The Glorious life of Michael jackson

MICHAEL JACKSON - AN OVERVIEW

Michael Joseph Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana to a working-class family on August 29, 1958. The son of Joseph "Joe" Walter and Katherine Esther he was the fifth of six brothers and the seventh of nine children. His brothers and sisters were Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, Randy, Janet, La Toya and Rebbie.Joseph Jackson was a steel mill employee who often performed in an R&B band known as The Falcons with his brother Luther.Joseph physically and mentally abused Michael in his youth through incessant rehearsals, whippings and depreciative names such as "big nose". Joseph exorcised his musical career frustrations by exploiting his musically-gifted children, especially Michael, by forcing them to perform in seedy bars and strip joints from Indiana to Ohio. Michael's abuse as a child continues to affect him emotionally today.Katherine, a Jehovah's Witness, raised their children in that faith.
Michael showed musical talent early in his life, performing in front of his classmates and other audience during a Christmas recital at his school at the age of five.In 1964, Michael and Marlon joined the Jackson Brothers, a band formed by brothers Jackie, Tito and Jermaine, as backup playing congas and tambourine, respectively. Jackson later began performing backup vocals and dancing; at the age of eight, he and Jermaine assumed lead vocals and the group's name was changed to The Jackson 5. The band toured Indiana extensively from 1965 to 1967. After winning a major local talent show in 1966 with renditions of Motown hits and James Brown's "I Got You (I Feel Good)", led by Michael, they began playing professional gigs in Chicago and across the mid-eastern United States. Many of these gigs were in a string of black clubs and venues collectively known as the "chitlin' circuit", where the band often opened for stripteases and other adult acts.
The group recorded a number of songs for the local record label Steeltown in 1967, and signed with the national Motown Records label in 1968.Rolling Stone magazine described the young Jackson as "a prodigy" with "overwhelming musical gifts", noting that after Jackson began to dance and sing with his brothers, "he quickly emerged as the main draw and lead singer".Even though Michael sang with a "child's piping voice, he danced like a grown-up hoofer and sang with the R&B/gospel inflections of Sam Cooke, James Brown, Ray Charles, and Stevie Wonder.The fledgling group set a record when their first four singles ("I Want You Back", "ABC", "The Love You Save", and "I'll Be There") charted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, the United States' official singles chart.During the Jackson 5's early years, Motown's public relations team lowered Jackson's age from eleven to nine to make him appear cuter and more accessible to the mainstream audience. Starting in 1972, Jackson released a total of four solo studio albums with Motown, among them Got to Be There and Ben. These were released as part of the Jackson 5 franchise and produced successful singles such as "Got to Be There", "Ben", and a remake of Bobby Day's "Rockin' Robin". Between 1971 and 1975, Michael's voice, according to the Rolling Stone, "descended ever so slightly from boy soprano to his current androgynous high tenor".The group's sales began declining in 1973, and they chafed under Motown's strict refusal to allow them creative control or inpu. Although they scored several top 40 hits, including the top five disco single "Dancing Machine" and the top 20 hit "I Am Love", the Jackson 5 left Motown in 1975.

HIS DANCE MOVES

Michael jackson is one of the greatest dancers of all time, both in creativity and in performance. His moves have mesmerised audiences around the globe, as well as inspired a generation of dancers.

On the right is a little outtake from the music video 'scream'.

Moonwalk

The moonwalk was a factor in what set Michael apart and clearly in a league of his own in the realm of superstardom.

Michael did not invent the move, but perfected it and made it his own. He first showed the move to the world .

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A N I M A T I O N!

The top honchos of the Indian animation industry love the term "tip of the iceberg". It's a phrase they use quite often when talking about the scope of animation in India and how it is the next big thing on the Indian entertainment horizon. "This is just the tip of the iceberg," they'll tell you excitedly. "The best is yet to come." That may well be true. For, as far as Indian animation is concerned, the fun, it seems, is just beginning. Consider the figures, for instance. According to a recent NASSCOM report, the global animation market is estimated to touch a whopping US $ 80 billion by 2010. Much of this growth is expected to be fed by work outsourced to countries like India. Consequently, the Indian animation industry is expected to grow at a frantic pace to reach US$ 1 billion by 2010 from its current size of approximately US$ 300 million. Already, the demand for trained professionals in the field has skyrocketed. An estimated 2 to 3 lakh animation professional would be required in India alone by 2009, leading to inevitable comparisons with the software boom that happened almost 10 years ago.

Even Bollywood is waking up to the potential of animation, with filmmakers like Yash Chopra and Karan Johar, jumping onto the animation bandwagon. Last year, Chopra's Yash Raj Films tied up with Walt Disney Studios. Their first offering, Roadside Romeo featuring the voices of Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor is slated for an October release. Johar’s Dharma Productions is making Koochie Koochie Hota Hai, a take-off on his hit film, Kuchh Kuchh Hota Hai. Apart from this, a host of films based on popular mythological themes are gearing up for release. The trend which started with the success of Hanuman has already seen the release of films like Bal Ganesh, Krishna, Ghatothkach, Dashavatar and so on. Although none of these, including Hanuman's sequel Return of Hanuman failed to garner much response, mythological themes still continue to be popular with animation film makers. An industry observer likens this to the early days of the Hindi film industry, when mythological films like Raja Harischandra, Sikandar etc were being made. "The whole gamut of subjects that the Hindi film industry has covered, from the time that it started with mythologicals to the present times, is an indication of the range of subjects that are still waiting to be explored in animation,' he says. Agrees Sanjiv Waeerkar of UTV Toonz, “This is the natural progression of content. As the medium matures, good original content will be developed."

In any case, it's only been a few years since the animation industry in the country has got a kick-start, although animation has been around for a long time. Even the father of Indian cinema — Dadasaheb Phalke is believed to have dabbled in animation, when import of raw film stock was hit during the First World War. The story goes that Phalke didn't have much film stock left to shoot live action. So, he decided to use whatever little stock was left with him to shoot a few animated sequences using simple, everyday things like match sticks and coins. Phalke also used animation to create the special effects for Raja Harischandra and the other mythologicals that he produced.

Despite those early attempts, animation films in India never did take off, like they did in the West, where animators like Walt Disney, Hanna Barbera etc became household names. In India, animation was by and large restricted to advertising campaigns or the occasional government short film, which had a social message. However, in the 1990s, a breakthrough for the Indian animation industry came about when veteran Indian animator Rammohan collaborated with Japanese filmmaker Yugo Sako to make the animated version of Ramayana. The film was a reasonable success, but more than anything, it helped infuse fresh interest in Indian animation. By the late 1990s, the animation industry in the country had begun to take shape, as International studios began outsourcing work to Indian animation companies. "Overseas clients brought in an understanding of international sensibilities and expectations to Indian shores," says Ranjit ‘Tony' Singh, Honorary Secretary of The Animation Society of India (TASI). "Clients that came in with co-production deals and projects helped raise the quality bar for studios that were willing to learn. This outsource model helped in the initial growth of the industry and is even now contributing to the bulk of the revenue of the industry."

However, over a period of time, Indian studios have also realised the potential of owning content, adds Singh. Because of this, there is a scramble to develop locally identifiable characters — that can help tap the vast domestic audience. This might just explain the long line-up of Indian animation movies featuring mythological heroes. Many studios are even shifting focus from overseas projects to actively pursue the domestic market. "By conservative standards, there are over a dozen animation feature productions underway currently," says Singh. "All we need is one genuine hit and the domestic animation market will explode," he adds.

However, there are a number of challenges that the industry currently faces— the biggest being lack of trained manpower (see box). Moreover, in an animation film, a fine balance has to be struck between technical craftsmanship and the art of telling a good story. This can be quite difficult to achieve, especially when trying to woo Indian audiences, who have been exposed to high quality animation productions from Hollywood like Shrek, Toy Story etc.

But then, these are early days yet and the Indian animation industry has a long way to go still. As they say, "This is just the tip of the iceberg. The best is yet to come." So, get ready, fasten your seatbelt and wait for the animation explosion to begin.

SUCCESS QUOTES

"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."
- Thomas Jefferson

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
- Theodore Roosevelt

"The toughest thing about being a success is
that you've got to keep on being a success."
- Irving Berlin

"Good luck needs no explanation."
- Shirley Temple Black

"The secret of success is to know something nobody else knows."
- Aristotle Onassis

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;
an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill

"When you are aspiring to the highest place,
it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank."
- Cicero

"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."
- Theodore Roosevelt

"They can conquer who believe they can."
- Virgil

"I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best."
- Oscar Wilde

"I would sooner fail than not be among the greatest."
- John Keats

"Only those who risk going to far can possibly find out how far one can go."
- T. S. Eliot

"Well done is better than well said."
- Benjamin Franklin

"He has achieved success who has worked well, laughed often, and loved much."
- Elbert Hubbard

"Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who knew me best
that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower
where I thought a flower would grow."
- Abraham Lincoln

"That best portion of a man's life, his little, nameless,
unremembered acts of kindness and love."
- William Wordsworth

"You gain strength, experience, and confidence by every experience
where you really stop to look fear in the face...
You must do the thing you cannot do."
- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Failure? I never encountered it. All I ever met were temporary setbacks."
- Dottie Walters

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see
when you take your eyes off your goal."
- Henry Ford

"For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are those
'It might have been.'"
- John Greenleaf Whittier

"And in the end it's not the years in your life that count.
It's the life in your years."
- Abraham Lincoln

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
- Mahatma Gandhi

"What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight-
it's the size of the fight in the dog."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

"The men who try to do something and fail are indefinitely better
than those who try to do nothing and succeed."
- Lloyd Jones

"You see things and say, 'Why?', but I dream things and say, 'Why not?'"
- George Bernard Shaw

"It is not what they take away from you that counts.
It's what you do with what you have left."
- Hubert Humphrey

"To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing."
- Elbert Hubbard

"Men do less than they ought, unless they do all that they can."
- Thomas Carlyle

"Take the first step in faith.
You don't have to see the whole staircase,
just take the first step."
- Martin Luther King Jr.

"All you need in life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure."
- Mark Twain

"Never let inexperience get in the way of ambition."
- Terry Josephson

"What we focus on determines what we miss - and what we become."
- Unknown

"We can't become what we need to be by remaining what we are."
- Oprah Winfrey

"I demand more of myself than anyone else could ever expect."
- Julius Irving

"A minute's success pays the failure of years."
- Robert Browning

"First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do."
- Epictetus

"Be careful whose toes you step on today
because they might be connected to
the foot that kicks your ass tomorrow!!"
- Brandon Ramos

"Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die,
life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly."
- Langston Hughes

"If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything."
- Mark Twain