Michael Jackson

Born August 29, 1958.

Died June 25, 2009.

Time Period: 1987 - 2009

During the time period of 1987 - 2009,
Michael’s main purpose was to inspire, and to
live for music, as he felt that music was one of
(if not the only) purpose he had.

On the Oprah Winfrey show, Michael said “I feel

I was chosen as an instrument just to give
music, love, and harmony to the world”.

Genres 
 
Pop, Rock, R&B, Soul, Funk. All of these
genres were used post 1987.

Examples - ​Bad​ (Dance-Pop Funk),​ You Are

Not Alone​ (R&B Soul), ​Dirty Diana​ (Rock).
Major Accomplishments 
 
● Best selling record of all time (Thriller - 66
million copies sold).

● First artist to win 8 GRAMMYs in one night.

● First artist to sell 1 million digital tracks in

one week (selling a total of 2.6 million,
crushing the old record. Also, this was one
week after his death).

● Fastest selling album of all time, Dangerous

(selling 14 million copies in the first 37 days
of it’s release).

● First and second best selling Rock songs of

all time, Beat it with 69 million copies sold,
Black or White with 47 million copies sold.
Influences+Innovation
s 
 
Michael was heavily influenced by many other
artists, whether they were dancers or singers.

Father of Soul James Brown, with his charisma

on stage.

Fred Astaire, being a dancer and very good

performer, Michael had based himself on Fred
Astaire’s performance. Even the outfit and
dance steps from Smooth Criminal resembles
that of “Band Wagon”.

Charlie Chaplin, MIchael related to Charlie for

one reason of they both had prematurely
terminated childhoods.
Conflict 
 
During the year 1993, Michael was hit with a
serious allegation of child molestation. Evan
Chandler accused Michael Jackson of
molesting his 13 year old son, Jordan. Evan
claimed to have evidence on Michael, and then
took him to court.

Later in 1999, after the Grand Jury dropped the

molestation charges, Evan sued Michael for
$60 million, saying that Michael had breached
an agreement to never talk about the case. The
courts ruled in Michael’s favor, and the charges
were dropped.

This left a large hit on Michael’s career, as

companies (such as Pepsi) stopped all
branding with him, and some of his singles
were pulled from albums.
In the years 2013, 2014, and 2016, more
people charged the Jackson estate with
allegations of abuse and molestation. All cases
ended when the courts favored the Jackson
estate.

The true resolution to the original charges were

truly never resolved, until it had been found out
that Evan Chandler (now deceased) had lied
about the charges, and was jealous of
Michael’s fame and success, and wanted to
bring him down.