Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson was a singer, songwriter, dancer, and entertainer born in 1958 in Gary, Indiana, and who died in June 2009 at 50. The most commercially successful solo entertainer in the history of recorded music — with an estimated 750 million to one billion records sold worldwide — he transformed popular music, dance, and music video as cultural forms, and his personal mythology, artistic achievements, and troubled personal life have made him one of the most discussed and contested figures in 20th-century cultural history. Having begun his career as the youngest and most talented member of The Jackson 5, signed to Motown at age 8, he became the lead voice on a series of hits before launching his solo career with *Off The Wall* (1979, produced by Quincy Jones), which demonstrated a mature R&B and disco sensibility far beyond his years. *Thriller* (1982), again with Quincy Jones, is the best-selling album in recorded music history — estimates range from 66 to 100 million copies sold worldwide. 'Billie Jean,' 'Beat It,' 'Thriller,' 'Wanna Be Startin Somethin,' and 'Human Nature' each transformed their respective genres, while the 'Thriller' video — a 14-minute short film directed by John Landis — permanently elevated the art form. The moonwalk, debuted on the *Motown 25* television special in 1983, became one of the 20th century's most recognisable cultural images. *Bad* (1987) and *Dangerous* (1991, the best-selling album of the 1990s before *Thriller* was surpassed) maintained his commercial dominance. *HIStory: Past, Present and Future* (1995) and *Invincible* (2001) came amid increasing controversy, and his death from acute propofol intoxication during preparation for his *This Is It* concert residency denied him a planned final performance. The posthumous documentary *Leaving Neverland* (2019) and subsequent allegations have complicated his legacy in ways that continue to generate cultural debate.