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Mark Zuckerberg
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article's lead section may not adequately summarize its
contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview
of the article's key points. (February 2012)
Mark Zuckerberg
Zuckerberg at the 37th G8 summit in 2011.
Born Mark Elliot
Zuckerberg
May 14, 1984 (age 27)
White Plains, New York, U.S.
Residence Palo
Alto, California, U.S.
Ethnicity Jewish
Alma mater Harvard
University (Dropped out)
Occupation CEO
of Facebook
(24% shareholder in 2010)
Known for Co-founding
Facebook in 2004;
becoming world's youngest
billionaire as of 2008
Net worth
US$ 17.5 billion (2011)
Relatives Randi,
Donna and Arielle
Awards TIME Person of
the Year 2010
Website
Facebook.com/MarkZuckerberg
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) is an American
computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur. He is best known for co-creating
the social networking site Facebook, of which he is chief executive. It was
co-founded as a private company in 2004 by Zuckerberg and classmates Dustin
Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, and Chris Hughes while they were students at
Harvard University.[8][9] Zuckerberg was named four times in Time 100
respectively in 2009 as one of the 100 influential people of the world, in 2010
as Time magazine's Person of the Year[10], in 2011 as one of the 100
influential people of the world and in 2012 in "The All-Time TIME 100 of
All Time" by Joel Stein in Time.[12] As of 2011, his personal wealth was
estimated to be $17.5 billion making him one of the world's youngest
billionaires.
Zuckerberg was born in 1984 in White Plains, New York to
Karen, a psychiatrist, and Edward Zuckerberg, a dentist. He and his three
sisters, Randi, Donna, and Arielle, were
brought up in Dobbs Ferry, New York.
Zuckerberg was raised
Jewish and had his bar mitzvah when he turned 13; he has since described
himself as an atheist.
At Ardsley High School, Zuckerberg had excelled in the
classics before transferring to Phillips Exeter Academy in his junior year,
where he won prizes in science (math, astronomy and physics) and classical
studies (on his college application, Zuckerberg listed as non-English languages
he could read and write: French, Hebrew, Latin, and ancient Greek) and was a
fencing star and captain of the fencing team.
In college, he was
known for reciting lines from epic poems such as The Iliad.
At a party put on by his fraternity during his sophomore
year, Zuckerberg met Priscilla Chan, a Chinese-American fellow student
originally from the Boston suburbs, and they began dating in 2003. In September
2010, Zuckerberg invited Chan, by then a medical student at the University of
California, San Francisco, to move into his rented Palo Alto house.
Zuckerberg studied Mandarin
Chinese in preparation for the couple's visit to China in December 2010.
On Zuckerberg's Facebook page, he listed his personal
interests as "openness, making things that help people connect and share
what's important to them, revolutions, information flow, minimalism".
Zuckerberg sees blue
best because of red–green colorblindness; blue is also Facebook's dominant
color.
Software developer
Early years
Zuckerberg began using computers and writing software as a
child in middle school. His father taught him Atari BASIC Programming in the
1990s, and later hired software developer David Newman to tutor him privately.
Newman calls him a "prodigy," adding that it was "tough to stay
ahead of him." Zuckerberg also took a graduate course in the subject at
Mercy College near his home while he was still in high school. He enjoyed
developing computer programs, especially communication tools and games. In one
such program, since his father's dental practice was operated from their home,
he built a software program he called "ZuckNet," which allowed all
the computers between the house and dental office to communicate by pinging
each other. It is considered a "primitive" version of AOL's Instant
Messenger, which came out the following year.
According to writer Jose Antonio Vargas, "some kids
played computer games. Mark created them." Zuckerberg himself recalls this
period: "I had a bunch of friends who were artists. They'd come over, draw
stuff, and I'd build a game out of it." However, notes Vargas, Zuckerberg
was not a typical "geek-klutz," as he later became captain of his
prep school fencing team and earned a classics diploma. Napster co-founder Sean
Parker, a close friend, notes that Zuckerberg was "really into Greek
odysseys and all that stuff," recalling how he once quoted lines from the
Roman epic poem Aeneid, by Virgil, during a Facebook product conference.
During Zuckerberg's high school years, under the company
name Intelligent Media Group, he built a music player called the Synapse Media
Player that used artificial intelligence to learn the user's listening habits,
which was posted to Slashdot and
received a rating of 3 out of 5 from PC Magazine. Microsoft and AOL tried to
purchase Synapse and recruit Zuckerberg, but he chose instead to enroll at
Harvard University in September 2002.
Harvard years
By the time he began classes at Harvard, he had already
achieved a "reputation as a programming prodigy," notes Vargas. He
studied psychology and computer science as well as belonging to Alpha Epsilon
Pi, a Jewish fraternity.
In his sophomore
year, he wrote a program he called CourseMatch, which allowed users to make
class selection decisions based on the choices of other students and also to
help them form study groups. A short time later, he created a different program
he initially called Facemash that let students select the best looking person
from a choice of photos. According to Zuckerberg's roommate at the time, Arie
Hasit, "he built the site for fun." Hasit explains:
We had books called Face Books, which included the names and
pictures of everyone who lived in the student dorms. At first, he built a site
and placed two pictures, or pictures of two males and two females. Visitors to
the site had to choose who was "hotter" and according to the votes
there would be a ranking.
The site went up over a weekend, but by Monday morning the
college shut it down because its popularity had overwhelmed Harvard's server
and prevented students from accessing the Internet. In addition, many students
complained that their photos were being used without permission. Zuckerberg
apologized publicly, and the student paper ran articles stating that his site
was "completely improper."
Around the time of Facemash, however, students were
requesting that the university develop an internal website that would include
similar photos and contact details. According to Hasit, "Mark heard these
pleas and decided that if the university won't do something about it, he will,
and he would build a site that would be even better than what the university
had planned."
Facebook
Main articles: Facebook, History of Facebook, and Timeline
of Facebook
Zuckerberg at World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland
(January 2009)
President Barack Obama and Zuckerberg talk before a private
meeting where Obama dined with technology business leaders in Woodside,
California, February 17, 2011. (Also pictured, from left: Carol Bartz of
Yahoo!, Art Levinson of Genentech, Steve Westly of The Westly Group, and Eric
Schmidt of Google.)
Founding and goals
Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his Harvard dormitory room
on February 4, 2004.
An earlier
inspiration for Facebook may have come from Phillips Exeter Academy, the prep
school from which Zuckerberg graduated in 2002. It published its own student
directory, “The Photo Address Book,” which students referred to as “The
Facebook.” Such photo directories were an important part of the student social
experience at many private schools. With them, students were able to list
attributes such as their class years, their proximities to friends, and their
telephone numbers.
Once at college, Zuckerberg's Facebook started off as just a
"Harvard thing" until Zuckerberg decided to spread it to other
schools, enlisting the help of roommate Dustin Moskovitz. They first started it
at Stanford, Dartmouth, Columbia, New York University, Cornell, Penn, Brown,
and Yale, and then at other schools that had social contacts with Harvard.
Zuckerberg moved to Palo Alto, California, with Moskovitz
and some friends. They leased a small house that served as an office. Over the
summer, Zuckerberg met Peter Thiel who invested in the company. They got their
first office in mid-2004. According to Zuckerberg, the group planned to return
to Harvard but eventually decided to remain in California.
They had already
turned down offers by major corporations to buy out Facebook. In an interview
in 2007, Zuckerberg explained his reasoning:
It's not because of the amount of money. For me and my
colleagues, the most important thing is that we create an open information flow
for people. Having media corporations owned by conglomerates is just not an
attractive idea to me.
He restated these same goals to Wired magazine in 2010:
"The thing I really care about is the mission, making the world
open."
Earlier, in April
2009, Zuckerberg sought the advice of former Netscape CFO Peter Currie about
financing strategies for Facebook.
On July 21, 2010, Zuckerberg reported that the company
reached the 500 million-user mark.
When asked whether
Facebook could earn more income from advertising as a result of its phenomenal
growth, he explained:
I guess we could ... If you look at how much of our page is
taken up with ads compared to the average search query. The average for us is a
little less than 10 percent of the pages and the average for search is about 20
percent taken up with ads ... That’s the simplest thing we could do. But we
aren’t like that. We make enough money. Right, I mean, we are keeping things
running; we are growing at the rate we want to.
In 2010, Steven Levy, who authored the 1984 book Hackers:
Heroes of the Computer Revolution, wrote that Zuckerberg "clearly thinks
of himself as a hacker."
Zuckerberg said that
"it's OK to break things" "to make them better."
Facebook instituted
"hackathons" held every six to eight weeks where participants would
have one night to conceive of and complete a project.
The company provided
music, food, and beer at the hackathons, and many Facebook staff members,
including Zuckerberg, regularly attended.
"The idea is
that you can build something really good in a night", Zuckerberg told
Levy. "And that's part of the personality of Facebook now ... It's
definitely very core to my personality."
Vanity Fair magazine named Zuckerberg number 1 on its 2010
list of the Top 100 "most influential people of the Information Age".
Zuckerberg ranked
number 23 on the Vanity Fair 100 list in 2009.
In 2010, Zuckerberg
was chosen as number 16 in New Statesman's annual survey of the world's 50 most
influential figures.
In a 2011 interview with PBS after the death of Steve Jobs,
Zuckerberg said that Jobs had advised him on how to create a management team at
Facebook that was "focused on building as high quality and good things as
you are."
Wirehog
Main article: Wirehog
A month after Facebook launched in February 2004, i2hub,
another campus-only service, created by Wayne Chang, was launched. i2hub
focused on peer-to-peer file sharing. At the time, both i2hub and Facebook were
gaining the attention of the press and growing rapidly in users and publicity.
In August 2004, Zuckerberg, Andrew McCollum, Adam D'Angelo, and Sean Parker
launched a competing peer-to-peer file sharing service called Wirehog, a
precursor to Facebook Platform applications.
Platform and Beacon
On May 24, 2007, Zuckerberg announced Facebook Platform, a
development platform for programmers to create social applications within
Facebook. Within weeks, many applications had been built and some already had
millions of users. It grew to more than 800,000 developers around the world
building applications for Facebook Platform.
On November 6, 2007, Zuckerberg announced a new social
advertising system called Beacon, which enabled people to share information
with their Facebook friends based on their browsing activities on other sites.
For example, eBay sellers could let friends know automatically what they have
for sale via the Facebook news feed as they list items for sale. The program
came under scrutiny because of privacy concerns from groups and individual
users. Zuckerberg and Facebook failed to respond to the concerns quickly, and
on December 5, 2007, Zuckerberg wrote a blog post on Facebook taking responsibility for the concerns about
Beacon and offering an easier way for users to opt out of the service.
In 2007, Zuckerberg was named to the MIT Technology Review
TR35 as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35.
On July 23, 2008, Zuckerberg announced Facebook Connect, a
version of Facebook Platform for users.
Legal controversies
Main article: Criticism of Facebook
ConnectU lawsuits
Main article: ConnectU
Harvard students Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and
Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of intentionally making them believe he would
help them build a social network called HarvardConnection.com (later called
ConnectU).
They filed a lawsuit
in 2004 but it was dismissed on a technicality on March 28, 2007. It was
refiled soon thereafter in federal court in Boston. Facebook counter sued in
regards to Social Butterfly, a project put out by The Winklevoss Chang Group,
an alleged partnership between ConnectU and i2hub. On June 25, 2008, the case
settled and Facebook agreed to transfer over 1.2 million common shares and pay
$20 million in cash.
In November 2007, confidential court documents were posted
on the website of 02138, a magazine that catered to Harvard alumni. They
included Zuckerberg's social security number, his parents' home address, and
his girlfriend's address. Facebook filed to have the documents removed, but the
judge ruled in favor of 02138.
Saverin lawsuit
A lawsuit filed by Eduardo Saverin against Facebook and
Zuckerberg was settled out of court. Though terms of the settlement were
sealed, the company affirmed Saverin's title as co-founder of Facebook. Saverin
signed a non-disclosure contract after the settlement.
Pakistan criminal investigation
In June 2010, Pakistani Deputy Attorney General Muhammad
Azhar Sidiqque launched a criminal investigation into Zuckerberg and Facebook
co-founders Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes after a "Draw Muhammad"
contest was hosted on Facebook. The investigation also named the anonymous
German woman who created the contest. Sidiqque asked the country's police to
contact Interpol to have Zuckerberg and the three others arrested for
blasphemy. On May 19, 2010, Facebook's website was temporarily blocked in
Pakistan until Facebook removed the contest from its website at the end of May.
Sidiqque also asked its UN representative to raise the issue with the United
Nations General Assembly.
Paul Ceglia
Main article: Paul Ceglia
On June 30, 2010, Paul Ceglia, the owner of a wood pellet
fuel company in Allegany County, upstate New York, filed a lawsuit against
Zuckerberg, claiming 84% ownership of Facebook and seeking monetary damages.
According to Ceglia, he and Zuckerberg signed a contract on April 28, 2003,
that an initial fee of $1,000 entitled Ceglia to 50% of the website's revenue,
as well as an additional 1% interest in the business per day after January 1,
2004, until website completion. Zuckerberg was developing other projects at the
time, among which was Facemash, the predecessor of Facebook, but did not
register the domain name thefacebook.com until January 1, 2004. Facebook
management dismissed the lawsuit as "completely frivolous". Facebook
spokesman Barry Schnitt told a reporter that Ceglia's counsel had
unsuccessfully sought an out-of-court settlement.
Pursuant to the contract, Ceglia agreed to pay Zuckerberg
$1,000 for StreetFax and $1,000 for PageBook. The contract also refers to The
Face Book, a project that was to be completed by January 2004. Ceglia offered a
receipt for $1,000, dated six months after the contract, to prove he paid
Zuckerberg, but it was not the full amount due, and the contract did not
specify what occurs in the event of a default.
In an interview with ABC World News, Zuckerberg stated he
was confident he had never signed such an agreement. At the time, Zuckerberg
worked for Ceglia as a code developer on a project named "StreetFax".
Judge Thomas Brown issued a restraining order on all financial transfers
concerning ownership of Facebook until further notice; in response, Facebook
removed the case to federal court and asked that the state court injunction be
dissolved. According to Facebook, the injunction would not affect their business
and lacked any legal basis.
Depictions in media
The Social Network
A movie based on Zuckerberg and the founding years of
Facebook, The Social Network was released on October 1, 2010, and stars Jesse
Eisenberg as Zuckerberg. After Zuckerberg was told about the film, he
responded, "I just wished that nobody made a movie of me while I was still
alive." Also, after the film's script was leaked on the Internet and it
was apparent that the film would not portray Zuckerberg in a wholly positive
light, he stated that he wanted to establish himself as a "good guy".
The film is based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by
Ben Mezrich, which the book's publicist once described as "big juicy
fun" rather than "reportage."
The film's
screenwriter Aaron Sorkin told New York magazine, "I don't want my
fidelity to be to the truth; I want it to be to storytelling", adding,
"What is the big deal about accuracy purely for accuracy's sake, and can
we not have the true be the enemy of the good?"
Upon winning the Golden Globes award for Best Picture on
January 16, 2011, producer Scott Rudin thanked Facebook and Zuckerberg
"for his willingness to allow us to use his life and work as a metaphor
through which to tell a story about communication and the way we relate to each
other. Sorkin, who won for Best Screenplay, retracted some of the impressions
given in his script:
"I wanted to say to Mark Zuckerberg tonight, if you're
watching, Rooney Mara's character makes a prediction at the beginning of the
movie. She was wrong. You turned out to be a great entrepreneur, a visionary,
and an incredible altruist."
On January 29, 2011, Zuckerberg made a surprise guest
appearance on Saturday Night Live, which was being hosted by Jesse Eisenberg.
They both said it was the first time they ever met.
Eisenberg asked
Zuckerberg, who had been critical of his portrayal by the film, what he thought
of the movie. Zuckerberg replied, "It was interesting."[76] In a
subsequent interview about their meeting, Eisenberg explains that he was
"nervous to meet him, because I had spent now, a year and a half thinking
about him ..." He adds, "Mark has been so gracious about something
that’s really so uncomfortable ... The fact that he would do SNL and make fun
of the situation is so sweet and so generous. It’s the best possible way to
handle something that, I think, could otherwise be very uncomfortable."
Disputed accuracy
Jeff Jarvis, author of the book Public Parts, interviewed
Zuckerberg and believes Sorkin has made too much of the story up. He states,
"That's what the internet is accused of doing, making stuff up, not caring
about the facts."
According to David Kirkpatrick, former technology editor at
Fortune magazine and author of The Facebook Effect:The Inside Story of the
Company That Is Connecting the World, (2011),[80] "the film is only
"40% true ... he is not snide and sarcastic in a cruel way, the way
Zuckerberg is played in the movie." He says that "a lot of the
factual incidents are accurate, but many are distorted and the overall impression
is false," and concludes that primarily "his motivations were to try
and come up with a new way to share information on the internet."
Although the film portrays Zuckerberg's creation of Facebook
in order to elevate his stature after not getting into any of the elite final
clubs at Harvard, Zuckerberg himself said he had no interest in joining the
final clubs. Kirkpatrick agrees that the impression implied by the film is
"false."
Karel Baloun, a former senior engineer at Facebook, notes
that the "image of Zuckerberg as a socially inept nerd is overstated ...
It is fiction ..." He likewise dismisses the film's assertion that he
"would deliberately betray a friend."
Other depictions
Zuckerberg voiced himself on an episode of The Simpsons,
"Loan-a Lisa", which first aired on October 3, 2010. In the episode,
Lisa Simpson and her friend Nelson encounter Zuckerberg at an entrepreneurs'
convention. Zuckerberg tells Lisa that she does not need to graduate from
college to be wildly successful, referencing Bill Gates and Richard Branson as
examples.
On October 9, 2010, Saturday Night Live lampooned Zuckerberg
and Facebook.[82] Andy Samberg played Zuckerberg. The real Zuckerberg was
reported to have been amused: "I thought this was funny."
Stephen Colbert awarded a "Medal of Fear" to
Zuckerberg at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on October 30, 2010,
"because he values his privacy much more than he values yours."
Use of other social networks
Zuckerberg created an account with Google+ soon after the
social network was unveiled, saying he sees it as a "validation for his
vision" of online social networking.
By July 2011,
Zuckerberg had become the most followed user on Google+, outranking Google
co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
As of March 6, 2012,
his ranking has dropped to 184 on the service, behind Page and Brin.
His public profile is
minimal with one photo and a bio that reads "I make things".
Zuckerberg has maintained a private account on Twitter under
the username "zuck", though in 2009 he revealed that the public account
"finkd" also belonged to him.
Philanthropy
Zuckerberg donated an undisclosed amount to Diaspora, an
open-source personal web server that implements a distributed social networking
service. He called it a "cool idea."
Zuckerberg founded the Start-up: Education
foundation.[90][91] On September 22, 2010, it was reported that Zuckerberg had
arranged to donate $100 million to Newark Public Schools, the public school
system of Newark, New Jersey.[92][93] Critics noted the timing of the donation
as being close to the release of The Social Network, which painted a somewhat
negative portrait of Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg responded
to the criticism, saying, "The thing that I was most sensitive about with
the movie timing was, I didn’t want the press about The Social Network movie to
get conflated with the Newark project. I was thinking about doing this
anonymously just so that the two things could be kept separate."
Newark Mayor Cory A.
Booker stated that he and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie had to convince Zuckerberg's
team not to make the donation anonymously.
On December 9, 2010, Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and investor
Warren Buffett signed a promise they called the "Giving Pledge", in
which they promised to donate to charity at least half of their wealth over the
course of time, and invited others amongMichael Jackson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other people named Michael Jackson, see Michael Jackson
(disambiguation).
Michael Jackson
Jackson at the White House in 1984
Background information
Birth name Michael
Joseph Jackson
Also known as Michael
Joe Jackson, MJ, King of Pop
Born August 29,
1958
Gary, Indiana, U.S.
Died June 25,
2009 (aged 50)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres R&B, pop,
rock, soul, dance, funk, disco, new jack swing
Occupations Singer-songwriter,
musician, composer, dancer, choreographer, record producer, actor, businessman,
philanthropist
Instruments Vocals
Years active 1964–2009
Labels Motown, Epic,
Legacy, MJJ Productions
Associated acts The
Jackson 5
Website www.michaeljackson.com
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was
an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Often referred to
as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most
successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contribution
to music, dance, and fashion, along with a much-publicized personal life, made
him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. The seventh child
of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with
his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1964, and began his solo career in
1971.
In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in
popular music. The music videos for his songs, including those of "Beat It",
"Billie Jean", and "Thriller", were credited with
transforming the medium into an art form and a promotional tool, and the
popularity of these videos helped to bring the relatively new television
channel MTV to fame. Videos such as "Black or White" and
"Scream" made him a staple on MTV in the 1990s. Through stage
performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of complicated
dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, to which he gave the
name. His distinctive musical sound and vocal style influenced numerous hip
hop, post-disco, contemporary R&B, pop and rock artists.
Jackson's 1982 album Thriller is the best-selling album of
all time. His other records, including Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987),
Dangerous (1991), and History (1995), also rank among the world's best-selling.
Jackson is one of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame twice. He was also inducted into the Dance Hall of Fame as the
first (and currently only) dancer from the world of pop and rock 'n' roll. Some
of his other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records; 13 Grammy
Awards (as well as the Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement
Award); 26 American Music Awards (more than any other artist, including the
"Artist of the Century"); 13 number-one singles in the United States
in his solo career (more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era); and
the estimated sale of over 750 million records worldwide. Jackson won hundreds
of awards, which made him the most-awarded recording artist in the history of
popular music.[3] He was also one of the world's most prominent humanitarians
and philanthropists; personally, and through his Heal the World Foundation, he
donated more than 300 million dollars in charity, and held the Guinness World
Record for having supported the most charities out of any pop star.
Aspects of Jackson's personal life, including his changing
appearance, personal relationships, and behavior, generated controversy. In
1993, he was accused of child sexual abuse, but the case was settled out of
court and no formal charges were brought. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted
of further child sexual abuse allegations and several other charges after the
jury found him not guilty on all counts. While preparing for his concert series
titled This Is It, Jackson died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine
intoxication on June 25, 2009, after suffering from cardiac arrest. The Los
Angeles County Coroner ruled his death a homicide, and his personal physician was
convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Jackson's death triggered a global
outpouring of grief, and as many as one billion people around the world
reportedly watched his public memorial service on live television. In March
2010, Sony Music Entertainment signed a $250 million deal with Jackson's estate
to retain distribution rights to his recordings until 2017, and to release
seven posthumous albums over the decade following his death.
The wealthy to donate 50% or more of theirEarly life and The
Jackson 5 (1958–1975)
Jackson's childhood home in Gary, Indiana, showing floral
tributes after his death
Jackson (center) as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1972
Michael Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, the eighth of
ten children in an African American working-class family who lived in a small
3-room house in Gary, Indiana,[7] an industrial city near Chicago. His mother,
Katherine Esther Scruse, was a devout Jehovah's Witness, and his father, Joseph
Walter "Joe" Jackson, was a steel mill worker who performed with an
R&B band called The Falcons. Jackson had three sisters: Rebbie, La Toya,
and Janet, and five brothers: Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Randy.[8] A
sixth brother, Brandon, died shortly after birth.[9]
Jackson had a troubled relationship with his father,
Joe.[10][11][12] Joseph acknowledged in 2003 that he regularly whipped Jackson
as a boy.[12] Jackson stated that he was physically and emotionally abused
during incessant rehearsals, though he also credited his father's strict
discipline with playing a large role in his success.[10] Jackson first spoke
openly about his childhood abuse in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, broadcast
in February 1993. He admitted that he had often cried from loneliness and he
would vomit on the sight of his father. Jackson's father was also said to have
verbally abused Jackson, saying that he had a fat nose on numerous
occasions.[13] In fact, Michael Jackson's deep dissatisfaction with his
appearance, his nightmares and chronic sleep problems, his tendency to remain
hyper-compliant especially with his father, and to remain child-like throughout
his adult life are in many ways consistent with the effects of this chronic
maltreatment he endured as a young child.[14]
In an interview with Martin Bashir, later included in the
2003 broadcast of Living with Michael Jackson, Jackson acknowledged that his
father hurt him when he was a child, but was nonetheless a "genius",
as he admitted his father's strict discipline played a huge role in his
success. When Bashir dismissed the positive remark and continued asking about
beatings, Jackson put his hand over his face and objected to the questions. He
recalled that Joseph sat in a chair with a belt in his hand as he and his
siblings rehearsed, and that "if you didn't do it the right way, he would
tear you up, really get you".[15][16]
In 1964, Michael and Marlon joined the Jackson Brothers—a
band formed by brothers Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine—as backup musicians playing
congas and tambourine. Jackson later began performing backup vocals and dancing.
When he was eight, Jackson began sharing the lead vocals with his older brother
Jermaine, and the group's name was changed to The Jackson 5.[8] The band toured
the Midwest extensively from 1966 to 1968, frequently performing at a string of
black clubs known as the "chitlin' circuit", where they often opened
stripteases and other adult acts. In 1966, they won a major local talent show
with renditions of Motown hits and James Brown's "I Got You (I Feel
Good)", led by Michael.[17]
The Jackson 5 recorded several songs, including "Big
Boy", for the local record label Steeltown in 1967, before signing with
Motown Records in 1968.[8] Rolling Stone magazine later described the young
Michael as "a prodigy" with "overwhelming musical gifts,"
writing that he "quickly emerged as the main draw and lead
singer."[18] The group set a chart record when its first four singles
("I Want You Back", "ABC", "The Love You Save",
and "I'll Be There") peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot
100.[8] Between 1972 and 1975, Michael released four solo studio albums with
Motown, among them Got to Be There and Ben, released as part of the Jackson 5
franchise, and producing successful singles such as "Got to Be
There", "Ben", and a remake of Bobby Day's "Rockin'
Robin".
The Jackson 5 "became a cutting-edge example of black
crossover artists... five working-class black boys with afros and bell bottoms,
and they really didn't have to trade any of that stuff in order to become
mainstream stars."[19]
The group's sales began declining in 1973, and the band
members chafed under Motown's strict refusal to allow them creative control or
input. Although they scored several top 40 hits, including the top 5 disco
single "Dancing Machine" and the top 20 hit "I Am Love",
the Jackson 5 left Motown in 1975.[20]
Move to Epic and Off the Wall (1975–81)
In June 1975, the Jackson 5 signed with Epic Records, a
subsidiary of CBS Records[20] and renamed themselves the Jacksons. Younger
brother Randy formally joined the band around this time, while Jermaine left to
pursue a solo career.[21] They continued to tour internationally, releasing six
more albums between 1976 and 1984, during which Michael was the lead
songwriter, writing hits such as "Shake Your Body (Down to the
Ground)", "This Place Hotel", and "Can You Feel
It".[17] In 1978, he starred as the scarecrow in the musical, The Wiz, a
box-office disaster. It was here that he teamed up with Quincy Jones, who was
arranging the film's musical score. Jones agreed to produce Jackson's next solo
album, Off the Wall.[22] In 1979, Jackson broke his nose during a complex dance
routine. His subsequent rhinoplasty was not a complete success; he complained
of breathing difficulties that would affect his career. He was referred to Dr.
Steven Hoefflin, who performed Jackson's second rhinoplasty and subsequent
operations.[23]
Jones and Jackson produced the Off the Wall album together.
Songwriters for the album included Jackson, Rod Temperton, Stevie Wonder, and
Paul McCartney. Released in 1979, it was the first solo album to generate four
U.S. top 10 hits, including the chart-topping singles "Don't Stop 'til You
Get Enough" and "Rock with You".[24][25] It reached number three
on the Billboard 200 and eventually sold over 20 million copies worldwide.[26]
In 1980, Jackson won three awards at the American Music Awards for his solo
efforts: Favorite Soul/R&B Album, Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist, and
Favorite Soul/R&B Single for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get
Enough".[27][28] That year, he also won Billboard Year-End for Top Black
Artist and Top Black Album and a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal
Performance, also for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough".[24] Jackson
again won at the American Music Awards in 1981 for Favorite Soul/R&B Album
and Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist.[29] Despite its commercial success,
Jackson felt Off the Wall should have made a much bigger impact, and was
determined to exceed expectations with his next release.[30] In 1980, he
secured the highest royalty rate in the music industry: 37 percent of wholesale
album profit.[31]
Thriller and Motown 25 (1982–83)
In 1982, Jackson contributed the song "Someone In the
Dark" to the storybook for the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial; the record
won a Grammy for Best Recording for Children in 1984. In the same year he won
another seven Grammys and eight American Music Awards (including the Award of
Merit, the youngest artist to win it), making him the most awarded in one night
for both award shows.[32][33] These awards were thanks to the Thriller album,
released in late 1982, which was 1983's best-selling album worldwide[34][35]
and became the best-selling album of all time in the United States,[36] as well
as the best-selling album of all time worldwide, selling an estimated 110
million copies so far.[37] The album topped the Billboard 200 chart for 37
weeks and was in the top 10 of the 200 for 80 consecutive weeks. It was the
first album to have seven Billboard Hot 100 top 10 singles, including
"Billie Jean", "Beat It", and "Wanna Be Startin'
Somethin'".[38] Thriller was certified for 29 million shipments by the
RIAA, giving it Double Diamond status in the United States. The album won also
another Grammy for Best Engineered Recording – Non Classical in 1984, awarding
Bruce Swedien for his work.[39] Jackson's attorney John Branca noted that
Jackson had the highest royalty rate in the music industry at that point:
approximately $2 for every album sold. He was also making record-breaking
profits from sales of his recordings. The videocassette of the documentary The
Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller sold over 350,000 copies in a few months.
The era saw the arrival of novelties like dolls modeled after Michael Jackson,
which appeared in stores in May 1984 at a price of $12.[40] Biographer J. Randy
Taraborrelli writes that, "Thriller stopped selling like a leisure
item—like a magazine, a toy, tickets to a hit movie—and started selling like a
household staple."[41] In 1985, The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller
won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Longform.[32] In December 2009, the music
video for "Thriller" was selected for the National Film Registry by
the Library of Congress, "Thriller" is the first music video ever to
be inducted.[42][43][44]
Time described Jackson's influence at that point as
"Star of records, radio, rock video. A one-man rescue team for the music
business. A songwriter who sets the beat for a decade. A dancer with the
fanciest feet on the street. A singer who cuts across all boundaries of taste
and style and color too".[40] The New York Times wrote that, "in the
world of pop music, there is Michael Jackson and there is everybody
else".[45]
In March 1983, Jackson reunited with his brothers for a
legendary live performance which was taped for a Motown 25: Yesterday, Today,
Forever television special. The show aired on May 16, 1983, to an audience of
47 million viewers, and featured the Jacksons and a number of other Motown
stars. It is best remembered for Jackson's solo performance of "Billie
Jean". Wearing a distinctive black sequin jacket and golf glove decorated
with rhinestones, he debuted his signature dance move, the moonwalk, which
former Soul Train dancer and Shalamar member Jeffrey Daniel had taught him
three years before. The Jacksons' performance drew comparisons to Elvis
Presley's and The Beatles' appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show.[46] Anna
Kisselgoff of The New York Times later wrote, "The moonwalk that he made
famous is an apt metaphor for his dance style. How does he do it? As a
technician, he is a great illusionist, a genuine mime. His ability to keep one
leg straight as he glides while the other bends and seems to walk requires
perfect timing."[47]
Pepsi, "We Are the World" and business career
(1984–85)
Jackson with a Knott's Berry Farm Snoopy mascot in April
1984
On January 27, 1984, Michael and other members of the
Jacksons filmed a Pepsi Cola commercial, overseen by executive Phil
Dusenberry,[48] from ad agency BBDO and Pepsi's Worldwide Creative Director,
Alan Pottasch at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. In front of a full house
of fans during a simulated concert, pyrotechnics accidentally set Jackson's
hair on fire. He suffered second-degree burns to his scalp. Jackson underwent
treatment to hide the scars on his scalp, and he also had his third rhinoplasty
shortly thereafter.[23] Jackson never recovered from this injury. Pepsi settled
out of court, and Jackson donated his $1.5 million settlement to the Brotman
Medical Center in Culver City, California, which now has a "Michael
Jackson Burn Center" in honor of his donation.[49] Dusenberry later
recounted the episode in his memoir, Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights and
Accidents from a Hall of Fame Career in Advertising.
On May 14, 1984, Jackson was invited to the White House to
receive an award from President Ronald Reagan for his support of charities that
helped people overcome alcohol and drug abuse.[50] Jackson won eight awards
during the Grammys that year. Unlike later albums, Thriller did not have an
official tour to promote it, but the 1984 Victory Tour, headlined by The
Jacksons, showcased much of Jackson's new solo material to more than two
million Americans. He donated all the funds (around $8 million) raised from the
Victory Tour to charity.[51] He also co-wrote the charity single "We Are
the World" in 1985 with Lionel Richie, which was released worldwide to aid
the poor in the U.S. and Africa. It became one of the best-selling singles of
all time, with nearly 30 million copies sold and millions of dollars donated to
famine relief. In 1986, "We Are the World" won four Grammys (one for
Jackson for Song of the Year). American Music Award directors removed the
charity song from the competition because they felt it would be inappropriate,
but recognized it with two special honors (one for the creation of the song and
one for the USA for Africa idea). They are the only AMAs that Jackson won as
non-solo artist.[52][53][54][55]
Jackson at the White House South Portico with President
Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan, 1984
In 1984, ATV Music Publishing, which had the copyrights to
nearly 4000 songs, including the Northern Songs catalog that contained the
majority of the Lennon–McCartney compositions recorded by The Beatles, was put
up for sale by Robert Holmes à Court.[56] Jackson had become interested in
owning music catalogs after working with Paul McCartney in the early 1980s:
Jackson had learned McCartney made approximately $40 million a year from other
people's songs.[57] In 1981,[58] McCartney was offered the ATV music catalog
for £20 million ($40 million).[57][59] According to McCartney, he contacted
Yoko Ono about making a joint purchase by splitting the cost equally at £10
million each, but Ono thought they could buy it for £5 million each.[57][59]
When they were unable to make the joint purchase, McCartney let the offer fall
through, not wanting to be the sole owner of the Beatles' songs.[58][59]
According to a negotiator for Holmes à Court in the 1984
sale, "We had given Paul McCartney first right of refusal but Paul didn't
want it at that time."[60] Also, an attorney for McCartney assured
Jackson's attorney, John Branca, that McCartney was not interested in bidding:
McCartney reportedly said "It's too pricey".[57][58] But there were
several other companies and investors bidding. In September 1984, Jackson was first
informed about the sale by Branca and sent a bid of $46 million on November 20,
1984.[56] Jackson's agents thought they had a deal several times, but
encountered new bidders or new areas of debate.[56] In May 1985, Jackson's team
walked away from talks after having spent over $1 million on four months of due
diligence and on the negotiations.[56]
In June 1985, Jackson and Branca learned that Charles
Koppelman's and Marty Bandier's The Entertainment Co. had made a tentative
agreement with Holmes à Court to buy ATV Music for $50 million.[56] But in
early August, Holmes à Court's team contacted Jackson and talks resumed.
Jackson raised his bid to $47.5 million and it was accepted because he could
close the deal more quickly, having already completed due diligence of ATV
Music.[56] He also agreed to visit Holmes à Court in Australia, where he would
appear on the Channel Seven Perth Telethon.[56][60] Jackson's purchase of ATV
Music was finalized August 10, 1985.[56]
Appearance, tabloids, Bad, films, autobiography and Neverland
(1986–90)
See also: Michael Jackson's health and appearance
Jackson's skin had been a medium-brown color for the entire
duration of his youth, but starting in the mid 1980s, it gradually grew paler.
The change gained widespread media coverage, including rumors that he might be
bleaching his skin.[61] According to J. Randy Taraborrelli's biography, in
1986, Jackson was diagnosed with vitiligo and lupus; the vitiligo partially
lightened his skin, and the lupus was in remission; both illnesses made him sensitive
to sunlight. The treatments he used for his condition further lightened his
skin tone, and, with the application of pancake makeup to even out blotches, he
could appear very pale.[62] Jackson was also diagnosed with vitiligo in his
autopsy.[63] By the mid 1990s several surgeons speculated that he had undergone
various nasal surgeries, had fat removed around the eyes, a forehead lift,
thinned lips, and cheekbone surgery—although Jackson denied this and insisted
that he only had surgery on his nose.[64] Jackson claimed that he had only two
rhinoplasties and no other surgery on his face, although at one point he
mentioned having a dimple created in his chin.[65] Jackson lost weight in the
early 1980s because of a change in diet and a desire for "a dancer's
body".[65] Witnesses reported that he was often dizzy and speculated that
he was suffering from anorexia nervosa; periods of weight loss would become a
recurring problem later in life.[66]
During the course of his treatment, Jackson made two close
friends: his dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein, and Klein's nurse Debbie Rowe.
Rowe eventually became Jackson's second wife and the mother of his two eldest
children. Long before becoming romantically involved with her, Jackson relied
heavily on Rowe for emotional support. He also relied heavily on Klein, for
medical and business advice.[67]
Jackson two years after he was diagnosed with vitiligo, here
in the early stages of the disease
Jackson became the subject of increasingly sensational
reports. In 1986, the tabloids ran a story claiming that Jackson slept in a
hyperbaric oxygen chamber to slow the aging process; he was pictured lying down
in a glass box. Although the claim was untrue, according to tabloid reports
that are widely cited, Jackson had disseminated the fabricated story
himself.[68][69] When Jackson bought a chimpanzee called Bubbles from a
laboratory, he was reported to be increasingly detached from reality.[70] It
was reported that Jackson had offered to buy the bones of Joseph Merrick (the "elephant
man") and although untrue, Jackson did not deny the story.[68][69]
Although initially he saw these stories as opportunities for publicity, he
stopped leaking untruths to the press as they became more sensational.
Consequently the media began making up their own stories.[69][71][72] These
reports became embedded in the public consciousness, inspiring the nickname
"Wacko Jacko", which Jackson came to despise.[73] Responding to the
gossip, Jackson remarked to Taraborrelli:
Why not just tell people I'm an alien from Mars. Tell them I
eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight. They'll believe anything
you say, because you're a reporter. But if I, Michael Jackson, were to say,
"I'm an alien from Mars and I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at
midnight," people would say, "Oh, man, that Michael Jackson is nuts.
He's cracked up. You can't believe a single word that comes out of his
mouth."[74]
Jackson wore a gold-plated military style jacket with belt
in the Bad era
Jackson collaborated with George Lucas and Francis Ford
Coppola on the 17-minute 3-D film Captain EO, which debuted in September 1986
at both the original Disneyland and at EPCOT in Florida, and in March 1987 at
Tokyo Disneyland. The $30 million movie was a popular attraction at all three
parks. A Captain EO attraction was later featured at Euro Disneyland after that
park opened in 1992. All four parks' Captain EO installations stayed open well
into the 1990s: Paris' installation was the last one to close, in 1998.[75] The
attraction would later return to Disneyland in 2010 after Jackson's death.[76]
In 1987, Jackson disassociated himself from the Jehovah's
Witnesses, in response to their disapproval of the Thriller video.[77] With the
industry expecting another major hit, Jackson's first album in five years, Bad
(1987), was highly anticipated.[78] It did not top Thriller as a commercial or
artistic triumph, but Bad was still a substantial success in its own right.
The Bad album spawned seven hit singles in the U.S., five of
which ("I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way
You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror" and "Dirty
Diana") reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. This was a
record for most number one Hot 100 singles from any one album, including
Thriller.[79] Although the title track's video was arguably derivative of the
video for the earlier single "Beat It", the "Bad" video
still proved to be one of Jackson's iconic moments. It was a gritty but
colorful epic set against the backdrop of the New York City Subway system, with
costuming and choreography inspired by West Side Story. As of 2008, the album
had sold 30 million copies worldwide.[80] Thanks to the Bad album, Bruce
Swedien and Humberto Gatica won one Grammy in 1988 for Best Engineered
Recording – Non Classical and Michael Jackson won one Grammy for Best Music
Video, Short Form for "Leave Me Alone" in 1989.[32][39] In the same
year, Jackson won an Award of Achievement at the American Music Awards because
Bad is the first album ever to generate five number one singles in the US, the
first album to top in 25 countries and the best-selling album worldwide in 1987
and in 1988.[81][82][83][84] In 1988, "Bad" won an American Music
Award for Favorite Soul/R&B Single.[85]
The Bad World Tour began on September 12 that year,
finishing on January 14, 1989.[86] In Japan alone, the tour had 14 sellouts and
drew 570,000 people, nearly tripling the previous record of 200,000 in a single
tour.[87] Jackson broke a Guinness World Record when 504,000 people attended
seven sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium. He performed a total of 123 concerts
to an audience of 4.4 million people. The Bad Tour turned out to be the last of
Jackson's concert tours to include shows in the continental United States,
although later tours did make it to Hawaii.
Front view: Jackson wearing the costume on a June 2, 1988
performance in Vienna, Austria
In 1988, Jackson released his first and only autobiography,
Moonwalk, which took four years to complete and sold 200,000 copies.[88]
Jackson wrote about his childhood, The Jackson 5, and the abuse he had
suffered.[89] He also wrote about his facial appearance, saying he had had two
rhinoplastic surgeries and a dimple created in his chin.[65] He attributed much
of the change in the structure of his face to puberty, weight loss, a strict
vegetarian diet, a change in hair style, and stage lighting.[65] Moonwalk
reached the top position on The New York Times best sellers' list.[90] The
musician then released a film called Moonwalker, which featured live footage and
short films that starred Jackson and Joe Pesci. The film was originally
intended to be released to theaters but due to financial issues, the film was
released direct-to-video. It saw a theatrical release in Germany, though. It
debuted atop the Billboard Top Music Video Cassette chart, staying there for 22
weeks. It was eventually knocked off the top spot by Michael Jackson: The
Legend Continues.[91]
In March 1988, Jackson purchased land near Santa Ynez,
California, to build Neverland Ranch at a cost of $17 million. He installed
Ferris wheels, a menagerie, and a movie theater on the 2,700-acre (11 km2)
property. A security staff of 40 patrolled the grounds. In 2003, it was valued
at approximately $100 million.[18][92] In 1989, his annual earnings from album
sales, endorsements, and concerts was estimated at $125 million for that year
alone.[93] Shortly afterwards, he became the first Westerner to appear in a
television ad in the Soviet Union.[91]
His success resulted in his being dubbed the "King of
Pop".[94][95][96][97] The nickname was popularized by Elizabeth Taylor
when she presented him with the Soul Train Heritage Award in 1989, proclaiming
him "the true king of pop, rock and soul."[98] President George H. W.
Bush designated him the White House's "Artist of the Decade".[99]
From 1985 to 1990, he donated $500,000 to the United Negro College Fund, and
all of the profits from his single "Man in the Mirror" went to
charity.[100][101] Jackson's live rendition of "You Were There" at
Sammy Davis Jr.'s 60th birthday celebration received an Emmy nomination.[91]
Dangerous, Heal the World Foundation and Super Bowl XXVII
(1991–93)
In March 1991, Jackson renewed his contract with Sony for
$65 million, a record-breaking deal at the time,[102] displacing Neil Diamond's
renewal contract with Columbia Records.[103] He released his eighth album
Dangerous in 1991. As of 2008, Dangerous had shipped seven million copies in
the U.S. and had sold 32 million copies worldwide. The Dangerous album was
co-produced by Teddy Riley, one of the pioneers of "new jack swing"
which convinced Michael to feature a rapper on his album for the first time,
the act worked and it turned out to be the best-selling album associated with
that movement.[104][105][106] In the United States, the album's first single
"Black or White" was its biggest hit, reaching number one on the
Billboard Hot 100 and remaining there for seven weeks, with similar chart
performances worldwide.[107] The album's second single "Remember the
Time" spent eight weeks in the top five in the United States, peaking at
number three on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.[108] At the end of 1992,
Dangerous was awarded 1992's best-selling album worldwide and "Black or
White" was awarded 1992's best-selling single worldwide at the Billboard
Music Awards. Additionally, he won an award as best-selling artist of the
'80s.[109] In 1993, Jackson performed the song at the Soul Train Music Awards
in a chair, saying he had suffered an injury in rehearsals.[110] In the UK and
other parts of Europe, "Heal the World" was the biggest hit from the
album; it sold 450,000 copies in the UK and spent five weeks at number two in
1992.[108]
Jackson founded the Heal the World Foundation in 1992. The
charity organization brought underprivileged children to Jackson's ranch to
enjoy theme park rides that Jackson had built on the property. The foundation
also sent millions of dollars around the globe to help children threatened by
war, poverty, and disease. In the same year Jackson published his second book,
the bestselling collection of poetry, Dancing the Dream. While it was a
commercial success and revealed a more intimate side to Jackson's nature, the
collection was mostly critically unacclaimed at the time of release. In 2009,
the book was republished by Doubleday and was more positively received by some
critics in the wake of Jackson's untimely death. The Dangerous World Tour
grossed $100 million. The tour began on June 27, 1992, and finished on November
11, 1993. Jackson performed to 3.5 million people in 67 concerts.[108][111] He
sold the broadcast rights to his Dangerous world tour to HBO for $20 million, a
record-breaking deal that still stands.[112]
Following the illness and death of Ryan White, Jackson
helped draw public attention to HIV/AIDS, something that was still
controversial at the time. He publicly pleaded with the Clinton Administration
at Bill Clinton's Inaugural Gala to give more money to HIV/AIDS charities and
research.[113][114] In a high-profile visit to Africa, Jackson visited several countries,
among them Gabon and Egypt.[115] His first stop to Gabon was greeted with a
sizable and enthusiastic reception of more than 100,000 people, some of them
carrying signs that read, "Welcome Home Michael."[115] In his trip to
Côte d'Ivoire, Jackson was crowned "King Sani" by a tribal
chief.[115] He then thanked the dignitaries in French and English, signed
official documents formalizing his kingship and sat on a golden throne while
presiding over ceremonial dances.[115]
In January 1993, Jackson made a memorable appearance at the
halftime show at Super Bowl XXVII. The performance began with Jackson
catapulting onto the stage as fireworks went off behind him. As he landed on
the canvas, he maintained a motionless "clenched fist, standing statue stance",
dressed in a gold and black military outfit and sunglasses; he remained
completely motionless for a minute and a half while the crowd cheered. He then
slowly removed his sunglasses, threw them away and sang four songs:
"Jam", "Billie Jean", "Black or White" and
"Heal the World". It was the first Super Bowl where the audience
figures increased during the half-time show, and was viewed by 135 million
Americans alone; Jackson's Dangerous album rose 90 places up the album
chart.[61] Jackson was given the "Living Legend Award" at the 35th
Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. "Black or White" was Grammy-nominated
for best vocal performance. "Jam" gained two nominations: Best
R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song.[108] The Dangerous album won a
Grammy for Best Engineered – Non Classical, awarding the work of Bruce Swedien
and Teddy Riley. In the same year, Michael Jackson won three American Music
Awards for Favorite Pop/Rock Album (Dangerous), Favorite Soul/R&B Single
("Remember the Time") and was the first to win the International
Artist Award, for his global performances and humanitarian concerns. This award
will bear his name in the future.[32][39][116]
First child sexual abuse allegations and first marriage
(1993–94)
Main article: 1993 child sexual abuse accusations against
Michael Jackson
Jackson gave a 90-minute interview to Oprah Winfrey in
February 1993, his second television interview since 1979. He grimaced when
speaking of his childhood abuse at the hands of his father; he believed he had
missed out on much of his childhood years, admitting that he often cried from
loneliness. He denied tabloid rumors that he had bought the bones of the
Elephant Man, slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, or bleached his skin,
stating for the first time that he had vitiligo. The interview was watched by
an American audience of 90 million. Dangerous re-entered the album chart in the
top 10, more than a year after its original release.[16][61][108]
In the summer of 1993, Jackson was accused of child sexual
abuse by a 13-year-old boy named Jordan Chandler and his father, Dr. Evan
Chandler, a dentist.[117][118][119] The Chandler family demanded payment from
Jackson, and the singer initially refused. Jordan Chandler eventually told the
police that Jackson had sexually abused him.[120] Dr. Chandler was
tape-recorded discussing his intention to pursue charges, saying, "If I go
through with this, I win big-time. There's no way I lose. I will get everything
I want and they will be destroyed forever ... Michael's career will be over".
Jordan's mother was, however, adamant that there had been no wrongdoing on
Jackson's part.[119] Jackson later used the recording to argue that he was the
victim of a jealous father whose only goal was to extort money from the
singer.[119]
Later that year, on December 20, Jackson's home was raided
by the police, and Jackson submitted to a 25-minute strip search.[121] Jordan
Chandler had reportedly given police a description of Jackson's intimate parts,
notably claiming that his bleach-damaged penis was circumcised; the strip
search revealed, to the contrary, that Jackson was actually uncircumcised,[122]
a fact confirmed in his autopsy.[123] His friends said he never recovered from
the humiliation of the strip search. The investigation was inconclusive and no
charges were ever filed.[124][125] Jackson described the search in an emotional
public statement, and proclaimed his innocence.[117][121][126] On January 1,
1994, Jackson's insurance carrier settled with the Chandlers out of court for
$22 million. A Santa Barbara County grand jury and a Los Angeles County grand
jury disbanded on May 2, 1994 without indicting Jackson.[127] After which time
the Chandlers stopped co-operating with the criminal investigation around July
6, 1994.[128][129][130] The out-of-court settlement's documentation
specifically stated Jackson admitted no wrongdoing and no liability; the
Chandlers and their family lawyer Larry Feldman signed it without contest.[131]
The Chandlers' lawyer Mr. Feldman also explicitly stated "nobody bought
anybody's silence".[132] A decade after the fact, during the second round
of child abuse allegations, Jackson's lawyers would file a memo stating that
the 1994 settlement was done without his consent.[129]
Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis Presley,
in 1994
In May 1994, Jackson married the daughter of Elvis Presley,
Lisa Marie Presley. They had first met in 1975, when a seven-year-old Presley
attended one of Jackson's family engagements at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino,
and were reconnected through a mutual friend.[133] According to a friend of
Presley's, "their adult friendship began in November 1992 in
L.A."[134] They stayed in contact every day over the telephone. As the
child molestation accusations became public, Jackson became dependent on Presley
for emotional support; she was concerned about his faltering health and
addiction to drugs.[135] Presley explained, "I believed he didn't do
anything wrong and that he was wrongly accused and yes I started falling for
him. I wanted to save him. I felt that I could do it."[136] She eventually
persuaded him to settle the allegations out of court and go into rehabilitation
to recover.[135]
Jackson proposed to Presley over the telephone towards the
fall of 1993, saying, "If I asked you to marry me, would you do
it?"[135] They married in the Dominican Republic in secrecy, denying it
for nearly two months afterwards.[137] The marriage was, in her words, "a
married couple's life ... that was sexually active".[138] At the time, the
tabloid media speculated that the wedding was a ploy to prop up Jackson's
public image.[137] The marriage lasted less than two years and ended with an
amicable divorce settlement.[139] In a 2010 interview with Oprah, Presley
admitted that they spent four more years after the divorce "getting back
together and breaking up", until she decided to stop.[140]
HIStory, second marriage and fatherhood (1995–99)
In 1995, Jackson merged his ATV Music catalog with Sony's
music publishing division creating Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Jackson retained
half-ownership of the company, earned $95 million upfront as well as the rights
to even more songs.[141][142] He then released the double album HIStory: Past,
Present and Future, Book I. The first disc, HIStory Begins, was a 15-track
greatest hits album, and was later reissued as Greatest Hits: HIStory, Volume I
in 2001, while the second disc, HIStory Continues, contained 15 new songs. The
album debuted at number one on the charts and has been certified for seven
million shipments in the US.[143] It is the best-selling multiple-disc album of
all-time, with 20 million copies (40 million units) sold worldwide.[107][144]
HIStory received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year.[145]
Michael Jackson at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival
The first single released from the album was the double
A-side "Scream/Childhood". "Scream" was a duet, performed
with Jackson's youngest sister Janet. The song fights against the media, mainly
for what the media made him out to be during his 1993 child abuse allegations.
The single had the highest debut on the Billboard Hot 100 at number five, and
received a Grammy nomination for "Best Pop Collaboration with
Vocals".[145] "You Are Not Alone" was the second single released
from HIStory; it holds the Guinness World Record for the first song ever to
debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[93] It was seen as a major
artistic and commercial success, receiving a Grammy nomination for "Best
Pop Vocal Performance".[145] In late 1995, Jackson was rushed to a hospital
after collapsing during rehearsals for a televised performance; the incident
was caused by a stress-related panic attack.[146] "Earth Song" was
the third single released from HIStory, and topped the UK Singles Chart for six
weeks over Christmas 1995; it sold a million copies, making it Jackson's most
successful single in the UK.[145] The track "They Don't Care About
Us" became controversial when the Anti-Defamation League and other groups
criticized its allegedly antisemitic lyrics. Jackson quickly put out a revised
version of the song without the offending lyrics.[147] In 1996, Jackson won a
Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form for "Scream" and an American
Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist.[32][148]
The album was promoted with the successful HIStory World
Tour. The tour began on September 7, 1996, and finished on October 15, 1997.
Jackson performed 82 concerts in 58 cities to over 4.5 million fans, and
grossed up a total of $165 million. The show, which visited five continents and
35 countries, became Jackson's most successful in terms of audience
figures.[86] During the tour, Jackson married his longtime friend Deborah
Jeanne Rowe, a dermatology nurse, in an impromptu ceremony in Sydney,
Australia. Rowe was approximately six months pregnant with the couple's first
child at the time. Originally, Rowe and Jackson had no plans to marry, but
Jackson's mother Katherine persuaded them to do so.[149] Michael Joseph Jackson
Jr (commonly known as Prince) was born on February 13, 1997; his sister
Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson was born a year later on April 3,
1998.[139][150] The couple divorced in 1999, and Jackson got full custody of
the children. The divorce was relatively amicable, but a subsequent custody
suit was not settled until 2006.[151][152]
Jackson at Perth Airport in 1996
In 1997, Jackson released Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory
in the Mix, which contained remixes of hit singles from HIStory and five new
songs. Worldwide sales stand at 6 million copies as of 2007, it is the best
selling remix album ever released.[153] It reached number one in the UK, as did
the title track.[153][154] In the US, the album was certified platinum, but
only reached number 24.[104][145] Forbes placed his annual income at $35
million in 1996 and $20 million in 1997.[92] Throughout June 1999, Jackson was
involved in a number of charitable events. He joined Luciano Pavarotti for a
benefit concert in Modena, Italy. The show was in support of the nonprofit
organization War Child, and raised a million dollars for the refugees of
Kosovo, FR Yugoslavia, as well as additional funds for the children of
Guatemala.[155] Later that month, Jackson organized a set of "Michael
Jackson & Friends" benefit concerts in Germany and Korea. Other
artists involved included Slash, The Scorpions, Boyz II Men, Luther Vandross,
Mariah Carey, A. R. Rahman, Prabhu Deva Sundaram, Shobana, Andrea Bocelli and
Luciano Pavarotti. The proceeds went to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, the
Red Cross and UNESCO.[156]
Label dispute, Invincible and third child (2000–03)
At the turn of the century, the American Music Awards
honored Jackson as Artist of the '80s.[157] Throughout 2000 and 2001, Jackson
worked in the studio with Teddy Riley and Rodney Jerkins, as well as other
collaborators. These sessions would result in the album Invincible, released in
October 2001. Invincible was Jackson's first full-length album in six years,
and it would be the last album of new material he released while still alive.
The release of the album was preceded by a dispute between Jackson and his
record label, Sony Music Entertainment. Jackson had expected the licenses to
the masters of his albums to revert to him sometime in the early 2000s. Once he
had the licenses, he would be able to promote the material however he pleased and
he would also be able to keep all the profits. However, due to various clauses
in the contract, the revert date turned out to be many years away. Jackson
discovered that the attorney who represented him in the deal was also
representing Sony.[154] Jackson was also concerned about the fact that for a
number of years, Sony had been pressuring him to sell his share in their music
catalog venture. Jackson feared that Sony might have a conflict of interest,
since if Jackson's career failed he would have to sell his share of the catalog
at a low price.[158] Jackson sought an early exit from his contract.[154] Just
before the release of Invincible, Jackson informed the head of Sony Music
Entertainment, Tommy Mottola, that he was leaving Sony.[154] As a result, all
singles releases, video shootings and promotions concerning the Invincible
album were suspended.
In September 2001, two 30th Anniversary concerts were held
at Madison Square Garden to mark the singer's 30th year as a solo artist.
Jackson appeared onstage alongside his brothers for the first time since 1984.
The show also featured performances by Mýa, Usher, Whitney Houston, 'N Sync,
Destiny's Child, Monica, Luther Vandross, and Slash, among other artists.[159]
The second of the two shows took place the night before the September 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks.[160] After 9/11, Jackson helped organize the United We
Stand: What More Can I Give benefit concert at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.
The concert took place on October 21, 2001, and included performances from
dozens of major artists, including Jackson, who performed his song "What
More Can I Give" as the finale.[158] Jackson's solo performances were
omitted from the televised version of the benefit concert, although he could
still be seen singing background vocals. This omission happened because of
contractual issues related to the earlier 30th Anniversary concerts: those
concerts were boiled down into a two-hour TV special titled Michael Jackson:
30th Anniversary Celebration: The Solo Years which debuted in November 2001.
In spite of the events preceding its release, Invincible
came out in October 2001 to much anticipation. Invincible proved to be a hit,
debuting atop the charts in 13 countries and going on to sell approximately 13
million copies worldwide. It received double-platinum certification in the
US.[104][107][161] However, the sales for Invincible were lower than those of
his previous releases, due in part to a lack of promotion, no supporting world
tour and the label dispute. The album also came out at a bad time for the music
industry in general.[158] The album cost $30 million to record, not including
promotional expenditures.[162] Invincible spawned three singles, "You Rock
My World", "Cry" and "Butterflies", the latter without
a music video. Jackson alleged in July 2002 that Mottola was a
"devil" and a "racist" who did not support his
African-American artists, using them merely for his own personal gain.[158] He
charged that Mottola had called his colleague Irv Gotti a "fat
nigger".[163] Sony refused to renew Jackson's contract, and claimed that a
$25 million promotional campaign had failed because Jackson refused to tour in
the United States.[162]
In 2002, Michael Jackson won his 22nd American Music Award
for Artist of the Century.[164] In the same year, Jackson's third child, Prince
Michael Jackson II (nicknamed "Blanket") was born.[165] The mother's
identity is unknown, but Jackson has said the child was the result of
artificial insemination from a surrogate mother and his own sperm.[151] On November
20 of that year, Jackson brought his newborn son onto the balcony of his room
at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin, as fans stood below, holding him in his right
arm, with a cloth loosely draped over the baby's face. The baby was briefly
extended over a railing, four stories above ground level, causing widespread
criticism in the media. Jackson later apologized for the incident, calling it
"a terrible mistake".[166] Sony released Number Ones, a compilation
of Jackson's hits on CD and DVD. In the US, the album was certified triple
platinum by the RIAA; in the UK it was certified six times platinum for
shipments of at least 1.2 million units.[104][167]
Second child sexual abuse allegations and acquittal
(2003–05)
Further information: Living with Michael Jackson and People
v. Jackson
Beginning in May 2002, Jackson allowed a documentary film
crew, led by British TV personality Martin Bashir, to follow him around just
about everywhere he went. Bashir's film crew was with Jackson during the
"baby-dangling incident" in Berlin. The program was broadcast in
March 2003 as Living with Michael Jackson, and painted an extraordinarily
unflattering portrait of the singer.
In a particularly controversial scene, Jackson was seen
holding hands and discussing sleeping arrangements with a young boy.[168] As
soon as the documentary aired, the Santa Barbara county attorney's office began
a criminal investigation. Jackson was arrested in November 2003, and was
charged with seven counts of child molestation and two counts of administering
an intoxicating agent in relation to the 13 year old boy shown in the
film.[168] Jackson denied the allegations, saying the sleepovers were not
sexual in nature. The People v. Jackson trial began on January 31, 2005, in
Santa Maria, California, and lasted five months, until the end of May. On June
13, 2005, Jackson was acquitted on all counts.[169][170][171] After the trial,
in a highly publicized relocation he moved to the Persian Gulf island of
Bahrain, as a guest of Sheikh Abdullah.[172] Bahrain was also where the family
intended to send Jackson if he was convicted (though Jackson did not know about
the plan), according to a statement by Jermaine Jackson printed in The Times of
London in September 2011.[173]
Closure of Neverland, final years and This Is It (2006–09)
Jackson with his children in Disneyland Paris, 2006
In March 2006, the main house at the Neverland Ranch was
closed as a cost-cutting measure.[174] There were numerous reports around that
time that Jackson was having financial problems. Jackson had been delinquent on
his repayments of a $270 million loan secured against his music publishing
holdings, even though those holdings were reportedly making him as much as $75
million a year.[175] Bank of America sold the debt to Fortress Investments.
Sony reportedly proposed a restructuring deal which would give them a future
option to buy half of Jackson's stake in their jointly owned publishing company
(leaving Jackson with a 25% stake).[142] Jackson agreed to a Sony-backed
refinancing deal in April 2006, although the exact details were not made
public.[176] Jackson did not have a recording contract in place with Sony or
any other major record label at the time.
In early 2006, there was an announcement that Jackson had
signed a contract with a Bahrain-based startup called Two Seas Records.
However, nothing ever came of that deal, and the CEO of Two Seas, Guy Holmes,
later stated that the deal had never been finalized.[177][178] Throughout 2006,
Sony repackaged 20 singles from the 1980s and 1990s as the Michael Jackson:
Visionary series, which subsequently became a box set. Most of those singles
returned to the charts as a result. In September 2006, Jackson and his ex-wife
Debbie Rowe confirmed reports that they had settled their long-running child custody
suit. The terms were never made public. Jackson continued to be the custodial
parent of the couple's two children.[152] In October 2006, Fox News
entertainment reporter Roger Friedman said that Jackson had been recording at a
studio in rural Westmeath, Ireland. It was not known at the time what Jackson
might be working on, or who might be paying for the sessions, since his
publicist had recently issued a statement claiming that he had left Two
Seas.[178][179]
In November 2006, Jackson invited an Access Hollywood camera
crew into the studio in Westmeath, and MSNBC broke the story that he was
working on a new album, produced by will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas.[107]
Jackson performed at the World Music Awards, in London on November 15, 2006,
and accepted a Diamond Award for selling over 100 million records.[107][180]
Jackson returned to the United States after Christmas 2006 to attend James
Brown's funeral in Augusta, Georgia. He gave one of the eulogies, saying that
"James Brown is my greatest inspiration."[181] In the spring of 2007,
Jackson and Sony teamed up to buy yet another music publishing company: Famous
Music LLC, formerly owned by Viacom. This deal gave him the rights to songs by
Eminem, Shakira and Beck, among others.[182] Jackson recorded extensively
during this period in New York with songwriter and producer will.i.am and also
in Las Vegas with producers Akon and RedOne.[183][184] In March 2007, Jackson
gave a brief interview to the Associated Press in Tokyo, where he said,
"I've been in the entertainment industry since I was 6 years old, and as
Charles Dickens would say, 'It's been the best of times, the worst of times.'
But I would not change my career ... While some have made deliberate attempts
to hurt me, I take it in stride because I have a loving family, a strong faith
and wonderful friends and fans who have, and continue, to support
me."[185]
In September 2007, Jackson was reportedly still working with
will.i.am, but the album was apparently never completed.[186] However, in 2008,
Jackson and Sony released Thriller 25 to mark the 25th anniversary of the
original Thriller. This album featured the previously unreleased song "For
All Time" (an outtake from the original sessions) as well as remixes,
where Jackson collaborated with younger artists who had been inspired by his
work.[187] Two of the remixes were released as singles with only modest
success: "The Girl Is Mine 2008" (with will.i.am) and "Wanna Be
Startin' Somethin' 2008" (with Akon). The first single was based on an
early demo version, without Paul McCartney. The album itself was a hit,
however.[187][188][189][190] In anticipation of Jackson's 50th birthday, Sony
BMG released a series of greatest-hits albums called King of Pop. Slightly
different versions were released in various countries, based on polls of local
fans.[191] King of Pop reached the top 10 in most countries where it was
issued, and also sold well as an import in other countries (such as the United
States.)[192][193]
In the fall of 2008, Fortress Investments threatened to
foreclose on Neverland Ranch, which Jackson used as collateral for loans
running into many tens of millions of dollars. However, Fortress opted to sell
Jackson's debts to Colony Capital LLC. In November, Jackson transferred
Neverland Ranch's title to Sycamore Valley Ranch Company LLC, which was a joint
venture between Jackson and Colony Capital LLC. This deal cleared Jackson's
debt, and he reportedly even gained an extra $35 million from the venture. At
the time of his death, Jackson still owned a stake in Neverland/Sycamore
Valley, but it is unknown how large that stake was.[194][195][196] In September
2008, Jackson entered negotiations with Julien's Auction House to display and
auction a large collection of memorabilia amounting to approximately 1,390
lots. The auction was scheduled to take place between April 22 and April
25.[197] An exhibition of the lots opened as scheduled on April 14, but the
actual auction was eventually cancelled at Jackson's request.[198]
In March 2009, Jackson held a press conference at London's
O2 Arena and announced a series of comeback concerts titled This Is It. The
shows would be Jackson's first major series of concerts since the HIStory World
Tour finished in 1997. Jackson suggested possible retirement after the shows; he
said it would be his "final curtain call". The initial plan was for
10 concerts in London, followed by shows in Paris, New York City and Mumbai.
Randy Phillips, president and chief executive of AEG Live, stated that the
first 10 dates alone would earn the singer approximately £50 million.[199] The
London residency was increased to 50 dates after record breaking ticket sales:
over one million were sold in less than two hours.[200] Jackson rehearsed in
Los Angeles in the weeks leading up to the tour under the direction of
choreographer Kenny Ortega. Most of these rehearsals took place at the Staples
Center, which was owned by AEG.[201] The concerts would have commenced on July
13, 2009, and finished on March 6, 2010. Less than three weeks before the first
show was due to begin in London and with all concerts being sold out, Jackson
died after suffering cardiac arrest.[202] Some time before his death, it was
widely stated that he was starting a clothing line with Christian Audigier; due
to his death, the current status of the label remains unknown.[203][204]
Jackson's first posthumous single was a song titled
"This Is It" which Jackson cowrote in the 1980s with Paul Anka. It
was not on the set lists for the concerts, and the recording was based on an
old demo tape. The surviving brothers reunited in the studio for the first time
since 1989 to record backing vocals. On October 28, 2009, a documentary film
about the rehearsals titled Michael Jackson's This Is It was released.[205]
Even though it ran for a limited two-week engagement, it became the highest
grossing documentary or concert movie of all time, with earnings of more than
$260 million worldwide.[206] Jackson's estate received 90% of the profits.[207]
The film was accompanied by a compilation album of the same name. Two versions
of the new song appear on the album, which also featured original masters of
Jackson's hits in the order in which they appear in the movie, along with a
bonus disc with previously unreleased versions of more Jackson hits as well as a
spoken-word poem titled "Planet Earth".[208] At the 2009 American
Music Awards Jackson won four posthumous awards, two for him and two for his
album Number Ones, bringing his total American Music Awards to 26.[209][210]
Death and memorial
Main articles: Death of Michael Jackson and Michael Jackson
memorial service
Michael Jackson's Tomb in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn
Memorial Park, Glendale
On June 25, 2009, Jackson died while in his bed at his
rented mansion at 100 North Carolwood Drive in the Holmby Hills district of Los
Angeles. Attempts at resuscitating him by Conrad Murray, his personal
physician, were unsuccessful.[211] Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics
received a 911 call at 12:22 (PDT, 19:22 UTC), arriving three minutes later at
Jackson's location.[212][213] He was reportedly not breathing and CPR was
performed.[214] Resuscitation efforts continued en route to the Ronald Reagan
UCLA Medical Center, and for more than an hour after arriving there at 1:13
(20:13 UTC). He was pronounced dead at 2:26 local time (21:26 UTC).[215][216]
Jackson's death triggered a global outpouring of grief.[211]
The news spread quickly online, causing websites to slow
down and crash from user overload. Both TMZ and the Los Angeles Times suffered
outages.[217] Google initially believed that the input from millions of people
searching for "Michael Jackson" meant that the search engine was
under DDoS attack, and blocked searches related to Michael Jackson for 30
minutes. Twitter reported a crash, as did Wikipedia at 3:15 p.m. PDT (22:15
UTC).[218] The Wikimedia Foundation reported nearly a million visitors to
Jackson's biography within one hour, probably the most visitors in a one-hour
period to any article in Wikipedia's history.[219] AOL Instant Messenger collapsed
for 40 minutes. AOL called it a "seminal moment in Internet history",
adding, "We've never seen anything like it in terms of scope or
depth."[220]
Around 15% of Twitter posts—or 5,000 tweets per
minute—reportedly mentioned Jackson after the news broke,[221][222] compared to
the 5% recalled as having mentioned the Iranian elections or the flu pandemic
that had made headlines earlier in the year.[222] Overall, web traffic ranged
from 11% to at least 20% higher than normal.[221][223] MTV and Black Entertainment
Television (BET) aired marathons of Jackson's music videos.[224] Jackson
specials aired on multiple television stations around the world. The British
soap opera EastEnders added a last-minute scene, in which one character tells
another about the news, to the June 26 episode.[225] Jackson was the topic of
every front-page headline in the daily British tabloid The Sun for about two
weeks following his death.[226] During the same period, the three major U.S.
networks' evening newscasts—ABC World News, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly
News—devoted 34% of their broadcast time to him.[227] Magazines including Time
published commemorative editions.[228] A scene that had featured Jackson's
sister La Toya was cut from the film Brüno out of respect toward Jackson's
family.[229]
Jackson's memorial was held on July 7, 2009, at the Staples
Center in Los Angeles, preceded by a private family service at Forest Lawn
Memorial Park's Hall of Liberty. Jackson's casket was present during the
memorial but no information was released about the final disposition of the
body. While some unofficial reports claimed a worldwide audience as high as one
billion people,[230][231] the U.S. audience was estimated by Nielsen to be 31.1
million, an amount comparable to the estimated 35.1 million that watched the
2004 burial of former president Ronald Reagan, and the estimated 33.1 million
Americans who watched the 1997 funeral for Princess Diana.[232]
Mariah Carey, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, John Mayer,
Jennifer Hudson, Usher, Jermaine Jackson, and Shaheen Jafargholi performed at
the event. Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson gave eulogies, while Queen Latifah
read "We had him", a poem written for the occasion by Maya
Angelou.[233] The Reverend Al Sharpton received a standing ovation with cheers
when he told Jackson's children, "Wasn't nothing strange about your daddy.
It was strange what your daddy had to deal with. But he dealt with it
anyway."[234] Jackson's 11-year-old daughter, Paris Katherine, cried as
she told the crowd, "Ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father
you could ever imagine ... I just wanted to say I love him ... so
much."[160] Reverend Lucious Smith provided a closing prayer.[235] On
August 24, several news outlets quoted anonymous sources as stating that the
Los Angeles coroner had decided to treat Jackson's death as a homicide; this
was later confirmed by the coroner on August 28.[236][237] At the time of
death, Jackson had been administered propofol, lorazepam and midazolam.[238]
Law enforcement officials conducted a manslaughter investigation of his
personal physician, Conrad Murray.[239] On February 8, 2010, Murray was charged
with involuntary manslaughter by prosecutors in Los Angeles.[240] Jackson was
entombed on September 3, 2009, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale,
California.[241]
Tribute of fans from all over the world in the Forest Lawn
Memorial Park on his first anniversary of death
On June 25, 2010, the first anniversary of Jackson's death,
fans traveled to Los Angeles to pay their tribute to him. They visited
Jackson’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and his family’s home, as well as
Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Many of the fans were carrying sunflowers and other
tribute items to drop off at the sites. Members of the Jackson family and close
friends arrived to pay their respects.[242][243] Katherine returned to Gary,
Indiana to unveil a granite monument constructed in the front yard of the
family home. The memorial continued with a candlelight vigil and a special
performance of "We Are the World".[244][245] On June 26, there was a
protest march in front of the Los Angeles Police Department's Robbery-Homicide
Division at the old Parker Center building and a petition with thousands of
signatures demanding justice was delivered.[246][247] The Jackson Family
Foundation in conjunction with Voiceplate presented "Forever
Michael", an event bringing together Jackson family members, celebrities,
fans, supporters and the community to celebrate and honor his legacy. A portion
of the proceeds were presented to some of Jackson's favorite charities.
Katherine also introduced her new book "Never Can Say
Goodbye".[248][249][250]
Death aftermath
After his death, Jackson became the best-selling albums
artist of 2009; in the United States selling over 8.2 million albums and a
total of 35 million albums worldwide in the 12 months that followed his
death.[251][252] Following this surge in sales, Sony announced that they had
extended their relationship with his material. The distribution rights held by
Sony Music were due to expire in 2015.[253] On March 16, 2010, Sony Music
Entertainment, in a move spearheaded by its Columbia/Epic Label Group division,
signed a new deal with the Jackson estate to extend their distribution rights
to his back catalogue until at least 2017, as well as to obtain permission to
release ten new albums with previously unreleased material and new collections
of released work. On November 4, 2010 Sony announced the release of Michael,
the first posthumous album set to be released on December 14, with the
promotional single released to the radios on November 8, titled "Breaking
News".[254] The deal was unprecedented in the music industry as it is the
most expensive music contract pertaining to a single artist in history; it reportedly
involved Sony Music paying $250 million for the deal, with the Jackson estate
getting the full sum as well as its share of royalties for all works
released.[253][255] Video game developer Ubisoft announced it would release a
new dancing-and-singing game featuring Michael Jackson for the 2010 holiday
season. The game titled Michael Jackson: The Experience will be among the first
to use Kinect and PlayStation Move, the respective motion-detecting camera
systems for Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 due out later that
year.[256]
On November 3, 2010, the theatrical performing company
Cirque du Soleil announced that it would launch "Michael Jackson: The
Immortal World Tour" in October 2011 in Montreal, while a permanent show
will reside in Las Vegas.[257] The 90-minute US$57M production will combine
Jackson's iconic musical oeuvre and choreography with the Cirque's signature
artistry, dance and aerial displays involving 65 artists.[258] The tour was
written and directed by Jamie King[259] and centers on Jackson's
"inspirational Giving Tree – the wellspring of creativity where his love
of music and dance, fairy tale and magic, and the fragile beauty of nature are
unlocked."[260] On October 3, 2011, the accompanying compilation
soundtrack album Immortal was announced to have over 40 Jackson’s original
recordings re-produced by Kevin Antunes.[261]
In April 2011, Jackson's longtime friend and billionaire
businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed, chairman of Fulham F.C., unveiled a statue of
Jackson outside the club's stadium, Craven Cottage.[262] Fulham fans were
however bemused by the statue and failed to understand the relevance of Jackson
to the club.[263] Al Fayed however defended the statue and told the fans to 'go
to hell' if they didn't appreciate the statue.[264]
Artistry
Influences
One of many identical statues, positioned throughout Europe
to promote HIStory
Jackson's music took root in R&B, pop and soul. He had
been influenced by the work of contemporary musicians such as Little Richard,
James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Diana Ross, David Ruffin, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire,
Sammy Davis, Jr., The Isley Brothers, the Bee Gees and the West Side Story
dancers, to whom he made a tribute in "Beat It" and in the
"Bad" video.[265] According to David Winters, who met and befriended
Jackson while choreographing the 1971 Diana Ross TV Special "Diana!",
(which was also Jackson's first solo debut outside of The Jackson 5), Jackson
watched West Side Story almost every week and it was his favorite
film.[266][267][268] While Little Richard had a substantial influence on
Jackson,[269][270] James Brown was Jackson's greatest inspiration. In reference
to Brown, Jackson declared: "Ever since I was a small child, no more than
like six years old, my mother would wake me no matter what time it was, if I
was sleeping, no matter what I was doing, to watch the television to see the
master at work. And when I saw him move, I was mesmerized. I had never seen a
performer perform like James Brown, and right then and there I knew that was
exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life because of James
Brown."[271]
The young Michael Jackson owed his vocal technique in large
part to Diana Ross. Not only a mother figure to him, she was often observed in
rehearsal as an accomplished performer. He later expressed: "I got to know
her well. She taught me so much. I used to just sit in the corner and watch the
way she moved. She was art in motion. I studied the way she moved, the way she
sang – just the way she was." He told her: "I want to be just like
you, Diana." She said: "You just be yourself."[272] But Jackson
owed part of his enduring style—especially his use of the oooh interjection—to
Ross. From a young age, Jackson often punctuated his verses with a sudden
exclamation of oooh. Diana Ross had used this effect on many of the songs
recorded with The Supremes.[273]
Musical themes and genres
Unlike many artists, Jackson did not write his songs on
paper. Instead he would dictate into a sound recorder, and when recording he
would sing the lyrics from memory.[274] In most of his songs, such as
"Billie Jean", "Who Is It", and "Tabloid Junkie",
he would beatbox and imitate the instruments using his voice instead of playing
the actual instruments, along with other sounds. Jackson noted that it is
easier to sing a drum line, or sing a bass, instead of playing a drum line or a
bass with an instrument. Several critics have said that Jackson's distinct
voice was able to replace any instrument convincingly. Steve Huey of Allmusic
said that, throughout his solo career, Jackson's versatility allowed him to
experiment with various themes and genres.[275] As a musician, he ranged from
Motown's dance fare and ballads to techno and house-edged new jack swing to
work that incorporates both funk rhythms and hard rock guitar.[18][276][277]
According to Huey, 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.[275] Notable 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 post-disco set "Baby Be Mine" and
"P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)".[275][276][277][278][279] With
Thriller, Christopher Connelly of Rolling Stone commented that Jackson
developed his long association with the subliminal theme of paranoia and darker
imagery.[279] Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted this is evident on the
songs "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'".[277]
In "Billie Jean", Jackson sings about an obsessive fan who alleges he
has fathered a child of hers.[275] In "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"
he argues against gossip and the media.[279] "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.[18][275] He also observed that the
title track "Thriller" began Jackson's interest with the theme of the
supernatural, a topic he revisited in subsequent years.[275] In 1985, Jackson
co-wrote the charity anthem "We Are the World"; humanitarian themes
later became a recurring theme in his lyrics and public persona.[275]
"Thriller"
One of Jackson's signature pieces, "Thriller",
released as a single in 1984, utilizes cinematic sound effects, horror film
motifs and vocal trickery to convey a sense of danger.[22]
"Smooth Criminal"
A single from the album Bad, released 1988, "Smooth
Criminal" features digital drum sounds, keyboard-created bass lines and
other percussion elements designed to give the impression of a pulsing
heart.[280]
"Black or White"
The lead single from Dangerous, the danceable hard rock song
"Black or White" was one of Jackson's most successful
recordings.[281][282][283] It contains many features of Jackson's vocal style,
including the vocal hiccup he is known for.
Problems listening to these files? See media help.
In Bad, Jackson's concept of the predatory lover can be seen
on the rock song "Dirty Diana".[284] 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.[78]
"Smooth Criminal" was an evocation of bloody assault, rape and likely
murder.[78] Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine states that Dangerous presents
Jackson as a very paradoxical individual.[285] 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".[285]
The first half of the record is dedicated to new jack swing, including songs
like "Jam" and "Remember the Time".[286] The album is
Jackson's first where social ills become a primary theme; "Why You Wanna
Trip on Me", for example, protests against world hunger, AIDS,
homelessness and drugs.[286] Dangerous contains sexually charged efforts such
as the multifaceted love song, "In the Closet".[286] The title track
continues the theme of the predatory lover and compulsive desire.[286] The
second half includes introspective, pop-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.[286] In the ballad "Gone Too Soon", Jackson gives tribute to
his friend Ryan White and the plight of those with AIDS.[287]
HIStory creates an atmosphere of paranoia.[288] Its content
focuses on the hardships and public struggles Jackson went through just prior
to its production. In the new jack swing-funk-rock efforts "Scream"
and "Tabloid Junkie", along with 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.[289] 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 all operatic pop
pieces.[288][289] In the track "D.S.", Jackson launched a verbal
attack against Tom Sneddon. 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".[290]
Invincible found Jackson working heavily with producer Rodney Jerkins.[275] It
is a record made up of urban soul like "Cry" and "The Lost
Children", ballads such as "Speechless", "Break of
Dawn" and "Butterflies" and mixes hip-hop, pop and R&B in
"2000 Watts", "Heartbreaker" and "Invincible".[291][292]
Vocal style
Jackson sang from childhood, and over time his voice and
vocal style changed noticeably. Between 1971 and 1975, Jackson's voice
descended from boy soprano to high tenor.[293] His vocal range as an adult was
F2-E♭6.
Jackson first used a technique called the "vocal hiccup" in 1973,
starting with the song "It's Too Late to Change the Time" from The
Jackson 5's G.I.T.: Get It Together album.[294] Jackson did not use the hiccup
technique— somewhat like a gulping for air or
gasping— fully until the recording of Off the Wall: it can be seen in full
force in the "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" promotional
video.[20] With the arrival of Off the Wall in the late 1970s, Jackson's
abilities as a vocalist were well regarded. At the time, Rolling Stone compared
his vocals to the "breathless, dreamy stutter" of Stevie Wonder.
Their analysis was also that "Jackson's feathery-timbred tenor is
extraordinarily beautiful. It slides smoothly into a startling falsetto that's
used very daringly".[295][296] 1982 saw the release of Thriller, and
Rolling Stone was of the opinion that Jackson was then singing in a "fully
adult voice" that was "tinged by sadness".[279]
A distinctive deliberate mispronunciation of "come
on", used frequently by Jackson, occasionally spelled "cha'mone"
or "shamone", is also a staple in impressions and caricatures of
him.[297] The turn of the 1990s saw the release of the introspective album
Dangerous. The New York Times noted that on some tracks, "he gulps for
breath, his voice quivers with anxiety or drops to a desperate whisper, hissing
through clenched teeth" and he had a "wretched tone".[286] When
singing of brotherhood or self-esteem the musician would return to
"smooth" vocals.[286] When commenting on Invincible, Rolling Stone
were of the opinion that—at the age of 43—Jackson still performed "exquisitely
voiced rhythm tracks and vibrating vocal harmonies".[298] Nelson George
summed up Jackson's vocals by stating "The grace, the aggression, the
growling, the natural boyishness, the falsetto, the smoothness—that combination
of elements mark him as a major vocalist".[280]
Music videos and choreography
Referred to as the King of Music Videos,[299] Steve Huey of
Allmusic observed how Jackson transformed the music video into an art form and
a promotional tool through complex story lines, dance routines, special effects
and famous cameo appearances; simultaneously breaking down racial
barriers.[275] Before Thriller, Jackson struggled to receive coverage on MTV,
allegedly because he was African American.[300] Pressure from CBS Records
persuaded MTV to start showing "Billie Jean" and later "Beat
It", leading to a lengthy partnership with Jackson, also helping other
black music artists gain recognition.[301] MTV employees deny any racism in
their coverage, or pressure to change their stance. MTV maintains that they
played rock music, regardless of race.[302] The popularity of his videos on MTV
helped to put the relatively young channel "on the map"; MTV's focus
shifted in favor of pop and R&B.[303][301] His performance on Motown 25:
Yesterday, Today, Forever changed the scope of live stage show; "That
Jackson lip-synced 'Billie Jean' is, in itself, not extraordinary, but the fact
that it did not change the impact of the performance is extraordinary; whether
the performance was live or lip-synced made no difference to the audience"
thus creating an era in which artists re-create the spectacle of music video
imagery on stage.[304] Short films like Thriller largely remained unique to
Jackson, while the group dance sequence in "Beat It" has frequently
been imitated.[305] The choreography in Thriller has become a part of global
pop culture, replicated everywhere from Indian films to prisons in the
Philippines.[306] The Thriller short film marked an increase in scale for music
videos, and has been named the most successful music video ever by the Guinness
World Records.[93]
Michael Jackson's revolutionary music video Thriller gained
worldwide attention from TV networks such as MTV and VH1
In the 19-minute music video for "Bad"—directed by
Martin Scorsese—Jackson began using sexual imagery and choreography not
previously seen in his work. He occasionally grabbed or touched his chest,
torso and crotch. When asked by Oprah in the 1993 interview about why he
grabbed his crotch, he replied, "I think it happens subliminally" and
he described it as something that was not planned, but rather, as something
that was compelled by the music. "Bad" garnered a mixed reception
from both fans and critics; Time magazine described it as "infamous".
The video also featured Wesley Snipes; in the future Jackson's videos would
often feature famous cameo roles.[71][307] For "Smooth Criminal",
Jackson experimented with an innovative "anti-gravity lean" in his
performances. The maneuver required special shoes for which he was granted U.S.
Patent No. 5,255,452.[308] Although the music video for "Leave Me
Alone" was not officially released in the US, in 1989, it was nominated
for three Billboard Music Video Awards;[309] the same year it won a Golden Lion
Award for the quality of the special effects used in its production. In 1990,
"Leave Me Alone" won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form.[91]
He received the MTV Video Vanguard Award in 1988 and the MTV
Video Vanguard Artist of the Decade Award in 1990 to celebrate his
accomplishments in the art form in the 1980s; in 1991 the first award was
renamed in his honor.[108] "Black or White" was accompanied by a
controversial music video, which, on November 14, 1991, simultaneously
premiered in 27 countries with an estimated audience of 500 million people, the
largest viewing ever for a music video.[107] It featured scenes construed as
having a sexual nature as well as depictions of violence. The offending scenes
in the final half of the 14-minute version were edited out to prevent the video
from being banned, and Jackson apologized.[310] Along with Jackson, it featured
Macaulay Culkin, Peggy Lipton and George Wendt. It helped usher in morphing as
an important technology in music videos.[311]
"Remember the Time" was an elaborate production,
and became one of his longest videos at over nine minutes. Set in ancient
Egypt, it featured groundbreaking visual effects and appearances by Eddie
Murphy, Iman and Magic Johnson, along with a distinct complex dance
routine.[312] The video for "In the Closet" was Jackson's most
sexually provocative piece. It featured supermodel Naomi Campbell in a
courtship dance with Jackson. The video was banned in South Africa because of
its imagery.[108]
The music video for "Scream", directed by Mark
Romanek and production designer Tom Foden, is one of Jackson's most critically
acclaimed. In 1995, it gained 11 MTV Video Music Award Nominations—more than
any other music video—and won "Best Dance Video", "Best
Choreography", and "Best Art Direction".[313] The song and its
accompanying video are a response to the backlash Jackson received from the
media after being accused of child molestation in 1993.[314] A year later, it
won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form; shortly afterwards Guinness
World Records listed it as the most expensive music video ever made at a cost
of $7 million.[145][315]
"Earth Song" was accompanied by an expensive and
well-received music video that gained a Grammy nomination for Best Music Video,
Short Form in 1997. The video had an environmental theme, showing images of
animal cruelty, deforestation, pollution and war. Using special effects, time
is reversed so that life returns, wars end, and the forests re-grow.[145][316]
Released in 1997 and premiering at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, Michael
Jackson's Ghosts was a short film written by Jackson and Stephen King and
directed by Stan Winston. The video for Ghosts is over 38 minutes long and
holds the Guinness World Record as the world's longest music
video.[145][154][317][318]
Legacy and influence
See also: Records and achievements of Michael Jackson
Jackson's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, set in 1984
Jackson throughout his career transformed the art of the
music video and paved the way for modern pop music. Daily Telegraph writer Tom
Utley described Jackson in 2003 as "extremely important" and a
"genius".[233] For much of his career, he had an
"unparalleled" level of worldwide influence over the younger
generation through his musical and humanitarian contributions.[147] Jackson's
music and videos, such as Thriller, fostered racial diversity in MTV's roster,
helped to put the relatively new channel into public awareness, and steered the
channel's 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 hip
hop, rock, pop and R&B artists, including Patrick Stump,[319] Beyoncé,[320]
Mariah Carey,[321] Jennifer Lopez,[322] Mýa,[323] Usher,[324] Adam
Lambert,[325] Green Day,[326] Justin Timberlake,[327] Britney Spears,[328] Madonna,[329]
Alien Ant Farm[158] and Ludacris, among others.[330]
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".[275] In the
mid-1980s, Time magazine's pop music critic, Jay Cocks, noted "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".[40] In
1990, Vanity Fair cited Jackson as the most popular artist in the history of
show business.[91] 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."[331]
Shortly after Jackson's death, on June 25, 2009, MTV briefly
returned to its original music video format to celebrate and pay tribute to his
work.[332] The channel aired many hours of Jackson's music videos, accompanied
by live news specials featuring reactions from MTV personalities and other
celebrities. The temporary shift in MTV's programming culminated the following
week in the channel's live coverage of Jackson's memorial service.[333] At the
memorial service on July 7, 2009, founder of Motown Records Berry Gordy
proclaimed Jackson as "the greatest entertainer that ever
lived".[334][335][336]
In 2010, two university librarians found that Jackson's
influence extended into academia, and was detectable in scholarly literature
pertaining to a range of subject matter.[337][338] The two researchers combed
through various scholars' writings, and compiled an annotated bibliography of
those writings that appeared to meet at least one of several criteria. Among
these criteria were appearance in a peer-reviewed journal, and the provision of
insight into the nature of "popular icons including Jackson".[339]
The bibliography located references to Jackson in research reports concerning
music, popular culture, and an array of other topics. The bibliographers
identified as their most peculiar finding an argument that certain aspects of
chemistry can be effectively taught by altering and imitating elements of
Jackson's singing.[340] One of the research librarians later reflected that "the
fact that someone would take a Michael Jackson song and co-opt it as a means to
convey chemistry concepts just shows the pervasiveness of Jackson's
influence".[337]
Honors and awards
See also: List of awards received by Michael Jackson
Thriller platinum record on display at the Hard Rock Cafe,
Hollywood in Universal City, California
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.[159][341] 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 hall of fames, including Vocal Group
Hall of Fame (as The Jackson 5 member) in 1999, Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002
and Hit Parade Hall of Fame (with his brothers) in 2009.[159][342] 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.[343] His awards include
many Guinness World Records (eight in 2006 alone),[344] 13 Grammy Awards (as
well as the Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award), 26
American Music Awards (24 only as a solo artist, including the "Artist of
the Century", but not the poll of "Artist of the '80s")—more
than any artist—, 13 number one singles in the US in his solo career—more than
any other male artist in the Hot 100 era[345]—and estimated sales of up to 750
million records worldwide, making him the world's best selling male solo pop artist.[32][93][107][157][209][210][346][347][348][349][350]
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."[351] Michael Jackson also received a Doctor of Humane Letters
Degree from the United Negro College Fund[352] and also an Honorary Doctorate
of Humane Letters from Fisk University.[353]
Lifetime earnings
His total lifetime earnings from royalties on his solo
recordings and music videos, revenue from concerts and endorsements have been
estimated at US$500 million; some analysts have speculated that his music
catalog holdings could be worth billions of dollars.[92][354] This speculation
however is contradicted by financial documents obtained by the Associated
Press, which showed that as of March 31, 2007, Jackson's 50 percent stake in
the Sony/ATV Music Publishing catalog (his most prized asset) was worth $390.6
million and Michael Jackson's net worth was $236 million.[355] Billboard has
estimated that Jackson has generated at least $1 billion in revenue in the year
following his death.[ wealth to charity.
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