Michael Jackson: Biography

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Michael Jackson.Image via Wikimedia Commons

Who Is Michael Jackson?

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is widely regarded as one of the most culturally significant figures of the 20th century. His musical achievements broke American racial barriers and made him a dominant figure worldwide. Through his songs, music videos, concerts, and fashion, he transformed visual performance in popular music, popularizing street dance moves such as the moonwalk, the robot, and the anti-gravity lean. Jackson is often deemed the greatest entertainer of all time.

The eighth of ten children in the Jackson family, Jackson made his public debut at age six as the lead singer of the Jackson 5. He rose to solo stardom with Off the Wall (1979) and achieved unprecedented global success with Thriller (1982), which became the best-selling album in history. The music videos for "Thriller", "Beat It", and "Billie Jean" redefined the medium. Bad (1987) was the first album to produce five US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles: "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror", and "Dirty Diana". Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995) were also successful. Jackson's final album, Invincible (2001), is the most expensive ever made.

From the mid-1980s, Jackson came under public scrutiny for his relationships, lifestyle, and changing appearance. He was accused of sexually abusing a child in 1993 and settled out of court in 1994. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted on other child sexual abuse charges. While preparing for This Is It, a series of comeback concerts, he died in 2009 from an overdose of propofol administered by his personal physician, Conrad Murray. His death caused unprecedented surges in internet traffic and a spike in music sales. Posthumous Jackson releases include the documentary Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009) and the albums Michael (2010) and Xscape (2014). The 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland detailed further child sexual abuse allegations against Jackson.

Early Life: Where Is Michael Jackson From?

Jackson is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with estimated sales of more than 500 million records worldwide as a solo artist. He is also one of three musicians, alongside Paul McCartney and Phil Collins, to have sold more than 100 million records both as a solo artist and as a principal member of a band. He scored 13 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and is the only artist to have a US top-ten single in six decades. His accolades include 13 Grammy Awards, the Grammy Legend Award, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, 26 American Music Awards, 12 World Music Awards, 8 MTV Video Music Awards, 6 Brit Awards, and 3 US presidential honors. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, as well as the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Dance Hall of Fame. Having donated an estimated $500 million, Jackson is credited with setting a standard for celebrity charity. The 2026 film Michael is the highest-grossing biographical film of all time, while Jackson's music catalog remains the highest-selling for any solo musician.

Life and career

Early life and the Jackson 5 (1958–1975)

Michael Jackson's Career and Major Works

Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana. He was the eighth of ten children in the Jackson family, an African-American working-class household living in a two-bedroom home on Jackson Street. His mother, Katherine Jackson (née Scruse), a Jehovah's Witness, played clarinet, cello, and piano; she aspired to be a country-and-western performer, and worked part-time at Sears. His father, Joe Jackson, was a former boxer and a crane operator at US Steel, who also played guitar for the local rhythm and blues group the Falcons. Through his father, Michael had Native American (Choctaw) ancestry; his great-grandfather, Israel Nero Jackson, utilized and sold traditional Indigenous herbal medicine, a practice passed down from his father, July "Jack" Gale, an US Army scout who had married a Black slave named Gina before the Civil War. Michael had three sisters—Rebbie, La Toya, and Janet—and five brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Randy. A sixth brother, Brandon, Marlon's twin, died shortly after birth.

Michael and Marlon joined the Jackson Brothers in 1964, a band their father formed that already included Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine. They initially performed as backup musicians, playing congas and tambourine. Michael later said that his father physically and emotionally abused him, recalling that during rehearsals Joe often sat with a belt in hand, ready to punish mistakes. Joe acknowledged that he regularly whipped him. Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon denied that their father was abusive, saying the whippings—felt more intensely by Michael because he was younger—kept the group disciplined. Michael described his youth as lonely.

By late 1965, Michael began sharing lead vocals with Jermaine, and the group's name was changed to the Jackson 5. They won a talent show that year in which Michael danced to Robert Parker's "Barefootin'" and sang the Temptations' "My Girl". From 1966 to 1968, the Jackson 5 toured throughout the Midwest, performing frequently on the Chitlin' Circuit as an opening act for artists such as Sam & Dave, the O'Jays, Gladys Knight, and Etta James. They also performed in clubs and cocktail lounges that featured striptease shows, as well as at local auditoriums and high school dances. In August 1967, while touring the East Coast, they won a weekly amateur night competition at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

Michael Jackson's Personal Life and Relationships

The Jackson 5 recorded several songs for the Gary-based label Steeltown Records, releasing their first single, "Big Boy", in 1968. Bobby Taylor of Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers brought the group to Motown after they opened for him at Chicago's Regal Theater that year. Taylor produced some of their early Motown recordings, including a version of "Who's Lovin' You". After signing with Motown, the Jackson family relocated to Los Angeles. In 1969, Motown executives decided that Diana Ross would introduce the Jackson 5 to the public—partly to support her emerging television career—launching what was considered Motown's final product of its "production line". The group made its first television appearance that year at the Miss Black America pageant, performing a cover of "It's Your Thing". Rolling Stone later described the young Michael as "a prodigy" with "overwhelming musical gifts" who quickly became the group's main attraction and lead singer.

In January 1970, "I Want You Back" became the Jackson 5's first single to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100, remaining at the top for four weeks. Three additional Motown singles—"ABC", "The Love You Save", and "I'll Be There"—also reached number one. In May 1971, the Jackson family moved into a large home on Hayvenhurst Avenue, a 2-acre (0.81 ha) estate in Encino, California. During this period, Michael developed from a child performer into a teen idol. Between 1972 and 1975, he released four solo studio albums with Motown: Got to Be There (1972), Ben (1972), Music & Me (1973), and Forever, Michael (1975). "Got to Be There" and "Ben", the title tracks from his first two solo albums, sold well as singles, as did his cover of Bobby Day's "Rockin' Robin".

Michael remained involved with the Jackson 5. The group was later described as "a cutting-edge example of black crossover artists". They grew frustrated with Motown's refusal to grant them creative input. Michael's performance of their top five single "Dancing Machine" on Soul Train helped popularize the robot dance.

Where Is Michael Jackson Now? Recent Years

Move to Epic and Off the Wall (1975–1981)

The Jackson 5 left Motown in 1975, signing with Epic Records and renaming themselves the Jacksons. Their younger brother Randy joined the band around this time, while Jermaine remained with Motown to pursue a solo career. The Jacksons continued to tour internationally and released six more albums between 1976 and 1984. Michael, the group's main songwriter during this period, wrote songs such as "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" (1978), "This Place Hotel" (1980), and "Can You Feel It" (1980).

In 1977, Jackson moved to New York City to star as the Scarecrow in The Wiz, a musical film directed by Sidney Lumet and featuring Diana Ross, Nipsey Russell, and Ted Ross. The film was a box-office failure. Its score was arranged by Quincy Jones, who later produced three of Jackson's solo albums. During his time in New York, Jackson frequented the Studio 54 nightclub, where he heard early hip-hop; this influenced his beatboxing on later tracks such as "Working Day and Night".

Michael Jackson's Legacy and Impact

Jackson's fifth solo album and first as an adult, Off the Wall (1979), established him as a solo performer and marked his transition from the bubblegum pop of his youth to more complex sounds. The album produced four top-10 entries in the US: "Off the Wall", "She's Out of My Life", and the chart-topping hits "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Rock with You". Off the Wall reached number three on the Billboard 200 and sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. Jackson won the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for 1979 with "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough". At the American Music Awards during the early 1980s, he won Favorite Soul/R&B Single for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough", two consecutive awards for Favorite Soul/R&B Album, and Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist. In 1981, he again won the American Music Awards for Favorite Soul/R&B Album and Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist.

Jackson felt that Off the Wall should have had a greater influence and was determined to exceed expectations with his next release. In 1980, he secured the highest royalty rate in the music industry: 37 percent of wholesale album profit.

Thriller, Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever and Pepsi incident (1981–1984)

From 1981 to 1983, Jackson recorded demos of "State of Shock", "Victory" and "There Must Be More to Life Than This" with Queen's lead singer Freddie Mercury for a planned album duet. The project was never completed; "State of Shock" was later recorded with Mick Jagger for the Jacksons' album Victory (1984), and "There Must Be More to Life Than This" was released posthumously in 2014. In 1982, Jackson contributed "Someone in the Dark" to the audiobook for the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

Jackson's sixth studio album, Thriller, was released on November 29, 1982. It was the best-selling album worldwide in 1983 and eventually became the best-selling album of all time in the US and globally, with an estimated 70 million copies sold. It topped the Billboard 200 for 37 weeks and remained in the chart's top 10 for 80 consecutive weeks. Thriller became the first album to generate seven top-ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including the number-one hits "Billie Jean" and "Beat It".

On March 25, 1983, Jackson reunited with his brothers for Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, an NBC television special that aired on May 16 to an estimated audience of 47 million. Jackson's solo performance of "Billie Jean" earned him his first Emmy Award nomination. Wearing a rhinestone-studded glove, he debuted the moonwalk—taught to him three years earlier by Jeffrey Daniel—which became his signature dance move. Jackson had initially declined the invitation, believing he had been doing too much television, but agreed to perform at the request of Motown founder Berry Gordy in exchange for a solo spot. His performance received widespread acclaim: Rolling Stone's Mikal Gilmore called it "extraordinary", and The New York Times critic Anna Kisselgoff praised the timing and technique of his dancing, while Gordy said he was "mesmerized".

At the 26th Annual Grammy Awards, Jackson received 12 nominations—the most in a single night at the time (later tied with Babyface)—and won eight awards, breaking the record for the most wins in a single night (later tied by Santana). Thriller received 13 nominations, the most for any album, and won eight awards, including Best Engineered Recording (Non-Classical) for Bruce Swedien's work. Jackson won seven awards related to the album, including Album of the Year for Thriller and Record of the Year for "Beat It", and also won an award for the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial storybook. At the 11th Annual American Music Awards, Jackson won another eight awards and became the youngest artist to receive the Award of Merit. He also won Favorite Male Artist, Favorite Soul/R&B Artist, and Favorite Pop/Rock Artist. "Beat It" won Favorite Soul/R&B Video, Favorite Pop/Rock Video, and Favorite Pop/Rock Single. The album won Favorite Soul/R&B Album and Favorite Pop/Rock Album. Thriller's sales doubled after the release of an extended music video for its title track, which features Jackson dancing with a group of zombies.

The success transformed Jackson into a dominant force in global pop culture, and the album "conquered racial divides". He had the highest royalty rate in the music industry at that point, earning about $2 for every album sold (equivalent to $6 in 2025), and was making record-breaking profits. In the same year, The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller, a documentary about the music video, won a Grammy for Best Music Video (Longform). Time described Jackson's influence at the time as "star of records, radio, rock video. A one-man rescue team for the music business. A songwriter who sets the beat for a decade. A dancer with the fanciest feet on the street. A singer who cuts across all boundaries...

Michael Jackson's career continues to be documented by reputable media; the facts above are drawn from Wikipedia's biography and public records.

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