The King's Creativity - Michael Jackson

The King of Pop as we all know him, Michael Jackson has had a huge influence on the world of music; he has revolutionized performances.  Michael Jackson was an iconic artist who touched the lives of many through his creative genius.

Young Michael performing 
(http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/michael-jackson-the-child/images/15625139/title/sweet-michael-photo)

Michael Jackson was a prodigy; from a very young age he was composing songs in his head using

only his voice.  This showed his great ability for mental imagery from an early age.  As a child he wrote the song “Beat It” that became one of his biggest hits.  His childhood and family were factors that contributed greatly to his creativity because his family was a family of musicians, and he was propelled to enter the music industry.  His father was a passionate orchestrator of the Jackson 5.  He is however blamed for physically and psychologically abusing his children and forcing them into a fame filled life.  When Michael described his childhood he says “I had great times with my brothers, pillow fights and things, but I was, used to always cry from loneliness…I didn’t have friends when I was little.  My brothers were my friends.”  Michael’s childhood was filled only with music and recordings, he recounts that “I would go to the recording studio and record, and I’d record for hours and hours until it’s time to go to sleep.”  Although his childhood was filled with the ability to do what he was most passionate about, it was also lacking a real childhood of friendship and fun, which impacted his later life as an adult.

The Jackson 5

(http://www.morethings.com/music/michael_jackson/michael_jackson_photo_gallery01.html)

Michael Jackson doing the Moonwalk

(http://hdwallpapervault.com/michael-jackson-dancing-moonwalk.html)

Michael Jackson was definitely a Big C creative; known all around the world for his work. His product was culture changing; one can argue a new development of pop culture by the King of Pop himself.  His uses of mental imagery lead him to create many iconic dance moves.  He would use problem solving to figure out new ways of achieving a certain move he envisioned.  His legendary moon walk and hip thrust are a few among the many moves that he created.  He choreographed the dances for his songs and spent hours teaching his dancers.  In his interview with MTV News he says,   “I want to create, you know do something that’s totally different and unusual.” His goal was to surprise people and to make people enjoy his art; the music, dancing, and overall performance working together. 

Michael Jackson doing the pelvic thrust

(http://www.glogster.com/astaudt/michael-jackson/g-6k0nnu7p2pa65fjhkq2nft0)

Michael Jackson was asked many times how he comes up with his songs and dance moves.  He says, “it just, kinda falls into your lap.” This shows his creative insight; ideas just come to him and he allowed himself to get pulled by these ideas.  Using his creative ability, his ideas just sprang into his conscious awareness as described by J. Jason van Steenburgh, Jessica I. Fleck, Mark Beeman, and John Kounios in their Chapter on Insight.  Michael Jackson sometimes just let ideas hit him on the head.  He used productive thought process that allowed him to use ideas he already learned and put them together in new and innovative ways.

He talked about how much he enjoyed creating with the people he worked with and that he never knew what to expect.  He did however have his rituals; in an interview he says, “It’s a ritual, after we run a video I throw stuff at everybody.”  He didn’t know why, but he said it just made his life interesting.  When talking about recording the music video for "Thriller" he said, “My idea was to make a short film…I never thought I’d be involved in making that sort of thing, but I am.”  This shows that he doesn’t do much planning; he just gets ideas and runs with them.  

Micheal Jackson during a show 

(http://www.billboard.com/artist/310778/michael-jackson)

 Along with all his fame and creativity, there was also problematic parts of his life.  His hectic life style led him to fall into substance abuse.  He blamed it on his loneliness and sadness throughout his life.  His life was spend in the public eye, constantly getting criticism from the whole world.  This pulled him down in many ways; however, he continued to create legendary music and dances through his life until his death in June of 2009.  His fame however continues to grow and spread even after his death.  His creative genius will be everliving in his songs and performances. 

Other useful sources:

http://www.mtv.com/videos/michael-jackson/26726

http://www.michaeljackson.com/us/

http://www.biography.com/people/michael-jackson-38211#solo-career