Public Agenda (Accra)
Dr. Kwame Osei
10 July 2009
opinion
Like many millions of people across the world I was shocked at the news of the death of Michael Jackson, The King of Pop Music.
For me Jackson was THE GREATEST music artist of ALL TIME. Forget Elvis Presley and the Beatles, but Michael Jackson's appeal transcended race, religion, nationality and gender, making Jackson a truly global superstar.
Jackson was truly a unique artist, the likes we WILL NEVER see again. He was an amazing singer with a wide vocal range, an extraordinary and superb dancer, a genius when it came to making music videos and the ultimate showman when it came to live performances.
Apart from that Jackson sold more Albums in the modern era than Elvis and the Beatles who sold the bulk of their records in the 1950's and 1960's when the industry was still in its infancy.
Jackson also has the greatest and biggest selling of ALL TIME, the 1982 classic "Thriller" which according to latest estimates has sold in the region of 70 million copies worldwide.
Early years:
From the time Michael Jackson burst onto the scene in 1969 as the lead vocalist with his brothers as part of the Jackson 5, with the smash hit, "I Want you Back" one could see that Michael was a special and unique talent.
Although this should not be a surprise because before Michael and his brothers were signed by the legendary Motown record label, Michael's father Joseph Jackson was behind the scenes polishing his sons' every move and disciplining them.
The Jackson 5 with Michael as lead vocalist, with the guidance of Berry Gordy's Motown label, had a string of hits in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Such hits include 'ABC', 'I'll be there', 'Blame it on the Boogie' and ain't nothing like the real thing.
By the mid 1970's the group's relationship with Motown began to get sour, because the guys wanted more creative control over their work - something that Motown did not approve of.
As a result of this the Jackson 5 left Motown in 1976 and sign to Epic Records in the process losing their original name and becoming the Jacksons and Jermaine Jackson opting to stay at Motown.
The phenomenal success of the Jackson 5 with Michael on lead vocals opened the way for a host of boy bands to emerge. Bands such as The Osmond's, Boyz II Men, New Kids on the Block and Westlife were ALL influenced by the Jackson 5.
Michael had experienced success as a solo artist in 1972 with the ballad Ben and in 1979 released his debut solo album 'Off the Wall'. This album saw his first collaboration with legendary music producer Quincy Jones.
Jackson met Jones in 1978 when they were involved in Jackson's remake of the classic film the Wizard of Oz.
"Off the Wall" saw Jackson collaborate with a number of other writers and performers such as Paul McCartney, Steve Wonder and Rod Temperton.
Jackson wrote several of the songs himself, including the lead single, "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough".
The record was a departure from Jackson's previous work for Motown. Several critics observed that Off the Wall was crafted from funk, disco-pop, soul, soft rock, jazz and pop ballads.
Jackson received positive reviews for his vocal performance on the record.
The record gained positive reviews and won the singer his first Grammy Awards since the early 1970s. With Off the Wall, Jackson became the first solo artist to have four singles from the same album peak inside the top 10 of the US Billboard Hot 100.
The album was a huge commercial success selling up to 20 million copies worldwide.
Thriller
With Jackson's worldwide appeal firmly established with "Off the Wall" and with his reputation as a singer and songwriter gaining favour, the time was right to deliver his second solo album.
Assisted by producer Quincy Jones, Jackson wrote four of Thriller's nine tracks. Following the release of the album's first single "The Girl Is Mine", some observers assumed Thriller would only be a minor hit record.
With the release of the second single "Billie Jean", the album topped the charts in many countries. At its peak, the album was selling a million copies a week worldwide. In just over a year, Thriller became-and currently remains-the best-selling album of all time.
Seven of the album's nine songs were released as singles, the first time any artist had achieved this, and all reached the top 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The album won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards at the 1984 Grammys.
Thriller cemented Jackson's status as one of the predominant pop stars of the late 20th century, and enabled him to break down racial barriers via his appearances on MTV and meetings with President Ronald Reagan at the White House.
The album was one of the first to use music videos as successful promotional tools - the videos for "Thriller", "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" all received regular rotation on MTV.
However, Thriller changed all of that with groundbreaking and mesmerizing videos like Beat it, Billie Jean and the title track Thriller, making other artists realize the power and effectiveness of the music video.
Again Thriller changed the racial boundaries that existed in the music industry. In 1981 MTV (Music Television) was launched as an exciting new channel in which to promote music to a global audience.
In MTV's early days Black artists were not allowed to have their videos aired on MTV because the producers of MTV thought that videos by Black artists would not have mass appeal.
However, they were proved wrong - strongly influenced by Jackson's record label Epic/CBS to play Michael Jackson's Billie Jean, which proved to be a phenomenal success on MTV with record audiences. Subsequent Jackson videos like Beat it and Thriller were also greatly played on MTV.
The successes of Jackson's videos lead to three things:
1. The viability of a music channel such as MTV to play music videos to a global audience.
2. Created a situation where Black artists were now allowed on MTV to air their music videos
3. That video became an important tool in the promotion of an artist to the global market.
The phenomenal success of Thriller put Jackson on a pedestal as the artist of the time. Another groundbreaking aspect of thriller was that the single of the same name was made into an hour long video entitled "The making of Thriller", which saw how producer John Landis and Michael Jackson worked together to bring about this great masterpiece.
The making of Thriller is the biggest selling music video of all time selling upwards of 1 million copies.
Jackson's attorney John Branca noted that Jackson had the highest royalty rate in the music industry at that point; approximately $US2 for every album sold.
Time summed up Thriller's impact as a "restoration of confidence" for an industry bordering on "the ruins of punk and the chic regions of synthesizer pop". The publication described Jackson's influence at that point as "Star of records, radio, rock video. A one-man rescue team for the music business. A songwriter who sets the beat for a decade. A dancer with the fanciest feet on the street. A singer who cuts across all boundaries of taste and style and color too".
The New York Times called him a "musical phenomenon", saying that "in the world of pop music, there is Michael Jackson and there is everybody else". According to the Washington Post, Thriller paved the way for other Afrikan-American acts such as Prince.
In 1985 Jackson co-wrote the charity single "We Are the World" with Lionel Richie, which was released worldwide to aid the poor in Africa and the US. He was one of 39 music celebrities who performed on the record. The single became one of the best-selling singles of all time, with nearly 20 million copies sold and millions of dollars donated to famine relief.
Bad
With the industry expecting another major hit, Jackson's first album in five years, Bad (1987), was highly anticipated. Bad had lower sales than Thriller, but was still a substantial commercial success.
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