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Michael Jackson Biography

Despite achieving his goal to be a music performer, Michael’s childhood was far from happy. He was regularly beaten and threatened by his authoritarian father. This legacy of abuse left Michael scarred throughout his adult life.

Solo Career Michael Jackson

His second solo album, Thriller , launched Michael Jackson into a position as the most famous pop singer in the world. With little commercial advertising and promotion, Thriller rose to number one on album sales and remained at the number one spot for a total of 37 weeks. It gained one of many Guinness World Records for Michael Jackson, attaining 110 million global sales and 29 million sales in the US. Thriller included number one hits such as Beat It, Billie Jean .

Michael Jackson with the Reagans

In March 1983, Michael Jackson performed live on Motown 25, ‘Yesterday, today, forever’, – a TV special. He performed his distinctive and memorable dance move – the Moonwalk. In the dance routine, he effortlessly moves backwards with seemingly keeping one leg perfectly straight. His performance made him a global icon of not just music, but dance. Michael Jackson pioneered the importance of music video in promoting a pop artist. This iconic performance has been compared to the famous Beatles’ appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.

By the late 80s, there was an increasing number of stories speculating on Jackson’s personal life, health and physical appearance. Michael Jackson underwent numerous operations of plastic surgery to fix his nose and add a dimple in his chin. During the 1980s, his skin started to lighten; this was due to a rare skin pigment disease, but it didn’t stop a wave of speculative press stories that he was bleaching his skin colour. The press covered a range of speculative stories about Michael Jackson, including imaginary stories Michael had invented himself (such as sleeping in an oxygen tent to avoid the ageing process)

“I’ve been in the entertainment industry since I was six-years-old, and as Charles Dickens would say, “It’s been the best of times, the worst of times.” But I would not change my career… While some have made deliberate attempts to hurt me, I take it in stride because I have a loving family, a strong faith and wonderful friends and fans who have, and continue, to support me.”

—Michael Jackson

The press attention made Michael increasingly reclusive, spending much of his time in his ‘Never Land’ ranch.

Speaking on the Oprah Winfrey show, Jackson addressed the issue of skin colour change:

“OK, number one. There, as I know of, there is no such thing as skin bleaching…I have a skin disorder that destroys the pigmentation of the skin, it’s something that I cannot help, OK? But, when people make up stories that I don’t want to be who I am, it hurts me…it’s a problem for me, I can’t control it.”

He married Lisa Marie Presley in 1994; it lasted two years though they remained friendly after the divorce. In 1996, he married Deborah Rowe in Sydney. Together they had two children. They divorced in 1999 and Rowe gave full custody of children to Jackson.

Allegations of child abuse were first raised in the 1980s and re-appeared in the 1990s. This led to the trial of The People v Jackson on 31 Jan 2005, in Sante Maria, California. After five months of high publicity, Jackson was acquitted. Though the experience left him physically weak and emotionally stressed. He departed America for the Persian Gulf Island of Bahrain.

“The minute I started breaking the all-time record in record sales—I broke Elvis’s records, I broke Beatles records—the minute it became the all-time best-selling album in the history of the Guinness Book of World Records, overnight they called me a freak. They called me a homosexual. They called me a child molester. They said I bleached my skin. They made everything to turn the public against me.”

– Remarks at National Action Network headquarters (9 July 2002)

Towards the end of his life, he was increasingly plagued by money troubles and ill health. He increasingly became dependent on a variety of drugs, which was said to have contributed to his ill health and premature death. Despite concerns over finance, he is said to have made career earnings of $500m and had assets in Sony/ATV Music Publishing catalogue worth over $300m alone.

“In a world filled with hate, we must still dare to hope. In a world filled with anger, we must still dare to comfort. In a world filled with despair, we must still dare to dream. And in a world filled with distrust, we must still dare to believe”

– M. Jackson Quoted by CNN June 2009.

Michael Jackson died on 25 June 2009, at a rented mansion in the district of Los Angeles.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “Biography of Michael Jackson”, Oxford, UK.  www.biographyonline.net , 28th Jul 2010. Updated 11th February 2018.

Charity Work of Michael Jackson

• Michael Jackson supported many charities. This included a burns charity in Culver City, California. This followed an incident where Michael Jackson was burnt in filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984.
• He also supported HIV / AIDS charities at a time when it was still unfashionable.
• In 1984, he received an award from President Ronald Reagan for his support of charities which help overcome alcohol and drug abuse.
• From his 1984, Victory Tour he donated all funds (around $8million to charity)
• In 1985, he also co-wrote the charity single “We are the World” with Lionel Richie. It sold over 30 million copies, and the proceeds were sent to the poor in the US and Africa.
• He continued his charity work to the end of his life supporting charity concerts such as Aid for victims of Kosovo war.

The Essential Michael Jackson

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The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson

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INDUCTED BY

Michael Jackson was a creative visionary and gifted performer who redefined what pop could—or should—sound like.

The future King of Pop carried soul and R&B into the mainstream in the ’70s with the Jackson 5, and then leveraged music videos and smart collaborations to become a beloved global superstar in the ’80s.

HALL OF FAME ESSAY

By Mikal Gilmore

There was one unmistakable moment when Michael Jackson entered the American mind as an embodied possibility of not just our pleasures but also our ideals.

That moment came in early 1983. Jackson’s music was already in the air by that time – in fact, it was transforming the air. Everywhere you turned, you would hear an animating sound. It began with taut, maddened, funk-infused guitar lines that scrambled against the upsweeping curve of a string section in a heady depiction of emotional panic.

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Michael Jackson

American singer, songwriter, and dancer (1958–2009) / from wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist . He is considered as one of the greatest and most influential music artists in history. His contributions to music, dance, and fashion for over four decades, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture . Jackson influenced artists across many music genres. Through stage and video performances, he popularized complicated dance moves such as the moonwalk and the robot . He is the most awarded individual music artist in history. Because of his influence and fame, he is known as the "King of Pop".

Jackson started his professional career performing with his older brothers Jackie , Tito , Jermaine , and Marlon in The Jackson 5 in 1964. In 1971, he started a solo career while also being a member of The Jackson 5. During that period, he released four solo studio albums Got to Be There (1972), Ben (1972), Music & Me (1973), and Forever, Michael (1975). He released the best-selling album of all time, Thriller in 1982, with estimated sales of 60 million copies worldwide. The video for " Thriller " showed him dancing like a zombie and other dancers around him were zombies as well. "Thriller" includes famous songs like " Beat It " and " Billie Jean ". The popularity of these videos helped bring the television channel MTV to fame. Jackson wrote other well-known songs such as '' Bad '' , " Black or White ", " Heal the World ", and " Earth Song ". Through music videos and live performances, he is known for popularizing dance moves such as the robot and the moonwalk . He won many awards and broke records. Guinness World Records says he is the most successful entertainer of all time. Jackson is also remembered for giving money to charities and pioneering efforts in charitable fundraising in the entertainment industry. Jackson traveled the world attending events honoring his humanitarianism, and, in 2000, the Guinness World Records recognized him for supporting 39 charities, more than any other entertainer. He is one of the best-selling music artists in history, with worldwide sales approaching 400 million records.

His other studio albums, including Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991), HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I (1995), and Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix (1997) also rank among the world's best selling albums. He released his last studio album Invincible in 2001.

Aspects of Jackson's personal life, including his changing appearance, personal relationships, and behavior, generated controversy. He was accused of child sexual abuse in 1993, but the case was settled out of court. In 2003, Jackson was charged with child sexual abuse by Garvin Arvizo. In 2005, Jackson was found not guilty of all charges. While preparing for his comeback concert series, This Is It , Jackson died of an overdose of propofol on June 25, 2009, after having a cardiac arrest at 50 years of age. Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray , was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. On July 7, there was a memorial service for Jackson. It was on television and approximately 1 billion people watched it. This made it one of the most-watched funerals ever. [1]

Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and one of the most influential and iconic pop music entertainers of all time. He was nicknamed the “King of Pop” by his close and long-time friend Elizabeth Taylor, a title that stuck after striking a chord with fans.      

Born on August 29, 1958 in Gary, Indiana, Michael Jackson was the eighth of ten children (one died shortly after birth) to Joseph (Joe) and Katherine Jackson. His father worked as a crane operator in a steel mill and his mother at a Sears department store. Music was a source of escape from their daily life and both parents were musical themselves. Joe played guitar in a local R&B group, which rehearsed in the family’s tiny house at 2300 Jackson Street (coincidentally named after the U.S. president). His mother sang and played clarinet and piano. Joe’s band rehearsals, combined with their lively stream of music in the home, had a big impact on the Jackson children from an early age.   

All eight of Michael Jackson’s siblings — Rebbie, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, La Toya, Marlon, Randy and Janet — made marks in the music industry. However, Michael’s talent was evident from a very young age and with his father’s encouragement, Michael started his career at the age of five. He joined his brothers’ musical group in the 1960s, which became The Jackson 5. 

Once Michael joined as lead singer and performer of The Jackson 5, they were on the fast track to fame and fortune. Michael’s voice, combined with his signature dance moves, entertained and thrilled audiences. His earliest musical influence was James Brown, known for his mesmerizing dance moves on stage. Brown personally taught Jackson how to drop the microphone and then catch it before it hit the stage. Michael also adopted the dance moves and dramatic postures of Sammy Davis Jr. and Jackie Wilson. Jackson admired the choreographic innovations of Gene Kelly and how Smokey Robinson wrote and produced his own material. 

The success of The Jackson 5, later renamed The Jacksons, drove Michael to be an illustrious artist. He started his solo artist career in 1971, but it wasn’t until 1979 when he teamed up with Quincy Jones to record his solo album “Off the Wall” that he earned entry into the level of influential R&B singer/songwriters. Now, “Off the Wall” is one of the greatest albums of all time and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008. Its release was the first time an album by a solo artist had ever struck four hits in the top 10 Billboard Hot 100 charts. The single “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” landed Michael his first Grammy Award for best male R&B vocal performance. The black-and-white style featured on the cover of “Off the Wall” helped brand his image that would lead to global fame. Michael used this same style for his breakthrough music videos, including “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” and “Billie Jean,” and would later tap the iconic style for the entirety of his solo career.       

Reunited with Quincy Jones for his follow-up 1982 album, “Thriller,” Michael wanted to create the biggest selling pop album ever. Ever since he was young, he studied composition and was inspired to create “Thriller” like Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker suite, where every song was a massive hit. He fulfilled his dream as “Thriller” launched him into superstardom. He won eight Grammy Awards for “Thriller,” including Album of the Year and Record of the Year. Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” is the all-time best-selling album worldwide and was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. 

Michael Jackson is equally known for his innovative dance moves. One of Jackson's most iconic dance moves was performed on March 25, 1983 for Motown 25 where he first unveiled the "moonwalk" during the performance of “Billie Jean.” He learned it from Jeffrey Daniel who pioneered the dance move known previously as the backslide. It would be five years later, during the making of the music video “Smooth Criminal,” where a dance routine that paid homage to Fred Astaire in the 1953 film, The Band Wagon, highlighted his inventive spirit.  

For his live performances, Jackson wanted to create an anti-gravity illusion of leaning from the ankle at a 45-degree angle while keeping his body straight. Audiences were wowed by the “anti-gravity lean” dance move that is physically impossible, but made possible through his shoes. The shoes were designed with ankle supports and cutouts in the heels, that were temporarily attached to pegs rising from the stage at the appropriate moment. The effect was a seemingly impossible forward lean. The shoes were  patented  by Michael Jackson and his co-inventors on October 26, 1993. 

Michael married Lisa Marie Presley in 1994, but they divorced in 1996. He then married Debbie Rowe with whom he had two children, Michael Joseph Jackson II (known as Prince Jackson) and Paris Jackson. They divorced in 1999 and Michael fathered a third child in 2002 known as Blanket Jackson. Michael’s groundbreaking creativity and stardom was shadowed by a controversial personal life. Jackson died of cardiac arrest at his home on June 25, 2009 at the age of 50. 

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A michael jackson timeline, michael jackson: full npr music archive, read and hear the archive of npr stories on michael jackson, photo timeline.

Follow a chronology of the singer's life, highlighted by breathtaking commercial success, intense public scrutiny and odd lifestyle choices:

Aug. 29, 1958: Michael Joseph Jackson is born to Katherine and Joe Jackson in Gary, Ind. His older siblings are Rebbie, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, LaToya and Marlon. Later, brother Randy and sister Janet join the family. Katherine Jackson raises her children as Jehovah's Witnesses.

1962: Michael, Marlon, Jackie, Tito and Jermaine combine to form a band. At first, their father does not approve, but later changes his mind and manages the band. Jackson sings lead vocal on most of the songs.

1968: Motown signs The Jackson 5.

1969: The song "I Want You Back" jumps to the number-one singles spot. "ABC (1970)," "The Love You Save" and "I'll Be There" follow suit.

1971-1972: Jackson goes solo, and his singles "Got to Be There," "Rockin' Robin" and "I Wanna Be Where You Are" storm the charts — as does "Ben," a ballad about a pet rat featured in the horror movie Ben .

1978: Jackson makes his film debut as the Scarecrow in The Wiz , an urban retelling of the classic film The Wizard Of Oz . Diana Ross co-stars as Dorothy. Jackson is said to wear his makeup long after production hours.

1979: Jackson records Off The Wall , his first album as a solo artist. The singles "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Rock With You" both shoot to number-one hits.

1980: Jackson nabs his first Grammy Award for Best R&B Male Vocal Performance.

1982-1983: Jackson releases the album Thriller , and it tops the charts for 37 weeks. Seven singles dash into the top 10, including "Billie Jean," "Beat It," "Thriller" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'." The extended video sequence on "Thriller" has Jackson morph into a werewolf. Jackson unveils his signature dance move, the moonwalk.

1984: Questions arise about Jackson's changing appearance, and some wonder if the singer has had plastic surgery. He builds a home on 2,700 acres in Central California, complete with its own amusement park rides, and calls it Neverland.

1985: Jackson and Lionel Richie pen "We Are The World," with the proceeds from sales of the single slated for hunger relief in Africa. Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Cyndi Lauper and other prominent artists lend their voices to the song. It sells a record seven million copies.

1987: Bad , Jackson's third album, hits the shelves. He embarks on a world tour.

1988: Doubleday publishes Jackson's autobiography, Moonwalk .

1990: Thriller goes platinum for the 21st time and the Guinness Book of World Records certifies it as the best-selling album ever. To date, it has sold 65 million copies.

1992: Jackson tells Oprah Winfrey he has vitiligo, a skin disorder that destroys melanin and, in severe cases, can leave a victim devoid of skin color. He also reveals that his father emotionally abused him as a child.

1993: Jackson is accused in civil court of molesting an 11-year-old boy. Police descend on Neverland and subject Jackson to a full body search. "It was the most humiliating ordeal of my life," he says in a televised statement in December.

1994: Jackson settles the molestation case out of court. The boy is paid more than $15 million, to be held in trust until he is an adult. The parents of the boy receive $1.5 million each.

May 26, 1994: Jackson and Lisa-Marie Presley tie the knot. The marriage will last less than two years.

1995: Sony releases HIStory: Past, Present and Future Book I . Janet Jackson performs a duet with her older brother on "Scream."

1996: Jarvis Cocker of the British band Pulp accosts Jackson in mid-act at the BRIT Awards. Jackson was surrounded by children and a rabbi performing "Earth Song." Cocker claims Jackson had attempted to imitate Christ.

1997: Jackson marries Debbie Rowe, a nurse. Rowe gives birth to a son, Prince Michael. Jackson is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

1998: Rowe bears a girl, Paris Michael Katherine.

1999: Jackson and Rowe split.

2000: "Billie Jean," "Rock With You," "I Want You Back" and "Beat It" make Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest songs of all time.

2001: Sony releases Invincible, which is panned by critics and does not sell well. Jackson battles a $21-million civil suit by a German concert promoter who says the singer backed out of two concerts and pocketed an advance.

2002: Jackson lifts his newborn son, Prince Michael, over a hotel room terrace so fans can glimpse — and is roundly criticized for endangering his child. The identity of the child's mother is never revealed. Jackson says the child is the result of artificial insemination from a surrogate mother and his own sperm cells.

2003: Jackson is charged with seven counts of child sexual abuse and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent. All charges were made by the same boy, Gavin Arvizo, who was under 14 at the time of the alleged crime.

2005: Jackson is acquitted on all counts in the Arvizo case in the the People v. Jackson trial in Santa Maria, Calif.

2006: Financial troubles force closure on the main house on the Neverland Ranch. Jackson agrees to a Sony-backed refinancing deal. Jackson makes his first public appearance since the Arvizo trial to accept eight records from the Guinness World Records in London, including "Most Successful Entertainer of All Time." In late 2006, Jackson agrees to share joint custody of his first two children with ex-wife Debbie Rowe.

2007: Jackson and Sony buy Famous Music LLC from Viacom, which gives him rights to songs by Eminem, Shakira, Beck and others.

2008: Jackson issues Thriller 25 , celebrating 25 years of the iconic album. The reissue hits number one in eight countries and reached number two in the U.S. Sony releases King of Pop , a fan-curated compilation.

June 25, 2009: Jackson dies in Los Angeles at 50 after going into cardiac arrest.

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The Jackson 5 and Early Career

Michael Jackson is one of the most successful and influential pop recording artists of all time. Born in 1958, he began his career as a member of the Jackson 5 recording for Motown with four of his brothers. They hit #1 on the pop singles chart with "I Want You Back" in 1969. It was followed by three more consecutive #1 hits. They were the first recording artists to hit #1 on the pop singles chart with their first four chart hits. The group's popularity faded in the mid 1970's, but, after moving to the CBS record label and calling themselves simply the Jacksons, they consistently hit the charts in the late 1970's and early 1980's. Among their hits in that era were "Shake Your Body (Down To the Ground)" and "Can You Feel It."

Michael Jackson Becomes an Adult Artist With Off the Wall

Michael Jackson hit #1 on the pop singles chart as a solo artist in 1972 serenading a rat with the title song from the movie Ben . He hit the top five with two other early singles. 1971's "Got To Be There" went to #4 and 1972's "Rockin' Robin" hit #2. Michael Jackson didn't near the top of the charts again until seven years later with the release of the album Off the Wall in 1979 produced by Quincy Jones. It was simultaneously a last gasp of disco and an R&B classic that ushered in the 80's. The album peaked at #3 on the album chart, sold over seven million copies and included four top 10 pop singles. The singles "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Rock With You" went all the way to #1 on the pop singles chart. "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" won a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal.

In 1982, three years after Off the Wall , Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson collaborated once again and created Thriller , the bestselling album of all time. It was preceded by the single "The Girl Is Mine," a collaboration with Paul McCartney , which reached #2 on the pop singles chart. A month after the album hit stores, the second single "Billie Jean" was unleashed, and the masterpiece that is Thriller began to unfold. Ultimately, 28 million copies sold in the US and Thriller became the first album to launch seven singles into the pop top 10. "Bille Jean" and "Beat It" both hit #1 and the music video for "Beat It" tore down barriers for African-American artists at MTV. 

The music from Thriller generated a phenomenal eleven Grammy Award nominations. The album took home the award for Album of the Year and "Beat It" won Record of the Year. "Billie Jean" was named Best R&B Song.

It was almost five years after the release of Thriller before Michael Jackson's next album appeared in 1987. Bad was Michael Jackson's third album co-produced by Quincy Jones. The single "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" preceded the album and hit the top of the pop singles chart. Ultimately, Bad became the first album to include five #1 pop singles. That record stood until Katy Perry matched it with her Teenage Dream album in 2010-2011. Bad sold over eight million copies in the US. The #1 charting singles were "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," "Bad," "The Way You Make Me Feel," "Man In the Mirror," and "Dirty Diana." Music from Bad earned five Grammy Award nominations. The album was nominated for Album of the Year, and "Man In the Mirror" earned a Record of the Year nomination, but Bad won no awards.

By 1991, four years after the release of Bad , some critics wondered whether Michael Jackson was still relevant in the pop world. He signed a 15-year six album deal with Sony Music, and recorded Dangerous with new jack swing pioneer Teddy Riley and Bill Botrell as producers. The album was another major success selling seven million copies, topping the album chart, generating four top 10 singles and spending over two years on the album chart.

The release of the debut single "Black or White" was a worldwide television event. An estimated 500 million viewers watched the John Landis directed clip. The song was released to radio stations two days in advance and was added to playlists on 96% of Billboard's reporting pop radio stations on the first day of release. The music video for "Remember the Time" was a massive production as well directed by celebrated film director John Singleton. It included guest appearances from Eddie Murphy, Magic Johnson, and Iman among others. "Black Or White" earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal.

Michael Jackson's Controversies

Michael Jackson's career and life had their fair share of controversies. In the mid 1980s he was the subject of widespread tabloid stories including tales of sleeping in an oxygen chamber to slow aging, bleaching his skin, and undergoing multiple rounds of plastic surgery. In the early 1990s Michael Jackson was accused of sexually abusing a child in a case ultimately closed for lack of evidence. In 2005 Jackson was put on trial for allegations of sexual molestation. He was acquitted on all counts.

Commercial Decline

In 1995 Michael Jackson released his first compilation album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book 1 . It was a two-disc set and sold over three million copies in the US as well as earning a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. However, an all-new studio album did not appear until 2001. Invincible became the first significant commercial disappointment for Michael Jackson since the 1970s. It sold only two million copies and did not include any #1 hit singles. Only "You Rock My World" hit the top 10.

Top Michael Jackson Hits

• 1979 - "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" (One week at #1)
• 1979 - "Rock With You" (Four weeks at #1)
• 1983 - "Billie Jean" (Seven weeks at #1)
• 1983 - "Beat It!" (Three weeks at #1)
• 1983 - "Say Say Say" with Paul McCartney (Six weeks at #1)
• 1987 - "Bad" (Two weeks at #1)
• 1987 - "The Way You Make Me Feel" (One week at #1)
• 1988 - "Man In the Mirror" (Two weeks at #1)
• 1991 - "Black Or White" (Seven weeks at #1)
• 1995 - "You Are Not Alone" (One week at #1)

More details about each song in Top 20 Michael Jackson Songs .

Top Michael Jackson Videos

• 1979 - "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough"
• 1983 - "Beat It!"
• 1983 - "Billie Jean"
• 1984 - "Thriller"
• 1987 - "Bad"
• 1991 - "Black Or White"
• 1992 - "Remember the Time"
• 1995 - "Scream" with Janet Jackson
• 1995 - "You Are Not Alone"
• 1996 - "They Don't Care About Us"

More details about the videos, and a complete listing, in the Guide to Michael Jackson Videos .

Michael Jackson's Comeback Efforts

In 2008 Michael Jackson released Thriller 25, a 25th anniversary re-issue of his bestselling album Thriller that included re-recordings of some of the tracks by top contemporary pop stars including Fergie and Kanye West . It also included one new song "For All Time." Remixes of "The Girl Is Mine" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" were released as singles. The latter climbed to #2 on the dance chart.

In March 2009 Michael Jackson announced that he would perform a series of concerts in London at the O2 arena over the summer. What was originally announced as 10 shows was later extended to 50 that were planned into the year 2010. Rehearsals commenced under the direction of choreographer Kenny Ortega.

Michael Jackson died unexpectedly June 25, 2009 at the age of 50 less than three weeks before the first London concert was scheduled to take place. A public memorial service included performances of his songs by a wide range of top recording artists. A feature film built around rehearsal footage from the planned concert tour titled Michael Jackson's This Is It was released in October 2009. A posthumous studio album titled was released in December 2010. Michael Jackson earned a posthumous Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal for the song "This Is It." In 2014 a second posthumous album with previous unreleased material titled Xscape appeared under the direction of L.A. Reid. It included the top 10 pop hit "Love Never Felt So Good." 

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Meet the Nicholas Brothers, the greatest dancers of the 20th century who tutored Michael Jackson

Tap dance as an art form may have lost its currency but while in vogue, it cultivated many followers. The Niicholas brothers were really good at it.Tap dance involves striking the floor with tap shoes to get sounds; the shoes having a metal “tap” on the heel and toe.

Its variations include flamenco, rhythm (jazz) tap, classical tap, Broadway tap, and post-modern tap. Broadway tap is rooted in English theatrical tradition while Rhythm tap lays emphasis on musicality.

Classical tap, on the others hand, marries European “classical” music with American foot drumming while Post-modern or contemporary tap incorporates abstract expression, thematic narrative and technology.

Regarding its ethnic borrowings, it spans the Spanish flamenco, African tribal dances, English clog dancing and Irish jigs.

Unfortunately, as with many things in history, people with African ethnicity ancestry were contained by the two-colored rule, which forbade black people from performing solo.

But then again, thanks to the power of melanin, two black people stood out with this dance form. They were Fayard (1914–2006) and Howard (1921–2000), named the Nicholas Brothers.

Bruce Goldstein, Director of Repertory Programming at New York’s Film Forum, labels the Nicholas Brothers as “the greatest dancers of the twentieth century,” which is no mean feat.

Brothers Fayard and Harold Nicholas dancing in the 1943 film “Stormy Weather.” Years later, Harold recalled that they never rehearsed the jumps over each other’s heads but still managed to do the routine in just one take. pic.twitter.com/pVSAfUtLaY — Dust-to-Digital (@dusttodigital) September 27, 2019

The brothers had an early insight into the art, thanks to their parents who performed in the Nicholas Collegiates band in vaudeville houses.

Fayard, the eldest, had the great fortune of seeing the great African-American acts of the time backstage and memorialized their acts. He taught his younger brother Howard the moves when he got home, such that, by 1932, the brothers became a featured act at Harlem’s famed Cotton Club.

Goldstein says of the Philadelphia boys:

“We tend to think of them now as stunt dancers because of their acrobatics. But that takes away from the fact that they were incredibly graceful, elegant dancers. They were great comedians, too, with a real chemistry between them, and Harold was also a wonderful singer.”

Harold could slide in a split through the legs of ten showgirls at once. Much more, the brothers were a hit on Broadway in both The Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 and Babes in Arms.

Despite the immense talent and skill they possessed, the fact that they were nonwhite led to obstacles erected in their path as they never starred in their own movie but rather used as specialty act in Hollywood.

This led them to make only five films for Twentieth Century Fox, including ‘Down Argentine Way’, where they could skirt around racial issues by pretending to be “Latin American,” and ‘Stormy Weather’, whose all-black cast also included Bill Robinson and Lena Horne.

When Fayard was drafted, Harold performed solo in two movies. At Gene Kelly’s insistence, Fayard and Harold re-united on screen for MGM’s ‘The Pirate.’

Being so damn good yet deliberately underutilized took a toll on Harold who left the country for Europe in the 1950s. However, the brothers’ influence is still felt throughout America.

It’s now known that scenes featuring African-American performers were routinely cut form big-studio releases in the thirties and forties to mollify white southern audiences.

Having great plans for his wards, Joseph Jackson hired the elder Nicholas Fayard to help train his children, ‘The Jackson 5’. Both Michael and Janet Jackson were later students of the brothers. Fayard and Howard also taught at Harvard and Radcliffe.

Bob Fosse modelled his first dance act on them as did many others. The brothers also inspired Gregory Hines, who had a long career in entertainment.

Nicholas Brothers’ routines include a succession of jaw-dropping leaps, flips, and splits executed with a flawless style which is hard to emulate even today.

Their fans include Gene Kelly, George Balanchine, and Mikhail Baryshnikov. According to Fred Astaire, the brothers “Jumpin’ Jive” production number in ‘Stormy Weather’ is the greatest musical sequence of all time, underlying the quality the pair possessed.

The Nicholas Brothers sustained a career spanning eight decades, having presence in vaudeville and nightclubs, on Broadway and television, as well as film.

It is befitting that we celebrate the fact that such humans lived with us and shared their gifts.

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Michael Jackson: Inside His Early Years in Gary, Indiana With His Musical Family

Strong words from a performer whose early life – alongside eight siblings in a simple, two-bedroom house in Gary, Indiana – has been much discussed and analyzed for insights into the family that spawned some of the greatest entertainers of the last century. While many of the Jackson children, including Michael, have spoken fondly of their years in Gary, what has received most media coverage is the alleged physical and mental abuse and constant work doled out by patriarch Joseph Jackson .

READ MORE: How Michael Jackson's Child Stardom Affected Him as an Adult

Michael said music was always his family's 'destiny'

Only 25 miles from downtown Chicago, Gary was where Joseph “Joe” Jackson settled at age 18 and is where he met and courted future wife Katherine Screws . Married in 1949 they would have 10 children together over a period of 16 years: Rebbie , Jackie, Tito, Jermaine , LaToya, Marlon, Brandon (Marlon’s twin who died shortly after birth), Michael, Randy and Janet .

“I just had a feeling that he would be my husband,” Katherine said of Joe during an interview with ABC News in 2009. “The first time I saw him, I fell in love with him. … Really, he was so nice. He tries to be tough now.”

Following their marriage, Joe and Katherine moved into a two-bedroom house on the corner of Jackson Street and 23 Avenue. Joe, an aspiring boxer and a musician, realized supporting his family would have to take priority and he worked as a welder and crane operator at U.S. Steel, sometimes holding three jobs at a time in order to look after his growing family. Katherine was a homemaker and a devout Jehovah’s Witness. A singer and pianist she encouraged her children’s musical talents.

“We were a family that sang all the time,” Michael once said of his early life in Gary. “We would take the furniture out of the living room and dance. We would have a songwriting competition while we washed the dishes… while we were cleaning. Music was our destiny.”

They were devout Jehovah's Witnesses and felt a disconnect between them and their neighborhood

But Michael would learn from an early age that his childhood was different from other kids. In his memoir, You Are Not Alone: Michael Through a Brother’s Eyes , Jermaine writes about looking out from their house at the decorated homes across the street when he was eight-years-old and Michael was four.

“We observed all this from inside a house with no tree, no lights, no nothing. Our tiny house… was the only one without decoration. We felt it was the only one in Gary, Indiana, but Mother assured us that, no, there were other homes and other Jehovah’s Witnesses who did not celebrate Christmas… But that knowledge did nothing to clear our confusion: we could see something that made us feel good, yet we were told it wasn’t good for us.”

READ MORE: The Final Days of Michael Jackson

The Jackson family band started when Tito sneakily took his father's guitar

One of the few possessions Joe had kept from his musician days was his guitar, an item not to be touched by his children, according to Michael’s 1988 autobiography Moonwalk . His kids didn’t listen and one day Tito took out the instrument, breaking a guitar string in the process. Tito hid in fear of retribution from Joe, Michael writes, but when their father demanded to be shown what he could do with the guitar, Tito obliged, shocking his father and giving him the idea to form a musical group made up of his offspring.

In 1963 The Jackson Brothers was formed featuring Jackie, Tito and Jermaine. They entered local talent shows and competitions and by 1965 Joe added younger brothers Marlon and Michael, renaming them The Jackson 5 in 1966. Joe the father had quickly become Joe the manager.

Joe Jackson required his children to call him 'Joseph'

A strict taskmaster, Joe enforced long and grueling rehearsals for his sons in order for them to have their songs and routines polished. It is this coopting of a childhood Michael would come to lament the rest of his life . Michael often said he grew up in an adult world. “I grew up onstage. I grew up in nightclubs. When I was seven, eight years old I was in nightclubs,” he revealed in a 2002 Gold magazine interview . “I saw striptease girls take off all their clothes. I saw fights break out. I saw people throw up on each other. I saw adults act like pigs.”

The Jackson girls were also subjected their father’s aspirations for his children, and his remoteness. “You call me Joseph,” Janet recalled her father saying after she once referred to him as dad. “I’m Joseph to you.”

Rumors of sexual abuse arose in the early 1990s, with LaToya once accusing her father of the act. She would later recant the accusation, blaming her then-husband for coercing her to say it.

READ MORE: How Michael Jackson Changed Dance History

Michael was afraid of his verbally, and sometimes physically, abusive father

If one of his children stepped out of line, Joe was quick to discipline them. Michael once revealed to Oprah Winfrey that he was so afraid of his father that it would cause him to vomit when he saw him. Physical beatings were not uncommon. “I just remember my hearing my mother scream, ‘Joe, you’re gonna kill him, you’re gonna kill him, stop it,’” Michael said during a 2003 TV interview. “I was so fast he couldn’t catch me half the time, but when he would catch me, oh my God, it was bad. It was really bad.”

Michael recalled his father sitting in a chair with a belt in his hand watching his sons rehearse, ready to punish them for any mistakes. Michael also recalled verbal abuse, in particular, his father repeatedly telling him he had a “fat nose.”

“Michael was never beat as they call it. And… everyone spanked their kids when they did wrong, but not beat,” Joe said to ABC News in 2009 . “Katherine spanked Michael more than I did, ‘cause I was workin’ two jobs and she was at home with him the most.” In a 2013 CNN interview , Joe said he was glad he was tough “because look what I came out with. I came out with some kids that everybody loved all over the world. And they treated everybody right.”

The family left Gary for Los Angeles after The Jackson 5 took off

1967 was a banner year for The Jackson 5 when they won an amateur talent competition at New York’s Apollo Theater. Joe decided to take the group professional and two years later signed his sons to a contract with Motown Records alongside acts such as Stevie Wonder , The Supremes and Smokey Robinson .

The Jackson 5 would dominate the airwaves of the late sixties and early seventies thanks to hits such as “I Want You Back,” “Never Can Say Goodbye,” “I’ll Be There” and “ABC.” The group would go on to sell more than 100 million records globally.

It was following the group’s signing to Motown that Joe decided to relocate his family from Gary to Los Angeles.

Recalling their upbringing in Gary and beyond during a 2011 interview with ABC News , Jermaine said he and his siblings “wouldn’t want to be raised any other way” than the way their father raised them. “It’s hard raising nine kids, bringing them from Indiana out here [to L.A.] … that was his whole thing, wanting to keep his family together. And if he didn’t do anything else, he brought us out, he taught us everything we knew about becoming what we became.”

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