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Michael Jackson · S4 E8
The Weight of the Crown
What Thriller did to Michael Jackson the person
Early 1984. Michael Jackson cannot leave his house without causing a stampede, and he is twenty-five years old.
Years after the tabloid frenzy begins, Michael makes an entire music video about it. The video references the oxygen chamber, the Elephant Man bones, and every bizarre headline that followed Thriller's success.
Leave Me Alone, Michael Jackson (1989)
"Leave Me Alone" was originally buried as a bonus track on the CD version of Bad. The production is frantic and claustrophobic, with synthesizers piling on top of each other while Michael repeats the title like a man trying to shut a door that won't close. The music video is a surreal collage of every tabloid story that haunted him, from the oxygen chamber to Bubbles the chimpanzee. It won the Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form in 1990.
Sources
Bad album credits, Epic Records, 1987
Grammy Awards records, Recording Academy, 1990
“"I'm one of the loneliest people in the world."”
— Michael Jackson (Moonwalk, 1988)
The Mask
The public Michael Jackson becomes a character: the glove, the sunglasses, the surgical masks, the whispered speaking voice. Behind it is a man who reads voraciously, studies every detail of entertainment history, and can talk for hours about Charlie Chaplin and Walt Disney. The gap between the person and the persona will only grow wider.
TAP TO REVEAL: Who created "Wacko Jacko"?
Childhood, Michael Jackson (1995)
Written for the Free Willy 2 soundtrack and later included on the HIStory album, this is the closest Michael ever came to pure autobiography in a song. "Have you seen my childhood?" he asks over a sweeping orchestral arrangement. The song is about what was taken from him by fame: a normal upbringing, anonymous play, the small freedoms everyone else takes for granted.
What Grammy did the "Leave Me Alone" music video win in 1990?
Michael Jackson has conquered music, television, and the record books. In 1985, he picks up the phone and makes the most ruthless business decision of his career: he buys the Beatles.
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To be continued
Season 5: The Business of MJ
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