The Story of A True Pop Genius | Michael Jackson: Thank you For The Music | Amplified

[Music] yes sir i need to i need an ambulance as soon as possible sir okay sir uh sir i have a we have a gentleman here that needs help and he's not breathing yet run away they're on the way there sir thank you sir he's pumping he's pumping his chest but he's not responding to anything sir please [Music] and we're just getting this in right now uh and it's a very very sad news that jim moray and to all of our viewers both the los angeles times and cbs news are both now reporting that michael jackson has died cnn has not confirmed that but the la times and cbs news are reporting that michael jackson 50 years old the king of pop has died june 25th 2009 saw the passing of a true icon of entertainment the death of michael jackson reverberated around the world leaving millions of fans in a state of shock and sadness losing such a notable figure not only meant the end of the most successful music career of all time but the loss of an artist who left an indelible mark on popular culture never out of the public eye and often subject to rumor and controversy he was also a figure whose music and videos brought innovation and high quality to the industry who helped break racial barriers and who also contributed millions of dollars to charities around the globe either through his own heal the world foundation or as an anonymous donor michael jackson was a man who was truly loved by his fans and who loved them back equally in return [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] michael jackson is a symbol which is greater than himself his biggest contribution isn't a particular record it's a style of music and approach to music making which found its apotheosis in the early days of mtv he was the most instinctive musician i've ever met the most talented basic deep musical person his music managed to embody so many different styles also from rock to pop to classic soul fields dance tunes he influenced so many artists throughout the industry i mean the greatest artists in the world will all say you know who your influence is and everybody always says michael jackson [Music] he was one of the great almost old-fashioned performers because he was an all-round entertainer he danced he sang he used visual image in a way that was really imaginative and really magical [Applause] michael was sincere and real regardless of what you read in the press regardless of what people say regardless of the talk show host the comics who make fun of him the audience knew michael's real [Music] uh [Music] michael jackson's rise to the top of the music industry was very much a public affair and has been well documented the boy who would become the undisputed king of pop started singing with his brothers at the age of five and after spending several years touring and playing concerts they eventually auditioned and signed to barry gordy's motown label in 1969. although build is just nine years old michael was in fact 11 and from their first motown single release i want you back it was clear that the band and particularly michael was set for superstardom [Music] is [Music] there was something special about the jackson 5 the minute you put the needle down and i want you back because you hear that fantastic instrumental introduction that was the first thing that caught my ears was the string sound of this record and it was a classical sound that was rhythmic with the rhythm of the track and i was so struck by it the intricate patterns the simplicity but the intricacy of it and then you hear this voice strong commanding athletic and young how could somebody so young be so good you thought okay is he really eleven [Music] [Music] it was always about michael you know there was this like gorgeous little kid who so there's a gimmick of him being so young and so small and so cute but he had like amazingly soulful voice that sort of belied his years and i think of his brothers as being perfectly capable musicians but you know they were very much in the background he was the real talent [Applause] [Music] the fact that they were family the fact that they were black the fact that they had a father as a manager made them stand out from the rest and the fact that they were they had musical integrity there was a whole era of kind of bands like the supremes and things like that but when the jackson five came out as a boy band and as of the original boybender it sounds quite funny but they were so credible musically that that made them stand out above the rest they were so versatile and they covered all a whole range of black american music and soul music in particular and michael jackson always stood out right from the start their huge kind of global hit really was abc and that's where michael really came to the forefront [Music] abc [Music] it's an interesting song because it's a bit like a nursery rhyme but it's um uh extremely soulful and quite sophisticated as well it's like a really good mix so it actually appealed to a huge cross-section of people i don't think that um you could make better records than i won't do back or abc i mean they're purely exhilarating pop but with this fantastic um soulful um emotion emotional force in them i mean michael jackson when you heard those records you could almost feel juice of joy coming forth i mean it was a complete saturation in the thing and a thrill that t was now part of it and that he was good enough to be part of it and he had a a a ludicrous maturity in his voice [Music] in the entire michael jackson memorial service the moment that got me was when they just showed the still of michael jackson as frank sinatra and this was from a performance of it was a very good year on a diana ross television special now to think that somebody who was 11 could dress up like frank sinatra okay it was a joke but it also was serious because it said this kid is of the stature of frank sinatra and he was immediately a major star [Music] oh [Music] motown had spotted michael's individual potential and between 1972 and 1975 he would release four solo albums for the label in the same way that diana ross was promoted as the star of the supremes michael jackson quite early on was was promoted really as the star of the jackson five um and i think this was partly a motown um uh thing i think barry gordy liked to do that he liked to really push the the lead uh singer um and really groom them i think for a solo career as well funny thing is even though at the beginning it was obvious that michael was the stand out talent nonetheless the group itself made such an impact that nobody thought at first you should spin this kid off and those michael jackson solo albums were merely something for him to do in his spare time a way to make money obviously but not an attempt to break up the jackson five of us [Music] michael's four albums under motown got to be there ben music and me and forever michael featured covers of tracks from many artists such as smokey robinson and bill withers and spawned a series of solo hits for the young star throughout this time despite their already massive success the jackson 5 had grown frustrated with their lack of control over their music and in 1975 they bravely left motown and signed a new deal with cbs records which allowed them greater creative input something that would only benefit michael's rising stardom they were very much identified as a boy band when they were with motown and it was it was straightforward pop music um they were chafing at the bit really they wanted they were getting older they wanted to um do just have more more freedom and to be able to exercise their creativity and i think it was it was actually a really good move when they moved to cbs as happened so often in child business people thought well that's that we've heard the end of them no one believed that they could actually generate their own material but they did have a successful period with epic gamblin huff gave them their first british number one show you the way to go and they had big hits enjoy yourself uh shake your body shake your body did over 2 million in the states very big record but still nobody anticipated what was going to happen with michael [Music] i don't know what's gonna happen to you baby [Music] [Music] having renamed the group as the jacksons they went on to release six albums between 1975 and 1984. crucially the move to cbs had allowed the songwriting and producing talent of michael jackson to come to the fore with tracks such as shake your body this place hotel and can you feel it this demonstrated that not only was there life in the jackson brand but there was another side to the child star who was fast becoming an adult the other boys were more like young men growing up they wanted to play they they all worked hard all of them worked very very hard but michael worked 10 times harder than anybody he worked harder than me because i like to play too you know it's time to play i want to play uh michael could stand and and talk to you and you'd think he wasn't paying attention to you because he's working out moves while he's talking to you and doing spins and and you know and you're talking to him about okay mike we got to get to the limo at 5 15 and uh and we you know the sound checks at seven michael are you paying attention yeah i hear you 515 and he's doing he's he's constantly thinking about what he's going to be doing or creating things in his head all the time the other boys didn't work like that the boys um jermaine uh jackie marlon tito used to like to play basketball with the band members they had a little basketball court and michael was always about working it was time to work michael wanted to work and he would often come to me and he'd say sam would you tell the boys to come on let's go so then i'd have to go outside and say okay guys let's wrap it up and then of course they're going okay we got just got five more minutes we're almost through with this game i was like uh michael wants to get started guys let's go so michael was he didn't want to [Music] tell his brothers what to do because he was like almost the youngest so he'd have me do it which was fine you know that's part of my role as musical directors getting the band members and everybody you know situated let's go let's get started with michael's professionalism and drive shining through he made plans for more solo work at the time michael wanted to do an album of ballads and he wanted to use two people to produce that album walter scharf who has since passed away who wrote ben and myself and at the time epic records did not want him to do an album of all ballads even though he had contacted walter scharf and had told him about it he had told me about it the album never came off but what did happen was a meeting between michael jackson and quincy jones in 1978 when the pair encountered each other working on the set of musical film the wiz in which michael was appearing as the scarecrow the pair connected and jones agreed to work on michael's next solo project the multi-platinum selling off the wall the first thing one noticed about off the wall was the cover it is the first thing you notice and he's in the tux he's grown up to avoid looking square he had the album designers give the shoes sparkle but this is now a grown-up michael jackson he's 21. and he's a handsome young black man that's the tragedy no one other than himself thought he had to change his appearance off the wall he looks great i think the teaming up with quincy jones um certainly sort of released what i think of as the essence of michael jackson onto the world it was i mean i felt that it was a much there's much more funk to it um you know he was a young man now there was no gimmickiness to it he was grown up and confident and it seemed a really great period for him because he was he was still a teen icon but he he just seemed like a man who knew his own mind who was a confident performer [Music] [Music] just rising don't stop till he gets enough is just um perfect perfect disco track he's always been a really good songwriter is um really good lyrics uh great ear for melody um uh and that's something that's almost overlooked slightly in in because everyone's so transfixed by you know him as a performer the joyfulness the voice is never better than when he's singing don't stop until you get enough what he can do i believe that other motown singers don't is is that he floats on the full set of when he can get a groove on the falsetto [Music] the skillful thing that he and quincy jones did was to release this album at the height of disco people forget because off the wall has lasted and most disco albums have not what a challenge that was to be danceable without being dated because of all the forms of popular music dance music dates the quickest because dances as steps are novelties and they fall from fashion and also dance music tends to use electronic machines more than other forms of music and of course technology advances quickly and things which sound cool and new sound dated very quickly off the wall managed to avoid these challenges partly because of the production probably because of the performance and probably because of the great songs very lucky to have the tie-in with rod temperton from cleethorpes of all places but rock with you was number one for four weeks in america huge record [Music] relax your mind [Music] love with you oh [Music] [Music] when i compare it to something like ben i know this is just such a such a massive leap um so i suppose he's just starting to show his individuality um and what he's capable of it was wonderful getting to see michael jackson in his element in those videos that was so classic and i remember seeing him you know sort of dance for the first time and and just seeing his love for performance he seemed so free and so open and so willing to express himself and and what he's done is he's seen the bridge from motown to disco the world of disco and and those songs they're they're as effective calling cards as in their time the rolling stones doing i want to be your man are the stone roses going i want to be adored you know don't stop till you get enough these are these are bones promises com compacts with an audience a a massive audience you know this guy can sing this guy can dance this guy is part of that this guy's part of this this guy's nigh and then then the guy has got his audience so very very strong album and it made you think my gosh he made it he made the cross from kid to adult and now he's going to be with us for a while off the wall proved to be a massive success for michael he had reinvented himself and broken free from the confines of the motown production line allowing his own personality to flow through the music the album was received as a major breakthrough and was the first by a solo artist to spawn four u.s top 10 single releases with don't stop till you get enough and rock with you reaching the top spot while follow-up singles off the wall and she's out of my life both charted at number 10. to date off the wall has sold over 20 million copies worldwide yet at the time jackson remained unfulfilled despite the album's success and single grammy award win jackson's next album thriller released in 1982 was to launch him into the stratosphere i spoke to an executive of the company who i won't name and i said oh how's the new michael jackson album and he said it's not as good as off the wall i think he had been fooled by the choice of the girl as mine as the first single it was a decent pop single but it didn't give you any evidence that there was going to be a classic album and uh as 1982 turned to 83 no one thought the thriller would be as good as it was and that's why it was so completely stunning and of course the billie jean video knocked everybody away [Music] [Music] just remember to always [Music] the funny thing about billie jean was that quincy jones wasn't convinced at first he thought should we put this out and then it turned out to be one of the most successful songs of his career what was startling about billie jean and i remember when it first came out sitting watching top of the pops and um up until that point michael jackson had been seen essentially as a disco star really great disco but a disco star and then billie jean uh this went into totally new territory um because it was combining dance music with new wave pop and with with rock sounds as well billie jean introduces what becomes a not a misogynist theme would be too strong but certainly um a very um confrontational uh relationship with women in his songs becomes a a dynamic um supposedly inspired by an actual uh stalker styles scenario interestingly it had this subject matter and at the time i just thought oh this is a near the knuckle topic being dressed up with icing it sounds so good that you don't want to talk about the fact that it's about a guy denying his paternity of a child now i look back and i think is this for the first real sign of michael jackson's paranoia because once he was no longer working with quincy jones the paranoia sometimes just came through full bore they don't care about us scream was billie jean the first example of that whether it was or not it was sufficiently surrounded by all these other elements that it made for a product greater than the sum of its parts billie jean was the second single from thriller and was released in january 1983. with this track jackson had created a sound that was truly unique and the single shot to number one in both the united states and the uk however it wasn't simply the strength of the song and combined video that was helping to make billie jean and thriller the gigantic success it was becoming in march that year jackson appeared alongside his brothers on a television special celebrating 25 years of motown and when he took to the stage alone he came with a performance that would cement his place in music history forever [Music] it's fascinating to read that even the night before motown 25 tv special he hadn't figured out what to do for billie jean yet and so he turned up the music all the way and let it control his body that's in his analogy when they did the show the motown 25 he introduced the moonwalk and it was one of the most amazing moments in television history and i'm not exaggerating [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] billie jean is that one moment of time that changes history it was like one of those huge iconic moments in music when you saw him do that moonwalk you were thinking i'm seeing something unbelievable that i'm probably never going to see again in my life and without sounding over the top it was just like that he created something so special um and he did it was that one moment in time that changed so many things and he won an emmy award for best musical performance just on the basis of that i mean you don't give any awards out for four-minute segments but it was so astonishing and uh he was the king of the world for a while after that i think billie jean and and the the sequins the i think by then we had the white socks very prominent all those little details um the moonwalking you know the sort of the head movements he did um the glistening hair everything um yeah i mean he was really i think he was he was very savvy so you know he paid attention to every single detail and those were things that were distinctively michael um you know i mean some a pop star could have got by just with the gimmicks with it without the raw talent but you know he had it all unlike off the wall an album with firm disco and r b roots thriller went on to demonstrate michael's versatility as he experimented with a rock crossover feel on tracks such as beat it released in february 1983. what was special about uh beat it was that fusion of soul meets rock it was that first time we heard that electric guitar and you're thinking wow what a line i just remember hearing it mean it's just like it's like it's one of those things that just never leaves your mind [Music] and their works [Music] [Music] do what [Music] know [Music] michael was very canny in the 80s he's portrayed as sort of a bit elfin and fragile but actually he was a very he was quite a ruthless businessman at times he was very astute about the kind of musical styles that would appeal to different audiences and uh with with the song beat it he really brought the rock guitar right into the center um in quite an unexpected way for a black artist and he had eddie van halen playing playing lead and really kind of riffing away on the guitar but that suited the song and it suited the mood of the song so it's like this really strong dance beat and then also the rock guitar i remember standing in the control when we're doing the drums to beat it with jeff piccaro and i mean what can you say it was amazing it was just amazing of course jeff cross is one of the best drummers rock in the world and he's playing on this as a machine kind of grew and then he's playing on top of it and it's just scary how good he is and it's just great i mean it's it was it was it was clear i think to everybody that we had some amazing music not only was jackson making inroads with his music but he had developed a distinct visual style that transferred into his music videos both billie jean and beat it demonstrated michael's ability to dance and incorporated complex narratives to a format that was essentially designed to promote a song by the time the title track from thriller was released in january 1984 making it the seventh single from the album michael was ready to take things further than any artist ever had on screen i have something i want to tell you yes michael [Applause] i'm not like other guys of course not that's why i love you no i mean i'm different what are you talking about [Music] to accompany the single release of thriller michael jackson employed horror movie director john landis and together they created a short film to showcase the song featuring a plot that revolved around jackson being stalked by the undead and costing a record-breaking half a million dollars the 12-minute long thriller along with other videos from the album such as billie jean and beat it helped change the way music videos are viewed today thriller changed everything in terms of the vehicle or video because before that it wasn't even really deemed as that important it was a sideline that came with the track but thriller made video it made it transport a message and a story and then instead of the song being a song the song became a story a movie jackson utilized the medium to break down the barriers that were preventing his videos being shown to a wider public when fledgling station mtv then an exclusively white rock dominating channel finally agreed to exhibit billie jean to great success it was seen as a major breakthrough for the artist by that time michael jackson was so huge that mtv became the natural place to debut the full-length thriller video so this was a real conquest this was not something that was given to michael jackson on a plate these videos went worldwide in a way that nothing that he'd done on the motown years could just because there hadn't been the distribution facilities this uh thriller video opened up a whole new style of filmmaking essentially kind of pop music filmmaking [Music] [Music] so let me hold you tight and share up together [Music] [Music] it's clear that with thriller it was very important to jackson that he could um uh exercise his imagination he had a huge imagination and maybe this was part of the a reflection of the the strange closeted childhood that he had um i remember a friend of mine a journalist met the jackson five way back in a hotel in london and he said that the jacksons were just kind of normal boys apart from michael there was something about him even then he seemed to be in a world of his own and quite almost ethereal and he sensed that even then um and i think in jackson's head he had huge kind of um it's like this big cinemascape in his head and i suppose the great thing about having that success and that money was he was able to realize it and he teamed up with john landis the director and made essentially made the horror film he'd always wanted to make the thriller the title track is about transformation it's um some people say it's jackson coming out um in terms of body transformation the the video with john landis is um john landis directed uh american werewolf jackson chose him but john landis reveals things about michael jackson and where he is creatively and where he is personally where michael jackson had arrived at the time of thriller was to become the biggest star in the world the album was an unprecedented global success and at its peak was selling a million copies per week worldwide and also earned a record-breaking eight grammy award wins to date thriller with its mix of r b rock soul and funk tracks iconic videos and inimitable sense of style remains the greatest selling album of all time with over a hundred million copies sold [Music] however michael's success was suddenly overshadowed when in january 1984 during the filming of a commercial in support of his new pepsi endorsement a pyrotechnic explosion set fire to the superstar's hair and left him severely injured with second and third degree burns to his scalp it would be a major turning point in michael's career and six months would pass before he would step back out into the public gaze despite the setback of the pyrotechnic accident jackson pressed on with his relentless schedule with his solo career firmly established a split from the jacksons was inevitable in july 1984 the family embarked on the victory tour which was to be their last after playing to sell out audiences across the united states and canada michael having donated his five million dollar fee to charity went back into the studio with collaborator quincy jones to begin work on his next album one that would portray the star in a whole new light there was a lot of anticipation about um the next album after thriller it took michael a while about five years um and no wonder how did you follow up thriller oh he was well conscious of the uh well i wouldn't call it pressure because i don't think he never showed to me that he felt pressure but he was just burning with ambition and he wanted to beat whatever the last album did he always wanted to beat it bad was released in august 1987 and featured a slightly more stripped down sound playing on the hip-hop and rap influences of the late 80s however the change in jackson's music almost ended up taking a back seat to the radical changes in the star's appearance i think bad was an evolution for him as a person and musically i think obviously the five-year gap between albums was trying to grow reflect write learn travel find himself um obviously he changed a lot on the outside as well um i remember the first images of bad and people being so shocked at such a big change facially and and in the color of his skin and all of these things which people began to question but again the music just spoke for itself [Music] how [Music] i suppose the word bad back then when that came out you know bad meaning good and all that that was like you know it was very much african-american um lingo so he sort of brought that to the pop world and you know there are even little articles and papers about you know bad meaning good and what it really meant he changed his image in a way that was tougher um the studded leather belts the tight trousers and boots and the kind of quite aggressive choreography and martin scorsese directed the video and of course it's very well done and of course it's beautifully choreographed and michael's performance is impeccable but it doesn't seem groundbreaking or sincere [Music] me [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] that he was starting to follow trends rather than initiate them just a little bit i mean it was still a great album but there was just this sense of um that he was uh maybe not not on top of his game in the way that he had been with thriller of the three quincy jones albums this is the least but nonetheless still very good but it's a transition album there's no rod tempered him michael jackson wants to write almost all the songs cedar garrett gets in as you know with her collaborator on man of the mirror but michael is becoming more and more his adult self bad went straight to number one and was the second single release from the album to do so following on from i just can't stop loving you maintaining a high tempo and somewhat more adult feel to the album dirty diana another track to hit the top of the charts continued to promote this new vision of michael jackson jackson was showing real versatility there in the way that he could move between dance music and rock music and very convincingly um and it was interesting as well that uh he was um becoming more overtly sexual and sexually assertive um a song like dirty diana i mean there she is she's a groupie and she's a predator and she's a seductress and he's really getting into the the song and the intensity of the emotions there [Music] [Music] [Music] i am the thing that you need she looked me deep in the eyes she touching me so to stop she says [Music] diana just reminded me of somebody losing their virginity or dare i say it you know the best partner of your life and someone completely blowing your mind and i remember thinking i wish i was her yes it's goodbye to little michael jackson that's for sure and he he is trying to be sexier he's revealing more of his own flesh which is interesting he's grabbing his crotch he's he's being more overtly sexual in some of the lyrics but it doesn't hold it was like you can't fool us there's a sense of new kind of grittiness really and a new um uh realism sort of urban realism that he's bringing in and that was very in tune with the time and in tune with the late 80s where i mean guns and roses were sort of massive and rock music was was going through a renaissance at that point so he was drawing on those influences in the wake of michael's death one particular track has appeared as the song that defined his character best man in the mirror was released in january 1988 and was a top three hit in the united states despite not including major jackson traits such as an elaborate video and dance routine the song demonstrated michael's strong humanitarian nature after his death man in the mirror has become the big song and and it takes on an added poignancy but at the time it was one of a very nice selection of songs it only got to 21 in britain mine and the mirror is the most popular song after his death it became the the most downloaded song and um in a way if you were to say that one song was michael jackson's most honest song man in the mirror and his most reverberative song in terms of how it would have related to other people to his fan base [Music] take a look at yourself and make a change [Music] man in the mirror underlined a long-standing trend in jackson's music that called for world unification and peace with songs such as can you feel it we are the world and later heal the world earth song and others michael was able to express his desire to help people as the 1980s drew to a close michael jackson was undisputedly the biggest superstar of the decade and had achieved a status that saw his music and videos embedded in popular culture as the 90s beckoned there was to be a new direction for jackson in 1991 michael jackson released his eighth studio album dangerous having parted company with quincy jones jackson looked to infuse his sound with more dance and hip-hop flavors and teamed up with producer teddy riley who injected elements of new jack swing into the album in an emerging decade where pop music was now giving way to new variations of rap and rock jackson aimed to conquer this ever-changing landscape when dangerous comes out we've had another four years for music to change another four years for him to change and we're post quincy jones now and the musically maturing influences and whatever he may have done to tone down any excess sentiment there might have been is gone there was there was a falling out there um you know because quincy in certain respects perhaps took more credit than he should have for thriller because in fact michael was very much thriller most of thriller was there in the demos i mean michael did do a phenomenal job of getting that album together quincy facilitated the completion the album did a great job too but it was michael's record and so then michael got mad at quincy because he thought quincy was taking credit for stuff that michael had done and then they had a little bit of falling out there's no restraint now michael is co-producing he's writing he's he's in charge and so we're getting a purer michael jackson [Music] eat this [Music] tonight [Music] um black or white was really a plea for racial harmony and that's clear in the video in the video you've got everyone from russian cossacks dancing to [Music] african tribes people and it's clearly about racial unity and i think michael himself felt very keenly that he was he was in a sense representing all these different groups i remember the first time in in all honesty here in black or white i remember going oh that's so cheesy thinking oh what a statement to make then i saw the video and i was like i get it i when i saw the faces morphing into each other and not you know and becoming one i was like okay i actually get what he's trying to say it's it wasn't cheesy at all it was actually something really real protection for gangs clubs and nations causing grief in human relations it's a turf war on a global scale i'd rather hear both sides [Music] i'm not gonna spend my life being of color you agree with me [Music] [Music] black or white was a big number one record in america but it's not one of the lasting favorites in the canon the red the rap dates it for one thing and that's the trouble of succumbing to novelty trying to please too hard because rap had become popular michael thought okay i've got to incorporate a rap you don't have to do anything michael you're michael jackson just be michael jackson sing ben sing something like ben and everyone's going to like it but by trying to please he dated the song black or white was an undeniable success and with it michael jackson became the first artist since the beatles to attain the top spot in the u.s within three weeks of release and also the first american artist since elvis presley to enter the uk charts straight in at number one while also topping the charts in another 17 countries black or white was truly a global song even though jackson had dominated the 1980s the 90s were proving tricky ground to negotiate dangerous had been produced with modern formatting in mind and therefore its 77 minute run time would be more suitable for cd rather than vinyl the modern feel also transferred into the music as michael fought to retain his relevance in the new decade dangerous it came out in 91 and it just showed michael as ever his finger on the pulse you know he was really aware of where music was traveling he's been criticized a lot for becoming white in a way and becoming less black but he's always had the support of the african-american community and and the black community generally and i and i think it's there in the music it's like he never abandoned okay he might have changed his skin color but in terms of his music he never abandoned his roots in r b and soul music and with dangerous um a track like jam just shows how um totally up to the minute he was with with the new kind of black urban dance beats and incorporating it in a way that was really sophisticated [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] we must live each day like this [Music] i love damn f in fact everybody loved jam everyone around me was like have you heard the new michael jackson track it's amazing because it was cool and i know like you know because for us it was like michael jackson 80's great and everything legend but not cool 90s cool but when he came out with down it was like so cool jam was a steady success for jackson and with nine single releases in total all charting well dangerous maintained his place as the leading artist in the world however although his music was critically well received jackson himself was now under fire as tabloid rumor and speculation began to spiral out of control as he appeared to become increasingly more eccentric released in october 1992 michael wanted heal the world to be another global anthem to highlight the need for change yet in some corners his stance on this appeared as over sentimentality it only went sour when he started to project this image of the semi-messianic personality but the flowing shirt with the wind machine and the earth song heal the world type sentiments the type of stuff that jarvis cocker was demonstrating against someone who'd been around a long time would be uncomfortable with this he was not born to this he made himself this and sure there were some some young fans who believed him and followed it but you knew that this wasn't healthy in a special appearance at the 1993 super bowl jackson performed heal the world to a television audience of over a hundred million people today we stand together all around the world joined in a common purpose to remake the planet into a haven of joy and understanding and goodness no one should have to suffer especially our children [Music] this time we must succeed this is for the children of the [Music] i know world it [Music] is no need to cry [Music] we have um a media possibly especially here in england you know compared to america this is just like very negative and loves to rip people to shreds you know because michael really did do some you know amazing things he clearly cared about the environment he clearly cared about so many causes and genuinely not just for show before taking to the stage michael jackson marked his return to britain with gifts for disadvantaged children he presented the variety club of great britain with six coaches they'll be used to take children from around the country to his other uk shows before being given to schools i'd say children will always hold a special place in my heart so from heal the world and myself i present this present that's more where this comes from thank you that wasn't really so much focused on as his weird eccentricities so i mean that in itself is very sad you know clearly had i mean you know we all have different sides to us but clearly at least one part of him was kind caring you know had a conscience we didn't hear very much about it you know he had the heel the world trust and he you know he's one of the celebrities that have given the most to charitable causes michael it's now my great pleasure to present you with a check for one million dollars this represents the money pepsicola pledges to raise in europe this summer with our best wishes or heal the world and yet he was so quiet about it wasn't something he particularly shouted about um but he really echoed his thoughts through his music um tracks like kill the world and man in the mirror and black or white all had this come together feeling and kind of unity feeling about it [Music] michael started the heal the world foundation in 1992 the purpose of which was to raise money and awareness of the plight of children around the globe living with disease and poverty since its inception the charity has raised millions of dollars for the causes it supports including many donations from jackson himself as well as the entire profits from his dangerous world tour [Music] i think dangerous was was really the the in lots of ways you could see that album was the last of michael jackson as king of pop and the the main kind of global superstar i think after that his his career went in rather more strange and bizarre directions and in a way he he started to lose direction after after dangerous um and that he had personal issues that were about to derail him i asked all of you to wait and hear the truth before you label or condemn me don't treat me like a criminal because i am innocent in the summer of 1993 while jackson was still at the height of his fame he was accused of child abuse prompting a media frenzy the mata disturbed jackson deeply and was settled out of court insufficient evidence also meant no criminal proceedings were filed we have concluded that because the young boy who was who was the catalyst for this investigation has recently informed us that he does not wish to participate in any criminal proceeding where he is named as a victim that we must decline prosecution involving mr jackson despite this conclusion jackson and his career never fully recovered [Music] after a two-year absence during which michael had married lisa marie presley the daughter of elvis presley he returned with a massive double album and world tour history featured a disc of greatest hits and a second album with new material from the superstar although his fans did not desert him the attention from the media regarding his personal life would not abate and as he had done before jackson responded through his music by releasing the single screen with his sister janet i think scream was a really interesting track because you know one thing it did was sort of show that janet who was you know pretty popular artist in her own right it was cooler to say you like janet than it was michael at that time so she was showing that she was supporting her brother you know she's in that video it's a fantastic video so it's it's a hot song and it's a great video in there it's fantastic uh done in that sort of uh spaceship uh thing and you know this this idea all was around michael jackson videos that he's different that he's uh is another place you know and and and and they're in like this this white space and all of these indignities that are being heaped uh upon him and it's that thing where uh he's always making a contact with the audience always uh uh they feel this is my this is my p and this is my so but at that point um you know as opposed to man in the mirror where you know i really buy this kind of gentle eddies and uh i mean i think scream's a great piece of rock [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] tell me [Music] when history was released i bucked media opinion and and went on breakfast television and said that i wasn't going to buy into this this is a sad deterioration of a person who happens to be a great talent michael spent or was reported to have spent seven million dollars on that video to spend seven million dollars on basically a complaint is extraordinary i mean what a distortion of perspective you know the cost of the video it was just a bit like oh come on you know do we really need to be spending that much money because it's almost like well you're spending that much money but then you're talking about the fact that you want to be humanitarian spend less and give half of the budget to a charity so i think that was quite a contradiction is [Music] [Applause] [Music] and to bring your sister into it as he did with janet and to show that he was thoroughly unhappy with this aspect of his life was distressing to watch if you realized that it was not entertainment this is real this guy doesn't like this press attention he's in pain he's bringing in his sister he was an extraordinarily hot recording artist at the time to help make the point and he's spending seven million dollars to say don't write things about me i i i don't see how anybody could react in any way other than to say this is really sad if his life wasn't going off the rails the train was shaking that should have been a real warning to everybody in typical jackson tradition scream drew critical acclaim for its music and video and was a solid top five hit in both the united states and the uk however the reality of jackson's relationship with media intrusion was somewhat overlooked even though it had featured many times in other songs such as leave me alone and why you want to trip on me with jackson now seemingly a more fragile artist there were signs of his loneliness evident on history in songs such as you are not alone which was released on august 15 1995 and was the first song in the history of the billboard 100 to debut at number one you were not alone it was a really flawn track it made me feel very sorry for him he came across as vulnerable but it just showed me a whole new michael i mean this isn't this isn't the same guy who was out there performing beat it and you know this dynamic fantastic guy just seemed sort of beaten down when he came out with that track yeah there were certain songs on history where you felt an intense sense of michael being alone there at the top and it's kind of a cliche but i think it's true that once you get to that level the normal family and community ties that you had that nurtured you seemed to drop away and he did isolate himself more and more and surround himself by yes people and rather strange advisors people in his position as well known that they get that they're at the top of a pyramid and that they're there occurs in within that pyramid people who simply say yes and uh that's a problem for many people in michael's position [Music] you're not here with me you never said goodbye someone tell me why did you have to go and leave my world so cold every day [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] the detached air about these songs that something quite overblown but not really rooted in anything and it's sort of there in the music too the music's very grand and huge gestures but somehow it's not lot the beats aren't locked down in the way that they were there's songs now i when you look at songs like you're not alone they they become they're not it's hard to think of them as compositions so much as responses they are very mediated this idea that um he he wanted to have uh privacy well why would you uh uh be out doing what what he does he must feel this to want to do it because nobody would embarrass themselves that much or commit themselves that much unless they really felt it and uh i did think this is a car crash and i don't want to see it [Applause] [Music] history marked a significant downturn in michael's career although a number one album worldwide there was anger in the music that saw the artist focusing more on responding to or attacking the people who were trying to bring him down than anything else with his career heading into a decline in his personal life and relationship with the media in disarray michael attempted to disappear further from the public gaze during his history tour he had married nurse debbie rowe and by 1997 had two children with her although their relationship was not to last on the music front jackson released a remix album blood on the dance floor which saw various tracks from history remixed as well as a handful of new songs yet the album was seen as a disappointment to critics and even though reaching the top spot in europe it went virtually unnoticed on the american market blood on the dance floor was amazing to me because i went away for two weeks uh i think i was working on some project in america and i got back michael jackson had been number one and fallen out of the top 20. all in the space of the two weeks i've been away that told you about how quick the chart was moving in those days but it also told you about how michael's following was now concentrated among the jacksonites who would buy everything first day and then it wouldn't cross over it reeked a tiny bit of desperation to sort of make money and sort of say hey i'm still relevant i'm still you know i'm still cool people would buy absolutely anything michael jackson put out you know it would have a certain audience you know he'd never be completely forgotten but you know it's almost like a person who's reached a certain age trying to dress in in a teenager's clothes you know sort of started to get that impression a little bit this was the situation he now found himself in he'd lost the wider audience through this excess of sentimentality it was questionable in terms of the motive because it's the one album that we don't see all the reinvention we've had time out he's been writing he's come back with a new look there's a new this there's a new it was just like oh here it is and what is it oh there's a couple of new tracks but this is the body of what it is i questioned whether that was money oriented in that you know need to generate some sales needs to generate some income things are happening we need to pull things into place and there was a little gap where you know he was obviously going through what he was going through and it seemed more like a stop gap album for me and it's interesting that album blood on the dance floor was a pretty good success in britain but it was a flop in america and he went off the boil in the states commercially [Music] [Music] [Music] this is is [Music] [Music] blood on the dance floor had demonstrated that jackson's career was struggling to live up to his past successes the king of pop was being left out in the wilderness while the public preferred to engage him in the glossy pages of celebrity gossip magazines rather than listening to his music having seemingly been away from the spotlight for nearly five years michael jackson returned with his final studio album invincible was released in 2001 and was the first album to feature all new material since dangerous 10 years earlier yet like blood on the dance floor it was only going to underline the fact that jackson's relevance as an artist was passing by the time he comes in with invincible he is in american eyes an altis artist he's not a current actor and the album only sells two and a half million which compared with the previous figures is a disastrous fall of course if someone had started off with two and a half million you'd think hey this is great but he really seemed to see on that one he was just clutching at people to write with people to do something in the style of and ironically really the most successful track was butterflies with floatry which is amazing if he could have been in touch with more quality young acts like poetry it might have been a better album i think there was a slight air of desperation to those to that last album i mean it's interesting that for the invincible album dr dre really top hip-hop producer was asked if he would do some production on it and he declined and i think that that that's quite a moment because 10 years earlier dr dre would have jumped at the chance you don't turn down michael jackson but it's interesting that he did at that point which shows how much his career had really declined then i mean jackson's tired at this point i would say i mean not just tired um creatively but actually tired mentally mentally in his ability to always um well to see the culture and to utilize it whether that be for himself or whether that be for the brilliance of music that that aspect that that knack that that spark is is is hard to discern on invincible in comparison to his earlier works invincible was not able to compete and some critics were of the opinion that this was down to jackson being out of control and lacking a figure in the mould of quincy jones to offer the star an occasional reality check michael's had everybody as much talent as he's always had he hasn't lost anything the issue really i think quincy centered things and like recording the amount of songs like this last album where they recorded i don't know 60 or 70 songs i mean that just wouldn't have happened i mean quincy and michael would have gone through they would have picked the 10 or 15 or 20 best eliminated all that other stuff and and they would have come down to 12 songs that were great because quincy would have been a great advisor on that level quincy would say to michael you know michael was gonna maybe michael would be a little disconnected and make some statement that wouldn't necessarily fly too well out in the public queen says you can't say that and michael would laugh and they would go you know i mean quincy was you know like a father to him on that level and was a straight shooter that idea that who's holding michael jackson back now nobody's holding them back but nobody's nobody's gonna tap him on the shoulder and say you know because these are in a different world and you know they the people that are around him have got no uh they've got no end to to do that because they know they they they prevented that ever being a reality in the way that um he's been allowed to uh grow and become you know inviable icon that he is [Music] [Music] [Applause] due to ongoing contract wrangling with sony jackson's final offering was not promoted well and there was no supporting tour a special concert at madison square gardens was organized to celebrate 30 years in music for michael which saw him perform with a host of other big names and also saw him reunite and perform with his brothers one more time [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] the 2000s were not the happiest of decades for jackson despite celebrating the birth of his third child in 2002 michael's world and personal life were thrown into the spotlight once again a documentary by journalist martin bashir painted the star in an unfavorable light but was later judged by critics to have been biased and unfair however it did lead to more allegations of child abuse please keep an open mind and let me have my day in court i deserve a fair trial like every other american citizen i will be acquitted and vindicated when the truth is told reed begets greed mr jackson now realizes that the advice he received was wrong he should have fought these actions to the bitter end and vindicated himself the recent publicity about these settlements is unfair and damaging to him his family and his dedication to the world's children the charges he faces are false and will be battled in a court of law within our justice system he is innocent and will be vindicated this time the case went to court and jackson was acquitted on all counts jackson emerged from the courtroom taking the steps of a dazed man on a walk he must surely have wondered he would ever be free to make [Applause] [Music] during this time the star's health also came heavily into question as he began to look frail and world weary the case had crippled michael financially and he retreated as far away from the spotlight as he could with all the legal and personal issues in his life music had taken a back seat various compilations and re-editions were released but there was no new music planned from the artist in 2009 jackson made a surprise announcement having teamed up with aeg he was to play 10 nights at london's o2 arena later in the year tickets sold out in minutes and the number of dates was increased to a staggering 50 nights which also sold out making it the fastest selling concert series of all time doubts were soon raised as to michael's ability to complete such a grueling residency in his current state of health yet rehearsals were well underway and reports from the jackson camp stated the star was happy and enjoying the preparations for his comeback however it was never to take place on june 25th 2009 michael jackson collapsed at his home of a suspected heart attack and was pronounced dead later that afternoon [Music] history offers us precedent and all the presidents tell us that the personal eccentricities of the artist are in time forgotten did mozart really have tourette's did he really go in for toilet humor it doesn't matter and we don't waste time thinking about it but we think of the artist and so it will be with future generations who won't have lived through the michael is taking a bath in perrier stories they will just have the records and the videos and the work will speak for itself i think when we look back um and then you know there's certain signifiers that will leap out and the white glove the military jacket the moonwalk and those those are the moments of true innovation the the his falsetto singing um but particularly the dancing that that um in the way that fred astaire did you know it was like magic i definitely think michael created uh certain certain styles that people take for granted all the all the younger kids who have come up since the 80s take for granted we were older saw that michael was innovating and creating these things but the use the the way the records are put together now the use of uh the way background vocals are stacked uh the way uh the the rhythm track is put together built piece by piece the way the lead works against the backgrounds and and the track it's it was all invaded by michael [Music] michael jackson will go down in history as one of the greatest entertainers of all time even though he will remain a tragic figure in the eyes of some he approached his life and career with passion and a happiness that was infectious and the world will miss the undisputed kingdom [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] you

Channel: Amplified - Classic Rock & Music History

Views: 1,400,777

Keywords: Amplified - Classic Rock & Music History, Michael Jackson, classic rock, iconic albums, iconic musician, influential albums, influential artist, legendary artist, legendary performer, memorable performances, music documentary, music history, music industry evolution, musical creativity, musical genius, musical impact, musical journey, pop sensation, rare footage, solo career, timeless music

Id: CosCklieXLE

Length: 88min 21sec (5301 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 25 2022