TRAILBLAZER, ICON, PIONEER, TRENDSETTER, LEGEND, IDOL, HUMANITARIAN, GENIUS…just a few words that describe Michael Jackson. The King of Pop has been forced to give up his crown due to his sudden death by cardiac arrest on Thursday, June 25, 2009. Born August 29, 1958 in Gary, Indiana the King was a mere 50 years old. One of pop music’s biggest stars, Jackson was rushed to a Los Angeles-area hospital by paramedics who found him not breathing when they arrived at his home. Later that afternoon Jackson was pronounced dead. Michael Joseph Jackson is the seventh of nine siblings, Rebbie, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, LaToya, Marlon, Randy and Janet, who were all raised in a strict Jehovah’s Witnesses household. But in 1987, Michael left the religion after the shunning of his sister LaToya. Due to the strict belief that forbids certain leisure activities, the children of Joseph and Katherine Jackson were restricted from activities outside their home while Joseph worked at night. However, the children secretly sneaked out from Joseph’s sight to practice singing and playing music. He eventually decided to be their manager alongside his wife.
The Jacksons’ musical career started as Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael formed the Jackson 5 in the mid 1960s. The group that was signed to Motown Records in 1968 opened the road to success, especially for the lead singer Michael. After the Jackson 5 recording fourteen albums, Michael launched his solo debut “Got to Be There” (1972) which includes singles “Rockin’ Robin” and “I Wanna Be Where You Are.” The King of Pop has won numerous awards for his achievement in the music industry. In1979 Michael’s album “Off the Wall” caught music fanatics and is a worldwide hit with the #1 singles “Rock With You” and “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough.” The next album “Thriller” (1982) has proven to hit the road of success even more. The album has been sold 26 million copies in U.S. and 53 million worldwide, and certified by Guinness Book of Records as the biggest selling popular music album of all time! Michael’s “Billie Jean” video became the first black artist video to be aired on MTV. The singles “Billie Jean,” “Thriller” and “Beat It,” have also been noted in MTV’s most significant videos in history. Here is a list of his historic achievements shown in the Guinness Book of World Records:
MOST SUCESSFUL CONCERT SERIES Michael Jackson sold out for seven nights at Wembley Stadium, London, England in the summer of 1988. A total of 504,000 people saw Michael perform July 14-16, 22-23, and August 26-27, 1988
80’s MOST #1 HITS By The End of the 1980’s Michael Jackson had more #1 hits than any other artist for the decade
MICHAEL AWARDS Michael has more awards than any other artist.
ENTERTAINER OF THE DECADE With the #1 (Thriller) and #2 (Bad) ranked albums in the world Michael was the 1980’s Entertainer Of The Decade.
MOST GRAMMY AWARDS
His successful album “Thriller” earned 8 awards alone in the 1984 Grammy Awards, more than any other artist in one year.
LARGEST CONTRACTS $890 million (Sony Music) Contract, with prospective earnings of $1 billion.
GREATEST AUDIENCE The highest-ever viewership was 133.4 million viewers watching the NBC transmission of Super Bowl XXVII on June 31, 1993. Michael was spotlighted during the half-time peformance.
HIGHEST-PAID COMMERCIAL SPOKESPERSON Pepsi Cola paid Michael Jackson $12 million to do 4 TV commercials.
BAD TOUR Michael Jackson’s world tour brought in a record gross revenue of over $124 million during September 1987-December 1988.
100 MILLION RECORDS Michael has sold over 100 million singles and albums outside of the U.S.
BILLBOARD CHARTS Michael Jackson is the first person in the 37 year history of the chart to enter at # 1, with his single “You Are Not Alone”. Michael broke his previous redord held by his single “Earth Song” which debuted at #5.
BILLBOARD HOT 100 SINGLES CHART Most #1 Hits by Male Artist (13)
#1 DEBUTS Michael’s “Bad”, “Dangerous,” and “HIStory” albums all debuted at #1.
CONSECUTIVE #1’s Jackson 5 were the first group to ever have four consecutive #1 singles.
#1 ON CHARTS In 1983 Michael became the first artist to simultaneously hold the number one spots on Billboard’s rock albums and rock singles charts, as well as the R&B albums and singles charts.
In 1984 the King of Pop was awarded the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in 2001 he was listed in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Moreover, Michael’s amazing talent as a songwriter has noted his hard works to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002. In the same year, he also received a Millennium Bambi Award in Berlin, Germany, for being the greatest living pop icon.
Michael started to hit the road for his first solo tour after the release of “Bad” album in 1987. His singles “Bad,” Smooth Criminal,” and “Leave Me Alone” earned him much deserved recognition. The pop singer who is famous for his moonwalk dance move, also launched a collection of short films about himself entitled “Michael Jackson: Moonwalker” and an autobiography “Moon Walk” to add to the success of the album.
Michael has been long known for his caring for children. Through his “Heal the World” and “Heal the Kids” foundations, he has financially donated programs that are concerned with child-immunization, HIV-AIDS, education and Apartheid. He also supported programs to build hospitals, orphanages, homes, and schools. Moreover, along with Quincy Jones, Lionel Richie and many other artists joined in “We are the World” project, he raised millions to help starving people in Africa. In addition to those, he also recorded the never been released song ‘What More Can I Give,’ which was slated to raise funds for the victims of September WTC attack.
Michael continued to make, record, and launched his next album “Dangerous” in 1991. The album, contains the successful and innovative videos of “Jam,” “Remember the Time,” “Black or White,” “In the Closet,” and “Heal the World”. The videos featured cameo appearances by celebrities, like Michael Jordan, Eddie Murphy, Iman, Magic Johnson, Naomi Campbell and Macaulay Culkin.
Later in 1994, the King of Pop shocked the world when he suddenly tied the knot with Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley. The short-lived marriage only lasted 18 months after Lisa felt that Michael had ulterior motives for the marriage. Shortly after the divorce, in 1996, Michael married to Debbie Rowe and divorced in 1999 after having a son, Prince Michael and a daughter, Paris Katherine. Furthermore, in 2002, Michael had another son, Prince Michael II, this time with a surrogate mother whose identity has been hidden. At the Adlon hotel in Berlin the poor baby caught the attention of the world as Michael once held him over the edge of a railing in his excitement to share him with his fans.
Michael released a double-disc album “HIStory” (1995), in which each disc contains 15 of his greatest hits and 15 new songs, such as “Childhood,” “You Are Not Alone,” “Earth Song” and “They Don’t Care About Us.” Another single taken from the same album, namely “Scream,” is sang along with sister Janet and noted to be the most expensive music video ever made with an estimate price of 7 million dollars. Unfortunately, the album was branded a failure, as its hits did not stay on top of the charts throughout the summer. Since “HIStory,” Michael continued to count on his greatest hits collection to exists as his biggest-selling remix album of all time. “Blood on the Dance Floor” was released in 1997. He produced a 40-minute short film entitled “Ghosts,” which features singles “Ghosts” and “2 Bad” taken from the remix album.
The decreasing success in album sales eventually affected his next album “Invicible” which was launched in 2001. Despite the fact that it was the most expensive album ever produced, the low budget has forced “Invicible” to produce only the singles “Rock My World” and “Butterfly” in America. Worse, in October 2002 various international banks claimed Michael was in financial trouble, proven by his millions of dollars in debt. Since then, many bad things happened to him, like his legal dispute with his former financial adviser, Union Finance and Investment Corp. of South Korea; and his being reported close to bankruptcy.
In early 2003 he faced child sexual abuse allegations and a handful of indictments that struck a serious blow to his career. Fortunately he was cleared of all charges. The fruits of his musical talent was seen on a single titled ”One More Chance,” which was written by R. Kelly and released on November 21, 2003. Soon as its release, the album went on to become #1 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales chart for three straight weeks.
The year 2005 proved memorable for Michael. “Thriller” music video was voted the Most Memorable Music Video by the viewers of MTV’s “The Box” in December 2005. The King of Pop has been named the Top Newsmaker of 2005 by US TV show Access Hollywood. He also wrote a special song dedicated for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Sadly again in 2005 the King of Pop found himself facing more child molestation allegations but was later acquitted of all charges.
May 2006 the King of Pop made his first ever public appearance since his acquittal in 2005 in Tokyo during which he was slated to accept MTV Japan’s “Legend Award”. Michael announced the work of a comeback album to signify the start of a new life and new beginning of his music career. However, in late 2007 he didn’t own a major deal with a label to release the highly-anticipated album. Instead, he came up with surprising news to re-release his greatest selling album, ‘Thriller’ which will be re-packaged with a number of remixes.
Today Michael Jackson’s “Number Ones” enters the Billboard Hot 200 Chart. The late singer’s catalog hits all time high when his 2003 compilation “Number Ones” scores 339,000 sold copies. However, “Number Ones” is not eligible to be in the Hot 200 chart because it has been released for more than 18 months and does not have a current single on radio. But it qualifies as #1 on the Top Albums chart, followed by his other album “ Thriller” which sells 169,000 units.
Before his tragic death on Thursday, June 25, Michael is captured on camera preparing for his comeback concerts in London, and word is coming out that this rehearsal footage may be turned into a feature film. According to Associated Press, the idea has been considered by Jackson’s “This is It” concert promoter AEG Live, who owns the rights to the footage. The material which is said to contain over 100 hours of Michael rehearsing his back catalog for the tour scheduled to play at the O2 Arena, London, later in the year, includes the King of Pop performing his hits “Thriller” and “Beat It” in addition to production meetings and auditions. Some of the rehearsal footage was shot in high definition. If the footage is decided to be released it will be priceless as it is his “final” performance, his “final” curtain call. All the coverage on his death culminated on Tuesday, July 7 when his memorial service was held at Staples Center. Home viewers number who watched through 19 channels that simulcast the service is a reported 31 million by Nielsen Media Research.
The world will never see another Michael Jackson. Many say of the King: He was copied but never duplicated. He was indeed one of a kind. Michael Jackson will forever live in the hearts of billions worldwide & his music will play forever. We love you Michael Jackson. Thank you for blessing us with your talent, your genius, your presence. As I am honored to live in a world where we have a Black President of the United States, I am so honored to have witnessed you in my lifetime. May God strengthen & bless your family. Rest in peace. V (Peace)
2 responses so far ↓
Meemee Benton // July 14, 2009 at 12:59 pm |
Bravo! this is an excellent blog and its the way Michael Jackson should be remembered for his achievements and not everything that went wrong in is life or the skin color of his children.
Kinji Lockjaw // July 14, 2009 at 7:50 pm |
Wow, really great write up on MJ. He has contributed greatly to entertainment and the arts and he will be missed.