Star Analysis: Michael Jackson (Pop)

Michael Jackson was a singer, songwriter, record prooducer, dancer and actor. He was known as 'The King of Pop' as he made many contributions to pop music and also to dance as well, which made him a global figure for over four decades.

Michael Jackson started of his career in 1964 as part pf the Jackson 5, with his other four brothers, and then started his solo career in 1971. In the 1980's he became a dominant figure in pop music.

Michael Jackson's music videos were said to have broken down racial barriers and also said to have transformed the music video into an art form and a promotional tool. Some examples of these would be his songs 'Beat it', 'Billie Jean', and 'Thriller'. At the time of these songs the relatively new music channel MTV was said to have shot to fame due to the popularity of Michael Jackson music videos.

Through Michaels stage and music video performances Michael Jackson made many complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk popular and also gave these techniques their name. Michael Jackson's distinctive sound and style has influenced many artists over the decades.




The iconic 1982, Michael Jackson song 'Thriller' is the best selling album of all time in the United states and the best selling album of all time worldwide, selling an estimated 63 million copies. In addition to the album, Michael Jackson released a 14 minute long music video for the song in 1983. In 1985 , thriller won a Grammy for Best Music Video.

As well as being known as the king of pop, he was also referred to as the king of music videos. It was said that he turned the music video into a art form and also a promotional tool through he way he used complexed storylines, dance routines, special effects and famous cameo appearances. Before Thriller Michael Jackson struggled to receive coverage on MTV, which was supposedly due to the fact that he was African American. The popularity of his music videos helped to make MTV well known. Short films like Thriller are still considered as being unique to Michael Jackson. However, dance sequences that were used in music videos such as 'Beat it' have had a big impact on many music videos and have tried to be copied many times. The famous Thriller dance which features in the music video has now become a part of global pop culture. The Thriller short film raised the bar for music videos, and is the most successful music video ever according to the Guinness World Records.

Michael Jackson also released a 19 minute music video for the song 'Bad'. In this video Michael Jackson started to use sexual imagery and choreography which was never seen before in his work. In the music video for the 'Smooth Criminal' Jackson did his famous anti-gravity lean. The music video for 'Leave Me Alone' was released in 1989 and was nominated for three Billboard music video awards and in this same year it won a Golden Lion Award, due to the special effects, it then made more success in 1990 when it won a Grammy for the Best Music Video.
In 1988 Michael Jackson received the MTV video vanguard award and in 1990 he won the MTV video vanguard artist of the decade award, due to his achievements as these awards are also reefed to as the 'life time achievement award'. From 1991 and to this date the award has been renamed the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.

Remember The Time had a big production and became one of his longest music videos. This music video was set in the ancient Egypt and featured ground breaking visual effects. Ira Robbins from Entertainment Weekly described the video as being a "gorgeous ancient Egyptian extravaganza". Remember The Time was marketed as a short film and featured stars such as Eddie Murphy. Michael Jacksons record label released clips and also released behind the scene clips of the making of the music video.

Michael Jacksons Scream, gained 11 MTV music video award nominations in 1995. Scream won the Best Dance Video, Best Choreography and Best Art Direction. A year later the video won a Grammy for Best Music Video and also the Guinness World Records listed it as the most expensive music video ever made , as it had the cost of $7million. Also Michael Jacksons song Scream holds the Guinness World record for the longest music video, as it is over 38 minutes long.