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Michael Jackson's Influence On Pop Culture

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Albert Einstein, Robin Williams, Shakespeare, every one of the people have greatly influenced the world today. Among the list of extremely influential people lies, Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson was born in 1958 in Gary, Indiana. Jackson was a man of many talents, an entertainer, a philosopher, a recording artist, and the list goes on. With his extravagant personal life, his contribution to music and fashion, and his widely known dance moves/skills, he turned out to be the most influential person in popular culture for over forty years. Throughout his life, Michael Jackson heavily influenced today’s top artists, the technological realm of music videos and the TV industry, and heavily impacted charities.
Michael Jackson first truly emerged …show more content…

The first and most evident Jackson follower was Usher. For many years, Usher has been depicted as “the next Michael Jackson” (Montgomery). Similarly to Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Usher’s album, Confessions, contains an abundance of styles. Starting with an intense classic, and ending with a deep, raw ballad. Like Jackson, Usher used his musical talent to “move beyond simple pop balladry and develop a pure, singular artistic vision” (Keyes). Usher himself states, “I wouldn’t be who I am today without Michael Jackson.” Although Jackson’s influence on pop music artists was far more evident, one can still see his influence in hip-hop artists such as, Kanye West. Kanye portrays the superstar ambition, which is the desire to accomplish everything bigger and better than anyone and everyone and the power to bring one unified vision to a mass of people, that Jackson portrayed as well. Additionally, Justin Timberlake was greatly influenced by Michael Jackson. Just like Michael, Timberlake outgrew the band he started with and launched his solo career. Timberlake kick-started his career with a music video that was undeniably similar to Michael Jackson’s video with the choreography to the costuming. Another famous pop singer that uses Michael Jackson’s methods is, Katy Perry. Jackson and Katy Perry have been some of the only musicians to be able to “oscillate between universal anthems and personal ballads” (Beaumont-Thomas). Finally, considerably most influenced by Michael Jackson is, Chris Brown. From his seemingly-impossible dance skills to his Michael Jackson inspired fedoras, Chris Brown dedicates almost his entire style for singing, dancing, and fashion to his idol, Michael Jackson. Brown himself states, “Michael Jackson is the reason why I do music and why I am an entertainer.” Although Michael Jackson died over seven years ago, he still lives on through

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