Michael Jackson was one of the most-widely known singers in the world. He began in a singing group as a child with his brothers, The Jackson 5. As he reach adulthood he launched a solo career that exploded into a global phenomenon. His dancing, including his famous “Moonwalk,” was groundbreaking and electrifying.
Though he was one of the all-time best selling pop artists, Jackson often tackled issues of violence and injustice. He brought a global perspective to some of his works, most notably “We Are the World” as part of an fund-raising campaign to help with famine relief in Africa (see below). For our Global Peace Music Festival there are some particular contributions from Michael Jackson that we want to relish.
But relishing Jackson’s music has become more complicated for many of us because of the repeated allegations of child sexual abuse especially at his Neverland Ranch. We could just simply skip inclusion of Jackson in this Peace Music Festival because of those allegations. However, Jackson has had a huge global impact that can’t be denied. We have other examples of peacemakers with severely tarnished legacies on this website, notably Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize laureate who has been excusing acts of genocide by the government of Myanmar of which she is a part. So knowing the mixed bag of Michael Jackson, we offer some of his great music while wishing he took a better look at the “Man in the Mirror” and started there so as not to become an example of what he sang against.
“Man in the Mirror” is an empowering song about taking responsibility, as in the words of Gandhi “to be the change you want to be in the world.” As Jackson says, “You want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change…I’m starting with the man in the mirror.” The official video includes images of famine, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and various struggles for justice.
In his “They Don’t Care About Us,” Jackson gives powerful voice to those at the margins who are victims of police brutality and countless forms of discrimination. He raises up two figures from the past, Franklin Roosevelt who began so many programs for the poor and civil rights leader Martin Luther King (called “Martin Luther” in the lyrics, but definitely the King named after the Protestant Reformer). We particularly love the “Brazilian Version” of the song with amazing Brazilian mass percussion.
“We Are the Word,” co-written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced and directed by Quincy Jones as part of a campaign to raise money for famine relief in Africa. The song became the best-selling single up to that date, raising $63 million for famine relief. Many of the top music stars in the U.S. were involved in recording the song and video. “We Are the World” stimulated other joint projects by musicians to deal with various crisis in the U.S. and around the world.