Cultural impact of Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson in the 1992 Dangerous World Tour.

American entertainer Michael Jackson, who is known as the "King of Pop", is considered one of the most successful and influential entertainers of all time. He had an unparalleled influence all over the world through his musical, dance, fashion and humanitarian contributions.^[1][2]

As child music prodigy, Jackson joined his older siblings at age 5 in The Jackson 5. In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular culture and the first African American entertainer to have a strong crossover fan base on Music Television (MTV).^[3][4] His music videos, including those for "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller" from his 1982 album Thriller, are credited with breaking racial barriers and transforming the medium into an art form and promotional tool.^[5] The popularity of these videos helped bring the television channel MTV to fame.

On June 28, 2009, in a Baltimore Sun article titled "7 Ways Michael Jackson Changed The World", Jill Rosen wrote that Jackson's legacy was "as enduring as it is multi-faceted", influencing fields including sound, dance, fashion, music videos and celebrity.^[6] On December 19, 2014, the British Council of Cultural Relations named Jackson's life one of the 80 most important cultural moments that shaped the world.^[7] In 2010, two university librarians found that Jackson's influence extended to academia, with references to Jackson in reports concerning music, popular culture, chemistry and an array of other topics.^[8][9][10]

Cultural and social impact

One of many identical statues, based on Diana Walczak's original HIStory statue, positioned throughout Europe to promote HIStory.

Ben Beaumont-Thomas, music editor of The Guardian, stated that Jackson ushered in a global culture, writing: "We'll get to the music and dance, but perhaps his most astonishing achievement is his fame: he was the subject of global adulation, even in areas previously untouched by Western pop culture."^[11] Tony Sclafani from MSNBC stated that "there was a time when Jackson was thought of primarily as a groundbreaking artist, not a celebrity oddball. That time was 1983, when Jackson’s omnipresence on the pop charts was revolutionary because no African-American artist had ever achieved that high a level of success. Jackson earned his pop icon status by creating music that transcended genres; he also redefined the roles of music videos and dancing in popular music".^[12]

In United States

In a 2015 Rolling Stone article titled "Michael Jackson: Black Superhero", Touré wrote:

Many blacks now compare Michael with Barack Obama – perhaps the highest possible compliment in black America. Not only are they both integrationists and racial harmonists, but they both were determined to reach the top while refusing to let race hold them back. "There are so many components of why Barack Obama is president" says Diddy ,"and Michael Jackson is one of them. He started a change in the perception of the African-American male on a worldwide level: his strength, always putting himself in a powerposition, being seen as a hero." Al Sharpton echoes the point. "Way before Tiger Woods or Barack Obama, Michael made black people go pop-culture global" he says. "You had people in France, South America and Iowa comfortable with their kids imitating a black kid from Gary, Indiana. And when some of those people in Iowa grew, they were comfortable with voting for Barack Obama because they got comfortable imitating a black kid named Michael Jackson when they were young. Obama is a phenomenon, but he's the result of a process that Michael helped America graduate to.^[13]

In Brazil

In 1996 Jackson visited Dona Marta Rio de Janeiro ,Brazil to film one of the video for They Don't Care About Us.When Jackson came to Brazil to shoot the video, directed by Spike Lee, Rio's local government became concerned that the singer would show the world an unflattering picture of poverty. Officials in the state of Rio feared images of poverty might affect tourism and accused Jackson of exploiting the poor.Others supported Jackson's wish to highlight the problems of the region, arguing that the government were embarrassed by their own failings. A judge banned all filming but this ruling was overturned by an injunction.

Jackson also collaborated with 200 members of the cultural group Olodum, who "swayed to the heavy beat of Salvador"^[14][15]

Precarious houses in the favela of Complexo do Alemão in Rio de Janeiro. Identical scenes are viewable in the first music video of they don't care about us.

Speaking of the music video, in The New Brazilian Cinema, Lúcia Nagib observed:

When Michael Jackson decided to shoot his new music video in a favela of Rio de Janeiro ... he used the favela people as extras in a visual super-spectacle ... All the while there is a vaguely political appeal in there ... The interesting aspect of Michael Jackson's strategy is the efficiency with which it gives visibility to poverty and social problems in countries like Brazil without resorting to traditional political discourse. The problematic aspect is that it does not entail a real intervention in that poverty.^[16]

In 2009, Billboard described the area as "now a model for social development" and claimed that Jackson's influence was partially responsible for this improvement.^[17]

Fashion

Jackson's History Jacket.

As a fashion pioneer, Jackson was the man who gave new meaning to moonwalking, immortalised solitary, sparkly gloves, initiated the trophy jacket trend in the Eighties and was brave enough to coupledress with Madonna on the red carpet.^[18].Just as his music and dancing have influenced today's young artists, from Justin Timberlake to Chris Brown, Jackson's style has also had an impact on many artists as well.^[19]The power of his determinedly idiosyncratic style was amplified by MTV, which beamed "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" around the world and made him its first Fashion Icon. Teenagers wanted what he had, taking break-dance lessons and wearing bow ties and single rhinestone gloves to school.^[20]

Jackson's rhinestone gloves.

See also

• Michael Jackson-related games
• List of artists influenced by Michael Jackson
• Michael Jackson impersonator

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Monuments and memorials to Michael Jackson.

References