Michael Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana to Joseph and Katherine
Jackson.
He was the seventh of nine children.
The Jackson children were raised as Jehovah's Witnesses
and
practiced door-to-door evangelizing. Jackson continued to do so after
becoming
famous, but in disguise. His career and flamboyant style led to
friction
with church elders. At one point, he was ordered to shun his sister LaToya because she had not been attending
church
meetings. In 1987, he formally left the Jehovah's
Witnesses.
Jackson lives at his 11 sq. km ranch in Santa Ynez, California,
named
"Neverland" after the magical kingdom featured in the children's story
Peter Pan. He says that,
like Peter Pan, he does
not want to grow up. Neverland contains a small zoo
and amusement park. About once
a
week he invites a bus full of (especially sick and poor) children there
to
have a day of fun. Jackson kept a chimpanzee, Bubbles, in Neverland, which he
valued
highly, treating it more more like a friend than a pet.
Bubbles
was moved from the ranch after reaching maturity because adult
chimpanzees
are very strong and can be dangerous.
In 1994
Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley,
the
daughter of Elvis Presley; the marriage
lasted
less than two years, ending in divorce. In 1996
he married Debbie Rowe. They had a son, Prince Michael, and a daughter,
Paris.
They were divorced in 1999. Rowe said that she let Jackson
have
the children as a "gift". Around February 2002
he had another son, Prince Michael II, also called "Blanket", with a surrogate mother whose identity has not
been
disclosed. As a security measure against kidnapping, Jackson's children only appear in
public
with masks or veils to cover their faces.
Jackson, a vegetarian, claims a strong connection
to both children and animals. His favorite pastimes
include
water balloon fights with
children, climbing trees
and sleepovers with children. He
has written several songs sitting in his favorite tree at Neverland,
which
he calls Giving Tree, because it is so inspiring. He has several young
friends
whom he entertains at Neverland.
Jackson's celebrity friends include actress Elizabeth Taylor and former child actor Macaulay Culkin, who are godparents to Prince Michael and Paris. (See Macaulay Culkin for more information on
their
friendship). He is also friends with paranormalist Uri Geller and the rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who heads
Michael
Jackson's Heal the World Foundation.
Jackson seems to have had several plastic surgeries to modify his
appearance,
although he denies having had any work done except one nose job to improve his singing voice. It is
claimed
he has his skin bleached to mask the effects of vitiligo.
Jackson has received numerous music awards
including 18 Grammys. Estimates of his
album sales worldwide
range from 200 million to well over 300 million. His Thriller
video
is considered by some to be the best music video of all time and the
largest
step forward in artistic quality in the history of music videos. MTV
and
Rolling Stone recently named four of his songs ("Billie Jean" #5, "I
Want
You Back" #9, "Beat It" #23 and "Rock with You" #82) among the 100
greatest
pop songs of all time.
Five of the
Jackson brothers, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael, formed the Jackson 5 pop group in the mid 1960s. Michael was the lead singer. The group played
at
local clubs and bars. It is alleged that they were beaten and abused by
their
father if they performed poorly.
The Jackson 5 were discovered and signed to Motown Records in 1969.
The
Jackson family moved to California where the Jackson 5 soon became
national
stars. Their first four singles "ABC", "I Want You Back", "The Love You
Save",
and "I'll Be There" all became #1 hits. Later hits include the
trend-setting
"Dance Machine". With Motown Records the Jackson 5 made 14 albums, and
Michael
recorded four albums as a solo artist.
In 1976
they left Motown (and renamed themselves the Jacksons).
Between 1976 and 1984 the Jacksons produced 6 records
and
toured internationally. Jermaine and Michael moved on to successful
solo
careers, as did sisters Janet and (to a lesser extent) LaToya.
Jackson starred in the film The Wiz (alongside Diana Ross) in 1978.
It
was here that he met Quincy Jones (the producer of The Wiz),
who
would later produce Michael's three most acclaimed solo albums (Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad). Off the Wall
(released in
1979) produced a record four #1 hits and sold six
million
copies in the United States.
Michael Jackson's 1979
album Off The Wall spawned the hit
singles
and music videos "Rock With You" and "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough".
In the 1980s Jackson released a progression
of solo albums of slickly-produced synthesizer-heavy pop.
His Thriller album was released in
1982,
produced 7 hit singles, broke records and quickly became the world's
best
selling album (as of 2003 it has sold over 50
million
copies). The "Billie Jean" music video,
released
to promote Thriller, became the first video by a black artist
to
be aired on MTV, and the Thriller short
film released as The
Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller became the world's best
selling
home video at the time.
"Billie Jean" and "Thriller", as well as
"Beat It", were the three music
videos released off of the album, and have since become three of MTV's
most
significant videos in history, placing highly on several MTV and VH1
countdowns,
and receiving substantial airplay on MTV2
to this day. The album's other hit singles were "Human Nature" and "PYT
(Pretty
Young Thing)", both of which were also hits, despite not having music
videos.
While performing for the Motown 25th
Anniversary Show on television in 1983,
Jackson
publicly performed the moonwalk (later his signature
dance move) for the first
time, stunning TV audiences. At the 1984
Grammy Awards Jackson was
nominated for 12 awards
and won a record-breaking 8 awards (now equaled by Carlos Santana) -- 7 for Thriller
and
1 for his narrative on The E.T. Storybook.
Inspired by Band Aid he was instrumental in organising
the single "We Are the World" (co-written
with
Lionel Richie) in 1985.
"We
Are the World" was sung by 44 different singers including Cyndi Lauper, Diana Ross, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder and sold 7 million copies in
the
United States, becoming the
best selling single
of the year, to raise money for USA for Africa -- a charity
working
to raise awareness about and help starving people in Africa.
Jackson starred in the George Lucas/Francis Ford Coppola
3-D film Captain Eo in 1986,
which
was shown in Disney theme parks until 1998.
Minute for minute it is the most expensive film ever produced, costing
an estimated US $30 million to make. Jackson created two new songs for
the film.
In 1987
Jackson released Bad and began his first
solo world tour. He performed to sold out audiences at each concert.
The
following year Jackson released a silly, playful movie and a serious,
personal
autobiography both titled Moonwalker.
Bad was another smash success for
Jackson. Its singles and
music videos "Bad", "Dirty Diana", "The Man in The Mirror", "Smooth
Criminal", "Leave Me Alone", and "The Way You Make Me Feel" provided
Jackson with another string of hits. The album's only relatively
unsuccessful single, "Liberian Girl", remains to this day as one of
Jackson's least seen music videos and least heard singles.
Jackson was awarded a record breaking $890
million contract by Sony
and released an album Dangerous in 1991.
During
the Dangerous world tour Jackson announced the creation of
his Heal the World Foundation.
Dangerous contained the singles and music videos "Who Is
It", "Give
In To Me", "Gone Too Soon", and "Will You Be There", which would later
become
the theme song to the movie Free Willy. But the album's
most
successful and memorable singles and videos were "Jam", "Remember The
Time",
"Black Or White", "In The Closet", and "Heal The World". As was
becoming
the standard for Jackson, the album's music videos were among the most
costly,
creative, and innovative of their time. "Give In To Me" featured Slash from Guns & Roses in its video.
The
video for "Heal The World", to correspond to Jackson's charity of the
same
name, featured children and people from throughout the world. "Will You
Be There" showed Jackson singing in front of scenes from Free Willy.
Several of the other videos had complex storylines and dance sequences,
and featured cameo appearances by celebrities. The video for "Jam"
showed
Jackson and Michael Jordan playing
basketball
and dancing together, while "Remember The Time" was set in a Middle
Eastern
palace and starred Eddie Murphy as the king of
the
palace who was trying to entertain his wife, played by Iman.
Jackson's singing and dancing is the thing that finally makes Iman's
character happy, in the seven-minute long video. Jackson and Naomi Campbell played lovers in "In The
Closet".
But, of all the
album's groundbreaking and popular videos, "Black Or White"
probably remains the most aired and most remembered today. The original
video is over ten minutes long, and premiered simultaneously on MTV,
VH1,
BET, and ABC, becoming one of the most-watched music video premieres in
history. The original video begins with Macaulay Culkin playing a young Jackson
fan
whose father tells to turn his music down. Kulkin's character, instead,
decides
to bring his speakers into the living room and cranks the speakers to
full
blast, which sends the father flying through the roof. He ends up
landing
in the middle of some exotic location. The music to "Black Or White"
then
starts, and Jackson proceeds to take viewers on a trip around the
world,
from country to country and culture to culture. As the song ends, the
video
features a morphing effect, where by
several
different people of different ethnicities' faces are morphed one into
another,
as a symbol of global unity. This video was the first music video to
utilize
such morphing technology, and this effect amazed many people upon first
seeing
the video. Thanks in part to "Black Or White", the morphing effect has
since
become somewhat common in music videos today, and can now be done much
more
cheaply than in the early 1990's. The original video for "Black Or
White"
then continued, even after the song itself ended, for another six
minutes. The last six minutes depicted Jackson grabbing his crotch,
smashing store
windows, and destroying a car with a metal crowbar. It finally ended
with
a cameo appearance by Bart and Homer Simpson. However, Jackson's
rampage
and crotch grabbing caused a good deal of controversy with many parents
of
young children who watched the video's premiere. MTV and other music
video
stations decided to cut out the last six minutes of the video for all
subsequent
airings, and Jackson issued an apology statement to anyone who had been
offended. To date, the final six minutes of the "Black Or White" video
has only since
re-aired in America on MTV2 between the hours of 1 AM and 4 AM, as part
of
their special uncensored airing of the "Most Controversial Music
Videos"
of all time.
HIStory, a double-disc album, was
released
in 1995. Its first disc had fifteen of his greatest hits
and
second disc contained fifteen new songs. The album's only new hit
singles
and videos in America were "Scream", a duet with his sister Janet, whose futuristic music video,
with
a seven million dollar price tag, is the most expensive music video to
date;
and "You Are Not Alone", a song which debuted at number one on the
Billboard
Hot 100 Singles Chart and whose video had a cameo from Jackson's
then-wife,
Lisa Marie Presley. The album's other singles and videos, "Childhood",
"Earth
Song", "Stranger In Moscow", and "They Don't Care About Us" failed to
make
any impact in America. "Childhood" is notable for having been the theme
song to Free Willy 2. "They Don't Care About Us" caused quite
a
controversy when it was released due to the anti-Semitic slurs "kike"
and
"Jew me" in the song's lyrics. This caused American MTV and VH1 to ban
the
song's music video, even though it garnered heavy airplay on many of
America's
Boxnetworks. Other than "Scream", the
videos
from HIStory are rarely played, even on MTV2, and none of the
album's
singles are played substantially on American radio anymore, making the
album
a failure overall in Jackson's standards.
In 1997
Jackson released Blood on the Dance Floor
a remix album of several of the tracks off of History,
which
also included 5 new songs. The album only had one single and official
music
video, the title track, which failed to catch on in America. However,
Jackson
also produced "Ghosts", a 40-minute short film, which was shown in
several
movie theaters and used the song "Ghosts" as well as the album's other
new
songs in the film. The short film "Ghosts" is occassionally played as
an
hour-long special, with space made for commercials, on MTV and VH1,
especially
during the Halloween season.
Jackson's 2001
album Invincible -- the most
expensive album ever
-- sold only 2 million copies in the United States but sold 5-6 million
worldwide
(a disappointment considering Jackson's previous success and the cost
of
the album). As opposed to his earlier albums--which each spawned at
least
six singles, most of which were generally worldwide smashes--Invincible
produced only the singles "Rock My World" and "Butterflies" in America.
"Cry"
was also issued as a third single in Europe. "Rock My World" managed
the
top ten in America, but only for a week, and its big-budget, 14-minute
music
video only received sparse airplay on MTV, VH1, MTV2, and BET, usually
in
a shortened, 5-minute version. "Butterflies" was a top 40 hit in
America,
but did not reach the top 20, despite a popular radio remix featuring
rapper
Eve;
the song's relative lack of success also allowed no budget for a music
video.
In what was perhaps the "Golden Age" of the video clip, some of Jackson's videos were
virtually
short films with considerable plots, impressive special
effects,
and featuring Jackson's distinctive dance style.
Jackson held his first live concert in some
years at Madison Square Garden,
New York, in early September 2001.
In late 2002
new scandal arose surrounding Jackson.
His most recent album, Invincible, had disappointing sales
figures.
Instead of blaming this on what was, by most fans and critics,
considered
mediocre music, he blamed his record label and industry executives,
most
notably the legendary producer Tommy Mottola, whom Jackson
likened
to Satan. Jackson also recorded a song featuring
various
celebrities on vocals in an attempt to raise funds for disaster relief
following
the September
11,
2001 Terrorist Attack. However, the song was never released when it
was
discovered the producer of the song had previously worked as a producer
of
homosexual pornography.
Also, in late 2002, Jackson stirred up more
controversy by dangling his
infant son Prince Michael II from the balcony of a German hotel.
In October 2002 it was revealed by various
international banks that Jackson
was in financial debt into the tens of millions of dollars due to
various
unpaid loans.
In 2002, a promoter sued Jackson in a court
in Santa Maria,
California,
claiming that he reneged on a deal to perform on a series of millennium concerts crossing the International Date
Line
on the evening of December 31, 1999
- January 1, 2000.
Jackson lost the case, and is appealing.
In 2003 he has a legal dispute, set for
trial June 18, with his former
financial adviser Union Finance and Investment Corp. of South Korea,
who
claims that Jackson owes the firm $12 million in fees and expenses and
that
Jackson's extravagant spending may lead to his bankruptcy.
A Granada Television
documentary
about Jackson, in which he was extensively interviewed by UK
journalist Martin Bashir, was shown in
February 2003.
This was very special, for it had been extremely rare for Jackson to
allow such access to his personal life, or indeed to talk so freely
about his traumatised childhood. However, he continued to remain
guarded on issues concerning the alleged cosmetic surgery to his face
(although he admitted having had surgery on his nose). In one of his
favorite shops
and in the renting of rooms in hotels he demonstrated extravagant spending (see
also
above). The documentary also shows Jackson's friend Gavin Arvizo, then
12
years old.
Jackson felt betrayed by Bashir and
complained that the film gives a
distorted picture of his behaviour and conduct as a father [1],
and
has released video footage of statements of Bashir to demonstrate this;
a selection has been shown in a Fox Network special [2],
which
also includes interviews with people close to Jackson. They include
Debbie
Rowe, who says that it is on her request that the children wear masks
in
public. He has filed complaints at the Independent
Television
Commission and the Broadcasting
Standards
Commission of the UK. Gavin's mother, while supporting Jackson, has
also
complained about the documentary, for including Gavin in it without her
consent
and especially for creating a distorted image of his friendship with
Jackson.
In 1993
Jackson was accused by a 13 year old boy of child molestation and pedophilia. Evidence was gathered, but the case
never
went to trial because Jackson settled the boy's civil lawsuit with a
rumored
$20 million payment, and subsequently the boy declined to testify at
any
criminal trial. (Supposedly in response to this, California later
passed
a law that bars civil settlements prior to related state-run trials.)
Jackson's
spokespersons have repeatedly said that the settlement was not an
admission
in any way, and Jackson has always denied the allegations. As with
Jackson
in general, people don't agree; some say it was unmistakably a partial
confession
on Jackson's behalf, others argue that it was simply successful blackmail.
Allegations have persisted that Jackson is a pedophile. Jackson admits that several young
children,
especially pre-adolescent boys
(including
Macaulay Culkin when he
was younger and his
younger brother Kieran) have slept in the same bed as him, but he denies
having
had sex with any of
them.
He has admitted that he still sometimes sleeps with a child in the same
room
including his 12 year old friend Gavin, but it was implied that they do
not
sleep in the same bed (they have told about an occasion where each was
happy
to sleep on the floor and let the other have the bed). Conversely,
Jackson
lets his children stay with his friends, for example with Barry Gibb. He emphasizes that children need
and
deserve lots of love — not sexual, but like having hot milk and
cookies,
tucking them in, telling a bed-time story, etc.
In the UK,
children's charities Barnardo's and the NSPCC (National
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) have voiced their
concerns.
Under California law, merely sleeping with a
child, without "affirmative, offensive conduct," isn't criminal, said
Santa Barbara County District Attorney Thomas W. Sneddon Jr. in a
statement. [3]
In November 2003, Jackson was booked and
released on bail,
after voluntarily returning to California to face charges of "lewd or
lascivious
acts" with a child under 14.
On November 18, 2003,
a team of more than 70 investigators from the Santa Barbara County
District Attorney's Office and Sheriff's Department descended upon
Jackson's Neverland Ranch as part of an "ongoing criminal
investigation." They were reportedly looking for evidence to
corroborate a 12-year-old boy's complaint that he was sexually
molested. Along with the warrant to search the premises was a
warrant for the arrest of Jackson. Jackson was in Las Vegas, Nevada at
the
time recording a music video for his most recent single, "One More
Chance",
from his Number Ones greatest hits
album,
which had been released at midnight, just hours before the warrants
were
issued and the allegations broke to the media.
On November 20, Jackson flew in a
leased jet to Santa Barbara Airport
and surrendered himself to California police. Driven by police to the Santa Barbara County Jail,
he emerged from the police vehicle in handcuffs. He was charged with
"lewd or lascivious acts" with a child younger than 14 under section
288(a) of the
California Penal Code.
He
posted $3 million bail and is scheduled to appear in court on January 9, 2004.
He
is not allowed to travel abroad, accordingly his passport has been
taken
from him.
At the time of his booking, his weight was
measured at 120 pounds (56
kg) (a notably low weight for a 5'11" middle-aged man.)
A series of public vigils to protest his
innoccence, organised by fans,
were held on November 23, but were notable
for
the low turn-outs.
Pedophilia
.
In medicine,
pedophilia (American English), alternatively spelled paedophilia
or pædophilia (in British English), is sexual attraction of an adult to prepubescent
children.
In
common usage, pedophilia or under-age sex is sexual
attraction
and sexual acts towards children generally, including adolescents
who are far beyond a prepubescent level of physical and psychological
development. This article will discuss these two concepts separately.
Clinically, pedophilia is defined, to give
one definition (from the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th edition, Text
Revision,
American Psychiatric Association): Diagnostic criteria for 302.2
Pedophilia
- A. Over a period of at least 6
months, recurrent, intense sexually
arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving sexual
activity
with a prepubescent child or children (generally age 13 years or
younger).
- B. The person has acted on these
urges, or the sexual urges
or fantasies cause marked distress or interpersonal difficulty.
- C. The person is at least age 16
years and at least 5 years
older than the child or children in Criterion A.
Note: Do not include an individual in
late adolescence involved in an
ongoing sexual relationship with a 12- or 13-year-old.
Clinical pedophilia can be diagnosed solely
in the presence of "fantasies" or "sexual urges" on the subject's part
-- it need not involve criminal sexual acts with children. Pedophilia
is not a legal category or term, and although the acts pedophiles
desire to carry out are crimes, these crimes are not legally
referred to as "pedophilia". Pedophilia in itself is not a crime --
only
acting upon such urges is.
Sometimes a clinical distinction is made
between pedophiles and "situational offenders" -- a
distinction,
however, which is not reflected in the APA's definition above. A
pedophile,
according to this distinction, is a person whose primary sexual
attraction
is to children, while a situational offender is someone who engages in
sexual
activity with children not as their primary sexual preference but due
to
a particular situation they are faced with, and would not otherwise
engage
in such activity except for that situation.
Since the age of consent is often higher than the
upper
age limit in the definition of clinical pedophilia, underage sex, i.e.
sexual
activity with underage adolescents, is not, in general, clinical
pedophilia.
While such activity may be illegal in a particular jurisdiction, it
frequently
exemplifies only borderline pedophilia, or far more commonly, no
pedophilia
at all, because the person's attraction is not specifically to persons
that
young. The terms hebephilia and ephebophilia
are sometimes used to describe attraction to youths or adolescents,
distinct
from attraction to children.
Most cases of father-daughter incest
are
believed to involve fathers who are situational offenders, rather than
clinical
pedophiles. Some have argued that these cases are caused by the
withdrawal
of the mother (often due to mental illness) from the family -- this
withdrawal
is more than purely sexual.
Modern cultures
in general strongly condemn underage sex and
regard it as a very serious crime,
based on the idea that children are not sufficiently
mature to be able to consent to sex and that sex with children is
therefore
rape.
Pederasty is underage sex,
especially anal sex,
between male adults and male adolescents or children. The North American Man-Boy
Love
Association advocates legalization of pederasty.
See also:
Anal sex.
Anal sex or anal
intercourse is human sexual behavior
involving the anus and rectum, especially the insertion of the erect penis into the anus.
