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[[File:jacko.png|frame]]
{{quote|''<big>[[Catch Phrase|"Hee-hee!" "Come on ("ch'amone")!]]</big>''}}
{{quote|''I didn’t want to leave this world without knowing who my descendant was. Thank you Michael!''|'''[[Fred Astaire]]''' (shortly before his death)}}
Originally a member of the [[Motown]] act the Jackson 5, '''Michael Joseph Jackson''' (1958-2009) debuted as a solo artist in 1971 -- the year he turned thirteen. His full-fledged solo career took off in the late [[The Seventies|1970s]]. Though songs from his first serious solo effort, ''Off The Wall'' (1979), were popular, he reached
Known as the King of Pop, he is the most successful recording artist in history, with his music influencing much of the genre in the [[The Eighties|1980s]] and early [[The Nineties|1990s]], his music videos breaking the color barrier on [[MTV]]. He also had [[Moonwalker|a video game]] based on him. All of this resulted in a total of 13 Grammy Awards. Then he released his next album, ''Bad'', which was also a big hit.
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As the definitive celebrity of [[The Eighties]], he cultivated a [[Reclusive Artist]] persona and a reputation for high eccentricity. In particular, he created the Neverland Ranch, a grand estate where he could finally live the childhood he never had, since he and his siblings had spent most of their childhood and teen years performing under the heavy, often [[Abusive Parents|abusive hand of father Joe]]. It featured a zoo and an amusement park, and frequently hosted visits from ill and/or underprivileged children.
In 1993, in the wake of his fourth solo album ''Dangerous'', Jackson was accused of molesting a young boy. Because this both contradicted his image as [[Friend to All Children|a friend to children]] ''and'' was not implausible in light of the various rumors of his extreme eccentricity -- in particular, his alarming changes in appearance over the past fifteen years, chalked up to plastic surgery and the skin disorder [[wikipedia:Vitiligo|vitiligo]] -- it made international headlines. When Jackson settled a civil suit with the boy's family out-of-court over the matter, it left the case too thin to prosecute since the boy was no longer willing to testify, and the circumstances of the allegations suggested it might have been an extortion attempt all along.
However, the damage was done, and in the U.S. he became less known for his artistic output <ref>''HIStory'' [1995], ''Blood on the Dance Floor'' [1997], and ''Invincible'' [2001] - which still all went platinum several times</ref> than his ever-strange personal behavior. He had a brief marriage to Elvis Presley's daughter, he dangled one of his infant children over a Berlin hotel railing to show him to fans, and worst of all a ''second'' round of molestation allegations which unfolded over 2003-05 resulting in a not guilty verdict.
Jackson died due to an overdose of propofol on June 25, 2009, at the age of fifty, a few weeks before the start of a long-awaited series of shows in London that were to serve as a comeback. In late August, his death was ruled a homicide. His death occurred during an almost surreal two-week period between June 21 and July 4, which was densely populated by celebrity deaths including those of [[The Tonight Show|Ed McMahon]]; Sky Saxon; [[Charlie's Angels|Farrah Fawcett]] (who died on the same ''day'', no less); [[Billy Mays]]; [[Are You Being Served?|Mollie Sugden]]; [[Fargo|Harve Presnell]]; Karl Malden; and [[American Football|Steve McNair]], in what has been dubbed the "Summer of Death" or the "2009 Celebrity Death Wave". [[Kill Bill|David Carradine]] died two weeks before the beginning of this period, but is often included with these folks anyway. The doctor who administered the overdose was found guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter in November of 2011.
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He is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, in Glendale, California, among many other entertainment legends.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20100130065009/http://www.reelzchannel.com/movie-news/4146/its-official-the-michael-jackson-movie-is-a-go There is a movie featuring footage of his rehearsals] for his London live shows.
'''Studio album discography:'''
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* ''Michael'' (2010)
▲=== Videos ===
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yURRmWtbTbo Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X-Mrc2l1d0 Rock With You]
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* [[Ancient Egypt]]: The setting of the "Remember The Time" music video.
* [[The Baby Trap]]: "Billie Jean." Inspired by all the times he saw girls try this on his older brothers during the "Jackson 5" years.
* [[Bad Guy Bar]]: Setting for the video for "Smooth Criminal".
* [[Badass in a Nice Suit]]: In the video for "Smooth Criminal".
* [[Badass Long Hair]]
* [[Bishonen]]: At his best in the mid-90's, before the surgeries became too much, his appearance could be described as this. His duet with sister Janet [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P4A1K4lXDo&ob=av2e provides the most compelling evidence.]
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* [[Concept Video]]
* [[Cool Shades]]: He wore them from time to time, of the oversized kind.
* [[Cute Kitten]]: On the extended ''Thriller'' CD cover, Jackson is holding a tiger cub.
* [[Dada Ad]]: See [[Our Founder]] below.
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* [[Everything's Better with Spinning]]: He employed this often in his music videos and dance routines.
* [[Everything's Deader with Zombies]]: ''Thriller'', of course, which features not only dancing zombies, but Jackson himself becoming a zombie.
* [[Elvis Lives]]: ''Thriller'' could oddly enough be made into a conspiracy theory, making him still around as a zombie in some fanfiction.
* [[The Faceless]]: Having a self-image problem, he often hid his face behind a hygienic mask and large sunglasses when going out in public.
** His children also apply, as he hid their faces with carnival masks when in public, and a blanket on his youngest son (who'd be nicknamed "Blanket").
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* [[Face Revealing Turn]]: The music video for "Thriller" has possibly the most famous (and often pariodied) use of the trope of all time.
* [[Financial Abuse]]: His father forced him and his siblings into showbiz, and has been accused of trying to get his hands on their money.
** Worse: he may be trying to do the same to ''Michael's kids''.
* [[Former Child Star]]: It looked like he was on his way to avoiding this until the whole "Wacko Jacko" thing. He was also close friends with a number of ex-child stars such as [[Home Alone|Macaulay "Mac" Culkin]] and [[Elizabeth Taylor]].
* [[Funny Afro]]: His and his brothers' hairstyle in the last years of the Jackson Five. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb1u7wMKywM See them in the "Blame it on the Boogie" video.]
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* [[Green Aesop]]: "Earth Song" and Jackson's final message in the ''This Is It'' film.
* [[Guest Fighter]]: In Ready 2 Rumble Boxing. Let's be honest, [[Mundane Made Awesome|we all wanted to use him beat the crap out of scary Russian Boxers, Shaq and Bill Clinton.]]
* [[Hell-Bent for Leather]]: In both "Bad" and "Thriller".
* [[Hyde Plays Jekyll]]: In ''[[Thriller (song)|Thriller]]''.
* [[Implausible Deniability]]: He claimed as late as 2003 that he had only had two plastic surgeries in his entire life, and that any other changes in his face were due to natural maturation.
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* [[Intergenerational Friendship]]: With [[Elizabeth Taylor]], Diana Ross, and Macaulay Culkin.
* [[Licensed Game]]: ''Moonwalker'', his appearance in ''[[Space Channel 5]]'' and most recently [[wikipedia:Michael Jackson: The Experience|a dancing/karaoke game]] developed by [[Ubisoft]] in light of the [[Rhythm Game]] craze.
* [[Lovable Rogue]]: In "Smooth Criminal", where he outsmarts a gang of brutish ones.
* [[Loud of War]]: The video for "Black Or White" opens with a father insisting his son turns his music off, only for the son to set up a ridiculously large guitar amp and crank it all the way to "[[Up to Eleven|Are You Nuts??!?!!?]]", with rather destructive effects.
* [[Metal Scream]]: "Dirty Diana" has some surprisingly epic ones toward the end.
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* [[Nice Hat]]: His black Trilby. In several concerts, he threw it at the audience.
* [[One of the Kids]]: He identified very strongly with [[Peter Pan]]. Neverland Ranch was designed to give other kids the dream childhood Joe Jackson denied him. It was, many argue, this childlike behavior and thought patterns which led to the molestation charges due to [[Not What It Looks Like|it not being what it looked like]].
* [[Only Known by Their Nickname]]: His two sons. The eldest, Michael Joseph Jackson II, is known as "Prince". The youngest, Prince Michael Jackson II (i.e. his first name actually ''is'' "Prince" -- yes, it's confusing), is known as "Blanket".
* [[Our Founder]]: The trailer for his ''HIStory'' album shows him heading an army and erecting a giant statue of himself. That statue trick (it served as the cover of the album, and actual replicas of it were circulated on his tour) was criticized even by his fans as being too [[Small Name, Big Ego]].
* [[Pass the Popcorn]]: Sorta does this in the ''Thriller'' video. An animated gif featuring this scene has become a ''massive'' meme.
* [[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything]]: One reason his [[Small Name, Big Ego]] reputation worsened in his final decade (1999-2009) was that he didn't tour, performed live very rarely, and only produced one full album in 2001; all his other releases were compilations of older material with a few new songs thrown in (one on ''Number Ones'', more in the box set). This is another reason the term "self-proclaimed King of Pop" was thrown around a lot when he was mentioned in the media; he wasn't doing much to maintain his throne.
* [[Police Brutality Gambit]]: He [[wikipedia:People v. Jackson#Allegations against police|claimed to have been injured and mistreated]] when he was booked on the 2003 charges, but the police in question released audio and video tape of him to disprove this.
* [[Pop Star Composer]]: In the mid 2000s, it was discovered that Michael Jackson had a hand in composing some of the soundtrack of ''[[Sonic 3 and Knuckles|Sonic The Hedgehog 3]]'', with most evidence pointing to the fact that most of the songs are either uptempo or [[The Jimmy Hart Version|Jimmy Hart versions]] of tracks from his ''Dangerous'' album. He is not credited in the game itself, with the official reasons being that he disliked the low-grade sound equipment used to make Sega Genesis music, but given that he had [[Memetic Molester|somewhat bigger things]] to worry about in early 1993, it's easier to see the true reasons behind his abandoning the project. He later lent his voice and likeness to another Sega project, ''[[Space Channel 5]]'', but it's not known if he provided any music.
** Despite evidence of his involvement, there has been no actual confirmation of what songs, if any, that he composed made it into the game. That said, technically it was his personal songwriter at the time, Brad Buxor who composed the songs during his involvement.
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbVM-l2Oku4 Shortly after his death, it was revealed that he did work on Sonic 3]
* [[Precision F-Strike]]: A paparazzo roughly shoved a fan aside to take a pic of Michael. He was ''pissed'' and said: "No, don't touch my fans! FUCK YOU!"
** Also, pay close attention to chorus of ''Scream'', which consists of him repeating "Stop pressuring me". In one instance, he says "Stop '''''fucking''''' with me".
* [[Pretty Boy]]: In the late 70s/early 80s.
* [[Primal Scene]]: One of the ''many'' things that scarred Jackson's childhood. Whenever the Jackson 5 went on tour, Michael's older brothers would make him pretend to be asleep while they brought groupies to the hotel room, and he would hear them having sex.
* [[Reclusive Artist]]: Which is apparently why he has created several songs that ask the media to leave him alone, such as "Leave Me Alone" (only the video version, although it's the most famous one), "Why You Wanna Trip On Me", "Scream", "Tabloid Junkie", and "Privacy".
* [[Retirony]]: He died only 18 days before the first of the ''This is It'' series of concerts, which he had implied would be the last of his career.
* [[Ripped from the Headlines]]: The molestation charges and the baby-dangling incident were prime fodder for [[Police Procedural]] shows.
* [[The Rival]]: [[Prince]] was presented as this. They even were going to have Prince be the opponent in the "Bad" video, before they came to their senses.
** [[What Could Have Been|Darn!]]
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* [[The Rock Star]]: Even now he's still known worldwide.
* [[Rummage Sale Reject]]: Some of his costumes looked like this. And still managed to look cool.
** See the episode of ''[[The Golden Girls]]''.
* [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money]]: A problem with his choice to settle the first child molestation allegations out of court instead of going through with a trial was that to many people he appeared to be invoking this trope.
** Most people, fans included, are unaware what was settled was a civil lawsuit for claims of nonsexual negligence. The first child molestation allegations were dropped when two grand juries refused to indict Jackson several months after the civil settlement. During the civil trial the criminal trial had been postponed by the accusing father.
* [[Shout-Out]]: Django from ''[[One Piece]]'', a [[Captain Ersatz]] of Jackson with [[Memetic Molester|mind control powers, usually used against the largely teenage Straw Hat crew.]] In the German dub he was even named ''Jacko''!
** ''Pokemon Colosseum'' and ''Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness'' both feature Miror B. an antagonist who has excellent dancing skills, a glove on his left hand and an afro in the shape of a Pokeball (also the same colors as a Pokeball), who loves using Ludicolo. Ludicolo ITSELF is a reference to Michael, but Miror B. takes this to [[Up to Eleven|649]]
** Also, most of his music videos are shout outs. "Bad" is a shout out to Cool from [[West Side Story]], "Smooth Criminal" is a shout out to Fred Astaire.
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* [[Signature Song]]: "Beat It", "Thriller", "Billie Jean", "Bad", "Smooth Criminal" or "Man in the Mirror".
* [[Snake Oil Salesman]]: He plays the accomplice of a snake oil salesman (played by [[Paul McCartney]]) in the "Say Say Say" music video.
* [[Some of My Best Friends Are X]]: After he included anti-Semetic slurs in his 1995 [[Protest Song]] "They Don't Care About Us", he was questioned about them by Diane Sawyer. He denied any prejudice and pointed out that "...my accountants and lawyers are Jewish. My three best friends are Jewish — David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg. Mike Milken — these are friends of mine. They're all Jewish. How does that make sense? I was raised in a Jewish community." Jackson rerecorded the song minus the slurs for the single release and the later pressings of ''HIStory''.
* [[Something Completely Different]]: In his last years, he was experimenting with very different styles of music and art. He considered film acting and directing but he was too much in debt to open a film company.
* [[Stalking Is Love]]: The music video for "The Way You Make Me Feel" gives off this vibe.
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* [[Theme Naming]]: Jackson's children are named Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. (AKA Prince), Paris-Michael Katherine (after his [[Momma's Boy|beloved mother]]) Jackson, and Prince Michael Jackson II (AKA Blanket). Paris might have been named "Princess" had Debbie Rowe not objected to it.
* [[Too Good for This Sinful Earth]]: According to the more enthusiastic of his fans.
* [[Training
* [[Trope Codifier]]: For the modern, plot-driven type of music video (ones previous to him were mostly just shots of the band playing), for the modern style of pop performances (one of the first to have synchronized choreographed dance while singing), and for the modern pop artist image and persona.
* [[Uncanny Family Resemblance]]: Many of the Jackson brothers looked strikingly alike when they were children. Also, back in [[The Nineties]], a [[Running Gag|running joke]] was that Michael's public appearances were actually his sister LaToya.
* [[Undermined by Reality]]: He is another infamous example.
* [[Used to Be a Sweet Kid]]
* [[Verbal Tic]]: "HEE HEE!"
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* [[Worst News Judgment Ever]]: An extreme [[Real Life]] example, in that his death overshadowed everything from voter protests in Iran to the beginning of U.S. troop withdrawals in Iraq, as well as the above mentioned other celebrity deaths (with the exception of [[Billy Mays]], whose death caused a ''second'' crash of several news sites within a week). He ''was'' a big star, but given what became of him in his final years...
* [[You Are Not Alone]]: That's one of his songs.
* [[You Don't Look Like You]]: He may be the most famous real-life example, as well as perhaps the most extreme example not involving cross-dressing. (Though to shield himself from the public and press, he dabbled in [[
{{reflist}}
{{Grammy Award for Album of the Year}}
[[Category:The Seventies]]
[[Category:Musicians]]
[[Category:The Eighties]]
▲[[Category:Michael Jackson]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Record Producer]]
[[Category:Memetic Creators]]
[[Category:Names to Know in Music]]
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