Michael Jackson
Notwithstanding that the world has lost Michael Jackson lately because of medicines intoxication, his title of the king of pop has still continued and nobody is able to deny the colossal contribution that the singer made to development of pop music as a whole. He influenced on the fashion and music, many other entertainers imitated his manner of moving on the stage, his songs entered the annals of music history and his videos still, from time to time, appear in charts of Europe and America... In a word, Michael Jackson can be named another "king" who is alive and, perhaps, will live forever in memory and hearts of his numerous fans.
Michael practised music from the early childhood but not because he was really eager for a music career. According to the singer himself, the matter was in his strict and despotic father who, using physical abuse, made Michael - one of his nine sons - spend long hours doing incessant rehearsals. At the age of 8, little Michael Jackson joined a musical group of his brothers known under the title «The Jacksons» and he many times performed in its lineup in numerous "black" clubs of America as well as on TV.
Gradually Michael Jackson, having perfected his vocalism and movements on the stage, became the lead singer of the group and, meanwhile the popularity of a family quintet began to decrease, he more often thought over his own solo career. At the beginning of the 1970s he launched and released several solo albums, some compositions from which took the general public's fancy. But as a self-sufficient pop performer Michael Jackson entered the big stage only in 1979 after a fortunate meeting of the singer with a musical director Quincy Jones. Having become a producer of young Michael, Jones substantially assisted him in recording of the famous «Off the Wall» - an album that was marked as the last peak of disco era and sold in total about 20 million of copies.
The second in order of importance album of Michael Jackson was «Thriller» released in 1982. The first single of the album – the song entitled «Billie Jean» - not only helped the singer to receive his first Grammy award (the second Grammy was for the song «Beat It» from the same album) but also became the most popular, most famous and favourite Jackson's single for all his music career. The album «Thriller» topped the Billboard chart for the whole 9 months and in 1985 it was recognized as the best-selling album of all time by Guinness World Records - in total there were sold 109 million copies throughout the world.
In addition to that Michael Jackson won not only the listeners but also the viewers. His spectacular performances on the stage and revolutionary for that time videos led Michael to the "regal" title. A video to the song «Thriller», shot in keeping with the best traditions of the comic horror of that time, for a long time was on the MTV that only added the fame and acknowledgement to its lead character performed by the famous pop singer. Together with the popularity Jackson's welfare was growing as well and soon he could afford to buy shares of a company-rightholder of the most songs of legendary "The Beatles" as well as administer charities. Remembering about his hard childhood, Michael Jackson chose desperate children as the main object of his charities and the first money, earned from the sale of the legendary single «We Are the World» was transferred to help children from the African continent.
In 1987 in collaboration with Quincy Jones he recorded the album "Bad". A video to the single of the same title from this album provoked a lot of gossip as there were noticed evident changes in Jackson's appearance. For some time there were rumours that the singer intentionally changed the colour of his skin in order to be like a white-skinned performer however, Michael himself denied such rumours, having stated that he had vitiligo - a genetic illness that affected skin pigmentation. Intending to get rid of such a cosmetic defect, Michael Jackson had to resort more than once to the help of plastic surgeons that, after all, led to regrettable results - the face of the legendary singer and especially his nose turned out mutilated.
In addition to savoury rumours set afloat by the press concerning changes in appearance, at the beginning of the 1990s Michael Jackson became also a pivotal figure of the scandal relating to child sexual abuse that, however, was settled extrajudicial. In 1991 there was released his next extremely successful album «Dangerous». The single «Black or White» and a video to it became the absolute hits worldwide and a video to the song «Remember the Time» cost its creators several million dollars and featured appearance by the Hollywood star Eddie Murphy.
During the 1990s Michael Jackson held out on the same level of popularity that he gained during past years of his music career. Almost every his album as well as separate singles appeared on the Billboard chart, having sold millions of copies. There was an insignificant interruption in the singer's music career that, however, ended with his returning to the stage without which he just couldn't live any more.
The beginning of a new century was associated with a new scandal relating to child sexual abuse and, notwithstanding that this time the case was brought before the court, Michael Jackson was acquitted. However, lawsuits exhausted all of his strength. Besides, he had to spend almost all his fortune for trials and all this together with the problems relating to plastic surgery, led to the singer's sedative drug abuse. However, in 2008-2009 the singer prepared actively his next album to be released, toured a lot and got ready for a great performance in London but the fate amended his plans. On June 25, Michael Jackson died in his house in Los Angeles that became a real shock for everyone.
But in spite of this, the name of Michael Jackson is still on lips of millions of his fans and his contribution to the music industry is inestimable. And there are reasons to suppose that even decades later Michael Jackson will have been remembered as a true legend of the world music arena.
