On June 25, 2009, at 12:21 p.m., 911 in California received a phone call, followed by an ambulance roaring out.
When paramedics rush to a home in Mount Hobel, Los Angeles, they discover that the person in need of emergency care is Michael Jackson, a superstar who has fallen into shock.
Just two hours later, at 14:26 PST, the hospital announced that Michael Jackson's heart had stopped beating.
At this point, all the praise, controversy, and clamor surrounding a generation of musical superstar Michael Jackson have been struck, and he has left us in a sudden way, at the age of 50.
In his not-so-long life, he has had countless honors, but because of the repeated erosion of a large number of media and public opinion, Michael began to lose the aura of myth that enveloped him and became entangled with negative news.
Some began to accuse him of going from a musical superstar and a benevolent king to a cruel, boy-loving rapist, while others retorted for him, accusing him of conspiracy and slander.
With death, these arguments lost their meaning to him. But some things, with death, gradually surfaced, which are of vital importance to us, to His followers.
For example, several of the "stains" surrounding Michael Jackson's life, bleaching, plastic surgery, oxygen tanks, plagiarism and "pedophilia."
The path to growth
Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, to a black family in gary, a small industrial town in Indiana. His father, Joseph, was a crane operator at a steel mill, and Jackson's mother was a clerk at a department store.
In his family, Jackson is the seventh oldest, and they have nine children. Because of the financial situation, Jackson's father also worked part-time as a boxer to support the family.
Since Jackson's father, Joseph, came from a family of Lutheran priests, he was raised in a very direct way of admonition, beatings, and devotion to God, and all of his fathers treated their children in the same way.
Harsh paternal love cast a great shadow over Michael Jackson's childhood.
In February 1993, Michael Jackson, who was already the "king of pop music," gave an interview to Oprah Winfrey at his "Dream Manor."
When asked about his relationship with his father, the 35-year-old king of pop music covered his face with his hands and cried bitterly. He also said: "There was a long time when if my father came to see me, I would feel nauseous and even want to vomit. ”
The American music scene in the 1960s was undoubtedly ruled by white people, but it was also an era when anyone could change their fate with music, and Michael's father, Joseph, believed that music could be used to change the perception of white people about black people and live a rich life with music.
Joseph was a good electric guitar player, and his wife shared his penchant for playing the piano and the clarinet.
In order to achieve economic freedom, Joseph once gave up his job and formed a band called "Falcon" with his children, but unfortunately it ended in failure.
With both the inheritance of talent from their parents and a strong musical atmosphere, the 9 children in this family all have musical talents without exception.
Joseph slowly realized that it seemed possible to gather the children together for musical training, and naturally included 5-year-old Michael.
Joseph took out a small amount of living expenses, bought a large part of various musical instruments, and arranged for the children to perform at a nearby nightclub in the evening, so that while training, he could earn some extra income to support their huge family.
In 1963, at the age of 5, Michael Jackson formed the "Jackson Five Brothers" with his four older brothers under his father's plan, of which the lead singer was the youngest Michael.
Unlike the Falcons, formed by Joseph himself and his son, the Jackson Five released several music albums in the years that followed, all of which achieved decent results, becoming one of the most successful pop music groups in the United States in the 1970s.
Although Michael was the youngest in the group, his musical talent was the most prominent, with most of the performances of the Jackson Five brothers centered on him.
During a performance, Michael was caught in the eye by a music company, and after the 70s, he slowly broke away from the band and began releasing solo albums.
On August 10, 1979, Michael Jackson officially flew solo and released his debut album "Off the Wall" (Off the Wall), which made Michael jump from a small and famous child star to a very groundbreaking musician.
The king of pop
The 1980s were Michael Jackson's most active period and his time as a musical myth. In this era, anyone who has experienced the baptism of popular music cannot avoid the name Michael Jackson.
In 1982, he released the album Thriller, which became the epitome of his musical career. Certified by the Guinness Book of World Records in 2006, his album Thriller sold 104 million, making it the best-selling record in the world to date.
The album, also included in the National Recording Archive at the Library of Congress, crossed the boundaries of music and became part of American culture, history, and even aesthetics.
It is worth mentioning that the music video of his single "Thriller" is the world's first modern MV, and some authoritative music critics have said:
"Without Michael Jackson, the course of world pop music would have been at least 20 years backwards, and the MV would have been delayed for at least 50 years."
Even with such an honor, he didn't stop improving, and a year later, 25-year-old Michael Jackson once again made the world scream for a dance move.
On May 16, 1983, Michael made his solo dance for the first time while participating in "The 25th Anniversary of Motown Records: Yesterday, Today, Forever."
This dance step, which seems to be unaffected by the earth's gravity and walking on the moon, is known as the "space step". All the spectators screamed, they couldn't believe that this was really a dance step that earthlings could dance.
In an interview, an audience member exclaimed: "Is this really not an alien with dark skin?" ”
After the show, michael, who came backstage, was surrounded by a group of relatives and friends who hugged, kissed, and congratulated him on his success that will last in history, when a teenage boy came up to him and asked the future dance king: "You say, who can teach you to dance like that?" ”
Michael thought about it, smiled and replied, "I think, maybe it's hard work." ”
From 1983 to today, Michael Jackson's dance has been imitated countless times by people from all walks of life around the world on various occasions, but he has never been surpassed.
In 1989, Michael Jackson, who had just entered the 30s, was once again awarded by the famous American film star Elizabeth Taylor as the "King of Pop Music", which was the first time that this name appeared on him.
Since then, everywhere he goes, fans will carry banners printed with the "King of Pop" to cheer him up, and this supreme honorary title has always accompanied him to the end of his life, which is well deserved.
On October 1, 1992, the concert tour in Bucharest was a legend that could not be avoided by mentioning Michael Jackson.
At the concert that could accommodate 70,000 people, more than 72,000 spectators were squeezed in, and more fans could only listen outside the venue, and the audience was as high as 200,000 at one point.
In order to maintain order on the spot, the Roman government had to arrange for the army to maintain order, and the organizers also placed a medical team of nearly 2,000 people on standby.
The concert lasted for 3 days, according to statistics, there were more than 5,000 people who fainted on the spot, and on average, 10 fans were excited to the point of coma in less than 1 minute.
There were 600,000 people on the Internet who participated in the concert, and 23 people died suddenly because of the concert stampede or their own reasons, fortunately, this is just a rumor, no one died in this music festival, and the venue can not accommodate 600,000 people.
More than 70,000 people piled up the concert site.
A life of mixed reputations
In January 1979, at the age of 20, Michael Jackson donated a large number of books to the Chicago Library, and as Michael Jackson's music career flourished, so did his philanthropic commitment.
In 1984, an accident officially began Michael Jackson's philanthropic journey.
At the beginning of the same year, when Michael Jackson was shooting an advertisement for Pepsi, due to the misplaced magnesium bomb during the performance, the magnesium bomb exploded on both sides of Michael, and Mars splashed on his hair and landed.
The filming scene was a mess, because with the sound of explosions, the staff thought he had been shot, and the directors of PepsiCo were so frightened that they huddled in a corner.
After a hospital examination, the accident caused him to burn the back of his head in a third degree, almost injuring his skull. A doctor once said, "It's a miracle he survived." ”
Later, a director of PepsiCo said in an interview: "If he was really burned out at that time, what a bitter taste every American child would have in his mouth when he drank Pepsi!" ”
PepsiCo knew that Michael Jackson would sue, and in fact, he did, because of the fermentation of this matter, Pepsi's sales have increased tremendously, and they have paid a high compensation - $1.5 million.
Michael Jackson donated all the money to the Michael Jackson Burn Treatment Center because when he was in the hospital, he saw many burn patients suffering, he said: "I feel like I have to do something for them." ”
At the burn center, Michael saw a treatment pod for treating burn patients, and he wanted to lie down and try it, but he was photographed with a camera and became a big black spot for outsiders to attack him: "Michael Jackson lay in the oxygen tank and wanted to stay young forever."
In an interview afterwards, he was also crying and laughing, and did not understand why anyone would believe such nonsense.
However, such slander did not cause him to give up his philanthropy.
By January 1985, at the age of 27, Michael had collaborated on the world-famous disaster relief song "We Are The World," a single that brought $50 million to hungry Africans.
It was also from this stage that humanitarian-themed creations focusing on vulnerable groups, especially children, began to appear frequently in his works.
Michael Jackson has 39 charitable relief foundations, because of his great contribution to philanthropy, in his 50 years of life, he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize twice, the known donations have exceeded 300 million US dollars, and countless people have moved their lives out of hunger, out of poverty and changed their lives because of his help.
It was such a superstar who invested heavily in philanthropy, but in the 90s, he ushered in his reversed life.
In 1993, Michael Jackson's worldwide tour was in full swing, and in September, a male minor, Jody Chandler, accused Michael Jackson of sexually assaulting him at his dream estate.
As soon as this incident came out, Michael's circular performance had to stop, and his artistic path plummeted.
The case had a huge impact on Michael's mental and physical condition, the protracted trial drained all his energy, and in order to end the torture sooner, he had to bow to the so-called "victims".
To end the trial, he accepted an out-of-court settlement, paying $22 million.
However, 10 years later, in 2003, a male minor filed a lawsuit against him for sexual assault. The case was all acquitted by the court after a year-long investigation and evidence collection.
But the year-long follow-up investigation this time completely exhausted The patience of Michael Jackson, who moved out of the United States, and to avoid a similar situation again, Michael, who likes children, said: "I will not have intimate acts with children in the future." ”
But on June 26, 2009, the day after Michael Jackson's death, the victim of the first pedophile case, Already an adult plaintiff, Jody Chandler, officially issued a statement saying he could no longer remain silent after hearing of Michael's death.
He broke the news that the accusations of that year were purely fictitious, and it was entirely his father who, for money, did not hesitate to use illegal drugs to control and hypnotize him to say the recording, which led to a sensational scam in the United States, and he sincerely apologized to michael Jackson, who had passed away.
For Michael Jackson, the king of music who was happy to save children, he eventually passed away with the identity of a defendant in the "pedophile case" twice.
The indisputable stigma of the living, which proved innocent the day after his death, is ridiculously belated.
A year before Michael was deeply involved in the pedophilia case, he was sued by Christer thiel Cartier, a singer and composer from Denver, Colorado, for plagiarizing her eponymous composition and claiming $40 million in damages.
However, after a court trial, it was finally ruled that Michael had not infringed.
After Michael's death, in addition to the truth of the child prostitution case, Michael's skin color problems were finally confirmed.
As an African-American, Michael Jackson's skin color has slowly turned white since the 1980s, and countless media and public suspect that he has bleached his skin.
Even though Michael has explained countless times that his skin color has turned white because of vitiligo and makeup, countless times he has called for a fight against racial discrimination, and countless times he has said that he is proud to be black, there are still a large number of "people with hearts" who deliberately portray him as a black superstar with bleached skin and abandoning his race.
Even more outrageous is the allegation that Michael Jackson underwent skin grafting to whiten.
Finally, in the autopsy report after his death, everything had an innocent answer. The report clearly states that the skin shows no melanin staining. Although melanocytes appear, their number decreases. The rest of the lesions are not obvious. No scar tissue, suturing the wound.
In a 2003 interview, Michael Jackson first mentioned positively the reason for his nose 2 times. His father would point to Michael's nose in front of outsiders since he was a child and say, "Oh my God, this nose is so big and ugly, it's not inherited from me." ”
Michael said: "I feel very embarrassed, I want to hide myself, or simply die, but I still have to continue to perform on stage, but also to accept the various people's scrutiny." 」 ”
To this end, Michael had two nasal surgeries and had a beauty groove on his chin during surgery.
During Michael Jackson's lifetime, in addition to his reputation as the "King of Pop", "Freak" was another title given to him by the media.
Many foreign tabloids and media have carried out uninterrupted malicious propaganda against him for decades, weaving news events such as bleached skin and oxygen tanks, and taking the opportunity to incite the wind and ignite the fire when topics such as child prostitution, plastic surgery, and dream manors appear, constantly demonizing him.
Many of the slanders of his life were confirmed innocent after his death, and Michael Jackson's life was like his mottled complexion.
Michael Jackson is like a man hiding in the fog, and the only thing that is certain is that he is the "king of pop music" who has driven countless people crazy.
Resources:
He Yingyu,"Death Day is Carnival Michael Jackson Let Us Know What an "Idol" is"
Sun Feixue, "The King of Pop Music Who Can't Get Out of the Shadows of Childhood — Michael Jackson"
GETTY; He Ziwei, "Subversive Michael Jackson"