| 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 the most marketed album worldwide and forever changed the image of the music business. Can we deviate from the figures and ask, how significant was the 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 — was the 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, the largest hit in the entire career of Jackson and one of the most sampled tracks of funk music), “Beat It” (№ 1, and one more “Grammy” award), “Wanna Be Startin ' Somethin '” (№ 5), “Human Nature” (№ 7), “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” (№ 10) and “Thriller” (№ 4).
“Thriller” topped the Billboard 200 for an 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, “The Best Album of the Year”) and seven American Music Awards. In 1985, the album was included in the Guinness Book of World Records as “The most marketed album in all history”. According to the data available as of July 2001, 26 million copies of the album were sold in the USA, which made it, with respect to sales, the second album in the history of an America behind “The Greatest Hits” of the group The Eagles (27 million). All over the world, 104 million copies of the “Thriller” album were sold.
Jackson and his producers appropriately exploited actively developing musical TV: Jackson’s revolutionary video clips became a foundation for MTV, which was just a year old during the release of the album. Besides several other reasons, the performance of Jackson in May 1983 on the 25th Anniversary of Motown, where he presented a 14 minute video clip to world, which was shot for “Thriller” and made in a horror film style contributed to the popularity of the disc. In the same concert, Jackson, for the first time, demonstrated his popular “Moon Walk” while performing “Billie Jean”.
As the attention of the press towards Jackson intensified, the singer and his environment used this sensation to extract unprecedented financial benefits. 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 the composition “Say Say Say”. Next year Michael bought shares of the ATV Music Publishing company, possessing rights to the majority of songs by The Beatles, which served as a reason for a misunderstanding with McCartney, who dreamt of buying back the shares for himself.
During the preparation of new album, Jackson was engaged, for the first time, with a charitable project. Jackson composed “We Are the World” together with Lionel Richie was a charitable single, performed with the participation of a bright constellation of first-rated stars to help the destitute children of Africa.
Bad:
The third (and last) album of the Jackson-Quincy duo, “Bad” occupied first place on the Billboard 200 for six weeks and gave seven more hits to the world, out of which, five reached the top of the 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 the album “Bad”, Jackson and Quincy tried to follow the recipe of success of the previous disc (the use of stylish, smooth funk jazz and electric guitar) but make the entire thing on a much larger scale. Motives of misogyny (“Dirty Diana”) and the admiration of criminal passions (“Smooth Criminal”) can be possible to capture in the arrogant tracks, written by Jackson in the electronic funk style. The album gave a solid impression and sold about 32 million copies.
Further, Michael was occupied by his first tour as a solo performer in support of the album “Bad”. The trip was to 15 countries and the tour occupied most of 1988. Bus, aircraft and helicopter were at his disposal during the tour. In 1987, Jackson acted in a 3-D film “Captain EO”. The film with a budget from $17 to 30 million USD had a running time of 17 minutes only and was the 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 first album “Off the Wall” (1979), an album which took the singer from a category of children's stars to the adult superstars category. In short terms, more than 10 million copies were sold. Critics received the album enthusiastically, having noted, first of all, the 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 singer can surpass himself, but he made it happen in 1982 by releasing a small album called “Thriller”. |
