Portal:Michael Jackson

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Michael Joseph Jackson was an American singer, dancer, and entertainer. Referred to as the King of Pop, he is the most commercially successful and one of the most influential entertainers of all time. His unique contributions to music, dance, and fashion, along with a highly publicized personal life, made him a prominent global figure in popular culture for over four decades.

Michael Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, as the eighth of ten children in Gary, Indiana, an industrial suburb of Chicago, to an African American working-class family. His mother, Katherine Esther Scruse, was a devout Jehovah's Witness, and his father, Joseph Walter "Joe" Jackson, a steel mill worker who performed with an R&B band called The Falcons. Jackson had three sisters: Rebbie, La Toya, and Janet, and six brothers: Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, Brandon and Randy.

Alongside his brothers, he made his debut in 1964 as lead singer and youngest member of The Jackson 5, and later began a successful solo career in 1971. His 1982 album Thriller remains the best-selling album of all time, with Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991), and HIStory (1995) also among the world's best selling albums. He is widely credited with having transformed the music video from a promotional tool into an art form with videos for his songs such as "Billie Jean", "Beat It" and "Thriller" making him the first African American artist to amass a strong crossover following on MTV. With stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of physically complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk. His distinctive musical sound, vocal style, and choreography, is credited with stretching across and breaking down cultural, racial, economic, generational, and global barriers that has inspired countless pop, rock, R&B and hip hop artists.

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"Stark Raving Dad" is the season premiere episode of The Simpsons third season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 19, 1991. In the episode, Homer is forced to wear a pink shirt to work one day and is mistaken for a "free thinking anarchist" and sent to a mental institution. He shares a room with a large white man who acts as if he were Michael Jackson.

Al Jean and Mike Reiss wrote the episode while Rich Moore served as director. It was the final episode produced for the previous season and aired during the third season as a holdover. Michael Jackson guest stars as Leon Kompowsky's speaking voice, while his singing is provided by Kipp Lennon. For contractual reasons, Jackson was credited as John Jay Smith, and his role in the episode was not officially confirmed until later. Kompowsky was originally set to return in a second episode, except voiced by Prince, but the episode was never produced.

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"Moonwalk" is an autobiography written by American musician Michael Jackson. The book was first published in February 1988, a year after the release of Jackson's Bad album, and named after Jackson's signature dance move, the moonwalk. The book was edited by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and reached number one on the New York Times Best Seller list. The title of Moonwalk was derived from Michael Jacksons signature dance move, the moonwalk. The moonwalk presents the illusion that the dancer is stepping forward while actually moving backward. The dance move gained widespread popularity after being performed by Jackson on the 1983 television special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, and has since become the most well known dance move in the world.

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"Human Nature" is an R&B song by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was written by Steve Porcaro and John Bettis, and produced by Quincy Jones for the singer's sixth solo album, Thriller (1982). Steve Porcaro wrote the music for his daughter Heather Porcaro. Initially, Porcaro had recorded a rough demo of the song on a cassette, which was then given to Jones. Enjoying the demo, Jones had the ballad included on the Thriller album. The song was the last selected for the album, ousting "Carousel" from the final track listing.

"Human Nature" was released on July 3, 1983, as the album's fifth single. Although not released in the UK, the song achieved chart success in the US. Reaching number two on Billboard's Hot Adult Contemporary chart and number seven on the Hot 100, the song became Jackson's fifth Top 10 hit from Thriller. In New Zealand the single reached number 11. The ballad garnered many positive reviews from music critics. "Human Nature" has been covered and sampled by numerous artists, including Miles Davis, SWV, Nas, Jason Nevins and Boyz II Men.

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  • ... that Lenny Kravitz wrote the leaked Michael Jackson song "Another Day"?
  • ... that writer Francis Wheen criticized Michael Jackson's book Dancing the Dream and thanked God that "none" of Jackson's fans could read?
  • ... that during Michael Jackson's This Is It concert tour the website that handles pre-sale ticket registration could not deal with the traffic16,000 applications a second?

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Thriller is Michael Jackson sixth studio album released on November 30, 1982 by Epic Records as the follow-up to Jackson's critically and commercially successful 1979 album Off the Wall. Thriller explores similar genres to those of Off the Wall, including funk, soul, pop, easy listening, R&B, rock and post-disco music.

With a production budget of $750,000, recording sessions took place between April and November 1982 at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California. Assisted by producer Quincy Jones, Jackson wrote four of Thriller's nine tracks. In just over a year, Thriller becameand currently remainsthe best-selling album of all time, with estimated sales 100-110 million copies worldwide, as well as the best-selling album in the United States. Seven of the album's nine songs were released as singles, and all reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards at the 1984 Grammys.

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Statue of Michael Jackson in Eindhoven, the Netherlands


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