He's Back?

The man was Bad. The man was Dangerous. And in the blink of a surgically-altered eye, the man was also History. But Michael Jackson is about to take one last shot at proving that he is indeed Invincible.

His story is legend. But even legends fade with time, and the years have diminished the lustre on the King of Pop’s crown. He burst on the scene in the 1970s and thrilled the world in the 1980s. But increasing reports of his bizarre personal life and scandal doomed his career in the 1990s, and his latest comeback effort carries with it the faint scent of desperation. Now is the final chance to prove that the Gloved One is still the loved one in the hearts of the people.

The story of the man begins with the frightened little boy whose lightning-quick dance moves were reputed to stem from his skill at dodging his father’s blows. The seventh of nine children, Michael Joseph Jackson’s incredible charisma and talent were readily apparent even at the tender age of five, when he began singing with his brothers as part of the Jackson Five. After several crowd-pleasing shows, they were signed to Motown in 1969, where they began to turn out hit after hit. “I Want You Back”, “ABC” and “I’ll Be There” are among their many successes on Motown.

Behind the scenes, the successes came at an enormous price. It was the familiar yet sad tale of the father whose zeal for success came at the expense of affection for his children. The stages of the world were the playgrounds of the Jackson youth, the screaming fans the closest thing to true affection. The arrested development of Michael Jackson had begun—a lost boy locked in stasis, searching ever more keenly for the innocence and magic of a childhood that was denied to him.

In his best-selling 1988 autobiography, Moonwalk, Jackson acknowledged his regret, saying

I was so lonely that I used to walk through my neighborhood hoping I’d run into somebody I could talk to and perhaps become friends with. I wanted to meet people who didn’t know who I was. I wanted to run into somebody who would be my friend because they liked me and needed a friend too, not because I was who I am.

Perhaps that is the motivation behind the man, that simple longing to be loved. From that basic desire has stemmed some of the most fascinating and over-the-top spectacles the world has ever seen. Jackson’s insecurities have spawned one mega-excess after another, all in a bid to (re)capture the love and attention he has craved since childhood. And it is within this context that his life and his career must be placed. With his comeback album, Invincible, he presents the world with idiosyncratic larger-than-life presentation.

No doubt Michael Jackson fans the world over (and there are many, to be sure) eagerly anticipate the release of the King’s forthcoming album as they would the birth of their own child. But the support of those die-hard fans is assured. It is the imaginations and hearts (and pocketbooks) of the new generation that Jackson needs to conquer. The dilemma lies in assuring the world that Michael Jackson is still as relevant today as he was 20 years ago.

The world has changed; Jackson’s single white glove and moonwalk are relevant no more, long since replaced by new fads and fancies. Staying power need not be an impossible feat, however. Madonna and Sting, both rockers of the 1980s, have stayed fresh and hip well into the new millennium. But they never had to contend with life as a child performer, with racism, with scandal, or with what is perhaps the most insurmountable obstacle of all: a little album known as Thriller.

Thriller is Jackson’s blessing and his curse, the best-selling album of all time that catapulted him into the rarefied heights of supersuperstardom and rendered all his past great work almost unimportant by comparison. The fame brought by Thriller, and its record sales (over 51 million copies sold worldwide) set an impossible standard for Jackson. As he recorded in Moonwalk,

There was a lot of tension because we felt we were competing with ourselves. It’s very hard....because no matter how you look at it, people are always going to compare...to Thriller. You can always say, “Aw, forget Thriller.” But no one ever will.

No one ever has. The fabled 14-minute film that accompanied the single “Thriller” is considered the best and most important clip in music video history. Accolades were heaped upon Jackson by the truckload for the album, including an unmatched seven American Music Awards and eight Grammy Awards in 1984. The album had six memorable Top Ten singles, including the classics “Billie Jean,” “Beat It,” and of course, “Thriller.”

The sophomore jinx laid to rest (Jackson had feared sales of Thriller would fail to eclipse that of his debut effort, Off The Wall), Jackson went immediately to work on a follow-up. After five years of pain-staking work, the world was once again mesmerized by the master. With the largest advance orders for any album ever, Bad solidified Jackson’s success and ignited Michael-mania once again. The album spawned single after single, becoming the second-largest musical success story after Thriller and earning the young musician the coveted title of the King of Pop. Songs like “The Way You Make Me Feel” and “Man in the Mirror” still hold up well after so many years, still as hauntingly lyrical and arresting as they were way back when.

But all good things must come to an end, and when the 1980s finally gave way to a newer decade, the tide of public favor had noticeably turned against the King of Pop. The little boy had never truly grown up, still craving attention in the strangest ways. Gobs of makeup and plastic surgery transformed the onetime teen idol into a ghoulish spectacle, and many found it ironic that the singer would preach “it don’t matter if you’re black or white” while looking increasingly caucasian. The pristine image of Michael Jackson was cracking and fading; he had spoken of his perception once before in Moonwalk, writing “I think I have a goody-goody image in the press, and I hate that.” But as much as the sensitive performer may have hated that, he would definitely grow to hate his new image even more.

The tabloids were rife with speculation on Jackson’s eccentric behavior, using his oddities as a springboard for their own wild imaginings. In response, Jackson withdrew further from the world, retreating to his private Neverland ranch/park near Los Angeles. The release of 1991’s Dangerous proved to be the harbinger of Jackson’s impending career downturn. Sales were lukewarm by his standards, and his desire for attention evoked negative reactions. A nightmare-like sequence at the end of his video for the first single, “Black or White,” in which he repeatedly grabbed his crotch and smashed the windows of parked cars, provoked a strong backlash. As a result, the video was edited for content before being rebroadcast. Despite big budgets and famous Hollywood stars, Jackson’s cutting-edge videos were no longer the events they had once been. Although Dangerous bought forth several No. 1 singles, the album failed to perform as well as its predecessors, leading many critics to predict that his career was on the ebb. His new appearance won him little sympathy, while the children of the 1980s had mostly grown up and moved on. Jackson was in fact a cliché whose time was coming to an end, aided and abetted by his strange habits—his pet chimpanzee, Bubbles, the private shrine to Elizabeth Taylor reputedly kept in his quarters, and perhaps most importantly of all, his predilection for hanging out exclusively with children.

The end came with a sudden swiftness. Late in 1993, some months after a rare prime-time interview with Oprah, Jackson was accused of sexually molesting a 13-year-old boy during a sleepover. The world was stunned, but Jackson’s eccentricities made him an easy target, and the public turned on him. For the little boy who had only tried to experience childhood by surrounding himself with children, the accusations were devastating. Although Jackson had devoted countless hours and millions of dollars to helping children through his Heal the World foundation, the media was quick to condemn him. Neither was his family much comfort to him. Earlier, his brother Jermaine had released a single titled “Word to the Badd” that was a scathing denunciation of the freak he felt Michael had become. And the controversial LaToya Jackson made numerous unsubstantiated claims that the King had in fact been guilty of child molestation. The criminal case was eventually dismissed and Jackson vindicated, though many took his out-of-court settlement in the civil case as an admission of guilt.

GQ ran a cover story in their October 1994 edition entitled “Was Michael Jackson Framed?” The article claimed that Evan Chandler, the estranged father of the victim in question, had forced their friendship upon Jackson and had used tactics that included drugging his own son in order to blackmail the performer. In turn, the King’s public reputation was destroyed.

The damage was done. Despite all the proclamations of innocence and the dismissal of the criminal case, where Jackson once drew adulation and love from the world, there was now revulsion. Jackson was no longer the King, he was the butt of countless jokes. While his fame still persisted around the world, he was a pariah in the land of his birth. In an effort to combat this, Jackson spent an unprecedented sum of money to force open the arms of the world to receive him again. 1995 saw the biggest publicity campaign ever mounted, Jackson’s deep-seated insecurities once again driving him to create an over-the-top lavish spectacle. A statue of Jackson was floated down the Thames, while the artist himself donned military garb and led troopers in advertisements to promote HIStory: Past Present & Future—Book 1, a two-CD set of his greatest hits and new material. The first single, “Scream”, marked the first-ever collaboration between Jackson and his younger sister Janet. The music video, still unsurpassed as the most expensive in history, featured the angry Jacksons venting their rage and expressing their unity on a monochrome spaceship. The lyrics were unusually open and angry for the pop king, a tone that characterized most of the new material on HIStory. Controversy erupted again over anti-Semitic lyrics in “They Don’t Care About Us.” When the storm of publicity died down, HIStory managed to sell only a paltry 15 million worldwide. The 1997 follow-up, Blood On The Dance Floor—HIStory In The Mix, faltered miserably, selling a mere 1 million copies to date, despite some peppy dance numbers and imaginative ballads.

Once again in the name of his affection and concern for children, Jackson held concerts in Seoul and in Munich to raise money for charity. Entitled “Michael Jackson and Friends,” the superstar was joined by Mariah Carey, Chinese popstars Andy Lau and Leon Lai, Andrea Bocelli, Ringo Starr, Boyz II Men and many other music stars in the extravaganza which raised over $3.3 million for the Red Cross, UNESCO, and the Nelson Mandela Childrens’ Fund.

But if Jackson’s worldwide popularity seemed as strong as ever, he was estranged from his own country. In his rare interviews, he often cited his desire to leave America behind forever. After Princess Diana’s untimely death in 1997, he appeared on 20/20 with Barbara Walters to discuss life under intense media scrutiny. Moved to tears, he pleaded in his characteristic soft tones to be treated with the decency due any normal human being. “I’m not a Jacko. I’m Jackson....Wacko Jacko, where did that come from? I have a heart and I have feelings. Did they ever think...that I have a heart?”

He seems ever more determined to prove that he does. The recent destruction of the World Trade Center has moved him to begin the composition of a new song, “What More Can I Give,” to raise funds for the survivors and the families of the victims lost in the tragedy. Music celebrities are already lining up to contribute to the song, reminiscent of Jackson’s similar 1985 effort, “We Are The World,” which has raised over $65 million for victims of starvation in Africa. As the King stated in a related interview:

We have demonstrated time and again that music can touch our souls. It is time we used that power to help us begin the process of healing immediately.

It is a gesture almost to be expected from a celebrity who has done so much in the name of charity. And it coincides with the return of a pop superstar to center stage. Devoted fans have waited for years for Jackson to work his magic on a generation that knows him more as a punchline than a popstar.

The wait is almost over. And Michael Jackson is ready to prove the naysayers wrong. The boy in the man is back in the spotlight, with increasingly unconventional promotional events. On his 43rd birthday, Jackson was on hand to open NASDAQ trading. Jackson’s surprise appearance at the 2001 VMAs drew wild applause, and his recent tribute concerts in Madison Square Garden featured an array of celebrities and the much-hyped reunion of the Jackson Five (although his sister Janet, currently on tour, was notably absent). MTV has been airing Jackson’s past hits, while VH1 has shown special after special about the King of Pop. Invincible will be released domestically on October 30. His previous recordings are being remastered and readied for re-release; Jackson’s new single, “You Rock My World,” featuring comedian Chris Tucker, is an upbeat, catchy dance tune that has already reached #11 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and is climbing to the top around the world. Alien Ant Farm has rocketed to popularity on the strength of their “Smooth Criminal” cover, while collaborators Destiny’s Child, N’Sync, Britney Spears, and countless other artists have gushed about him as both an idol and role model. Nor have the people forgotten him: Restless grumbling was the order of the day at the recent Madison Square Garden concerts despite the performance/presence of a pantheon of musical and cinematic superstars. Only one performer could bring the masses to the heights of screaming frenzy—Michael Jackson. Further success appears to await him in the wings; one Associated Press headline about the event read: “Michael Jackson Erases All Doubts.” More than that, Michael Jackson has proven that he is still loved. And perhaps that more than anything else is the most important thing to him.