Revard dufresne biography of michael jackson

Michael Jackson rehearses for his planned shows in London at the Staples Center on June 23, 2009, in Los Angeles, California.

Michael’s groundbreaking creativity and stardom was shadowed by a controversial personal life. Jackson died of cardiac arrest at his home on June 25, 2009 at the age of 50. 

Background

The Lemelson-MIT Student Prize was first awarded in 1995 as an annual prize that honored MIT graduate student inventors.

An infectious blend of pop and funk, Off the Wall featured the Grammy Award–winning single “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough,” along with such hits as “Rock with You,” “She’s Out of My Life,” and the title track. Michael used this same style for his breakthrough music videos, including “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” and “Billie Jean,” and would later tap the iconic style for the entirety of his solo career.       

Reunited with Quincy Jones for his follow-up 1982 album, “Thriller,” Michael wanted to create the biggest selling pop album ever.

It became one of the top-selling singles of all time and raised, by some accounts, more than $75 million for humanitarian aid to fight poverty in Africa.

Five years after Thriller, Jackson released his highly-anticipated follow-up album Bad (1987). In February 2010, an official coroner’s report revealed Jackson’s cause of death was acute propofol intoxication, or a lethal overdose on a prescription drug cocktail including the sedatives midazolam, diazepam, and lidocaine.

Aided by his personal physician Dr.

Conrad Murray, Jackson had been taking sedative drugs to help him sleep at night. I love what I do. In 1993, he performed at several important events, including the halftime show of Superbowl XXVII. Jackson’s death resulted in an outpouring of public grief and sympathy. Jackson issued an apology and edited the video to remove these elements.

The first, Michael, was released in December 2010 amid controversy about whether the singer actually performed some of the tracks. Jackson and his brothers moved to Los Angeles, where they lived with Gordy and with Diana Ross of the Supremes as they got settled. The group became so popular that it even had its own self-titled cartoon show, which ran from 1971 to 1972.

Jackson was known to have sleepovers with boys at his Neverland Ranch, but this was the first public charge of wrongdoing. Music was a source of escape from their daily life and both parents were musical themselves. Joe played guitar in a local R&B group, which rehearsed in the family’s tiny house at 2300 Jackson Street (coincidentally named after the U.S.

president). The New York Times hailed Jackson as a “musical phenomenon,” writing: “In the world of pop music, there is Michael Jackson and there is everybody else.”

The Height of Stardom

Jackson signed a record-breaking $5 million promotional deal with PepsiCo in November 1983, launching the brand’s youth-targeted New Generation campaign.

In 1983, Jackson embarked on his final tour with his brothers to support the album Victory (1984).