How to Remember Michael Jackson's Music, Dance, and His Impact on the World

Michael Jackson has changed the face of music forever. His creative dance moves, lyrics and beats had a major impact on the entertainment industry, which shaped many of today's artists, like Usher and Justin Timberlake. Michael Jackson broke many barriers in the music industry and brought nations together through his music. His music will live on for generations to come and will be forever inside our hearts. Michael Jackson was a true legend and will be forever missed by the world.

LEARN WHERE MICHAEL JACKSON CAME FROM AND HOW HE GOT STARTED IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY.

Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana and passed away on June 25, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. Michael was the seventh child of Joe and Katherine Jackson. The Jacksons have a total of nine children, Rebbie, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, La Toya, Marlon, Michael, Randy and Janet. All have music careers in their own right. In 1964, Michael Jackson first appeared on the music scene as a part of the Jackson 5 with his brothers, Jackie, Jermaine, Marlon, and Tito. They won the amateur night at the Harlem's Apollo Theater in 1967. Making the group a true Apollo legend. In 1969, Jackson 5 was picked up by Motown and made hits after hits, like "I Want You Back ","ABC", and "Never Can Say Goodbye". Michael Jackson made many solo songs, like "Got to Be There","Ben",and "Rockin Robin" in 1971, while still with the Jackson 5. His dance moves were inspired by James Brown as a child. He also took other dance moves from Fred Astaire, Sammy Davis, Jackie Wilson, from break dancing(moonwalk), from ballet and many more to create his genius dance steps. The Jackson 5 went from performing at small black night clubs to performing on many television shows, like Ed Sullivan, Sonny and Cher, Carol Burnett, Soul Train, American Bandstand, and other shows around the world. They even had their own shows. The Jackson 5 variety show in 1976 and a Saturday morning cartoon show, called Jackson 5ive that ran from September 11, 1971 to September 1,1973. The Jacksons were the first black family to have a variety show.

 1979 Off the Wall

LEARN HOW HE BECAME A MEGASTAR AND A SENSATION AROUND THE WORLD.
Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones decided to team up together to produce an album, during the shooting of The Wiz in 1978. In 1979, they produced the Off The Wall album that topped the charts and sold millions. On November 30, 1982, Michael Jackson's Thriller album from Epic records, became the best-selling album of all times and made him a household name worldwide, with hits like "Billie Jean", "Thriller", and "Beat It". No other artist's album has yet, surpass Michael Jackson's Thriller album in sales. Michael Jackson became the King of Pop and millions of people were fascinated by him. In 1987, Michael Jackson released his Bad album, which was very successful. However, it did not surpass his Thriller album sales. He had hits, like "The Way You Make Me Feel "," Man in the Mirror",and "Bad". In 1988, Michael Jackson wrote an autobiography called Moonwalk, which revealed the physical and mental abuse at the hands of his father. This book also discusses his plastic surgeries. Moonwalk made it to the New York Times bestseller's list. His even created a film named Moonwalker that featured his videos, live performances, and many more. Michael Jackson's Dangerous album was his eighth one in 1991, renewing his contract with Sony for 65 million dollars. He had more freedom than others with high royalty pay, freedom to create music and freedom to even have his own record label. Teddy Riley collaborated with Michael Jackson on Dangerous to give it that "New Jack Swing" sound of the early 1990s. Dangerous had hits , like "Remember the Time", "Black or White ","Jam" and "Heal the World". In June 20,1995, Michael Jackson released a double album named HIStory, which was a compilation of his hits on one CD and new hits on the other. History was the best selling double album of all times and featured songs like, "Scream" with his sister Janet, "They don't care about us","You are not alone" and "Billie Jean". In 1997, Michael Jackson released the Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix, which was the best selling remix album of all times as of 2007. It included eight remixes from History and five new songs like, "Scream Louder". In October of 2001, Michael Jackson released "Invincible", which was a success, but sold significantly lower than the previous albums. Michael Jackson was leaving Sony, because he claimed that Tony Mottola was a racist and did not support his black artists.

LEARN WHAT BARRIERS MICHAEL JACKSON BROKE.
Music Television known as MTV came on the seen in the early 1980s, but only featured a hand few of Black artists at the time, like Eddy Grant, Donna Summers, and Tina Turner. They did not play any music videos by Rick James who was a popular singer and who topped the charts in the early 1980s. MTV claimed that his music did not fit their genre. Rick James said that this was "blatantly racism". Michael Jackson earlier videos from Off The Wall album were not played on MTV as well, but were played on BET's Video Soul. In 1981, Video Soul was created, because of MTV's refusal to feature a spectrum of black artists. Les Garland claimed that there were no videos being made by black artists at the time is false. Video Soul is proof that there were plenty of videos.

However, due to Michael Jackson's rising sensational fame and pressure from the Epic's record executives, MTV was forced to play his videos. He was the first black artist that was not of rock genre to be played continuously throughout the day on MTV, which caused their rating to soar. Michael Jackson helped made MTV very popular and put them on the map. This gave more play time to other artists as well, like Prince. They had to rethink about their music programming. MTV went from excluding to exclusively playing black artists from different music genres, thank to Michael Jackson. The color barrier on MTV was broken.

Michael Jackson received a Presidential Humanitarian Award from president Reagan in 1984 and in 1989 received "Artist of the Decade Award" from president George H.W. Bush.

Michael Jackson in March 2009

He music alone had an impact on people's daily lives and inspired many of today's artists. You can hear his music around the world at any time or any hour. One major impact he had on people was his dance moves and fashion style, especially during the 1980s. The leather jacket that he wore with the zippers, became the new fashion trend. T-shirt were made with Michael Jackson's songs, like "Beat It", "Thriller", and "Billie Jeans" that were worn by many. The glove with glitters, his pants, hair, sun glasses and his look became a must have for many young gentlemen.

Michael Jackson was a humanitarian and gave millions to charities worldwide, like United Negro College Fund. Heal the world foundation was created by Michael Jackson to help underprivileged and sick children worldwide. He was a very compassionate and loving human being.
Michael Jackson co-wrote the song "We Are the World" with Lionel Riche in 1985 for USA for Africa, which featured many other artists on this song, like Ray Charles, Diana Ross, Willie Nelson,Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen and many more artists.
Michael Jackson was crowned as a king in Gabon,Ivory Coast of West Africa during 1992. He drew the largest rating ever in American history during half-time of the Superbowl in 1993. Michael Jackson was on a stamp in the Virgin Islands, during the 1980s.

 Remember the goodness that Michael Jackson brought into the world. Study more about Michael Jackson's legacy, seek the truth about him. Please feel free to leave a comment about the remembrance of Michael Jackson

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images,Photo by Dave M. Benett/Getty Images,Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images, Off the Wall album's cover