In the year since Michael Jackson made his first national television
appearance with his brothers at age 11, he has evolved from a singing and
dancing soul music prodigy to the self-proclaimed but widely acknowledged
"King of Pop" to one of the most widely ridiculed of all public figures. As a
musician, he has ranged from Motown's snappy dance fare and lush ballads
to techno-edged New Jack Swing to work that incorporates both funk
rhythms and hard-rock guitar. At his early-1980s zenith, riding the crest of
his best-selling album, Thriller, spotlit in his red zippered jacket and single
white sequined glove, he was ubiquitous. Jackson has been a superb
businessman, exerting unparalleled control over his career and, in effect,
managing himself since he and his brothers (sans Jermaine) left Motown for
Epic Records in 1975, though his spendthrift ways have, in the 20000s, come
back to haunt him. But as a singer, dancer, and songwriter, Jackson's talent
is unassailable.
With the passage of time, however, and especially since 1993, it is Jackson's
personality that has dominated headlines formerly dedicated to his prodigious
artistic accomplishments and humanitarian efforts. His charity work was
enormous and focused always on his highly publicized identification with
children. Infatuated with E.T. and Peter Pan, Jackson seemed a kind of
childlike extraterrestrial: benign (if in an eerie way), either sexless or sexually
ambiguous, neither black nor white. Secluded by his celebrity, he appeared to
touch down to earth only on stage or on videotape; fanatically private, he
generated endless gossip. In 1993, and a decade later in 2004, with Jackson
facing allegations of child molestation, his career was rocked with scandal as
gargantuan as his fame. Not since Shirley Temple had a child star so
entranced the American public, and the massive public soul-searching the
allegations against Jackson inspired were but one indication of the almost
inestimable role he has played in shaping pop culture. Jackson returned to
the tabloids in 1994 with the shocking announcement that he had wed Lisa
Marie Presley, an act that led to even more speculation about his motives but
which undeniably made him, until his divorce two years later, the son-in-law
of the late Elvis Presley.
The Jackson 5's lead singer and focal point, Michael became more popular
than the group as the 1980s began. He had a string of solo hits in the early-
1970s ("Got to Be There" [Number Four, 1971]; "Rockin' Robin" [Number Two,
1972]; "Ben" [Number One, 1972]) and played the Scarecrow in the film
version of The Wiz in 1978. But it was with veteran producer Quincy Jones,
whom he met while filming The Wiz, that Jackson began his amazing rise. In
1979 the team's Off the Wall made him the first solo artist to release four Top
10 hits from a single album. "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" (Number One,
1979), "Rock with You" (Number One, 1979), "Off the Wall" (Number Ten,
1980), and "She's Out of My Life" (Number Ten, 1980) presented him as a
mature artist whose funk rhythms and pop melodies appealed equally to
blacks and whites. In the album's wake, the Jacksons' Triumph (1980) sold a
million copies and prompted a $5.5 million-grossing tour. Even at this early
stage, Jackson and his brothers were exploring video, and the short film that
accompanied Triumph's title track was an imaginative, technically advanced
effort.
In 1982 Jackson and Jones collaborated on a storytelling record of Steven
Spielberg's E.T. The album, which was hastily withdrawn from the market due
to a legal dispute, is now a prime Jackson collectible. That year, Diana Ross,
one of Jackson's mentors, scored a Number Ten hit with the Michael-written
"Muscles," named after one of his pet snakes. Jackson had also begun an
alliance with Paul McCartney, who had written "Girlfriend," from Off the Wall.
The two reconvened to co-write the duet "The Girl Is Mine" (Number Two,
1982), the first duet off of Thriller.
It was 1983 that marked Jackson's complete ascension. With Quincy Jones
again producing, Thriller yielded, in addition to "The Girl Is Mine," two other
hit singles by early 1983 — "Billie Jean" (Number One, 1983) and "Beat It"
(Number One, 1983), the latter featuring a guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen —
and went on to become the best-selling album in history, with over 45 million
copies sold worldwide. Charting at Number One in every Western country, it
spent a record 37 weeks at Number One in the U.S. The first album to ever
simultaneously head the singles and albums charts for both R&B and pop, it
eventually generated an unprecedented seven Top 10 singles, including
"P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" (Number Ten, One983), "Wanna Be Startin'
Somethin'" (Number Five, 1983), "Human Nature" (Number Seven, 1983), and
"Thriller" (Number Four, 1983). Of its record 12 Grammy nominations, it won
eight in 1983, a historical sweep.
Thriller also broke through MTV's de facto color line; where videos by black
artists had rarely been shown, Michael's "Beat It," costing $160,000,
received extensive play. The "Thriller" video, with a voiceover by horror
movie stalwart Vincent Price and state-of-the-art special effects, was
directed by John Landis, establishing Jackson's practice of working with
notable filmmakers. In May, performing solo and with his brothers on NBC's
Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever special, Michael popularized his
distinctive "moonwalk" dance step, and in performing "Billie Jean," was the
only artist on the program whose repertoire included a non-Motown song.
Later in 1983, while another duet with McCartney — "Say Say Say," from
Paul's Pipes of Peace — topped the charts for six weeks, Jackson announced
a $5 million sponsorship deal with Pepsi-Cola.
In 1984, while filming a Pepsi commercial, Jackson was seriously injured when
a pyrotechnic effect went awry, setting his hair on fire. The singer
underwent surery for scalp burns; he later received facial laser surgery.
Rumors about other reconstructive work began shortly before the release of
Thriller and would build in coming years. Among the procedures he has been
rumored to have undergone are facelifts, a purported six nose surgeries, and
the lightening of his skin with chemical (it was also alleged that he took female
hormones to maintain his falsetto).
After receiving a Presidential Award from Ronald Reagan in June 1984,
Jackson joined his brothers on a supporting tour for the Jacksons' Victory
(from which Michael's duet with Mick Jagger, "State of Shock," reached
Number Three). The highly publicized tour, which Jackson undertook
reluctantly, was plagued by mismanagement (boxing promoter Don King was
in charge, much to Jackson's displeasure, and his parents were co-
producers), internal strife (at one point, several parties had each retained
their own lawyers), and bad PR, thanks to a method of selling tickets that
underwent heavy criticism: they were available in blocks of four, at $30
apiece, and only purchasable with US Post Office money orders, among other
roadblocks. This was changed after public outcry, but the damage was done;
a disillusioned Jackson donated his revenues to children's charities.
Nonetheless, the shows were considered spectacular, brimming with high-
tech special effects. Jackson ended 1984 by receiving a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 1985 Jackson co-wrote with Lionel Richie "We Are the World," the theme
song for USA for Africa. It reached Number One and embellished Michael's
reputation as a humanitarian. Jackson's relationship with Paul McCartney
soured later that year as, bidding against both McCartney and Yoko Ono, he
secured the ATV music publishing catalogue for $47.5 million: among ATV's
holdings were more than 250 Lennon/McCartney songs. (Jackson has long
been known inside the industry for his almost encyclopedic command of the
details of his business dealings.)
Shortly after signing a second contract with Pepsi in 1986 for $15 million,
Jackson released Bad, the biggest-shipping album of all time, in 1987; its 17
-minute title track video was directed by Martin Scorsese. Bad generated five
#1's in 1987-88: "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," "Bad," "The Way You Make
Me Feel," "Man in the Mirror," and "Dirty Diana." The Bad tour — over a year
long — became the biggest-grossing tour in history and one of the most
expensive: Jackson's entourage included 250 people.
With 1988 came Jackson's long-awaited, heavily illustrated, and brief
autobiography, Moonwalk, in which he claimed that his father, Joseph
Jackson, had hit him as a child. Generally, however, the book (edited by
Jacqueline Onassis) was considered unrevealing. (A second volume of
Jackson's writings, Dancing the Dream, was published in 1992 to less
enthusiastic response.)
By the end of the 1980s, Jackson had moved from the Encino, California,
family home to Neverland, an estimated $28 million, 2,700-acre California
ranch complete with Ferris wheel, an exotic menagerie, a movie theater, and
a security staff of 40. There Jackson — famous for clean living (he neither
smoked, drank, nor used drugs, and was rarely seen in the company of a
woman) — hosted an endless series of parties for children, many of them
disabled, critically ill, or underprivileged.
His popularity seemingly unassailable, Jackson signed a $28 million deal with
L.A. Gear sportswear to be its spokesperson, but the idea proved a failure
and Jackson was dropped after one commercial. At the start of the '90s,
however, Jackson's popularity was massive enough to land him the biggest
contract ever awarded an entertainer. Jackson signed a $65 million deal with
Sony Corporation in 1991 that promised him an unprecedented share in the
profits from his next six albums, his own label, a role in developing video
software products, and a chance to star in movies. Reportedly he would
receive more than $120 million per album if each could match the sales of
Thriller. Sony reported that it expected revenues of $1 billion from the
partnership. Jackson's celebrity status by this time was unquestioned — he'd
hosted Elizabeth Taylor's eighth wedding at Neverland and had been publicly
praised by such Hollywood establishment figures as Fred Astaire, Jane
Fonda, and Katharine Hepburn — and he seemed unstoppable.
In 1991, at a recording cost of $10 million, Dangerous was released. Co-
produced by New Jack Swing creator Teddy Riley, the album featured
material ("Heal the World," "Who Is It") that recalled his work with Quincy
Jones, with whom he had parted ways shortly after Bad. Riley, however,
toughened and updated Jackson's sound, stripping off some of the smooth
studio gloss of his previous works. With the $1.2 million video for the single
"Black or White," Jackson demanded that MTV and BET announce him as "the
King of Pop" (a fact he would later deny in a live televised interview with
Oprah Winfrey). Hoping to outdistance Bad's over $20 billion in sales, he
prepared for a spectacular world tour. Also in 1992, he embarked on a five-
nation African tour; however, there he was widely criticized for his aloof
behavior. That same year, Jackson established, with his personal fortune of
$200 million, the Heal the World Foundation to raise awareness of children-
related issues, including abuse.
With 1993 came Jackson's crisis. The year began auspiciously: Jackson
appeared at the NAACP Image Awards in January, and at the pre-inaugural
gala for President Bill Clinton; he also reached 91 million viewers in his half-
time performance at Super Bowl XXVII, the most widely viewed (and, many
said, boring) entertainment event in TV history. He announced the start of a
$1.25 million program to provide drug prevention and counseling services to
L.A. children following that city's riots. In a February TV interview with a less
than incisive Oprah Winfrey, he revealed that he suffered from vitiglio, a
disease he maintained discolored his skin, and that he was a victim of abuse
at the hands of his father, Joseph. He tried to dispel such long-standing
tabloid rumors as the one that he once tried to buy the bones of the
Elephand Man or had slept in a hyperbaric chamber. He also said that he was
dating movie actress and model Brooke Shields, who had been a companion
during the Thriller period. The interview was one of the most-watched
television programs in history. In March he formed Michael Jackson
Productions Inc., an independent film company that would give a share of its
profits to the Heal the World Foundation. In June he debuted his MJJ/Epic
record label, releasing the Free Willy soundtrack.
But scandal erupted on August 17 when a Beverly Hills psychiatrist
approached the LAPD after a 13-year-old patient claimed that Jackson had
fondled him. Later, specific charges brought by the boy's father claimed that
Jackson had sexually abused the boy at his house earlier in the year. After
the father obtained a ruling to deny Jackson contact with the son, the police
raided Neverland, seizing videotapes and other possible evidence (nothing
incriminating turned up). While traveling to Bangkok for the Dangerous tour,
Jackson denied the charges, his security consultant maintaining that the
boy's father had attempted to extort $20 million to start a production
company (he added that Jackson received at least 25 such extortion threats
a year). With Pepsi supporting him and his retinue denying a suicide attempt,
Jackson turned 35 at the end of August. Shortly thereafter, Jackson
canceled his second Singapore show, claiming migraine headaches.
In September, Jackson's sister La Toya reported that he used to spend the
night with young boys in his room, and two former employees, who
maintained that Jackson owed them $500,000 in wages, asserted that they'd
witnessed Jackson's sexual involvement with several young boys. Jackson
then pulled out of a deal to contribute the title track to the movie Addams
Family Values. After Jackson's alleged victim filed a civil suit for seduction and
sex abuse, the singer canceled the rest of the Dangerous tour, maintaining
that the pressure from the charges had left him addicted to painkillers. In
November five former Neverland guards sued Jackson for firing them,
allegedly because they knew about his relationships with minors. Toward the
end of the year, business continued, with Sony announcing that Dangerous
sales had topped 20 million and Jackson signing a $70 million, five-year deal
with EMI Music to administer his ATV catalogue. But in December, back in the
U.S., Jackson in a four-minute cable TV broadcast confronted his accusers
and decried the extensive examination of his body that the police had
conducted as part of their investigation.
On January 25, 1994, lawyers for Jackson and the alleged victim announced
a private settlement for the boy's case, despite the fact that Jackson
resolutely continued to deny wrongdoing. While terms were not disclosed,
estimates of Jackson's payment reached as high as $26 million. One day
earlier, following a criminal investigation into Jackson's claims that the boy's
father was part of an extortion plot against him, the D.A. declined to file
charges. The L.A. district attorney also investigated the claims of a second
boy that Jackson had shared a bed with him, even while the boy alleged no
impropriety on the singer's part. The district attorney, also finding no
evidence of wrongdoing, concluded the investigation. In August, a statement
issued by MJJ Productions verified two months of rumors that Jackson had
married 26-year-old Lisa Marie Presley, who had been estranged from her
husband, with whom she had two children.
Jackson and his bride appeared on television with Diane Sawyer to discuss
the marriage; it would be a short-lived one, as the couple divorced in 1996.
Jackson later married Debbie Rowe, a nurse he'd met in the early 1980s when
undergoing treatment for vitiglio. A boy, Prince, and a girl, Paris, resulted
from the union.
In 1995, ushered in with a $30 million marketing campaign, the largest in
history, Jackson's HIStory, a double-CD split between hits and new material,
was released. Featuring "Scream," a duet with his sister Janet, the album
dropped out of the Top 10 after only a few weeks. The song "They Don't
Care About Us" included the lyric "Jew me/Sue me," provoking charges of
anti-Semitism even from such stalwart Jackson supporters as Steven
Spielberg. In 1997 a follow-up, Blood on the Dancefloor: HIStory in the Mix
(Number 24), also fared poorly by Jackson's prior standards.
On September 7th and 10th, 2001, Jackson celebrated 30 years as a solo
artist with a pair of shows at Madison Square Garden, featuring Whitney
Houston, the Jacksons, Slash, Usher, 'NSync, and others; Jackson also
organized a benefit concert for September 11 victims at Washington, D.C.'s
RFK Stadium. That October saw the release of Invincible (Number One),
featuring the singles "Butterflies" (Number 14, 2001), "You Rock My World"
(Number Ten, 2001), and "Cry." The album sold close to eight million copies
worldwide, but its maker once again found himself embroiled in controversy
when Jackson decided not to renew his contract with Sony. The corporation's
leader, Tommy Mottola, canceled all promotional efforts for Invincible in
2002. Jackson responded by publicly branding Mottola racist and "a devil."
That November, Jackson was photographed holding his baby over the railing
of his hotel room balcony in Berlin, with many media and fans wondering
about the singer's ability to care for his own children. Also in 2002, the State
of California cut the Heal the World Foundation from its tax-exempt status
for not filing annual statements.
November 2003 saw the release of Number Ones, separately sold CD and
DVD collections with one new song, "One More Chance" (Number 83, 2003).
The day the album came out, with Jackson in Las Vegas shooting the "One
More Chance" video, the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department produced a
warrant and searched Neverland in relation to a new set of child-molestation
allegations. The following month, on December 18, Jackson was charged with
seven counts of child molestation and two of intoxicating a minor who was 14
at the time. Jackson steadfastly denied the charges. The case went to trial
January 31, 2005 and ended that May; Jackson was acquitted on all counts
in June 2005, after which the singer moved from Southern California to
Bahrain, a Persian Gulf island. In May 2006, the State of California closed
Neverland Ranch and fined Jackson $69,000 for not offering his employees
insurance.
In February 2008, Jackson released Thriller 25, an expanded version of the
best-selling album, including five remixes featuring contemporary musicians
(Akon, Fergie, will.i.am, Kanye West) and other bonus material. The reissue
sold well, spending seven weeks at Number One on Billboard's Pop Catalog
Charts (it was disqualified from the pop chart, consisting of previously issued
material).
