Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958. He was the eighth of ten children in an African-American working-class family who lived in a two-bedroom house in Gary, Indiana, an industrial city and a part of the Chicago metropolitan area. His mother, Katherine Esther Scruse, was a devout Jehovah's Witness. She once aspired to be a country and western performer who played clarinet and piano, but worked part-time at Sears to help support the family. His father, Joseph Walter "Joe" Jackson, a former boxer, was a steelworker at U.S. Steel. Joe also performed on guitar with a local rhythm and blues band called the Falcons to supplement the family's household income.Michael grew up with three sisters (Rebbie, La Toya, and Janet) and five brothers (Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Randy). A sixth brother, Marlon's elder twin Brandon, died shortly after birth.
Jackson had a troubled relationship with his father, Joe. In 2003, Joe acknowledged that he regularly whipped Jackson as a boy.Joe was also said to have verbally abused his son, often saying that he had a "fat nose". Jackson stated that he was physically and emotionally abused during incessant rehearsals, though he also credited his father's strict discipline with playing a large role in his success. Speaking openly about his childhood in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, broadcast in February 1993, Jackson acknowledged that his youth had been lonely and isolating. Jackson's deep dissatisfaction with his appearance, his nightmares and chronic sleep problems, his tendency to remain hyper-compliant, especially with his father, and to remain childlike throughout his adult life, are consistent with the effects of the maltreatment he endured as a young child.
In an interview with Martin Bashir, later included in the 2003 broadcast of Living with Michael Jackson, Jackson acknowledged that his father hurt him when he was a child, recalling that Joseph often sat in a chair with a belt in his hand as he and his siblings rehearsed, and that "if you didn't do it the right way, he would tear you up, really get you." Both of Jackson's parents have disagreed with the longstanding allegations of abuse, with Katherine stating that while the whippings are considered abuse today, such action was a common way to discipline children back then.Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon have also said that their father is not abusive, but rather misunderstood.
In 1965, Michael and Marlon joined the Jackson Brothers—a band formed by their father and which included brothers Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine—as backup musicians playing congas and tambourine. In 1966, Jackson began sharing lead vocals with his older brother Jermaine, and the group's name was changed to the Jackson 5. That following year, the group won a major local talent show with Jackson performing James Brown's "I Got You (I Feel Good)". From 1966 to 1968 the band toured the Midwest, frequently performing at a string of black clubs known as the "chitlin' circuit" as the opening act for artists such as Sam & Dave, the O'Jays, Gladys Knight, and Etta James. The Jackson 5 also performed at clubs and cocktail lounges, where striptease shows and other adult acts were featured, and at local auditoriums and high school dances. In August 1967, while touring the East coast, the group won a weekly amateur night concert at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
The Jackson 5 recorded several songs, including "Big Boy" (1968), their first single, for Steeltown Records, a Gary, Indiana, record label, before signing with Motown in 1969. The Jackson 5 left Gary in 1969 and relocated to the Los Angeles area, where they continued to record music for Motown. The magazine Rolling Stone later described the young Michael as "a prodigy" with "overwhelming musical gifts," writing that he "quickly emerged as the main draw and lead singer."The group set a chart record when its first four singles—"I Want You Back" (1969), "ABC" (1970), "The Love You Save" (1970), and "I'll Be There" (1970)—peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. In May 1971, the Jackson family moved into a large home on two-acre estate in Encino, California, where Michael evolved from child performer into a teen idol. As Jackson began to emerge as a solo performer in the early 1970s, he continued to maintain ties to the Jackson 5 and Motown. Between 1972, when his solo career began, and 1975, Michael released four solo studio albums with Motown: Got to Be There (1972), Ben (1972), Music & Me (1973), and Forever, Michael (1975). "Got to Be There" and "Ben", the title tracks from his first two solo albums, both became successful singles, as did a remake of Bobby Day's "Rockin' Robin".
The Jackson 5 were later described as "a cutting-edge example of black crossover artists." Although the group's sales began declining in 1973, and the band members chafed under Motown's refusal to allow them creative control or input, they continued to score several top 40 hits, including the top five single, "Dancing Machine" (1974), before the group left Motown in 1975.
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