Michael Jackson
From stepping onstage at five to leaving the rehearsal hall at fifty, a man who was wholly free only within song and dance.
At a glance 🔭💭
Some coordinates adapted from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) · Pleiades (CC BY 3.0)
The people beside him ⏳🌊
- FamilyJoseph Jackson
His father and the Jackson 5's first manager, he drove his sons onto the stage through brutal training, and Michael wrestled with that shadow all his life.
- InfluenceJames Brown
The idol whose footwork young Michael learned by watching from the wings; in 2006 Michael delivered a eulogy at his funeral.
- PatronageBerry Gordy
The founder of Motown, he discovered the Jackson 5 and made them stars, but after clashing over creative freedom he parted ways with the brothers in 1975.
- CollaboratorQuincy Jones
The producer who made “Off the Wall,” “Thriller” and “Bad” with him, he shaped the sound of his prime.
- RivalryPrince
His rival in 1980s pop; the story goes that he turned down an offer to sing a duet on the title track of “Bad.”
- FamilyJanet Jackson
His youngest sister, who sang “Scream” with him in 1995.
I. The boy from Gary · 1958–1968
(Birth) He was born in August 1958 in Gary, Indiana. His father, Joseph Jackson, was a crane operator at a steel mill, and as a young man he had played guitar with his brothers in an R&B band called 'the Falcons.' Michael was the eighth of ten children. The twin brother of Marlon, the brother just above him, died shortly after birth. The parents and nine children lived together in a small two-room house. (Faith) His mother was a Jehovah's Witness, and Michael was raised in the faith. In keeping with its teachings, the family did not celebrate birthdays or Christmas, and even after he became a star he went door to door in disguise to proselytize until the mid-1980s. All his life he regarded his mother as the person closest to him. (Training) The story goes that when Tito, the third son, broke a string on the guitar he had been playing behind his father's back, Joe recognized his sons' talent and formed a group. Around 1964 young Michael joined the Jackson Brothers, started by his older brothers, and soon took over lead vocals. Rehearsals were brutal. In his autobiography, “Moon Walk,” and in a 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Michael confided that his father beat him whenever he made a mistake, and that he was so afraid of his father he would feel sick to his stomach. (On the road) After winning a local talent show in 1966, the brothers made the rounds of clubs across the Midwest, Chicago among them. From behind the curtain at the side of the stage, Michael watched James Brown and Jackie Wilson and learned their footwork and the way they handled a microphone. He would later remember this period, when he stood on barroom stages late into the night after school let out, as a lost childhood. In 1967 they won Amateur Night at New York's Apollo Theater, and the following year they released their first single, “Big Boy,” on Steeltown, a small label in Gary.
II. Motown's youngest · 1968–1978
(Motown) In July 1968 the brothers auditioned for Motown in Detroit and signed with Berry Gordy. The following year the family moved to Los Angeles, and before they found a house, Michael stayed for a while at Diana Ross's home. Motown promoted the group as Diana Ross's discovery and even put her name at the front of their first album's title. (Winning streak) Beginning with their debut single, “I Want You Back,” in October 1969, “ABC,” “The Love You Save” and “I'll Be There” went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 one after another. No group had ever before taken its first four singles to the top in a row. The songs were handled by 'the Corporation,' a songwriting·production team assembled by Gordy, and eleven-year-old Michael drew attention by singing of adult regret and longing with an expressiveness that made listeners forget his age. (Solo) In 1971 he released his solo debut, “Got to Be There,” and the following year he earned his first solo No. 1 with “Ben,” the theme song of a film about a lonely boy's friendship with a rat. It was a song in tune with his own nature, for he was unusually fond of animals. But his voice breaking in adolescence and severe acne made him withdrawn, and he wrote in his autobiography that around that time he hated looking in the mirror. (Independence) Motown would not let the brothers write their own songs, and the royalties were low. In 1975 the brothers signed with Epic, a CBS subsidiary, but Jermaine, who had married Gordy's daughter, stayed at Motown. Because the name 'Jackson 5' belonged to Motown, the group became 'the Jacksons.' On the 1978 album “Destiny,” Michael had his first success as a songwriter with “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground),” written with his younger brother Randy. That same year, while playing the Scarecrow in “The Wiz,” the film starring Diana Ross, he met its music director, Quincy Jones.
The debut single with which Motown changed the family's fortunes. With an eleven-year-old boy singing of adult regret, the Jackson 5's streak of consecutive No. 1s began.
- It opens with the piano sliding as if sweeping down the keys (glissando), and a bouncing bass comes straight in. This bass line is said to have been played by Wilton Felder of the jazz group the Crusaders.
- In the chorus, follow the exchange (call and response) in which his brothers' harmonies hold him up and Michael breaks out above them. The boy's clear voice is laced with the gritty power peculiar to soul singers.
- The song's twist comes in the bridge, where the instruments drop out and only bass and rhythm remain, until the brothers' voices pile up all at once and it bursts open again.
- In footage of their December 1969 appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” Michael displays the footwork he learned from James Brown exactly as he learned it.
III. Beyond the wall · 1979–1982
(Quincy) At twenty, Michael asked Quincy Jones to recommend a producer for his first adult solo album, and Jones replied that he would do it himself. Epic is said to have doubted whether Jones, a former jazz arranger, was right for a dance record. Jones built a team by bringing in the English songwriter Rod Temperton and the engineer Bruce Swedien, and this team went on to make three albums together. (Off the Wall) From “Off the Wall,” released in August 1979, “Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough,” which he wrote himself, and Temperton's “Rock with You” went to No. 1. It was the first time a solo artist had four top 10 singles from a single album. A sound that layered the finesse of soul over the energy of disco brought him out of the shadow of child stardom. (Disappointment) But at the Grammys the following year he won just one award, in the best male R&B vocal performance category. He was deeply hurt by the result, and he later recalled vowing to make his next album one that no one could ignore. It was also a reaction against the industry habit of boxing Black musicians into the R&B category. (Going it alone) Around this time he slipped out of his father's hands and began managing his own business, hiring the lawyer John Branca in 1980. He kept up the brothers' group as well, but his center of gravity had already shifted to his solo career. In 1982 he grew close to Paul McCartney while recording the duet “The Girl Is Mine,” and what McCartney told him about the value of owning song copyrights (publishing) would later lead to his biggest business decision. That spring, recording for the next album began at Westlake Studios in Los Angeles.
A song he wrote himself and the first he made with Quincy Jones, it was his first step out of the child-star mold and into his place as an adult artist. It won him the Grammy for best male R&B vocal performance.
- The song begins with Michael murmuring a few words low, almost in a whisper, before leaping up into a high note like a cry. That moment when hesitation turns to elation distills the song's theme.
- He sings most of it in a high voice produced by thinning the vocal folds (falsetto, or 'false voice'). Listen to how he floats lightly while still cutting the rhythm off with razor sharpness.
- The album credits list Michael and his younger brother Randy as percussionists. Their jingling, metallic sounds add sparkle to the groove.
- Over a bass that tirelessly rolls the same figure in the low register, the strings and horn section take turns cutting in, so the song never drags across its more than 6 minutes.
IV. The year of Thriller · 1982–1987
(Thriller) “Thriller” came out in November 1982. Seven of its nine tracks became top 10 singles, and the album went on to become the best-selling record in history. MTV, then in its early days and rarely airing videos by Black musicians, opened its doors by putting the “Billie Jean” music video into heavy rotation. Behind this, it is said, lay heavy pressure from CBS. (Moonwalk) On a TV special celebrating Motown's 25th anniversary, taped in March 1983 and broadcast in May, he sang a medley with his brothers and then performed “Billie Jean” alone. It was the moment the moonwalk, gliding backward while seeming to walk forward, first went out on national television. That December saw the release of “Thriller,” a 14-minute short film directed by John Landis, and at the Grammys in February 1984 he won in 8 categories. (Burns) In January 1984, while filming a Pepsi commercial, sparks from pyrotechnics caught his hair and left him with second-degree burns to the scalp. He donated the $1.5 million settlement to a burn center. Many biographers agree that his use of painkillers began at this time. That same year he went on the Victory Tour, his last joint tour with his brothers, and gave his share to charity. (Skin) From around this time his skin grew visibly lighter. He attributed this to vitiligo, a condition that strips the skin of pigment, and his autopsy confirmed it. In his autobiography he acknowledged some cosmetic surgery, including work on his nose. (Catalog) In 1985 he bought ATV Music's publishing catalog, which held some 250 Beatles songs, for $47.5 million. McCartney had also wanted to acquire it, and the two drifted apart. That same year he cowrote “We Are the World,” a song for African famine relief, with Lionel Richie.
With the music video that broke down MTV's wall and the moonwalk at Motown 25, it became the song that symbolized the “Thriller” era. He wrote it himself and was deeply involved in its production as well.
- The first sounds are a kick drum and hi-hat as precise as a machine. The engineer Bruce Swedien recalled getting that tight sound by building a separate cover and platform for the drums.
- The bass riff, repeating the same figure in the low register, is the song's backbone. The story goes that Quincy Jones wanted to cut the intro as too long, but Michael kept it, saying that part was what made him want to dance.
- Sharp intakes of breath and short, hiccup-like interjections lodge in the rhythm like percussion. The delivery, aggrieved and anxious, tumbling on as if pursued, builds the song's tension.
- The moonwalk, first unveiled on the 1983 Motown 25th anniversary special in a single white glove and sparkling socks, remains the most talked-about TV performance to this day.
Crossing the line between rock and R&B, it brought white rock audiences and Black music audiences together. The resolve he formed after “Off the Wall” carried all the way to breaking through the walls of genre.
- The gong-like boom at the opening is a sampled sound stored in the Synclavier, a digital synthesizer. A guitar riff then drives the song; the riff and the bass were played by Steve Lukather of the band Toto.
- The guitar solo midway through was improvised by Eddie Van Halen, who took no payment for it. There is also a story that a monitor speaker caught fire during the recording.
- Michael sings in a rough style, spitting out clipped phrases. Compared with the soft ballads on the same album, the grain of his voice is entirely different.
- Real Los Angeles gang members appeared in the music video, and the group choreography he worked out with the choreographer Michael Peters turns a knife fight into dance.
V. The man in the mirror · 1987–1993
(Bad) With Bad in 1987, five singles went to No. 1 — the first time a single album had produced such a record. Quincy Jones recalled that the title track was conceived as a duet with his contemporary rival Prince, but that Prince turned it down. He set out on his first solo world tour, and that same year he left the Jehovah's Witnesses. (Neverland) In 1988 he bought a ranch near Los Olivos, California, and named it Neverland. He filled it with a zoo and amusement rides and often invited sick children to visit. That same year his autobiography, Moonwalk, was published. In interview after interview he repeated that he wanted to reclaim the childhood he had lost. (Shift) For Dangerous in 1991, he parted ways with Quincy Jones and teamed up with the young producer Teddy Riley, changing his sound to new jack swing, a blend of hip-hop beats and R&B. That spring he caused a stir by attending the Academy Awards with Madonna. At the Super Bowl halftime show in January 1993, he stood motionless for more than 1 minute before the performance began. (Confession) In a live interview with Oprah Winfrey in February 1993, he spoke openly about his vitiligo, his father's beatings and the loneliness of his childhood. Watched by more than 90 million people, the interview was the first time the mystery-shrouded star had explained himself in his own words. (Allegations) In August of that year, a boy's family accused him of child sexual abuse, and a police investigation began. He maintained his innocence. In November he cut short the Dangerous tour, disclosed his dependence on painkillers and entered treatment. In January 1994 the lawsuit ended in a civil settlement, and no criminal charges were filed.
He did not write the song, but its theme — that to change the world you must first look at yourself — matched his convictions of the time exactly. It was the fifth No. 1 single from Bad.
- The song was written by Siedah Garrett and Glen Ballard. It opens with a quiet synthesizer and a low, subdued voice, then builds up layer by layer.
- In the latter half, the Andraé Crouch Choir comes in, and the song turns to the fervor of church music (gospel).
- With 1/3 of the song left to go, a modulation (key change) lifts the pitch center of the whole song a step higher, and the same chorus sounds all the more desperate.
- His performance at the 1988 Grammy Awards — singing with the choir, then dropping to his knees and pouring out improvised cries (ad-libs) — is counted among his signature live moments.
The first single from Dangerous, released after his split with Quincy Jones: fighting misconceptions about his skin color, he took on the theme of crossing racial lines in a bright, buoyant way.
- The instantly catchy guitar riff was played by co-producer Bill Bottrell. The rap passage that cuts in midway is Bottrell's voice, too.
- Rock guitar locks together with a light, bouncing rhythm, making a heavy theme sound like play.
- The music video, premiered simultaneously in many countries in November 1991, caused a sensation with its computer transformation technique (morphing), in which faces melt one into the next.
- The solo dance sequence of about 4 minutes at the end of the video stirred controversy as soon as it aired and was later cut. Comparing the original with the edited version gives a sense of how people reacted at the time.
VI. The weight of history · 1994–2005
(Marriage) In May 1994 he married Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis Presley's daughter; they divorced in 1996. The two are said to have stayed in touch after the divorce. (HIStory) In 1995 he released HIStory, a two-disc album combining a greatest-hits collection with new songs. The new material was steeped in anger and hurt aimed at the press and investigators. "Scream," his first formal duet with his youngest sibling, Janet Jackson, was a song of brother and sister standing side by side against the world. "Earth Song" went to No. 1 in Britain, while "They Don't Care About Us" drew criticism for lyrics some called antisemitic, and he apologized and rerecorded it. (Father) He went to great lengths to shield his children from the eyes of the press. (Invincible) At his 30th-anniversary concert at New York's Madison Square Garden in September 2001, he shared a stage with his brothers for the first time in years; Britney Spears joined him on "The Way You Make Me Feel," and Usher and Whitney Houston also took the stage. In October he released Invincible, but clashed with Sony over its promotion and the ownership of his masters, and in 2002 he publicly criticized the company. (Trial) In November 2003 he was again arrested and charged with child sexual abuse. In 2005, after a trial lasting nearly four months in Santa Maria, California, the jury acquitted him in June on all 14 counts. Over the course of the trial he grew visibly thin and frail.
In a period when he was beset by allegations and press coverage, he unleashed that anger in this song with his youngest sibling, Janet Jackson. It was also the first song the two formally recorded together.
- It was made with Janet's longtime producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Cold, metallic drums that sound like hammered steel drive the whole track.
- The siblings trade lines back and forth, and Michael bares his rage with a harsh, breathy delivery.
- The turning point comes in the bridge, where the rhythm briefly stops and then comes crashing back.
- The black-and-white spaceship video, directed by Mark Romanek, entered the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive music video ever made and won the 1996 Grammy for best music video.
VII. The last rehearsal · 2005–2009
(Wandering) After the verdict he did not return to Neverland. At the invitation of a Bahraini prince he stayed in Manama, then moved on through Ireland and Las Vegas. Years of spending and litigation had piled up debts, and he borrowed against his stake in Sony/ATV; in 2008, when Neverland faced foreclosure, an investment firm averted it by buying up the loan. (Comeback) In March 2009 he held a press conference at London's O2 Arena and announced This Is It, a run of 50 concerts. He called it his final curtain call. Renting a mansion in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, where he lived with his children, he threw himself into rehearsals with director Kenny Ortega. (Death) On June 25, 2009, 3 weeks before the first show, he died of cardiac arrest at home. He was fifty. The cause of death was acute intoxication with propofol, a sedative anesthetic. Conrad Murray, the personal physician who had administered it, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2011 and sentenced to 4 years in prison. (Memorial) At the memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on July 7, Mariah Carey sang "I'll Be There," Usher sang "Gone Too Soon," and Stevie Wonder also performed. In September he was laid to rest at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. (Legacy) In October the film This Is It, assembled from rehearsal footage, was released, and over several years his estate paid off his debts. Usher, Bruno Mars and The Weeknd are among the younger artists counted as his heirs. In 2019 the documentary Leaving Neverland revived the old allegations, reigniting the debate over his legacy; his estate denied them.
Lesser-known stories
He never played an instrument with real skill. Instead he sang every part — bass lines, drum patterns, even string melodies — into a tape recorder and played it for the musicians. He is known to have drawn up the blueprints of his songs with vocal sounds (beatboxing) and humming, and home demos released after his death bear this out. Overshadowed by his image as a dancer and singer on stage, this method of his as a songwriter long went unnoticed. The story that Diana Ross discovered the Jackson 5 was a Motown publicity strategy. According to biographers, the person who actually introduced the brothers to the label was the Motown singer Bobby Taylor, and Gladys Knight had also recommended them early on. Putting Diana Ross's name on their first album was a decision meant to give a new group an unmistakable glow. The editor of his 1988 autobiography, Moonwalk, was Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, then working at the publisher Doubleday. She spent years persuading Michael to produce the book and wrote its brief introduction herself. The former first lady's publishing career is itself little known, so this connection is seldom mentioned. There is also a story that he worked on the music for the 1994 game Sonic the Hedgehog 3. His longtime keyboardist Brad Buxer said in a 2009 interview that they had worked on it together, but Sega long declined to confirm it officially, so this episode remains testimony rather than settled fact.
Glossary 📚🔎
Falsetto (false voice)
(The word) The Italian falsetto comes from falso, meaning 'false.' The Korean word gaseong (假聲) likewise means a false (假) voice (聲). The name comes from its being a high sound deliberately produced, not the voice one speaks in. (In pop) A singing technique that uses thin, light vocal folds to produce sounds far above one's normal range. Soul and R&B singers favored it, and Michael Jackson sang almost all of "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" in this voice. If you have ever imitated a friend by thinning your voice and pushing it upward, the moment the sound in your throat suddenly turns light is the moment you cross into falsetto.
Moonwalk
(The word) In English it means to walk ('walk') on the moon ('moon'). The name comes from the way the feet seem not to touch the ground but to float and glide, as on the low-gravity moon. (In pop) A dance move in which the feet move as if walking forward while the body actually glides backward. Street dancers had done similar moves before, but it became famous worldwide when Michael Jackson performed it on the 1983 Motown 25th-anniversary special. If you have ever slid backward one foot at a time in your socks on a slick wooden floor, think of it as that motion refined to perfection. (Elsewhere) Astronauts actually walking on the lunar surface is also called a moonwalk, and it is the title of Michael Jackson's 1988 autobiography.
New jack swing
(In pop) A genre created in the late 1980s by producers such as Teddy Riley, laying the hard drum beats of hip-hop under smooth R&B singing. Its hallmark is a rhythm that doesn't divide the beat evenly but pushes and pulls with a slight bounce (swing). Michael Jackson embraced this sound on Dangerous in 1991, teaming up with Riley. Picture jumping rope not in strict time but riding the rhythm a little, landing off the beat, and you'll get a sense of the genre's bounce.
Publishing (music publishing rights)
(The word) Publish means to put into print. Before recording technology existed, printing and selling sheet music was the main way to make money from music, and so handling the rights to songs came to be called publishing. (In pop) The right to manage the copyright in the song itself — its melody and lyrics — and to collect a fee every time it is used in broadcasts, records, advertising or performances. It is distinct from the right to the recording a singer made (the master). The rights to the Beatles songs Michael Jackson bought in 1985 were exactly this. Imagine collecting a fee every time another class borrows the rules of a board game your classmate invented. No matter who made the board, the right to use the rules is separate. (Elsewhere) In general use, it refers to the whole business of publishing books and magazines.
Crossover
(The word) In English it means to cross over. The word captures exactly the image of crossing a boundary from one side to the other. (In pop) It describes music made for a particular genre or audience succeeding on other charts and with other audiences. In America the term was applied especially to Black music that didn't stay on the R&B charts but climbed onto the pop and rock charts that white audiences listened to. With its rock guitar drawing in rock listeners, "Beat It" is a classic crossover. If a friend on the soccer team shines in the interclass basketball tournament and wins over the basketball team as fans, that's a crossover. (Elsewhere) In basketball, a dribbling move that switches the ball from side to side to get past a defender is also called a crossover, as is a story in which characters from different comics or games appear together.
Modulation (key change)
(The word) The Korean jeonjo (轉調) means 'to move (轉) the key (調).' The key, jo ('key, mode'), is a piece's pitch reference — that is, which note the song centers on. (In pop) Raising or lowering a song's pitch reference wholesale partway through. In pop it is often used just before the final chorus, shifting up a half step or whole step so the same chorus sounds higher and more urgent. The latter half of "Man in the Mirror" is a good example. Think of the feeling at karaoke when you press the key-up button mid-song and suddenly the song becomes more thrilling and harder to sing.
Beatbox
(The word) Beat means rhythm, and box means box. It was originally slang for a box that makes rhythm — a drum machine — and when people began imitating its sounds with their mouths, they inherited the name. (In pop) A technique of imitating drums, bass and sound effects with the lips, tongue and throat. It is famous as a showpiece of hip-hop performances, but for Michael Jackson it was a songwriting tool. Unable to play instruments well, he would vocalize a song's rhythm and bass line, record it, and play it for the musicians. If you've ever made a rhythm with your friends at recess — boom, tss, boom-boom tss — that's beatboxing.