Music Folks

Michael Jackson: The Child Star Who Became the King of Pop

October 14, 2026 · by Music Folks

Michael Jackson was the most famous entertainer of his era: a child star with the Jackson 5 who grew into the singer, dancer and songwriter behind Thriller, the best-selling album in the world. His records, videos and stage moves reshaped pop music in the 1980s, and his influence is still everywhere. His life was also marked by serious allegations that continue to divide opinion more than 15 years after his death in 2009.

Quick Facts

Born: August 29, 1958, Gary, Indiana
Died: June 25, 2009, Los Angeles, aged 50
Known for: The Jackson 5; solo career as the “King of Pop”
Genre: Pop, R&B, soul, funk
Key albums: Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991)
Key songs: “I Want You Back,” “Billie Jean,” “Beat It,” “Man in the Mirror”
Awards: 13 Grammys; inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice (1997 with the Jackson 5, 2001 as a solo artist)

The Jackson 5

Michael was the eighth of ten children born to Katherine and Joe Jackson in Gary, Indiana. With his older brothers he became the lead singer of the Jackson 5, who signed to Motown in 1968. Beginning in early 1970, their first four singles, “I Want You Back,” “ABC,” “The Love You Save” and “I’ll Be There,” all went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, a feat no act had managed before.

Motown launched him as a solo artist at the same time. “Got to Be There” reached the Top 5 in 1971, when he was 13, and “Ben” became his first solo No. 1 in 1972. The song won a Golden Globe and earned an Oscar nomination, and he sang it at the Academy Awards at 14.

Off the Wall

His adult breakthrough came with Off the Wall, released in August 1979 and produced by Quincy Jones. It gave him two more No. 1 singles, “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” and “Rock with You,” and has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. It was the first of three albums he made with Jones, and it set up everything that followed.

Thriller

Thriller, released on November 29, 1982, became a phenomenon. It spent 37 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and seven of its nine tracks became US Top 10 hits, a record at the time. Two of them, “Billie Jean” and “Beat It,” went to No. 1. Estimates of its worldwide sales vary, with Guinness World Records putting the figure at 67 million and other sources at around 70 million, but it is widely recognized as the best-selling album of all time.

The music videos were just as important. “Billie Jean,” directed by Steve Barron, premiered on MTV in March 1983 and was one of the first videos by a Black artist to get regular airplay on the channel. “Beat It,” featuring a guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen, followed. Then, on the Motown 25 television special broadcast in May 1983, Jackson performed “Billie Jean” and did the moonwalk on TV for the first time. At the Grammys in 1984 he won a record eight awards in a single night.

In January 1985 he and Lionel Richie co-wrote “We Are the World,” the all-star charity single for famine relief in Africa. It won four Grammys, including Song of the Year, and the USA for Africa project says it raised more than $65 million.

Bad, Dangerous and Beyond

Bad (1987), his last album with Quincy Jones, became the first album to produce five No. 1 singles on the Hot 100, among them “The Way You Make Me Feel,” “Man in the Mirror” and “Dirty Diana.” Dangerous (1991) and the double album HIStory (1995) continued his run as a global star, and Invincible arrived in 2001. Along the way he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, first with the Jackson 5 in 1997 and then as a solo artist in 2001. The Hall sums up his impact this way: “Michael Jackson redefined both the sound and look of pop, worldwide.”

The Allegations

Jackson’s later life was overshadowed by accusations of child sexual abuse, which he denied. In 1993 he was accused of abusing a 13-year-old boy; a civil suit was settled in early 1994, and no criminal charges were filed. In 2005 he stood trial on separate charges and was acquitted on all counts. In 2019 the documentary Leaving Neverland featured two men who alleged he had abused them as children. Jackson’s estate rejected the film and sued HBO, which aired it; that dispute went to arbitration and was dropped by both sides in 2024.

Death and This Is It

Jackson died in Los Angeles on June 25, 2009, aged 50, while preparing for a comeback concert series called This Is It. The coroner ruled his death a homicide, and his personal doctor, Conrad Murray, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2011. Rehearsal footage became the 2009 documentary Michael Jackson’s This Is It, and several posthumous albums followed.

Where His Legacy Stands Now

As of October 2026, Jackson’s story is as visible as ever. MJ the Musical won four Tony Awards on Broadway in 2022. The biopic Michael, directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring his nephew Jaafar Jackson, opened in April 2026 and, according to Variety figures reported by TheGrio, passed $1 billion worldwide, making it the first biopic to do so. Critics were largely negative, and many faulted it for leaving out the allegations, which a planned sequel is expected to address. The music, meanwhile, keeps finding new listeners.

Sources

Tagged: 1980s, American, Pop