didn't invent the moonwalk (as he himself was quick to
point out), it became as much of a Jackson signature as his vocal hiccups
or single white-sequined glove.
Showing no signs of slowing down, Thriller just kept spinning off singles,
including "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," the airy ballad "Human Nature,"
and "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)"; in all, seven of its nine tracks wound
up in the Top Ten, obliterating conventional ideas of how many singles could
be released from an album before it ran its course. Thriller stayed on the
charts for over two years, spent 37 non-consecutive weeks at number one,
and became the best-selling album of all time; it went on to sell 25-million
copies in the U.S. alone, and around another 20 million overseas. Naturally,
Jackson won a slew of awards, including a record eight Grammys in one night,
and snagged the largest endorsement deal ever when he became a spokesman
for Pepsi (he would later be burned in an accident while filming a commercial).
At the end of 1983, Jackson was again on top of the singles charts, this
time as part of a second duet with McCartney, "Say Say Say." In 1984, Jackson
re-joined his brothers one last time for the album Victory, whose supporting
tour was one of the biggest (and priciest) of the year. The following year,
he and Lionel Richie co-wrote the anthemic "We Are the World" for the all-star
famine-relief effort USA for Africa; it became one of the fastest-selling
singles ever.
Even at this early stage, wild rumors about Jackson's private life were swirling.
His shyness and reluctance to grant interviews (ironically, due in part to
his concerns about being misrepresented) only encouraged more speculation.
Some pointed to his soft-spoken, still girlish voice as evidence that he'd
undergone hormone treatments to preserve the high, flexible range of his
youth; stories were told about Jackson sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber to
slow the aging process, and purchasing the skeleton of John Merrick, the
Elephant Man (Jackson did view the bones in the London Hospital, but did
not buy them). Jackson bought a large ranch in California which he dubbed
Neverland, and filled it with amusement park rides and animals (including
the notorious pet chimpanzee Bubbles), which only fueled the public's perception
of him as a somewhat bizarre eccentric obsessed with recapturing his childhood.
He also underwent cosmetic surgery several times, which led to accusations
from the black community that his gradually lightening skin tone was the
result of an intentional effort to become whiter; a few years later, Jackson
revealed that he had a disorder called vitiligo, in which pigment disappears
from the skin, leaving large white blotches and making direct sunlight dangerous.
One of the rumors that was definitely true was that Jackson owned the rights
to the Beatles' catalog; in 1985, he acquired ATV Publishing, the firm that
controlled all the Lennon-McCartney copyrights (among others), which wound
up costing him his friendship with McCartney.
During his long layoff between records, Jackson indulged his interest in
film and video by working with George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola on the
3-D short film Captain Eo. The special-effects extravaganza was shown at
the enormous wide-screen IMAX theaters in Disney's amusement parks for 12
years, beginning in 1986. Finally, Jackson re-entered the studio with Quincy
Jones to begin the near-impossible task of crafting a follow-up to Thriller.
Bad was released to enormous public anticipation in 1987, and was accompanied
by equally enormous publicity. It debuted at number one, and the first single
"I Just Can't Stop Loving You," with vocal accompaniment by Siedah Garrett,
also shot up the charts to number one. Like Thriller, Bad continued to spin
off singles for well over a year after its release, and became the first
album ever to produce five number one hits; the others were "Bad," "The Way
You Make Me Feel," "Man in the Mirror," and "Dirty Diana." Jackson supported
the album with a lengthy world tour that featured a typically spectacular,
elaborate stage show; it became the highest-grossing tour of all time. Although
Jackson's success was still staggering, there were faint undercurrents of
disappointment, partly because of the unparalleled phenomenon of Thriller
(Bad "only" sold eight million copies), and partly because the album itself
didn't seem quite as exuberant or uniformly consistent when compared to its
predecessors.
Jackson took another long hiatus between albums, giving the media little
to focus on besides his numerous eccentricities; by this time, the British
tabloids delighted in calling him "Wacko Jacko," a name he detested. When
Jackson returned in with a new album in late 1991, he'd come up with a different
moniker: "the King of Pop." Dangerous found Jackson ending his collaboration
with Quincy Jones in an effort to update his sound; accordingly, many of
the tracks were helmed by the groundbreaking new jack swing producer Teddy
Riley. As expected, the album debuted at number one, and its lead single
"Black or White" shot to the top as well. Jackson courted controversy with
the song's video, however; after the song itself ended, there was a long
dance sequence in which Jackson shouted, grabbed his crotch, and smashed
car windows in a bizarre display that seemed at odds with the song's harmonious
message. With the video given a high-profile, prime-time network premiere,
Jackson was criticized for the inappropriate violence and the message it
might send to his younger fans. However, Jackson would not be the biggest
story in popular music for long. In early 1992, Nirvana's Nevermind symbolically
knocked Dangerous out of the number-one spot; after the alternative rock
revolution, the pop charts would never be quite the same. Jackson scored
several more hits off the album, including the Top Tens "Remember the Time"
and "In the Closet," but the aggressive "Jam" and the saccharine "Heal the
World" both performed disappointingly.
Jackson had long preferred the company of children over other adults, and
befriended quite a few, inviting them to stay at his Neverland Ranch and
enjoy the massive playground he'd assembled over the years. In 1993, Jackson
was accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy who'd become a frequent guest
at Neverland. Predictably, there was a tabloid feeding frenzy, and a mainstream
media circus as well. In the court of public opinion, the charges seemed
all too plausible: Jackson was near-universally perceived as a weirdo, and
here was a handy explanation for his heretofore asexual persona and distaste
for adult companions. Additionally, Jackson entered rehab for a short time,
seeking treatment for an addiction to pain killers. Investigations were unsuccessful
in turning up any other boys who echoed the allegations, and Jackson counter-sued
his accusers for attempting extortion; however, in spite of the fact that
no criminal charges were ever filed against Jackson, he settled the boy's
family's suit out of court in early 1995, paying an estimated 18-20 million
dollars. Many felt the settlement was tantamount to an admission of guilt,
and when Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley in 1994, the move was perceived
as a desperate ploy to rehabilitate his image; the marriage broke up just
19 months later, seemingly lending credence to the charge.
In 1995, Jackson attempted to put the focus back on his music by preparing
HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I, a two-CD set featuring one disc
of new material and one of his greatest hits. The album debuted at number
one, but the format backfired on Jackson: his fans already owned the hits,
and the new album simply wasn't strong enough to offset the added cost of
the extra disc for many more casual listeners. There were some encouraging
signs -- the lead single "Scream," a duet with sister Janet, debuted at number
five, setting a new American chart record that was broken when the follow-up
"You Are Not Alone" became the first single ever to enter the Billboard Hot
100 at number one. But on the whole, HIStory was something of a disappointment.
Additionally, Jackson collapsed during rehearsals for an awards show later
that year, and had to be rushed to the hospital; what was more, the Eagles'
Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 was threatening to catch Thriller's American
sales record (it eventually did, and the two continued to run neck and neck).
There were signs that Jackson was grasping at his self-proclaimed King of
Pop status; the cover of HIStory depicted an enormous statue of Jackson,
and he performed at the 1996 BRIT Awards dressed as a Messiah, with children
and a rabbi surrounding him worshipfully (Pulp lead singer Jarvis Cocker
stormed the stage to protest Jackson's hubris during the middle of the song).
The 1997 remix album Blood on the Dance Floor failed to even go platinum,
although remix albums historically don't perform nearly as well as new material.
In late 1996, Jackson remarried to nurse Debbie Rowe; over the next two years,
the couple had two children, son Prince Michael Jackson Jr. and daughter
Paris Michael Katherine Jackson. However, Jackson and Rowe divorced in late
1999. In 2001, Jackson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
and later held a massive concert at Madison Square Garden celebrating the
30th anniversary of his first solo record. Among many other celebrity guests,
the show featured the first on-stage reunion of the Jacksons since the Victory
tour. In the wake of September 11, Jackson put together an all-star charity
benefit single, "What More Can I Give." His new album, Invincible, was released
late in the year, marking the first time he'd issued a collection of entirely
new material since Dangerous; it found him working heavily with urban soul
production wizard Rodney Jerkins. Invincible debuted at number one and quickly
went double-platinum; however, its initial singles, "You Rock My World" and
"Butterflies," had rather disappointing showings on the charts, with the
latter not even reaching the Top Ten. To compound matters, the expensive
"What More Can I Give" single and video were cancelled by Sony when executive
producer Marc Schaffel was revealed to work in pornography. Jackson's camp
tried to distance the singer from Schaffel, and the various corporations
that were attached to it (McDonalds, Sony) claimed they had minimal involvement
if any with the song. Sony and Jackson began a press war in the summer of
2002, starting with Jackson's claims that the label asked for $200 million
to pay them back for marketing costs. Although they had spent $55 million
on his disappointing comeback, Sony released a statement saying that no such
request had ever been made. Jackson stewed for a few weeks before launching
a press attack on Sony Music chairman Tommy Mottola, calling him "devilish"
and making claims that he used racist language and held down black artists.
Many Sony artists, including Mariah Carey and Ricky Martin, defended Mottola,
but Jackson and his family maintained that racism ended their professional
relationship. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
Throughout his long career, internationally acclaimed music superstar Michael
Jackson has sporadically made film appearances as an actor, notably in his
first starring role in The Wiz (1978), but he is best known for producing
cutting-edge feature-film quality music videos such as "Thriller," "Billie
Jean," and "Black or White." He has also produced films for Disney virtual
rides, the first of which was the extremely popular Francis Ford Coppola-directed
Captain Eo (1985), which ran at Disney World in Orlando until 1997. Jackson
has also composed music and songs for movie soundtracks and occasionally
produced films such as Blood Tracks (1986). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide