The Early Years

Since the tender age of 5 Michael Jackson has scarcely been out of the media eye. The Jackson Five were created in 1963 by Michael’s father Joseph and consisted Michael and his four older brothers – Jackie, Jermaine, Marlon and Tito¹. Signed to Motown in 1969 The Jackson Five reached the number one slot on the US Billboard Charts on four consecutive occasions before leaving the label for Epic in 1976, renaming themselves The Jacksons. Despite being only a nipper, Michael promised to be a great soul artist, performing with total sincerity and having a stage presence akin to James Brown.

The Winning Partnership

Although several solo albums were rushed out during The Jacksons’ years, in a typical record-company-sees-megabucks style, it was his partnership with Quincy Jones that really propelled him to megastardom.

Off the Wall (1979)

The first album by a solo artist to contain four US Top 10 hits, Off the Wall is a classic soul album, reaching the top of the charts in the UK and the US. Certainly all about the music, "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough”, "Rock with You”, "Off the Wall"and "She's out of My Life" went deeper than most of the cocaine-fuelled disco of the period. Quincy Jones gave the album a Wonder-esque workover and supplied top LA session men to back some sublime vocals (including a contribution by Paul McCartney on "Girlfriend”).

Thriller (1982)

Containing elements of hard rock (courtesy of guitar-noodler Eddie Van Halen) but mostly a range of mainstream rock/pop and dance music, Thriller is one of the most commercially successful albums of all time. The second Jones/Jackson collaboration remained at number 1 on the Billboard pop album chart for a record of 37 weeks, won seven Grammy Awards and produced seven top 10 singles. Each successive single was accompanied by its own promotional video, all of which were pioneering and succeeded in making Michael Jackson a household name. The video for ”Billie Jean” became the first by a black artist to be shown on MTV but the video for “Thriller” topped the lot. Directed by American Werewolf in London’s John Landis and including a voice-over by horror movie specialist Vincent Price, the 14-minute horror movie short features special effects that change Michael into a werewolf and zombies who rise from the grave, shuffle down the street and then spring into some expertly choreographed, extremely amusing, Jackson-mimicking action. The video won a whole host of awards;

• Top Ten Videos - number 2 (Billboard 1984)
• Best Directing (American Video Awards 1984)
• Favorite Video of the Year (People's Choice Awards 1984)
• Best Overall Video, Best Choreography, and Viewer's Choice (MTV VMA 1984)
• Video of the Decade (Rolling Stone Magazine 1989)
• The Greatest Video in the History of the World (MTV Rate's the 80s 1989)
• Top 100 Videos of the Decade - number 1 (MTV 1989)
• Video Vanguard Award (MTV 1989)
• Inducted into the Music Video Producers Hall of Fame (1991)
• One Hundred Greatest Videos Ever Made - number 1 (MTV 1999)

Bad (1987)

Although working with Quincy Jones once again and now personally contributing more towards the songs, Bad suffered from its predecessor’s success. Widely criticised for not pushing back any boundaries it is often passed over and only selling 25 million copies worldwide it can only be half as good!? The album produced five number 1 US singles and contains this researcher’s personal favourite; “Smooth Criminal” – sharp beats combined with a fat synth groove and layered with some manic vocals, the energy it creates is… aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaow

Also worthy of note is the guitar frenzy at the end of ”Dirty Diana”by Steve Stevens.

Somewhere in the Middle

Now a household name, Michael was easy prey for the media – he granted no in-depth interviews prior to 1992, preferring to remain in his self-made Neverland² with his pet monkey Bubbles. On the rare occasion that he did step out it was often to show off a new, surgically-modified appearance; new nose/cheekbones/jawline/dimple-in-chin/permanently-tatooed-eyelids/skin colour³/hairstyle/wardrobe. He also tends not to do himself any favours in a world hungry for headlines and is regularly portrayed as a neurotic hypochondriac with a childhood fixation (and a fixation for children).

Sporting a medical face mask and cordoning off hotel lifts to prevent filthy members of the public sharing his personal space pale, as well as portraying himself as a God-like figure during his performance at the 1996 Brit Awards ceremony have all fuelled the fire. The afore-mentioned performance was infamously interupted by Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, who mock-Moon-Walked to stage centre, bent over with arse facing the audience and made motions to indicate what he felt about Michael, before being bundled off stage by security.

Despite the negative press and plethora of puerile jokes he has never had any charges brought against him, even as a result of the 1993 criminal investigations during which 400 witnesses were called. He subsequently prosecuted freelance journalist Victor Gutierrez – resulting in a $2,700,000 order for failure to produce videotape supposedly documenting inappropriate conduct with a young boy. He has had less tabloid coverage in recent years although two failed marriages⁴ have done him no favours, seeing old stories rehashed.

The Later Years

Swapping Quincy Jones for Teddy Riley, Michael released Dangerous in 1991 which was accompanied by a sell-out worldwide tour with individual audiences frequently topping 500,000, HIStory in 1995 and Blood on the Dancefloor in 1997. HIStory was released as a double-pack, containing one selection of past hits and a second with 15 new tracks, and Blood on the Dancefloor is essentially a remix album with contributions from house/garage legend Frankie Knuckles, amongst others. The material on all these albums is excellent, polished as always, but is altogether more introverted and reactionary, the focus clearly much more on lyrical content rather than musical boundaries.

The King of Rock and Pop⁵

Over one hundred million copies of his six solo albums have been sold world-wide and he currently has eight entries in The Guinness Book of World Records. These include;

• ‘Longest span of US number one hits' as a solo artist;
  
  - 23 years in total, from “Ben” in October 1972 to “You are not alone” in September 1995
• ‘Most Grammy Awards won in a single year’;
  
  - 8 in 1984
• ‘Second most valuable piece of rock-star clothing’;
  
  - A white rhinestone glove which sold for $28,050 in 1991⁶

With a new album due anytime he will be back on to the scene, grabbing his crotch and no doubt providing his, scarily loyal, fanswith more exceptional pop.