Margaret ann richek biography of michael jackson

Summary.
Before becoming the most successful bluffs of all time, Michael Jackson had been one of the Jackson Five, a group that had fused the harmonizing of black vocal groups, the melodic enthusiasm of Tamla's party soul and the syncopated rhythm of funk music.

Michael, who became independent in 1979 under the tutelage of rhythm'n'blues and veteran jazz producer Quincy Jones, went on to release the greatest album of all time (if sales define greatness), Thriller (1981). This trivial collage of pop-soul cliches and dance beats, stylishy and masterly orchestrated by Jones employing state-of-the-art technology, was complemented by the deliberate construction of a surreal persona, a sort of fairy-tale figure, half child and half man, tenderly insecure and slightly hysterical, sex-neutral, race-neutral and age-neutral, readily identified by his mask, his costumes and his moves.

His ascent paralleled the ascent of music videos as a major marketing vehicle.