The Top Ten Stories about Michael Jackson

The Top Ten Stories about Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson was in the public eye from a young age as a part of the Jackson 5, and like him the stories also started very early on.

Michael Joseph Jackson was born August 29, 1958 He had started performing at the age of 5 and by the age of 8 he was touring the Midwest extensively with the Jackson 5. He finally made his debut on the major music scene in 1968 as a member of the Jackson 5 at the age of 10.

Story Number 1: Childhood

It was in the first television interview that Michael Jackson had given since 1979 that he first spoke of the stories of his alleged childhood abuse. Michael Jackson admitted that he had often felt lonely as a child and cried as a result of this and of his fathers abuse. He revealed that he was physically and emotionally abused by his father in several different ways; enduring incessant rehearsals, beatings and verbal abuse. Marlon Jackson, Michael’s brother supposedly once stated that their father had “pummeled him over and over again with his hand, hitting him on his back and buttocks”.

Not only this but on one occasion, Joseph Jackson, the children’s father had apparently climbed into Michael’s room wearing a scary mask and had proceeded to scream and shout. Their father’s reasoning for this behavior is that he wanted to teach his children not to leave their windows open whilst they were sleeping. This kind of behavior quite obviously did more to damage Michael than teach him a simple lesson as Michael revealed in an interview that this incident have resulted in nightmares centered around kidnapping for years after.

In an interview with Martin Bashir, which was released in 2003, Michael said: “i didn’t have it that hard, he used me as the example, “do it like michael” … he practiced us with a belt in his hand and if you missed a step then expect to be hit…he would tear you up if you missed… really get you”. Although Michael did admit he had been abused by his father, in extra footage he suggested that ‘he hurt me with his love, be he is a genius, the man is a genius”.

Story Number 2: Thriller

On November 30, 1982 Jackson released his sixth studio album produced by Epic Records; Thriller. Thriller was the follow up album to ‘Off the Wall’, 9 of the tracks were written by MJ himself and it explored several different genres including funk, disco, soul, soft rock, R&B and pop.

At its best the album was selling a million copies a weed, worldwide and in just over a year it became, and still remains, the best selling album of all time and has risen to number one again after the singers death. It is estimated that the album sold an excess of 60 million copies around the globe. Seven of the songs were released as singles and all reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The album broke records winning eight Grammy Awards in 1984 in three different genres – pop, R&B and rock. It was Thriller that sent Jackson soaring into superstardom and cemented him as one of the predominant pop stars of the late 20th Century.

Thriller was one of the first albums and Michael one of the first artists to use videos as such a massive and successful promotional tool – the three main videos to be played on MTW were Thriller, Billie Jeans and Beat It.

The album ranked number 20 in the Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 greatest albums of all time in 2003 and was also listen by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers at number three in their ‘Definitive 200 Albums of All Time’.

Story Number 3: The Moonwalk

The Moonwalk or backslide is a dance technique that presents the illusion that the dancer is stepping forward while actually moving backward. It gives the appearance of a person moving along a conveyor belt. Michael Jackson’s first ever public moonwalk was supposedly in 1983 at the Motown 25th Anniversary whilst performing “Billie Jean”. Jackson was not the first person to perform the moonwalk and older stars have claimed that they taught him the move, but there is no doubt that he popularized the moonwalk and the robot dance moves and made them his own; the dance gained worldwide popularity after Michael Jackson performed it and soon to become considered his signature move. The moonwalk has since become one of the best known dance moves in the world.

Story Number 4: Bad

In his autobiography Jackson said that the song was about the street. A kid from a bad neighborhood who gets to go away to a private school. He comes back to the old neighborhood when he’s on a break from school and the kids from the neighborhood start giving him trouble. He sings “Im bad, you’re bad, who’s bad… etc” He’s saying when you’re strong and good then you are bad. Bad remained in the

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