Читать книгу Michael Jackson – Legend, Hero, Icon: A Tribute to the King of Pop - James Aldis - Страница 16

They began touring venues on the ‘chitlin’ circuit’ of black nightclubs throughout the east and south of the country, and were regularly billed alongside major acts of the day, such as James Brown. For young Michael, watching from the wings, this became his school. Deprived of a normal classroom education Michael would instead carefully watch James Brown’s performances: he would absorb every single step, every single movement, every twist, turn, grind and emotion, packing it into his memory, mesmerized by its brilliance.

Having worked the ‘chitlin’ circuit’, The Jacksons were already familiar with life on the road by the time a phone call came out of the blue that would mean a long journey to Detroit. They had been invited to go to Motown.

‘The greatest education in the world is watching the masters at work.’

—Michael Jackson

MOTOWN

Perhaps it was fate that Michael became the performer he ultimately grew into, but his father’s drive to secure a recording contract to marry success to his children’s talents almost inevitably led them to one of the most famous homes of popular music in the late 1960s and early 1970s—Motown.

LIST OF MOTOWN NUMBER Is…

1960s

1970s

1980s

1989s

The very word ‘Motown’ has become synonymous with great music thanks to the almost constant stream of hit songs the label produced. But it was also the first label to end the segregation within the music industry—for the first time music by black musicians and groups was being sold outside their traditional markets and across the world. It effectively ended a period of musical apartheid on the strength of the songs themselves and the genius of their performers, and no act typified this more than The Jackson 5, who would go on to become one of the label’s most popular acts and the first group of teen idols to appeal widely to both black and white kids.