Public Agenda (Accra)
Dr. Kwame Osei
10 July 2009
opinion
Like many millions of people across the world I was shocked at the news of the death of Michael Jackson, The King of Pop Music.
For me Jackson was THE GREATEST music artist of ALL TIME. Forget Elvis Presley and the Beatles, but Michael Jackson's appeal transcended race, religion, nationality and gender, making Jackson a truly global superstar.
Jackson was truly a unique artist, the likes we WILL NEVER see again. He was an amazing singer with a wide vocal range, an extraordinary and superb dancer, a genius when it came to making music videos and the ultimate showman when it came to live performances.
Apart from that Jackson sold more Albums in the modern era than Elvis and the Beatles who sold the bulk of their records in the 1950's and 1960's when the industry was still in its infancy.
Jackson also has the greatest and biggest selling of ALL TIME, the 1982 classic "Thriller" which according to latest estimates has sold in the region of 70 million copies worldwide.
Early years:
From the time Michael Jackson burst onto the scene in 1969 as the lead vocalist with his brothers as part of the Jackson 5, with the smash hit, "I Want you Back" one could see that Michael was a special and unique talent.
Although this should not be a surprise because before Michael and his brothers were signed by the legendary Motown record label, Michael's father Joseph Jackson was behind the scenes polishing his sons' every move and disciplining them.
The Jackson 5 with Michael as lead vocalist, with the guidance of Berry Gordy's Motown label, had a string of hits in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Such hits include 'ABC', 'I'll be there', 'Blame it on the Boogie' and ain't nothing like the real thing.
By the mid 1970's the group's relationship with Motown began to get sour, because the guys wanted more creative control over their work - something that Motown did not approve of.
As a result of this the Jackson 5 left Motown in 1976 and sign to Epic Records in the process losing their original name and becoming the Jacksons and Jermaine Jackson opting to stay at Motown.
The phenomenal success of the Jackson 5 with Michael on lead vocals opened the way for a host of boy bands to emerge. Bands such as The Osmond's, Boyz II Men, New Kids on the Block and Westlife were ALL influenced by the Jackson 5.
Michael had experienced success as a solo artist in 1972 with the ballad Ben and in 1979 released his debut solo album 'Off the Wall'. This album saw his first collaboration with legendary music producer Quincy Jones.
Jackson met Jones in 1978 when they were involved in Jackson's remake of the classic film the Wizard of Oz.
"Off the Wall" saw Jackson collaborate with a number of other writers and performers such as Paul McCartney, Steve Wonder and Rod Temperton.
Jackson wrote several of the songs himself, including the lead single, "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough".
The record was a departure from Jackson's previous work for Motown. Several critics observed that Off the Wall was crafted from funk, disco-pop, soul, soft rock, jazz and pop ballads.
Jackson received positive reviews for his vocal performance on the record.
The record gained positive reviews and won the singer his first Grammy Awards since the early 1970s. With Off the Wall, Jackson became the first solo artist to have four singles from the same album peak inside the top 10 of the US Billboard Hot 100.
The album was a huge commercial success selling up to 20 million copies worldwide.
Thriller
With Jackson's worldwide appeal firmly established with "Off the Wall" and with his reputation as a singer and songwriter gaining favour, the time was right to deliver his second solo album.
Assisted by producer Quincy Jones, Jackson wrote four of Thriller's nine tracks. Following the release of the album's first single "The Girl Is Mine", some observers assumed Thriller would only be a minor hit record.
With the release of the second single "Billie Jean", the album topped the charts in many countries. At its peak, the album was selling a million copies a week worldwide. In just over a year, Thriller became-and currently remains-the best-selling album of all time.
Seven of the album's nine songs were released as singles, the first time any artist had achieved this, and all reached the top 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The album won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards at the 1984 Grammys.
Thriller cemented Jackson's status as one of the predominant pop stars of the late 20th century, and enabled him to break down racial barriers via his appearances on MTV and meetings with President Ronald Reagan at the White House.
The album was one of the first to use music videos as successful promotional tools - the videos for "Thriller", "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" all received regular rotation on MTV.
However, Thriller changed all of that with groundbreaking and mesmerizing videos like Beat it, Billie Jean and the title track Thriller, making other artists realize the power and effectiveness of the music video.
Again Thriller changed the racial boundaries that existed in the music industry. In 1981 MTV (Music Television) was launched as an exciting new channel in which to promote music to a global audience.
In MTV's early days Black artists were not allowed to have their videos aired on MTV because the producers of MTV thought that videos by Black artists would not have mass appeal.
However, they were proved wrong - strongly influenced by Jackson's record label Epic/CBS to play Michael Jackson's Billie Jean, which proved to be a phenomenal success on MTV with record audiences. Subsequent Jackson videos like Beat it and Thriller were also greatly played on MTV.
The successes of Jackson's videos lead to three things:
1. The viability of a music channel such as MTV to play music videos to a global audience.
2. Created a situation where Black artists were now allowed on MTV to air their music videos
3. That video became an important tool in the promotion of an artist to the global market.
The phenomenal success of Thriller put Jackson on a pedestal as the artist of the time. Another groundbreaking aspect of thriller was that the single of the same name was made into an hour long video entitled "The making of Thriller", which saw how producer John Landis and Michael Jackson worked together to bring about this great masterpiece.
The making of Thriller is the biggest selling music video of all time selling upwards of 1 million copies.
Jackson's attorney John Branca noted that Jackson had the highest royalty rate in the music industry at that point; approximately $US2 for every album sold.
Time summed up Thriller's impact as a "restoration of confidence" for an industry bordering on "the ruins of punk and the chic regions of synthesizer pop". The publication 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 called him a "musical phenomenon", saying that "in the world of pop music, there is Michael Jackson and there is everybody else". According to the Washington Post, Thriller paved the way for other Afrikan-American acts such as Prince.
In 1985 Jackson co-wrote the charity single "We Are the World" with Lionel Richie, which was released worldwide to aid the poor in Africa and the US. He was one of 39 music celebrities who performed on the record. The single became one of the best-selling singles of all time, with nearly 20 million copies sold and millions of dollars donated to famine relief.
Bad
With the industry expecting another major hit, Jackson's first album in five years, Bad (1987), was highly anticipated. Bad had lower sales than Thriller, but was still a substantial commercial success.
In the US, it spawned seven hit singles, 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, more than any other album.
As of 2008, the album sold 30 million copies worldwide, including eight million copies in the US.
To promote the album Jackson embarked on the ambitious Bad World Tour. This by the way was Jackson's first World Tour as a solo artist.
The Bad World Tour began on September 12, 1987, and finished on January 14, 1989. 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.
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 a total audience of 4.4 million people, and gained a further Guinness World Record when the tour grossed him $125 million. During the trip he invited underprivileged children to watch for free and gave donations to hospitals, orphanages and other charities.
The Bad World Tour was a phenomenal success and cemented his place of the artist of the time leaving other big artists such as Prince and Madonna behind.
Other
However there was a major downside to Michael Jackson's success. Jackson's skin was a medium-brown color for the entire duration of his youth, but starting in the early 1980s, his skin gradually grew paler.
This change gained widespread media coverage, including rumors that Jackson was bleaching his skin. In the mid-1980s, Jackson was diagnosed with vitiligo and lupus; the latter was in remission in Jackson's case, and 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. The structure of his face changed as well; several surgeons have speculated that Jackson had undergone multiple nasal surgeries, a forehead lift, thinned lips and a cheekbone surgery.
Many in the Afrikan-American community and the Afrikan community at large were critical of Jackson's change of colour and face structure and attributed it to wanting to be White.
Jackson's success resulted in his being dubbed the "King of Pop", a nickname conceived by actress and friend Elizabeth Taylor when she presented Jackson with an "Artist of the Decade" award in 1989, proclaiming him "the true king of pop, rock and soul".
President George H. W. Bush presented the singer with The White House's special "Artist of the Decade" award in recognition of Jackson's musical influence in the 1980s; Bush commended Jackson for acquiring a "tremendous following" among other achievements.
From 1985 to 1990, Jackson donated $500,000 to the United Negro College Fund, and all of the profits from his single "Man in the Mirror" went to charity.
By the early 1990?s a new sound had set in namely new jack swing or swingbeat and Jackson decided not to work with Quincy Jones anymore. Instead he decided to work with swingbeat producer, Teddy Riley.
The result of which was the album called "Dangerous" that was released in 1991. As of 2008, Dangerous has sold 7 million copies in the U.S. and 32 million copies worldwide; it is the most successful new jack swing album of all time.
In the US, the album's first single "Black or White" was the album's 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 US, peaking at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.
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.
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 and disease.
The Dangerous World Tour began on June 27, 1992, and finished on November 11, 1993. Jackson performed to 3.5 million people in 67 concerts. All profits from the concerts went to the "Heal the World Foundation", raising millions of dollars in relief.
He sold the broadcast rights to his Dangerous world tour to HBO for $20 million, a record-breaking deal that still stands.
In a high-profile visit to Africa, Jackson visited several countries, among them Gabon and Egypt. His first stop to Gabon was greeted with a sizable reception of more than 100,000 people in "spiritual bedlam", some of them carrying signs that read, "Welcome Home Michael".
In a trip to the Ivory Coast, Jackson was crowned "King Sani" by a tribal chief. 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.
Perhaps one of Jackson's most memorable performances was at the Motown 25th Anniversary celebrations in 1983. Here he sung Billie Jean and unleashed on the World his legendary Moonwalk Dance with the one hand white glove to boot that left the audience mesmerized and awestruck.
By the late 1990's Jackson's popularity particularly in the United States began to wane amidst allegations of child abuse and other inappropriate behavior.
As such subsequent album releases in 1995 and 2001 were poorly received.
Jackson was about to begin a comeback with 50 shows earmarked in the UK between July 2009 and June 2010 when he died last week.
Whatever you think of him, Michael Jackson will be remembered as a colossal figure in the music industry who through his music and videos transformed the music business for good and single handedly influenced a generation of artists from Ussher to Justin Timberlake.
Above all the humanity that Michael Jackson espoused touched the lives of many millions and he surely will be missed.
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