Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter and dancer.
Dubbed the "King of Pop", he was one of the most popular entertainers in the world, and was the best-selling music artist at the time of his death.Jackson's contributions to music, dance, and fashion along with his publicized personal life made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades.The eighth child of the Jackson family, Michael made his professional debut in 1964 with his elder brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon as a member of the Jackson 5. He began his solo career in 1971 while at Motown Records. In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music. His music videos, including those of "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller" from his 1982 album Thriller, are credited with breaking racial barriers and transforming the medium into an art form and promotional tool. The popularity of these videos helped bring the television channel MTV to fame. Jackson's 1987 album Bad spawned the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "I Just Can't Stop Loving You",
"Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror", and "Dirty Diana", becoming the first album to have five number-one singles in the nation.He continued to innovate with videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" throughout the 1990s, and forged a reputation as a touring solo artist. Through stage and video performances, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive sound and style has influenced numerous artists of various music genres.
Thriller is the best-selling album of all time, with estimated sales of 65 million copies worldwide. Jackson's other albums, including Off the Wall of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, and was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Dance Hall of Fame as the only dancer from pop and rock music. His other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records including the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time, 13 Grammy Awards, the Grammy Legend Award, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, 26 American Music Awards—more than any other artist—including the"Artist of the Century" and "Artist of the 1980s", 13 number-one singles in the United States during his solo career—more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era—and estimated sales of over 350 million records worldwide.Jackson won hundreds of awards, making him the most awarded recording artist in the history of popular music. He became the first artist in history to have a top ten single in the Billboard Hot 100 in five different decades when "Love Never Felt So Good" reached number nine on May 21, 2014. Jackson traveled the world attending events honoring his humanitarianism, and, in 2000, the Guinness World
Records recognized him for supporting 39 charities, more than any other entertainer.
Musical themes and genres
Jackson explored a variety of music genres, including pop, soul, rhythm and blues, funk, rock, disco, post-disco, dance-pop and new jack swing. Unlike many artists, Jackson did not write his songs on paper and instead dictated into a sound recorder.When composing music, he preferred to beatbox and imitate instruments vocally rather than use instruments.According to Steve Huey of AllMusic, Thriller refined the strengths of Off the Wall; the dance and rock tracks were more aggressive, while the pop tunes and ballads were softer and more soulful.Its tracks included the ballads "The Lady in My Life", "Human Nature",and "The Girl Is Mine", the funk pieces "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'", and the disco set "Baby Be Mine" and "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)".With Thriller, Christopher Connelly of Rolling Stone commented that Jackson developed his long association with the subliminal theme of paranoia and darker imagery. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted this is evident on the songs "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'".In "Billie Jean", Jackson sings about an obsessive fan who alleges he has fathered a child of hers.In "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" he argues against gossip and the media. "Beat It" decried gang violence in an homage to West Side Story, and was Jackson's first successful rock cross-over piece, according to Huey. He also observed that the years. In 1985, Jackson co-wrote the charity anthem "We Are the World"; humanitarian themes later became a recurring theme in his lyrics and public personal In Bad, Jackson's concept of the predatory lover can be seen on the rock song "Dirty Diana". The lead single "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" is a traditional love ballad, while "Man in the Mirror" is an anthemic ballad of confession and resolution. "Smooth Criminal" is an evocation of bloody assault, rape and likely murder. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine states that Dangerous presents Jackson as a paradoxical individual.He comments the album is more diverse than his previous Bad, as it appeals to an urban audience while also attracting the middle class with anthems like "Heal the World". The first half of the record is dedicated to new jack swing, including songs like "Jam" and "Remember the Time".It was the first Jackson album in which social ills become a primary theme; "Why You Wanna Trip on Me", for example, protests world hunger, AIDS, homelessness and drugs. Dangerous contains sexually charged songs such as the multifaceted love song "In the Closet".The title track continues the theme of the predatory lover and compulsive desire. The second half includes introspective, gospel anthems such as "Will You Be There", "Heal the World" and "Keep the Faith"; these songs show Jackson opening up about various personal struggles and worries.In the ballad "Gone Too Soon", Jackson gives tribute to his friend Ryan White and the plight of those with AIDS.HIStory creates an atmosphere of paranoia. Its content focuses on the hardships and public struggles Jackson went through prior to its production. In the new jack swing-funk-rock tracks "Scream" and "Tabloid Junkie", and the R&B ballad "You Are Not Alone", Jackson retaliates against the injustice and isolation he feels, and directs much of his anger at the media. In the introspective ballad "Stranger in Moscow", Jackson laments over his "fall from grace", while songs like "Earth Song", "Childhood", "Little Susie" and "Smile" are operatic pop pieces. In the track "D.S.", Jackson launched a verbal attack against the lawyer Tom Sneddon, who had prosecuted him in both child sexual abuse cases. He describes Sneddon as an antisocial white supremacist who wanted to "get my ass, dead or alive". Of the song, Sneddon said: "I have not—shall we say—done him the honor of listening to it, but I've been told that it ends with the sound of a gunshot." Invincible found Jackson working heavily with producer Rodney Jerkins Dawn", and "Butterflies" and mixes hip hop, pop, and R&B in "2000 Watts", "Heartbreaker" and "Invincible".
Legacy and Influence
The media has commonly referred to Jackson as the "King of Pop" because, throughout his career, he transformed the art of music videos and paved the way for modern pop music. For much of Jackson's career, he had an unparalleled worldwide influence over the younger generation through his musical and humanitarian works.His music and videos, such as Thriller, fostered racial diversity in MTV's roster and steered its focus from rock to pop music and R&B, shaping the channel into a form that proved enduring. Jackson's work continues to influence numerous artists of various music genres. He is recognized as the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time by Guinness World Records.
Danyel Smith, the chief content officer of Vibe Media Group and the editor-in-chief of Vibe describes Jackson as "The Greatest Star". AllMusic's Steve Huey describes Jackson as "an unstoppable juggernaut, possessed of all the skills to dominate the charts seemingly at will: an instantly identifiable voice, eye-popping dance moves, stunning musical versatility and loads of sheer star power".BET described Jackson "as quite simply the greatest entertainer of all time" and someone who "revolutionized the music video and brought dances like the moonwalk to the world. Jackson's sound, style, movement and legacy continues to inspire artists of all genres."
In 1984, Time magazine's pop critic Jay Cocks wrote that "Jackson is the biggest thing since the Beatles. He is the hottest single phenomenon since Elvis Presley. He just may be the most popular black singer ever." In 1990, Vanity Fair cited Jackson as the most popular artist in the history of show business. In 2003, Daily Telegraph writer Tom Utley described Jackson as "extremely important" and a "genius". In 2007, Jackson said: "Music has been my outlet, my gift to all of the lovers in this world. Through it, my music, I know I will live forever."At Jackson's memorial service on July 7, 2009, Motown founder Berry Gordy proclaimed Jackson "the greatest entertainer that ever lived". In a June 28, 2009 Baltimore Sun article titled "7 Ways Michael Jackson Changed The World", Jill Rosen wrote that Jackson's legacy was "as enduring ait is multi-faceted", influencing fields including sound, dance, fashion, music videos and celebrity. On December 19, 2014, the British Council of Cultural Relations named Jackson's life one of the 80 most important cultural moments of the 20th century.In July 2009, the Lunar Republic Society, which promotes the exploration, settlement, and development of the Moon, named a Moon crater after Jackson.
In the same year, for Jackson's 51st birthday, Google dedicated their Google Doodle to him. In 2010, two university librarians found that Jackson's influence extended to academia, with references to Jackson in reports concerning music, popular culture, chemistry and an array of other topics.
Honors and awards
Michael Jackson was inducted onto the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1980 as member of the Jacksons and in 1984 as solo artist. Throughout his career he received numerous honors and awards, including the World Music Awards' Best-Selling Pop Male Artist of the Millennium, the American Music Award's Artist of the Century Award and the Bambi Pop Artist of the Millennium Award.He was a double-inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, once as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1997 and later as a solo artist in 2001. Jackson was also inducted in several other halls of fame, including Vocal Group Hall of Fame (as a Jackson 5 member) in 1999 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2010, Jackson was inducted into the Dance Hall of Fame as the first (and currently only) dancer from the world of pop and rock 'n' roll. In 2014, Jackson was inducted into the second class of inductees to the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame; his father Joe Jackson accepted on his behalf.His awards include many Guinness World Records (eight in 2006 alone), including for the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time, 13 Grammy Awards (as well as the Grammy Legend Award[440] and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award), 26 American Music Awards (including the "Artist of the Century"and "Artist of the 1980s"),more than any artist number-one singles in the US in his solo career—more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era and estimated sales of over 350 million records worldwide[444][Note 1] making him one of the best-selling artists in modern music history.On December 29, 2009, the American Film Institute recognized Jackson's death as a "moment of significance" saying, "Michael Jackson's sudden death in June at age 50 was notable for the worldwide outpouring of grief and the unprecedented global eulogy of his posthumous concert rehearsal movie This Is It. Michael Jackson also received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree from the United Negro College Fund and also an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Fisk University.
Link=>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson
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