Jackson, Michael Joseph
1958-2009 · Contribution: 1969-2001
Became known as the “King of Pop” after his 1982 album Thriller sold an estimated 70 million copies worldwide to become the best-selling album in history, won a record-setting eight Grammy Awards in a single night in 1984, and transformed the music video into a cinematic art form while breaking racial barriers on MTV and radio
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Impact on the world
First finding fame as the youngest member of the Jackson 5, whose first four singles for Motown Records all reached number one, Jackson launched his solo career with 1979's Off the Wall, his first collaboration with producer Quincy Jones, before the pair's 1982 follow-up, Thriller, became a cultural phenomenon that spent 37 non-consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200 and produced seven top-ten singles. Its accompanying 14-minute short film for the title track, directed by John Landis, redefined what a music video could achieve artistically and helped force open MTV's early reluctance to air videos by Black artists; Jackson became the only artist to win Grammy Awards for vocal performance in three different genres in a single body of work — pop, rock, and R&B — for songs from the same album. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, first with the Jackson 5 in 1997 and again as a solo artist in 2001, scored 13 number-one Billboard Hot 100 singles, and remains, with an estimated 500 million records sold worldwide, one of the best-selling music artists in history; his charitable giving, estimated at $500 million over his career, was recognized by Guinness World Records as unmatched among entertainers.
Life & background
Born August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana, the seventh of nine children in a musical family, Jackson began performing publicly with his brothers as the Jackson 5 as a young child and signed with Motown Records in 1969. He continued recording and performing as a solo artist for four decades, and died in Los Angeles, California, on June 25, 2009, at age 50.
Sources
- Encyclopædia Britannica; Grammy.com
More in Arts, Music & Entertainment Tech
Ailey, Alvin Jr.
1931-1989
Founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1958, creating a lasting home for Black dancers and choreographing 'Revelations,' one of the most performed ballets in the world
Allen, Debbie (Deborah Kaye)
1950-
Tony-winning choreographer and dancer who served as principal choreographer of 'Fame'; founded the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in 2001, training thousands of young dancers regardless of financial background
Anderson, Marian
1897-1993
One of the finest contraltos of the twentieth century and a landmark civil-rights figure; the first Black singer to perform with the Metropolitan Opera, whose 1939 open-air concert at the Lincoln Memorial—after she was barred from Constitution Hall because of her race—became a defining moment of the era.
Armstrong, Louis Daniel
1901-1971
Transformed jazz from collective ensemble playing into a soloist's art form through his revolutionary 1920s Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings, establishing the trumpet as jazz's premier solo instrument and pioneering scat singing, while later becoming, as “Satchmo,” one of the most beloved entertainers in American history