Michael by Michael Jackson
Michael is a posthumous album of previously unreleased tracks by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was released on December 10, 2010 by Epic Records and Sony Music Entertainment. Michael was the first release of all new Michael Jackson material in nine years since Invincible in 2001. Production of the album was handled by several producers such as Michael Jackson, Teddy Riley, Theron "Neff-U" Feemster, Tricky Stewart, Eddie Cascio, among others and features guest performances by Akon, 50 Cent and Lenny Kravitz. Michael is the seventh Jackson album to be released by Sony and Motown/Universal since Michael Jackson's death in June 2009. The album produced four singles: "Hold My Hand", released on November 15, 2010, which reached number 39 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, "Hollywood Tonight", released on February 11, 2011, and "Behind the Mask" released on February 21, 2011. The music video for "Hold My Hand" was directed by Mark Pellington, and had its worldwide debut on December 9, 2010. The music video for "Hollywood Tonight" was directed by Wayne Isham, who also directed the video for Michael Jackson's "You Are Not Alone" in 1995 at one of the very same locations where he filmed it—the Pantages Theatre near the famed corner of Hollywood and Vine. The video had its worldwide debut on March 10, 2011. "(I Like) The Way You Love Me" released in Korea as a digital single on January 18, 2011, and released in Italian and Chinese radio stations in July 2011. On Friday, December 10, 2010, a 29,070-square-foot (2,701 m2) poster depicting the Michael album artwork was erected at the Rectory Farm in Middlesex, England, which broke a Guinness World Record for the largest poster in the world.
Although his 1979 multi-platinum breakthrough, <i>Off the Wall</i>, was already Michael Jackson’s fifth solo album—after his bro-band run with the Jackson 5 and then The Jacksons—it didn’t achieve the pop-crossover goals that the singer desperately wanted. So, in true all-conquering fashion, the future King of Pop set out to beat himself when <i>Thriller</i> was released on 30 November 1982. And with his trusted producer Quincy Jones back behind the boards, Jackson—just 24 years old—delivered his crowning achievement, one that even he would fail to top. <i>Thriller</i> held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Album charts for 37 nonconsecutive weeks, and spawned seven singles—all of them smashes, including the chart-toppers “Billie Jean” and “Beat It”. <i>Thriller</i> would then sweep the Grammys, and eventually become one of the best-selling albums of all time. Most crucially, it defined the modern pop blockbuster, creating a blueprint for everyone from Usher and Justin Timberlake to Beyoncé, and, yes, his own baby sis, Janet Jackson. From the Paul McCartney-blessed pop of the hit first single “The Girl is Mine” to the Eddie Van Halen-revved head-banging of “Beat It”, Jackson’s crossover moves opened up the eyes and ears of the industry—and audiences around the world—to what music could sound, look and feel like if we blurred those old colour lines. “Billie Jean” is a gripping psycho-study of the paranoia and persecution that the superstar was already feeling—yet it still maintains the mysterious allure of an artist who we never really got to know. Meanwhile, the album’s opening throwdown, “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” is Jackson at his fiercest and funkiest, picking up right where <i>Off the Wall</i> left off—and shoring up his R&B bona fides. Then there’s the title track, a spooky spectacular that’s impossible to separate from its iconic video—and that still thrills us every single Halloween.
