LOS ANGELES — Michael Jackson, the “King of Pop” who once moonwalked
above the music world, died Thursday as he prepared for a comeback bid
to vanquish nightmare years of sexual scandal and financial calamity.
He was 50.
Jackson died at UCLA Medical Center after being stricken at his
rented home in Holmby Hills. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him at his
home for nearly three-quarters of an hour, then rushed him to the
hospital, where doctors continued to work on him.
“It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However, the
cause of his death is unknown until results of the autopsy are known,”
his brother Jermaine said. Police said they were investigating,
standard procedure in high-profile cases.
Jackson’s death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes
farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular
music’s premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music
who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled
even more on stage.
His 1982 album “Thriller” _ which included the blockbuster hits
“Beat It,” “Billie Jean” and “Thriller” _ is the best-selling album of
all time, with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide.
At the time of his death, Jackson was rehearsing hard for what was
to be his greatest comeback: He was scheduled for an unprecedented 50
shows at a London arena, with the first set for July 13.
As word of his death spread, MTV switched its programming to play
videos from Jackson’s heyday. Radio stations began playing marathons of
his hits. Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital. In New
York’s Times Square, a low groan went up in the crowd when a screen
flashed that Jackson had died, and people began relaying the news to
friends by cell phone.
“No joke. King of Pop is no more. Wow,” Michael Harris, 36, of New
York City, read from a text message a friend had sent him. “It’s like
when Kennedy was assassinated. I will always remember being in Times
Square when Michael Jackson died.”
The public first knew him as a boy in the late 1960s, when he was
the precocious, spinning lead singer of the Jackson 5, the singing
group he formed with his four older brothers out of Gary, Ind. Among
their No. 1 hits were “I Want You Back,” “ABC” and “I’ll Be There.”
He was perhaps the most exciting performer of his generation, known
for his backward-gliding moonwalk, his feverish, crotch-grabbing dance
moves and his high-pitched singing, punctuated with squeals and
titters. His single sequined glove, tight, military-style jacket and
aviator sunglasses were trademarks, as was his ever-changing,
surgically altered appearance.
“For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young
age, I just don’t have the words,” said Quincy Jones, who produced
“Thriller.” “He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions
and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I’ve lost my little
brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him.”
Jackson ranked alongside Elvis Presley and the Beatles as the
biggest pop sensations of all time. He united two of music’s biggest
names when he was briefly married to Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie,
and Jackson’s death immediately evoked comparisons to that of Presley
himself, who died at age 42 in 1977.
As years went by, Jackson became an increasingly freakish figure _ a
middle-aged man-child weirdly out of touch with grown-up life. His skin
became lighter, his nose narrower, and he spoke in a breathy, girlish
voice. He often wore a germ mask while traveling, kept a pet chimpanzee
named Bubbles as one of his closest companions, and surrounded himself
with children at his Neverland ranch, a storybook playland filled with
toys, rides and animals. The tabloids dubbed him “Wacko Jacko.”
“It seemed to me that his internal essence was at war with the norms
of the world. It’s as if he was trying to defy gravity,” said Michael
Levine, a Hollywood publicist who represented Jackson in the early
1990s. He called Jackson a “disciple of P.T. Barnum” and said the star
appeared fragile at the time but was “much more cunning and shrewd
about the industry than anyone knew.”
Jackson caused a furor in 2002 when he playfully dangled his infant
son, Prince Michael II, over a hotel balcony in Berlin while a throng
of fans watched from below.
In 2005, he was cleared of charges he molested a 13-year-old cancer
survivor at Neverland in 2003. He had been accused of plying the boy
with alcohol and groping him, and of engaging in strange and
inappropriate behavior with other children.
The case followed years of rumors about Jackson and young boys. In a
TV documentary, he acknowledged sharing his bed with children, a
practice he described as sweet and not at all sexual.
Despite the acquittal, the lurid allegations that came out in court
took a fearsome toll on his career and image, and he fell into serious
financial trouble.
Michael Joseph Jackson was born Aug. 29, 1958, in Gary. He was 4
years old when he began singing with his brothers _ Marlon, Jermaine,
Jackie and Tito _ in the Jackson 5. After his early success with
bubblegum soul, he struck out on his own, generating innovative,
explosive, unstoppable music.
The album “Thriller” alone mixed the dark, serpentine bass and drums
and synthesizer approach of “Billie Jean,” the grinding Eddie Van Halen
solo on “Beat It,” and the hiccups and falsettos on “Wanna Be Startin’
Somethin’.”
The peak may have come in 1983, when Motown celebrated its 25th
anniversary with an all-star televised concert and Jackson moonwalked
off with the show, joining his brothers for a medley of old hits and
then leaving them behind with a pointing, crouching, high-kicking,
splay-footed, crotch-grabbing run through “Billie Jean.”
The audience stood and roared. Jackson raised his fist.
By then he had cemented his place in pop culture. He got the plum
Scarecrow role in the 1978 movie musical “The Wiz,” a pop-R&B
version of “The Wizard of Oz,” that starred Diana Ross as Dorothy.
During production of a 1984 Pepsi commercial, Jackson’s scalp sustains burns when an explosion sets his hair on fire.
He had strong follow-up albums with 1987’s “Bad” and 1991’s
“Dangerous,” but his career began to collapse in 1993 after he was
accused of molesting a boy who often stayed at his home. The singer
denied any wrongdoing, reached a settlement with the boy’s family,
reported to be $20 million, and criminal charges were never filed.
Jackson’s expressed anger over the allegations on the 1995 album
“HIStory,” which sold more than 2.4 million copies, but by then, the
popularity of Jackson’s music was clearly waning, even as public
fascination with his increasingly erratic behavior was growing.
Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley in 1994, and they divorced in
1996. Later that year, Jackson married Deborah Rowe, a former nurse for
his dermatologist. They had two children together: Michael Joseph
Jackson Jr., known as Prince Michael, and Paris Michael Katherine
Jackson. Rowe filed for divorce in 1999.
Cardiac arrest is an abnormal heart rhythm that stops the heart from
pumping blood to the body. It can occur after a heart attack or be
caused by other heart problems.
Billboard magazine editorial director Bill Werde said Jackson’s star
power was unmatched. “The world just lost the biggest pop star in
history, no matter how you cut it,” Werde said. “He’s literally the
king of pop.”
Jackson’s 13 No. 1 one hits on the Billboard charts put him behind only Presley, the Beatles and Mariah Carey, Werde said.
“He was on the eve of potentially redeeming his career a little
bit,” he said. “People might have started to think of him again in a
different light.”
official website of Michael Jackson: http://www.michaeljackson.com/
___
Associated Press Writers Derrik J. Lang, Solvej Schou and Thomas
Watkins in Los Angeles and Virginia Byrne, Hillel Italie, Nekesa Mumbi
Moody and Jocelyn Noveck in New York contributed to this report.
Source: huffingtonpost.com
| 
