Video will appear as you scroll through the story
Michael Jackson · S5 E7
Changing
The nose, the skin, the tabloids — and what was actually happening
By 1987, the British tabloids have given Michael Jackson a new name: Wacko Jacko. His face is changing in public view, and the speculation about why will soon become louder than his music.
Speed Demon, Michael Jackson (1988). The claymation segment from Moonwalker, animated by Will Vinton Studios. Michael disguises himself to escape fans, morphing through different identities before being chased by a clay version of himself. A funhouse mirror of what the tabloids were doing to his image in real life.
Speed Demon, Michael Jackson (1988)
Written and produced by Michael for the Bad album, "Speed Demon" is a relentless synth-pop sprint about the desperation of being chased. The production layers Synclavier programming with live percussion to create a breathless, mechanical energy. In the Moonwalker segment, Will Vinton's claymation transforms the song into something unsettling: Michael cycles through disguises, morphs into a rabbit, then dances with a clay double of himself. Underneath the humor, it is about a man who no longer controls how the world sees him.
Sources
Bad album credits, Epic Records, 1987
Moonwalker production notes, Ultimate Productions, 1988
The Nose
Michael broke his nose during a dance rehearsal in 1979 and had rhinoplasty to repair the damage. He was unhappy with the result and had a second procedure to correct breathing difficulties. Over the following years, more surgeries followed with Dr. Steven Hoefflin, the same surgeon who treated his scalp after the Pepsi fire. What started as a medical necessity quietly became something else, and Michael's face began to look noticeably different from one year to the next.
Sources
Michael Jackson: The Magic, the Madness, the Whole Story, J. Randy Taraborrelli, 2009
Moonwalk, Michael Jackson, 1988
TAP TO REVEAL: Was Michael Jackson bleaching his skin?
The Tabloid Machine
The tabloids built an entire industry around Michael's appearance. Stories about oxygen chambers, Elephant Man bones, and skin bleaching ran constantly, most of them fabricated or wildly distorted. Michael reportedly hated the nickname "Wacko Jacko" more than anything else ever written about him. The gap between the tabloid character and the real person grew wider every year.
Sources
Untouchable: The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson, Randall Sullivan, 2012
Michael Jackson: The Magic, the Madness, the Whole Story, J. Randy Taraborrelli, 2009
The Facts Behind the Headlines
Fleet Street, London
The traditional home of Britain's tabloid press, where the nickname "Wacko Jacko" was coined in the mid-1980s. The name followed Michael Jackson for the rest of his life.
Threatened, Michael Jackson (2001)
The closing track on Invincible, built around sampled narration from Rod Serling's Twilight Zone. Michael sounds like a man who knows he is being watched from every angle, his vocal darting between whispered menace and full-throated defiance. The tabloid obsession with his appearance, his skin, his surgeries: this song is the soundtrack to being treated as a specimen rather than a person.
Threatened, Michael Jackson (2001)
Rod Serling's voice opens the track with a monologue about entering a dimension of fear, and Michael matches the tone with lyrics about being hunted and cornered. The production by Rodney Jerkins is sharp and aggressive, with hard-hitting drums and stuttering vocal effects. By the time the song was released, the tabloid version of Michael Jackson had become more famous than the real one.
What skin condition was confirmed in Michael Jackson's 2009 autopsy?
The tabloids have built their version of Michael Jackson, but he is about to build his own world. In the Santa Ynez Valley, 2,700 acres are waiting to become Neverland.
0 XP earned this session