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| | The self styled King of Pop, Michael Jackson, who is on trial for molesting a child, was taken to an emergency room complaining of a back problem and pain. Jackson was accompanied by a bodyguard when he arrived at the Santa Ynez Cottage Hospital located about five miles from Neverland Ranch. His spokesperson said that the back pain was pretty serious.
1980s and the Thriller:
When “Thriller” was released, it made history as most marketed album worldwide and forever changed the image of music business. Can we deviate from the figures and ask, how significant was musical break of Jackson? Producer Quincy Jones stated in an interview to magazine “Time”: “Black” music should have played second fiddle for a long time, but its spirit — entire driving force in pop-music, which Michael connected with each soul in the world”.
Released in November 1982, “Thriller” has given seven singles to America: “The Girl Is Mine” (№ 2, duet with Paul McCartney), “Billie Jean” (№ 1, “Grammy” award, largest hit in entire career of Jackson and one of the most sampling tracks of funk music), “Beat It” (№ 1, one more “Grammy” award), “Wanna Be Startin ' Somethin '” (№ 5), “Human Nature” (№ 7), “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” (№ 10) and “Thriller” (№ 4).
“Thriller” topped Billboard 200 for unimaginable nine months (37 weeks) and did not leave the chart for more than two years (122 weeks). Jackson received eight “Grammy” awards for this album (including the most prestigious nomination, “Tthe Best Album of Year”) and seven American Music Awards (American Musical Awards). In 1985, album was included in the Guinness Book of World Records as “The most marketed album for the entire history”. According to the data, available as on July 2001, 26 million copies of the album were sold in USA, which made it, with respect to sales, second album in the history of America behind “The Greatest Hits” of group The Eagles (27 million). All over the world, 104 million copies of “Thriller” album were sold.
Jackson and his producers appropriately exploited actively developing musical TV: Jackson’s revolutionary videoclips became foundation for MTV, which was just a year old during release of the album. Besides several other reasons, performance of Jackson in May 1983 on 25th Anniversary of Motown, where he presented 14 minute video clip to world, which was shot for “Thriller” and made in horror film style contributed to the popularity of disc. In the same concert, Jackson, for the first time, demonstrated his popular “Moon Walk” while performing “Billie Jean”.
As the attention of press towards Jackson intensified, the singer and his environment used this sensation to extract unprecedented financial benefit. In 1983, Michael Jackson signed a contract with “Pepsi Cola”, within the frame works of which, the singer should appear in the Pepsi advertisements. While shooting for an advertisement, an accident occurred, due to which Jackson received burns to his scalp. In spite of this problem, Jackson once again led the American charts in 1984 but this time around in a duet with Paul McCartney with composition “Say Say Say”. Next year Michael bought most part of shares of ATV Music Publishing company, possessing rights to majority of songs The Beatles, which served as reason for misunderstanding with McCartney, who dreamt of buying back the shares for himself.
During preparation of new album, Jackson was engaged, for the first time, with charitable project, which shall be more in his career. Jackson composed “We Are the World” (We — This World) together with Lionel Richie —charitable single, performed with the participation of bright constellation of first-rated stars to help the destitute children of Africa.
Bad
Third (and last) album of Jackson-Quincy duo, “Bad” occupied first place on Billboard 200 for six weeks and gave seven more hits to world, out of which, five reached the top of Billboard Hot 100: “Bad”, “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You”, “The Way You Make Me Feel”, “Man in the Mirror” and “Dirty Diana”. In album “Bad”, Jackson and Quincy tried to follow the recipe of success of previous disc (use of stylish bit, smooth funk jazz and electric guitar) but make entire things in a much larger scale. Motives of misogyny (“Dirty Diana”) and admiration of criminal passions (“Smooth Criminal”) can be possible to capture in the arrogant tracks, written by Jackson in electronic funk style. Album gave a solid impression and sold about 32 million copies.
Further, Michael was occupied by first tour as solo performer in support of album “Bad”. The trip was to 15 countries and the tour occupied most part of 1988. Bus, aircraft and helicopter were at his disposal during the tour. In 1987, Jackson acted in a 3-D film “Captain EO”. Film with a budget from $17 to 30 million USD had running time of 17 minutes only and was most expensive film with respect to duration in those times. This was the first appearance of Jackson on big screen.
Jones and Jackson together worked on Jackson’s next album “Off the Wall” (1979), an album which took the singer from category of children's stars to adult superstars category. In short terms, more than 10 million copies were sold. Critics received the album enthusiastically, having noted, first of all, harmonious combination of soul and rock styles. (Critic David Marsh, known for his skepticism, declared “Off the Wall” as a masterpiece of modern sound recording). It seemed unbelievable that the actor can surpass himself, but he made it happen in 1982 by releasing a small album “Thriller”. |
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