Fri, Jun 26th, 2009
Michael Jackson, the king of pop, died Thursday in Los Angeles following a cardiac arrest, a spokesman of the local police department said. He was 50.
The news of his death at around lunch time was first broke by celebrity website TMZ but news organizations around the country waited more than two hours before making it official as they were unable to confirm his death.
The Los Angeles Times was the first major news outlet to announce the singer's death on its website after the news was apparently confirmed by a doctor at the UCLA Medical Center, where he was brought by paramedics.
According to news reports, Jackson apparently fell unconscious at his Bel Air mansion in Los Angeles while he was reportedly rehearsing for his upcoming concert tour in England scheduled for next month.
As the news broke, all the major TV networks immediately began broadcasting live pictures in front of the Medical Center. Fans began to converge and the police quickly barricaded all the streets leading to the UCLA Hospital.
Those were the same kind of fans who camped out at the Santa Barbara Superior Courthouse, to show their support during his 2005 trial on child molestation charge. They released doves and wept when he was acquitted.
Jackson grew into a moon walking megastar, sold 750 million records during his career spanning over three decades and enjoyed worldwide adoration.
Jackson's career began as a family business in Indiana. As the Jackson 5, the group moved in comparably short time from local talent contests to national stardom, with the encouragement of established artists including Gladys Knight.
Driven by their father in a borrowed Volkswagen van, the Jackson 5 appeared in Chicago, at New York's Apollo Theater and as the opening act for the Temptations and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. At Knight's urging, Motown owner Berry Gordy signed the group to a contract in 1968.
Two years later, when Michael was 12, the Jackson 5 had four No. 1 hits, including the Grammy-winning "ABC" (which won a Grammy Award as best pop song) "I Want You Back" and "I'll Be There." Under Gordy's intensive grooming, the Jackson 5 achieved an astounding degree of mass popularity among black and white audiences. Their concerts caused near-riots, with young Michael becoming an unlikely prepubescent sex symbol and a Saturday morning cartoon.
Jackson began to emerge as a solo artist with the album "Got to Be There" (1971), which included the hit song "Rockin' Robin."
At 15, his voice broke, giving him a range from soprano to tenor. At the same time, the Jacksons began to chafe under the strict artistic control of Gordy and demanded greater artistic freedom. In 1975, the Jacksons left Motown for CBS's Epic label, but Gordy managed to keep the rights to the Jackson 5 name.
Michael and his brothers continued performing as the Jacksons, and in 1978 Michael sang and danced as the Scarecrow in the film "The Wiz," an all-black remake "The Wizard of Oz" starring one of Jackson's idols, Diana Ross.
His 1987 album, "Bad," sold 22 million copies and produced five No. 1 singles, including the title track, "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" and "Man in the Mirror." Videos from the album dominated MTV.
By the time of his 1991 album, "Dangerous," Jackson had parted ways with producer Jones. Although the album sold more than 20 million copies, it was seen as something of an artistic letdown.
According to news reports, Jackson started to become more enigma than entertainer in his 30s. He straightened his hair and nose, beginning a process of self-reconstruction that ultimately reached bizarre lengths.
In time, Jackson's skin turned from brown to a pale, ghostly white, his nose shrank from repeated plastic surgery, and his frame remained painfully gaunt. He wore outlandish costumes in public, spoke in an airy, high-pitched whisper.
His world devolved into a series of tabloid headlines that reported rumors or facts about everything from his curious pet ownership to the plastic surgeries that drastically changed him.
He built a private playland, the sprawling Neverland, replete with an amusement park and zoo, to which he invited scores of underprivileged children. He was accused of abusing a child in the 1990s (a case which was settled out of court in 1994 for a reported amount between $15 million and $24 million).
Other misfortunes he seemed to bring on himself -- and theories about his behavior were never in short supply. People loved to think they had cracked the mystery of Michael: He wanted his face to resemble Liz Taylor's.
He hated his appearance because his father and brothers used to tease him. He was repressed, he was asexual, he was an addict, he was a pervert, he was from outer space, he was a genius, he was stupid, he was insane. The truth was never known and Jackson recoiled from media scrutiny, and largely thwarted the assistance of image experts who displeased him.
In the early 2000s his fortunes and recording contracts waned, and an album, 2001's "Invincible," essentially tanked, selling only 10 million copies worldwide. Jackson lashed out at his record label and claimed, at an appearance with the Rev. Al Sharpton, that he was the victim of racism.
The hits kept not coming, but the headlines did: In November 2002, Jackson appeared to dangle his infant son over a Berlin hotel balcony while greeting fans and paparazzi below, which brought outrage.
He was briefly married to Elvis Presley progeny Lisa Marie Presley -- a largely symbolic union of pop dynasties. He left behind three children: Prince Michael I, who is now 12, and Paris Michael, 11. His youngest child, Prince Michael II (nicknamed Blanket as a baby), is 7. He is also survived by his siblings and his parents, Joe and Katherine Jackson.
"I must confess I am not surprised by today's tragic news," Michael Levine, a Los Angeles publicist who represented Jackson when the singer was accused of child molestation in the 1990s, said in a statement.
"Michael has been on an impossibly difficult and often self-destructive journey for years. His talent was unquestionable but so too was his discomfort with the norms of the world. A human simply can not withstand this level of prolonged stress."