Michael Jackson Totally Explained

Everything about Michael Jackson totally explained

Michael Joseph Jackson (born August 29, 1958) is an American musician and entertainer. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene at the age of eleven as a member of the Jackson 5. Jackson went on to begin a solo career in 1972, becoming a pop icon and named the "King of Pop", in subsequent years. Five of his studio albums, Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995), have become some of the world's best selling pop records.
   Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music in the late 1970s as the first black entertainer to amass a strong crossover following on MTV. The popularity of his videos aired on MTV, such as "Beat It" and "Billie Jean", helped to put the relatively young channel "on the map", while videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" made Jackson a staple on MTV into the 1990s. He transformed the music video into an art form and a promotional tool as well. Jackson popularized physically complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, along with a distinctive musical sound and vocal style that have influenced numerous hip hop, pop, and R&B artists.
   Jackson has donated and raised several hundred million dollars for beneficial causes, through his Dangerous World Tour, charity singles and support of thirty-nine charities. However other aspects of his personal life has generated significant controversy; plastic surgery, a lightening skin tone due to vitiligo and eccentric behavior have damaged his reputation among the public. He was accused of child sexual abuse in 1993, although the matter was settled out of court. Jackson was tried, and later acquitted, of further child molestation allegations and several other charges in 2005. Jackson has been the subject of long term financial difficulties and health concerns.
   Jackson is one of few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. His awards include eight Guinness World Records—including one for Thriller, as the worlds best selling album—thirteen Grammy Awards, thirteen number one singles in his solo career, and the sale of over 750 million units worldwide. Jackson's highly publicized personal life, coupled with his successful career has made him a part of pop culture for almost four decades.

Biography

1958–1975: Early life and career

Michael Joseph Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana to a working-class family. Joseph Jackson was a steel mill employee who often performed in an R&B band known as "The Falcons" with his brother, Luther. Katherine, a Jehovah's Witness, raised the children in that faith. Rolling Stone described the young Jackson as "a prodigy" with "overwhelming musical gifts", noting that after Jackson began to dance and sing with his brothers, "he quickly emerged as the main draw and lead singer."
   The fledgling group set a record when all of their first four singles ("I Want You Back", "ABC", "The Love You Save", and "I'll Be There") charted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. During the Jackson 5's early years, Motown's public relations team shortened Michael's age from eleven to nine to make him appear cuter and more accessible to the mainstream audience. Starting in 1972 Jackson released a total of four solo studio albums with Motown, among them Got to Be There and Ben. These were released as part of the Jackson 5 franchise and produced successful singles such as "Got to Be There", "Ben", and a remake of Bobby Day's "Rockin' Robin". Between 1971 and 1975, Michael's voice, according to Rolling Stone, "descended ever so slightly from boy soprano to his current androgynous high tenor." Motown Records subsequently sued the group for breach of contract; as a result of the legal proceedings, which were further complicated by the fact that Jermaine Jackson was married to the daughter of Motown president Berry Gordy, the Jacksons lost the rights to use the "Jackson 5" name and logo. Jermaine left the group, choosing to stay at Motown, and the group changed their name to "The Jacksons", featuring youngest brother Randy in Jermaine's place.
   After the name change, the group's successful career continued, as they toured internationally and released six more albums between 1976 and 1984. Jermaine re-joined in 1983, making "The Jacksons" a sextet. From 1976 to 1984, Michael was the lead songwriter of the group, writing hits such as "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)", "This Place Hotel" and "Can You Feel It". The songs for the musical were arranged by Quincy Jones, who established a partnership with Jackson during the film's production and agreed to produce the singer's next solo album. Off the Wall, issued in 1979, was the first album in music history to have four US top-ten hits, including number one hits "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Rock with You". Quincy Jones and Jackson jointly produced the album, while the lyrics and music were variously composed by Jackson, Heatwave's Rod Temperton, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney, among others. The album eventually sold over fifteen million copies worldwide. Despite its commercial success, Jackson felt the album should have made a much bigger impact and was determined to exceed expectations with his next release.
   In January 1980, Jackson won three awards for his solo efforts at the American Music Awards; these included Favorite Soul/R&B Album, Favorite Male Soul/R&B Artist, and Favorite Soul/R&B Single (for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough"). and in 2008, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

1982–1986: Thriller

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was released, including Jackson's song "Someone in the Dark"; the record won a Grammy for Best Album for Children. A few weeks later Jackson issued his second Epic album, Thriller; it's one of only three albums to remain in the top ten of the Billboard 200 for a full year, spending eighty consecutive weeks there and thirty-seven of those weeks at number one. It was also the first of three albums to have seven Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 singles and the only album to be the best-seller in the United States for two years (1983–1984). Thriller has been certified 27x platinum by the RIAA, giving it Double Diamond Award status in the U.S., and sold 3.7 million copies in the United Kingdom. The album reached Diamond or Multi-Platinum status in a plethora of countries as well, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, and Spain. Though sales figures vary with different sources, the album is cited as selling between forty-five million and over one hundred million copies worldwide. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Thriller sold sixty-five million copies as of 2007.
   The album also became the first in history to spawn seven Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit singles, including "Billie Jean", "Beat It" and the album's title track, all of which were accompanied by music videos. "Billie Jean"'s video was the first by a black artist to receive regular airplay on MTV. The thirteen-minute "Thriller" video was critically acclaimed and had massive airplay. It was packaged with the featurette Making Michael Jackson's Thriller on VHS, where it became the best-selling music home video ever. A minor incident occurred on January 27, 1984, however; Jackson began filming two Pepsi Cola commercials in front of a simulated live audience at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. As he descended from a podium, fireworks set his hair alight, and he was taken out of the building on a stretcher in front of the public and photographers. The accident was the subject of heavy media scrutiny, with Jackson receiving sympathy from the public and fellow celebrities. Following his burning accident with Pepsi the cola manufacturer gave Jackson $1.5 million, an out of court settlement that he donated to the Michael Jackson Burn Centre. On May 14, 1984 Jackson was invited to the White House to receive an award presented by President Ronald Reagan. The event, notable because an African-American met a Republican president at the White House in the 1980s, was seen as a positive move forward in social views towards race. Thriller put black music on U.S. radio for the first time in years, paving the way for other acts, such as that of Prince.
   Jackson won eight awards during the 1984 Grammys (in 2008, the Thriller album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame). He donated his $5 million share from the Victory Tour to charity. The following year, on March 7, the charity single "We Are the World" was released worldwide to aid people in Africa and the United States. Written primarily by Jackson with help from Lionel Richie, it became one of the best-selling singles of all time, with nearly 20 million copies sold and millions of dollars raised for charity. It was the first instance where Jackson became seen as a humanitarian. Thriller was an enormous hit that made Jackson the seminal icon of American culture at the time. At the age of 25, the New York Times called him a "musical phenomenon," further commenting that "in the world of pop music, there's Michael Jackson and there's everybody else." Time magazine argued that "the fallout from Thriller has given the [music] business its best years since the heady days of 1978."
   Stories of Jackson sleeping in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to stall the human process of aging, and allegations that Jackson attempted to purchase the bones of the Elephant Man, began surfacing in tabloids around this time. These inspired the pejorative epithet "Wacko Jacko," a name that Jackson would acquire the following year and came to despise.
   In 1986, Jackson starred in the George Lucas-produced, Francis Ford Coppola-directed 3-D film Captain EO. It was the most expensive film produced on a per-minute basis at the time, and was later hosted in some Disney theme parks. Disneyland featured the film in its Tomorrowland area for nearly eleven years, while Walt Disney World screened the film in its Epcot theme park from 1986 to 1994.

1987–1990: Bad

In 1987, Jackson released Bad; his third album from the Epic Records label, and the final album with producer Quincy Jones. Jackson hired film director Martin Scorsese to direct the video for the album's title track. When the 18-minute music video debuted, it sparked controversy as Jackson's physical appearance had significantly changed. Bad had lower sales when compared to Thriller, but was still a significant commercial success. In the United States, it spawned seven hit singles, five of which went to number one: "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror", and "Dirty Diana". Two decades after it was released, Bad still holds the record for generating more #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 charts than any other album. It went on to sell over 29 million copies worldwide, had over 2 million advance orders, and sold 3.6 million copies in the UK. At the 1993 Grammy Awards, the album was acknowledged as the second best-selling album of all time, but has since been overtaken. The tour lasted 16 months, as Jackson performed 123 concerts to 4.5 million fans.
This period saw Jackson experience high levels of stardom, previously known to Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and Frank Sinatra, among others. This success led to him to be dubbed the "King of Pop", a nickname conceived by actress and friend Elizabeth Taylor when she presented Jackson with an "Artist of the Decade" award in 1989, proclaiming him "the true king of pop, rock and soul."
From 1985 to 1990, Jackson donated $500,000 to the United Negro College Fund and all profits from his 1988 hit single "Man in the Mirror" went to charity.

1991–1994: Dangerous

In November 1991, Jackson issued Dangerous, which has 7 million shipments in the United States, sold 2 million copies in the UK and sold 27 million copies worldwide,
   The biggest hit single in the United States from the album was "Black or White", which reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remained there for seven weeks, with similar performances around the world. The single was accompanied by a controversial music video, which, on November 14, 1991, simultaneously premiered in 27 countries with an estimated audience of 500 million people, the largest viewing ever for a music video.
   The second single released from Dangerous was "Remember The Time", which spent eight weeks in the Top Five in the United States and hit a peak at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. In 1993, Jackson performed the song at the Soul Train Awards in a wheel chair saying he'd an injury in rehearsals. At the ceremony, he was given three awards: "Best Male Single" of the year for "Remember The Time", "Best R&B Album" for Dangerous, and a Humanitarian Award for his charitable contributions to date. In the UK, as well as other parts of Europe, "Heal the World" was the biggest hit from the album. In Britain, it sold 450,000 copies alone and spent five weeks at #2 in 1992. All profits from the Dangerous World Tour went to his foundation, raising many millions of dollars in relief.
   Later that year, Jackson made a high-profile visit to Africa, in which he visited several countries, among them Gabon and Egypt. His first stop to Gabon was greeted with a sizable reception of more than 100,000 people in "spiritual bedlam", some of them carrying signs that read, "Welcome Home Michael". Jackson was given the "Living Legend Award" at the 35th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.
   In 1993, it was revealed that Jackson often allowed children to sleepover at his Neverland ranch, a fact which came under much media and public scrutiny when child molestation allegations were brought against him by a child who had stayed with him on several occasions. Also that year, Jordan Chandler, the son of former Beverly Hills dentist Evan Chandler, represented by civil lawyer Larry Feldman, accused Jackson of child sexual abuse. On December 22, Jackson responded to the allegations via satellite from his Neverland compound and claimed he was "totally innocent of any wrongdoing". In January of 1994, Jackson settled the issue out of court with the accuser for an undisclosed sum, reported to be $20 million and the family dropped the charges.
   Later that year, Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis Presley. They first meet in 1974, during one of Jacksons family engagements at the MGM Grand and were reconnected through a mutual friend in early 1993. After that they stayed in contact every day over the telephone. As child molestation accusations became public Jackson became dependant on Lisa Marie for emotional support, she was concerned about his faltering health and his addiction to drugs. Lisa Marie explained, "I believed he didn't do anything wrong, and that he was wrongly accused and, yes, I started falling for him. I wanted to save him. I felt that I could do it." In one phone call he made to her, she described him as high, incoherent and delusional. Shortly afterwards she tried to persuade Jackson to settle the allegations out of court and go into rehabilitation to recover.
   Jackson proposed to Lisa Marie, over the telephone, towards the fall of 1993, saying "If I asked you to marry me, would you do it?". The marriage was, in her words, "a married couple's life ... that was sexually active". They divorced less than two years later, remaining friends.

1995–1999: HIStory

In June 1995, Jackson released HIStory: Past, Present And Future — Book I, It debuted at number one on the charts while being certified for seven million shipments in the United States and selling 1.5 million copies in the UK. The music video for "Scream" is one of his most critically acclaimed, winning three MTV awards in 1995, a Grammy in 1996, "You Are Not Alone" was the second single released from HIStory and would become the first song ever to debut at number one on the Hot 100, The song topped the United Kingdom singles chart for six weeks over Christmas 1995 and sold one million copies, making it his most successful single in Britain. Jackson showed a shift in his concerns to environmental issues and ended the night with a message asking for donations for his "Heal the World Foundation".
In 1996, at the BRIT awards, Jackson was given a special "Artist of a Generation" award.
On November 13 of that year, during the Australian leg of the HIStory World Tour, Jackson married his dermatologist's nurse, Deborah Jeanne Rowe, with whom he fathered a son, Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr. (also known as "Prince"), and a daughter, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson. They first meet in the early 1980s when Jackson was diagnosed with Vitiligo. Originally there were no plans to marry but following Rowes first pregnancy, Jacksons mother intervened and persuaded them to. The couple divorced in 1999, with Rowe giving full custody rights of the children over to Jackson. In the United States, the album was certified platinum but only reached number twenty-four. The short film, written by Jackson and Stephen King and directed by Stan Winston, features many special effects and dance moves choreographed to original music, which Jackson himself authored. The music video for "Ghosts" is over 35 minutes long and holds the record as the world's longest music video.

2001–2002: Invincible

In October 2001, Invincible was issued, debuted at number one in thirteen countries, this included a double platinum certification in the United States. negative reviewers often discussed the singer's perceived eccentric image rather than the music. Just before the release of Invincible, Jackson informed the head of Sony Music Entertainment, Tommy Mottola, that he wasn't going to renew his contract; using them merely for his own personal gain.
On September 7 and September 10, 2001 Jackson organized a special at Madison Square Garden for his 30th year of being a solo artist. The show aired on November 13 and featured performances by Mýa, Usher, Whitney Houston, 'N Sync, the Jacksons, Slash, among other artists. The mothers identity hasn't been released by Jackson but he's said it was the result of artificial insemination, from a surrogate mother and his own sperm cells. In November of that year, a media frenzy, resulting from a picture of Jackson holding his newborn baby outside a hotel window, began. He was surrounded by fans outside his room at the Hotel Adlon who were chanting in support of the singer, who were called out to see his son. In response, Jackson brought his son onto the balcony, holding him in his right arm with a cloth loosely draped over the baby's face in order to protect his identity from the media; this included Jackson briefly extending the baby over the railing of the balcony.

2003–2006: Living with Michael Jackson and People v. Jackson

In November 2003, Jackson and Sony Records put out a compilation of his number-one hits on CD and DVD titled Number Ones, which sold over 6 million copies worldwide. In the United States it peaked at #13, it has been certified platinum by the RIAA, and in the UK it sold 1.5 million copies. The felony complaint stated that Jackson had committed seven lewd acts and two acts of administration of an intoxicating agent to enable the former accusations. Jackson denied these allegations, saying that the sleepovers were in no way sexual in nature. Jackson's friend, Elizabeth Taylor, defended him on Larry King Live, saying that she'd been there when they "were in the bed, watching television. There was nothing abnormal about it. There was no touchy-feely going on. We laughed like children, and we watched a lot of Walt Disney. There was nothing odd about it."
   The People v. Jackson trial began in Santa Maria, California on January 31, 2005, and lasted until the end of May 2005; Jackson was acquitted on all counts in June. The District Attorney of Santa Barbara County, Tom Sneddon, has led two efforts against Jackson involving child molestation. These prosecutions have led to complaints that Sneddon was motivated by a "vendetta" against Jackson. Evidence to support these claims include Sneddon joking about Jackson's greatest hits album being released on the same day as his arrest, calling Jackson "Wacko Jacko," and shouting "we got him, we finally got him" to the media, when he'd just began an investigation and gathered limited information or evidence.
   Following the trial, Jackson relocated to the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain, where he reportedly bought a house formerly owned by a Bahrain Member of Parliament. In September 2005, it was announced that Jackson was producing an all-star charity single — entitled "I Have This Dream" — to help raise relief funds for victims of Hurricane Katrina. The single hasn't yet been released.
   Beginning in February 2006, Sony BMG released to the European market: a series of twenty of his biggest hit singles of the 1980s and 1990s. Each single was issued weekly over a five-month period in DualDisc format (DVD video on one side, CD audio on the other), and the whole group of discs was made available as a boxed set afterwards. The boxed set was released in the United States on November 14, 2006. Jackson's first documented public appearance since his trial was in November 2006 when he visited the London office of the Guinness World Records. There, he received eight awards, among them "First Entertainer to Earn More Than 100 Million Dollars in a Year" and "First Entertainer to Sell More Than 100 Million Albums Outside the United States". Jackson was awarded the Diamond Award on November 15, 2006 for selling over 100 million albums at the World Music Awards.
   Following the death of James Brown, Jackson returned to the United States to pay his respects. He, along with more than 8,000 people, paid tribute during Brown's public funeral on December 30, 2006. In late 2006 Jackson agreed to share joint custody of his first two children with his second ex-wife.

2008: 25th anniversary of Thriller

On February 11, 2008, Jackson issued Thriller 25, a 25th anniversary edition of his top-selling album Thriller. The album consists of two discs; disc one contains the original nine tracks from Thriller, five remixed Thriller tracks, a song originally recorded in the Thriller era called "For All Time", a voice over by Vincent Price, and included renditions by will.i.am, Fergie, Kanye West, and Akon, with single releases alongside the album. Disc two is a DVD which contains the three music videos from "Thriller" and Jackson's performance of "Billie Jean" at Motown 25. Internationally, "The Girl Is Mine 2008" was released as a single, while in the United States, "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' 2008" was the first single, both of which were moderately successful. Thriller 25 was a commercial success, having done particularly well as a re-issue, peaking at number one in eight countries, Europe and the United World Chart. It reached number two in the United States, number three in the United Kingdom, and Top 10 on over thirty national charts. In the United States, Thriller 25 was just 14,000 copies short of reaching the number one position selling 166,000 copies. It was ineligible for the Billboard 200 chart as a re-release, but entered the Pop Catalog Charts at number one, where it stayed for ten non-consecutive weeks and had the best sales on that chart since December 1996. This was Jackson's best launch since Invincible in 2001, in 12 weeks the album had sold 556,000 copies in the US, 1.8 million copies worldwide and shipped 3 million copies.

Legacy and influence

Jackson's successful career has made him a part of pop culture for almost four decades. The popularity of his videos aired on MTV, such as "Beat It" and "Billie Jean", helped to put the relatively young channel "on the map", while videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" made Jackson a staple on MTV into the 1990s. He popularized physically complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, along with a distinctive musical sound and vocal style that have influenced numerous hip hop, pop, and R&B artists.
Throughout his four-decade career, he received numerous honors and awards, including the World Music Award's Best-Selling Pop Male Artist of the Millennium, the American Music Award's Artist of the Century Award, He is a double-inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (once as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1997 and later as a solo artist in 2001) His awards include eight Guinness World Records, thirteen Grammy Awards, thirteen number one singles in his solo career, and the sale of over 750 million units worldwide. He is characterized as "an unstoppable juggernaut, possessed of all the tools to dominate the charts seemingly at will: an instantly identifiable voice, eye-popping dance moves, stunning musical versatility, and loads of sheer star power". In 1990, Vanity Fair named him the "Most popular artist in the history of show business". Jackson's work has influenced and spawned a whole generation of a wide variety of artists, including Mariah Carey, Usher, Britney Spears,Ciara, Ne-Yo, and Chris Brown, among others.

Style and performance

Among the most celebrated aspects of Jackson's career have been his dance, which has given rise to impersonators all over the world. In 1984, Time magazine commented on Jackson's notable style. On March 25, 1983, Jackson debuted "Billie Jean" before a live audience during taping of the tribute special Motown 25. Dressed in a glittery black jacket, sparkling silver shirt, tight black pants cuffed high to showcase, white spangled socks, black penny loafers, and a single sequined glove, Jackson signalled the start of his routine by grabbing his crotch and snapping a black fedora to his head. Halfway through the performance Jackson threw his fedora into the crowd. It was during this performance that Jackson debuted a set of dance moves, including the "Moonwalk", a name dubbed by the media, not Jackson. The "moonwalk" followed by a tornado spin, and balancing up on his toes; it has since gone on to become Jackson's trademark dance piece. The performance sealed his position as a dance legend up against the likes of Fred Astaire, and it's also said to match the effect on popular culture that Elvis Presley and The Beatles had when they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Despite Jackson lip-syncing his song, the audience rose to their feet giving an ovation, and the performance is often cited as one of the greatest live performances of all time. Upon its broadcast on May 16, over 47 million viewers witnessed Jackson's performance. The New York Times said, "The moonwalk that he made famous is an apt metaphor for his dance style. How does he do it? As a technician, he's a great illusionist, a genuine mime. His ability to keep one leg straight as he glides while the other bends and seems to walk requires perfect timing".
In the late 1980s, Jackson experimented with an innovative 'leaning' move in his music video performances, for which he was granted U.S. Patent 5,255,452. Jackson's later dancing, however, particularly during between 1987 and 1997, has been criticized as overly sexual or even violent, such as the ending of the video for "Black or White", which portrays Jackson demolishing a car while performing a number of highly-sexualized dance moves. He has been known to grab or touch his chest, torso, and crotch, both in live performances as well as in music videos such as "Bad" and "In The Closet". While he's described this as "choreography," it has garnered a mixed reception from both fans and critics, with Time magazine describing it as "infamous".
Jackson's outfits have been central components of his image. In the early 1980s he wore one sequined white glove, white socks (with short trousers to emphasize them), and sparkling jackets, including those used in the "Thriller" and "Beat it" music videos. From the late 1980s to late 1990s Jackson shifted to wearing fedoras, military jackets, shin pads, sunglasses, and plasters on his fingers. He continued to wear white socks with short trousers. More recently, Jackson rarely appears in flamboyant costumes, usually a red shirt, black full-length trousers and sunglasses. His hair has gone from short and curly to long and curly, and now to long and straight.

Themes and genres

Jackson's earlier material, such as Off the Wall and Thriller, focused almost exclusively on producing melodies and rhythms characteristics of pop songs. This preoccupation with musical accessibility would continue throughout his future work, even as the material became colored with various shifts and improvisations. Despite the light pop flavor of Jackson's early material, it already displayed foreshadowings of the contradictory thematic elements that would come to characterize his later work. For example, Thriller transitioned seamlessly from the melodious and comfortable sounds of "Lady in My Life" to "Billie Jean" and "Beat It", where women accused Jackson of fathering their children and the outside world seemed strange and hostile.
Some critics felt that Bad was focused too much on consolidating a traditional pop sound with the intention of breaking the records set by Jackson's previous albums, and that as a result the lyrics suffered in comparison to his earlier work. and received more critical acclaim than his previous Bad album. While Jackson continued to explore some of the themes of his previous work, such as the "predatory lover" motif, (which was continued on the title track to Dangerous) more and more of his music in this decade started addressing sociopolitical issues around the world, such as "Black or White", "Heal the World", "They Don't Care About Us", and "Earth Song". The music in Dangerous, described as a "a sonic machine world" with "synthetic basslines, swooshing scratched records, [and] clanking metallic noises", reflected old influences while absorbing new trends. This ability to incorporate new developments in the sound of pop music was made all the more pressing by the long intervals between Jackson's albums.

Physical appearance and health concerns

   Jackson's skin was a medium-brown color for the entire duration of his youth, but starting in the early 1980s, his skin gradually grew paler. This change gained widespread media coverage, including rumors that Jackson was bleaching his skin. However, in the early 1980s Jackson was diagnosed with vitiligo and lupus, the latter of which is potentially lethal but is in remission in Jackson's case. Both conditions make Jackson sensitive to overexposure to sunlight, which can cause his lupus condition to reawaken. Jackson first spoke publicly about vitiligo in a 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey. To treat both these conditions Jackson uses Solaquin, Retin A and Benoquin. He must also have hydroxychloroquin injected directly into his scalp regularly. Ironically, the treatments he uses for his condition further lightens his skin tone, and with the application of pancake makeup to even out his skin tone, he can appear very pale. In 1979, Jackson had his first rhinoplasty after breaking his nose during a complex dance routine. However the surgery wasn't a complete success and Jackson complained of breathing difficulties that would affect his career. He was referred to Dr. Steven Hoefflin, who would perform his second rhinoplasty, as well as more throughout his career. Jackson had his third rhinoplasty in 1984, another in 1986, and had a cleft put in his chin. Jackson wrote in his 1988 autobiography Moon Walk that he only had two rhinoplastic surgeries and the surgical creation of a cleft in his chin. In the book, he attributed the change in the structure of his face to puberty and a strict vegetarian diet.
   Some suggest that changes to his face are, in part, due to periods of significant weight loss. Jackson became slimmer in the early 1980s because of a change in diet and a desire for "a dancers body". By 1984, Jackson had dropped 20 pounds bringing his weight to 105 pounds, the slimmest he'd ever been. Witnesses reported that Jackson was often dizzy and speculated that he was suffering from anorexia nervosa. Following accusations of child molestation in 1993, Jackson began to stop eating, losing even more weight. In late 1995, Jackson was rushed to a hospital after collapsing during rehearsals for a televised performance, the incident was caused by a stress related panic attack. During his 2005 trial, the singer again suffered from stress related illnesses and severe weight loss.
   By the fall of 1993, Jackson was addicted to drugs. He began taking painkillers, Valium, Xanax and Ativan to deal with the stress of the allegations made against him. Jackson's health had deteriorated to the extent that he cancelled the remainder of his tour and went into rehabilitation for a few months. In January 2004 following his upcoming trial, Jackson was being treated for a "dependency" to morphine and Demerol.

Finances

A number of shrewd business moves early in his career helped Jackson accrue a sizeable fortune. In 1984, he paid for the Thriller music video using his own money, as his label felt the album had already been a success and that a third video was therefore unnecessary. The video was successful and Jackson garnered a sizeable profit. In 1984, he purchased The Beatles' back catalog (outbidding Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono) as well as the copyrights to thousands of other songs for $47.5 million. Jackson merged the catalog with Sony's publishing division in 1995, but retained half-ownership.
In 1988, he purchased property near Santa Ynez, California to build Neverland Ranch at a cost of $17 million. The property was valued at approximately $100 million in 2003. In 1989, his annual earnings from album sales, endorsements, and concerts was estimated at $125 million for that year alone. In the early 1990s, Jackson signed a renewed $65 million recording contract and sold the broadcast rights to his Dangerous world tour to HBO for $20 million, both of which were record-breaking deals at the time. Forbes placed his annual income at $35 million in 1996 and $20 million in 1997, despite his commercial peak ending several years prior.
In recent years, however, it has been reported that Jackson has experienced financial difficulties. In 1993, he settled a child-molestation lawsuit for an undisclosed sum, estimated to be between $15 million and $25 million. The negative publicity surrounding the settlement impacted his future earnings as well. One prominent financial issue for him concerned a $270 million loan secured against his music publishing holdings. After delayed repayments on the loan, a refinancing package in 2005 shifted the loans from Bank of America to debt specialists Fortress Investments. A new package proposed by Sony in April 2006 would have had Jackson borrow an additional $300 million and reduce the interest rate payable on the loan, while giving Sony the future option to buy half of Jackson's stake in their jointly-owned publishing company. In 2008, Fortress considered a foreclosure sale of Neverland Ranch to service the loan, but ultimately sold the debt to Colony Capital LLC in May of that year.

Discography

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