Report

at English Theme: Michael Jackson The King of Pop Teacher: Student: . 12th A class

Contents: 1. 2. 3. 4. Introduction Early life Jackson 5 or the Jacksons Solo career 4.1. Off the wall 4.2. Thriller 4.3. Bad 4.4. Dangerous 4.5. HIStory 4.6. Invincible 5. This is it 6. Personal life 7. Conclusion

1. Introduction
Michael Jackson, known as The King of Pop or MJ is one of the most famous and most talented artists the world knew. He is a bright person, with an unreal personality. He brought revolution not only in music industry, but also in movies, dance, and the most important in humanity.

2. Early Life
Michael Joseph Jackson was born on the 29th of August in 1958 in Gary, Indiana. He was the eighth of the ten children of Joseph and Katherine Jackson. His mother was a Jehovahs Witness and his father was a steel mill worker who also performed in a band, called The Falcons. They were a poor family, living in a 3-roomed house. Michael Jackson loved to sing from a really early age, like 4. He was always in the centre of the attention at different celebrations and never stopped wondering his friends and family. His mother was the one who saw the talent in Michael and the one who told his father about that. He didnt have good relationships with his father, because he used to beat him, verbally abuse him, which made him take the important step in plastic surgeries and never accepted the fact that Michael wanted to be an artist. But anyway, later, he confirmed the fact that Michael really had a talent and so he founded the Jackson Five, with the rest of his brothers. Michael tells how he used to borrows his fathers guitar with his brothers while he wasnt at home. His older brother played the guitar, and Michael with the rest of the brothers sang along. Their mother never betrayed them and in general was a very kind hearted woman, for what Michael always praised her and loved her very much. Anyway, due to his fathers strict discipline, he achieved a lot of success in his later career.

3. Jackson 5 or the Jacksons

After their father saw the fact that his children are very talented, he founded a band called The Jackson Brothers. Michael joined firstly as a backup musician playing congas and tambourine, later performing backup vocals and dancing. When he was eight, he started to be a lead vocal singer, with his brother Jermaine. Everybody found his voice extremely unsual and powerful for such and early age. After performing a few times and achieving success, Michael didnt know about going to a normal school and playing with other kids like him all he had to do was to rehearse and learn at home. The groups name was later changed in Jackson 5. The band toured the Midwest extensively from 1966 to 1968, frequently performing at a string of black clubs. 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. The Jackson 5 recorded several records, like ABC, Ben, Rockin Robin, Music and Me, I Want You Back, and one of the most famous Got To Be There. Later, they renamed themselves the Jacksons, some of the brothers left for a solo career and others joined them. They continued to tour internationally, releasing six more albums between 1976 and 1984, during which Michael was the lead singer and songwriter. They released some hits like, Dancing Machine, Shake Your Body(Down To The Ground), This Place Hotel and Can You Feel It. In 1979, Michael leaves for a solo career in colaboration with Quincy Jones.

4. Solo Career
Michael left the Jacksons for starting a solo career with Quincy Jones and achieved lots of success, changing his entire style, from the songs to the clothes. Each of the albums he released meant a new era for him.

4.1. Off the Wall

Michaels solo career began with his first album called Off the Wall, released in 1979 and generated 10 top hits, like Wont Stop til You Get Enough, Rock With You and others. It was sold in over 20 million copies over the world and won three awards at the American Music Awards. 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. Jackson again won at the American Music Awards in 1981 for Favorite Soul/R&B Album and Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist. 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.

4.2. Thriller
The next album, the most famous and the best selling album of all times is Thriller, released in 1982, sold in over 65 million copies worldwide, which was a Guinnes record. This album made him the most awarded artist in a single night 8 Grammies! 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'" 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. 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". The New York Times wrote that, "in the world of pop music, there is Michael Jackson and there is everybody else." Michael Jackson did a revolution with his songs, music videos and costumes. In this era his symbols appeared, which are the white glove, the hat and his white socks. He motivated wearing white socks so that his fans could see his moves on the scene from far away. The

costumation was soon imitated by all the fans, like the red jacket from Thriller, the baseball jacket, the Beat it jacket and so on. The music video Thriller beat off any expectations, as it was made as a small movie. All the dances from the music videos like Thriller, Beat it, Billie Jean were fastly learned and danced by the fans worldwide. Also in this era, people meet for the first time the original Moonwalk, which made high impressions on the fans. 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." Berry Gordy said of the performance, "from the first beat of Billie Jean, I was mesmerized, and when he did his iconic moonwalk, I was shocked, it was magic, Michael Jackson went into orbit, and never came down." Also in this era, he released in colaboration with several amazing artists the song We Are The World for charity for Africa. He was very appreciated for the infinite charity actions and fot he help offered to several people.

4.3. Bad
The next album and era for Michael Jackson is Bad ,a complete change of his style, released in 1987, with over 45 million copies worldwide. 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. The music videos still impressed all the fans, especially the Bad one and The Way You Make Me Feel, involving again new moves and new costumes. Man In The Mirror was a message to all the world, as he says: if you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change. At one of the concerts held in London, Princess Diana approached him and asked if he would sing Dirty Diana, at which he answered: Oh God! No, no, of course not!. He took it off especially for her, at which she said: But why? It is my favourite song!. In the same period, in 1988, he released his only autobiography, called Moonwalk, in which he retells about his childhood, Jackson 5, career, family and so on. He also wrote about his facial

appearance, saying he had had two rhinoplastic surgeries and a dimple created in his chin. 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. The musician then released a film called Moonwalker, which featured live footage and short films that starred Jackson. In this era we find out the original reason of his skin whitening, which is a disease vitiligo, which caused lighter spots all over his body, even on his face, which he couldnt bare as he was an artist. In March month of the same year, he buys an enormous land in California, which was called Neverland, due to his favourite character Peter-Pan who never grew old. He was stuck in his childhood, as he didnt have one, thats why he loved the kids very much and why he built his own amusement park in Neverland. His success resulted in him being dubbed the "King of Pop". The nickname was popularized by Elizabeth Taylor.

4.4. Dangerous
The next album and era of Michael is Dangerous, released in 1991 with 31 million copies sold worldwide. 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. 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. The music video of Remember The Time was filmed in colaboration with Eddie Murphy and evolved several special effects and again, new moves and costumes. Through his song Black or White he tells about the major human problem racism, and he says: I Said If You're Thinkin' Of Being My Brother It Don't Matter If You're Black Or White 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. He continued travelling around the world with the main goal to help people in need. He visited different countries, like Gabon and Egypt.

Another famous music video was for the song Jam, in which starred Michael Jordan. They tought each other the best they could Jackson the Moonwalkd and Jordan to play basketball.

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.

4.5. HIStory
The next album called HIStory was released in 1995 and devided into two volumes. The first volume contained his best singles, and the second one 13 new tracks and 2 covers. The album debuted at number one on the charts and has been certified for seven million shipments in the US. It is the best-selling multiple-disc album of all-time, with 20 million copies (40 million units) sold worldwide. HIStory received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. He made a duet with his sister, Janet, the song being called Scream, which made a big impression. 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". Another best single is You Are Not Alone in which he is starring with his first wife Lisa Marie Presley. It holds the Guinness World Record for the first song ever to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The album was promoted with the successful HIStory World Tour. During it, he married his long time friend Deborah Rowe.

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, it is the best selling remix album ever released.

4.6. Invincible
The last, but not the least is the Invincible album, released in 2001, with over 10 million copies sold. 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 U.S Invincible spawned three singles, "You Rock My World", "Cry" and "Butterflies". The music video evolved Chris Tucker and was also made like a short movie.

5. This Is It
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". People were standing day and night waiting for the tickets and almost all of them were bought long before the concert. 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. But nevertheless, no one complained about buying the ticket and instead left them as a memory of the passed and beloved artist. He passed away on the 25th of June 2009 and it was a tragic news for the whole world as it was and still is a great loss. The last song he wrote was This is it showing the end of his career. On October 28, 2009, a documentary film about the rehearsals titled Michael Jackson's This Is It was released.

6. Personal Life
Talking about his personal life, it didnt go too well. He was married twice his first wife was Lisa Marie Presley, and the second Deborah Rowe, who gave birth to two children Prince I and Paris. He divorced Deborah too, and later his thrid son was born Prince II, nicknamed Blanket, whose mother is left to be unknown. He wasnt a happy person, as everyone was judging him, inventing different false stories, like the fact that he was sleeping in a hyberbaric oxygen chamber to slow aging process, or that he drank special pills and mixtures in order to mentain his voice perfect, or that he disliked the fact that he is a black colored person and changed his color. He had several accusations of child molestation and misunderstandings of his kindness. Responding to the gossips, Jackson remarked: 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."

Michael Jackson was a really philantropic person, he was very sentimental and nave until the end of times. He still had hope people would change and be kinder and warm-hearted.

7.Conclusion
I have chosen to make a research namely on this personality, because Michael Jackson means a great thing for the worlds culture. I admire him very much from an early age because of his songs full of meanings, his utterly wonderful voice, his efforts, creativity, moves, costumes, concerts, tours, kindness, devotion. I admire him for the emotions he caused to us, for the bright ideas he gave us, for a wonderful model for the next generations. He was loyal to his fans for 4 decades and never disappointed us, and instead impressed us more and more. He is a true genius no replacement will ever exist in the whole human subsistance. Rest In Peace, Michael you are still in our hearts.