Michael Jackson's 1979 album Off the Wall was a worldwide hit and spawned the #1 hit singles and music videos 'Rock With You' and 'Don't Stop Till You Get Enough'. A ballad, 'She's Out Of My Life' reached the top 10 in 1980.In the 1980s, Jackson released a progression of solo albums of slickly-produced synthesizer-heavy pop.His Thriller album was released in 1982, produced 7 Top 10 hit singles, broke records and quickly became the world's best selling album (as of 2003 it has sold over 50 million copies). The 'Billie Jean' music video, released to promote Thriller, became the first video by a black artist to be aired on MTV, and the Thriller short film, included with The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller, became the world's best selling home video at the time.'Billie Jean' and 'Thriller', as well as 'Beat It', were the three music videos released from the album, and have since become three of MTV's most significant videos in history, placing highly on several MTV and VH1 countdowns, and receiving substantial airplay on MTV2 to this day. The album's other singles were 'Human Nature' and 'P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)', both of which were also hits, despite neither having music videos.
Michael Jackson in September 1987, after several cosmetic surgeries. In this picture, his skin is fairly dark, although photographs taken earlier in the year show it significantly whiter (most notably, the Bad album cover). Photographs from this era show noticeably different skin tones, suggesting that heavy makeuping was used to achieve Jackson's skin tone and facial features during this period.
While performing for the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever special on television on May 16, 1983, Jackson publicly performed the moonwalk (later his signature dance move) for the first time, stunning TV audiences. In January 1984 at the American Music Awards, Jackson was nominated for 9 awards and won a record 8 awards (tied by Whitney Houston's The Bodyguard soundtrack in 1994). In February at the Grammy Awards Jackson was nominated for 12 awards and won a record-breaking 8 awards (now equaled by Carlos Santana's 1999 Supernatural) – 7 for Thriller and 1 for his narrative on The E.T. Storybook. In May, Thriller was certified by the Guiness Book of Records as the biggest selling popular music album of all time. In addition in 1984, he was also awarded the H. Claude Hodson Medal of Freedom at the NAACP Image Awards, feted at the White House by President Ronald Reagan with the Presidential Special Achievement Award and in November was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
We are the World to Dangerous
Inspired by Band Aid he was instrumental in organising the single 'We Are the World' (co-written with Lionel Richie) in 1985. 'We Are the World' was sung by 44 different singers including Cyndi Lauper, Diana Ross, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder and sold 7 million copies in the United States, becoming the best selling single of the year, to raise money for USA for Africa – a charity working to raise awareness about and help starving people in Africa.Jackson starred in the George Lucas/Francis Ford Coppola 3-D film Captain Eo in 1986, which was shown in Disney theme parks until 1998. Minute for minute it is the most expensive film ever produced, costing an estimated US $30 million to make. The film contained the songs 'We Are Here To Change The World' and 'Another Part Of Me'.In 1987, Jackson released Bad and began his first solo world tour. He performed to sold out audiences at each concert. The following year Jackson released a silly, playful movie entitled 'Moonwalker' and a serious, personal autobiography titled Moon Walk.
Bad was another smash success for Jackson. Its singles and music videos 'I Just Can't Stop Loving You', 'Bad', 'The Way You Make Me Feel', 'Man In The Mirror', 'Dirty Diana', 'Another Part Of Me', 'Smooth Criminal' and 'Leave Me Alone' provided Jackson with another string of hits. The album's only relatively unsuccessful single, 'Liberian Girl', remains to this day as one of Jackson's least seen music videos and least heard singles. Nonetheless, he made history by becoming the first artist to generate 6 number one singles off of one album. Of the 7 singles released in the USA, the first 5 went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, 'Another Part Of Me' peaked at #11 (#1 on Billboard's R&B charts) and 'Smooth Criminal' went to #7.
Michael Jackson during 'We Are The World' session in January 1985
Jackson was awarded a record breaking $890 million contract by Sony and released an album Dangerous in 1991. During the Dangerous world tour Jackson announced the creation of his Heal the World Foundation. Dangerous contained the singles and music videos 'Who Is It', 'Give In To Me', 'Gone Too Soon' (a tribute to young AIDS victim Ryan White), and 'Will You Be There', which would later become the theme song to the movie Free Willy. But the album's most successful and memorable singles and videos were 'Jam', 'Remember The Time', 'Black Or White', 'In The Closet', and 'Heal The World'. As was becoming the standard for Jackson, the album's music videos were among the most costly, creative, and innovative of their time. 'Give In To Me' featured Slash from Guns n' Roses in its video. The video for 'Heal The World', to correspond to Jackson's charity of the same name, featured children and people from throughout the world. 'Will You Be There' showed Jackson singing in front of scenes from Free Willy. Several of the other videos had complex storylines and dance sequences, and featured cameo appearances by celebrities. The video for 'Jam' showed Jackson and Michael Jordan playing basketball and dancing together, while 'Remember The Time' was set in a Egyptian palace and starred Eddie Murphy as the king of the palace who was trying to entertain his wife, played by Iman. Magic Johnson played the king's chief guard. Jackson's singing and dancing is the thing that finally makes Iman's character happy, in the seven-minute long video. Jackson and Naomi Campbell played lovers in 'In The Closet'.