A 1969 Motown debut single by five brothers from Gary, Indiana (1969)
"I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5, with Michael singing lead at eleven.
Popular music · Pop
Michael Jackson
1958–2009 · American
Pop and R&B — Motown, then Epic; the King of Pop
Michael Jackson began as the child lead singer of the Jackson 5 at Motown and became, with the Quincy Jones-produced albums Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad, the biggest solo star in the world. Thriller remains the best-selling album ever made, and his videos and dancing — above all the backslide known as the moonwalk — reshaped what a pop performer was expected to do. His later years were dominated by allegations of child sexual abuse, of which he was acquitted at trial in 2005, and he died in 2009 while preparing a comeback residency.
How to spot them
- ▸The King of Pop; the single glove, the fedora, the moonwalk, the vocal hiccups and yelps
- ▸Producer Quincy Jones on Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad
- ▸Motown as a child with his brothers; Epic Records as an adult
- ▸Neverland Ranch; the Jackson family of Gary, Indiana; sister Janet
Songs & albums
A 1979 album, produced by Quincy Jones, on which he first wrote his own hits (1979)
Off the Wall — including "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough", which he wrote.
A 1982 album that remains the best-selling of all time and won eight Grammys in one night (1982)
Thriller — the Grammy haul came at the 1984 ceremony.
The 1983 Motown anniversary television show at which a backslide across the stage became a signature move (1983)
Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever — the moonwalk, performed during "Billie Jean".
A fourteen-minute horror video directed by John Landis, with a spoken coda by Vincent Price (1983)
The "Thriller" video — later added to the US National Film Registry.
A 1985 famine-relief single co-written with Lionel Richie and sung by forty-five American stars (1985)
"We Are the World", recorded by USA for Africa and produced by Quincy Jones.
A 1987 album that produced five US number-one singles, a record at the time (1987)
Bad — the first album to yield five US chart-toppers.
A 1991 single against racism whose video ends with faces morphing into one another (1991)
"Black or White", from Dangerous, with a guitar part by Slash.
Quick-fire facts
- •Born 29 August 1958 in Gary, Indiana, the eighth of ten children of Joseph and Katherine Jackson
- •Thriller (1982) is the best-selling album in history, with estimated sales of over 65 million copies
- •He bought the ATV music publishing catalogue in 1985 for about $47.5 million, acquiring the rights to most Lennon–McCartney songs
- •His hair caught fire while filming a Pepsi advertisement in 1984, causing burns he was treated for with painkillers
- •He died on 25 June 2009 in Los Angeles, aged 50, of acute propofol intoxication; his physician Conrad Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2011
- •He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: with the Jackson 5 in 1997 and as a solo artist in 2001, by N*SYNC
- •He won 13 competitive Grammy Awards
- •He was tried on child molestation charges in 2005 and acquitted on all counts
- •He was rehearsing for a fifty-night London residency, This Is It, at the time of his death
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Sources
- Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — Michael Jackson — Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee
- J. Randy Taraborrelli — Michael Jackson: The Magic, the Madness, the Whole Story