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Tuesday, 26 June 2012 |
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Michael Jackson, whose sudden death three years ago on June 25, 2009 shocked the world, was called the Elvis Presley of our times. He certainly was a global cultural icon with an enormous following in the West and East, North and South. And he used this celebrity status for more than mere entertainment (which he did exceedingly well): he had a long-standing history of releasing socially conscious songs that spread public interest messages with great ease and power. Mixing social messages with entertainment is a difficult and delicate art that only a few artistes manage to get right. Michael Jackson was one of them, Michael Jackson lived and died immersed in superlatives. For several years in the 1980s and early 1990s, he was the world’s best known musical performer and one of the most recognisable cultural icons. As as the New York Times noted shortly after his death: “At the height of his career, he was indisputably the biggest star in the world; he has sold more than 750 million albums.” Today, we look back at the phenomenon that was Michael Jackson. Special thanks to MJ fan Dhara Gunawardene. 1. Michael Jackson’s career as a recording star began at the age of eleven, with the popularity of the first single released by the Jackson five, a rhythm-and-blues act composed of him and four of his brothers. His solo debut album was released by Motown Records in January 1972 and sold over 3.2 million copies. What was it called? 2. Jackson invented his own kind dance technique called moonwalk which creates the illusion that the dancer is stepping forward while actually moving backward. He first performed this on a United States (US) TV show on March 25, 1983. It was an instant hit and soon became his signature move, and is now one of the best-known dance techniques in the world. With which song did Jackson first perform the moonwalk? 3. In 1983, Jackson released arguably the most successful and influential music video of all time. It set new standards for production of music videos. Along with earlier videos for his songs Billie Jean and Beat It, this was instrumental in getting music videos by African-American artistes played on MTV music channel. What was the song of this trail-blazing music video, which was 14 minutes long?
4. By the early 1980s, Jackson was being described as the biggest star since the Beatles or Elvis Presley and as “the most popular black singer ever.” In 1984, he won an unprecedented eight Grammy Awards. TIME magazine featured him on their cover on March 19, 1984, using a portrait by a famous American pop artist who created it in oil on silkscreen on canvas. It became one of the most sought-after TIME issues worldwide, and the magazine later gifted the original to the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution where it is on display. Who painted this famous portrait? 5. In 1985, Michael Jackson co-wrote the song We Are the World which was released worldwide to aid the poor in the US and Africa. It is now recognized as a politically important song that focused the entertainment industry’s attention on humanitarian and social justice causes. It became one of the best-selling singles of all time, with nearly 30 million copies sold and millions of dollars donated to African famine relief. In 1986, We Are the World won four Grammys. Who co-wrote the song with Jackson? 6. In 1992, Michael Jackson set up a charitable organization to improve the lives of children. It brought underprivileged children to his ranch to enjoy theme park rides, and also sent millions of dollars overseas to help children affected by war, poverty and ill health. The name of the charity is taken from a song in his 1991 hit album called Dangerous. What was this foundation called? 7. Michael Jackson’s biggest selling UK single was a song about the environment: the Earth Song. Released in November 1995, it sold over a million copies. It was the first of his songs that overtly dealt with the environment and animal welfare, and almost became an anthem for the global environmental movement. The video of the Earth Song was among the most expensive ever made - it was filmed in four geographic regions and involved scenes from the Amazon forest, Croatia, Tanzania and which large city in the US? 8. Will you be there was another of Jackson’s socially conscious songs. First released as a single in 1993, it was taken from the 1991 album Dangerous and also appeared on the soundtrack a Hollywood movie about a boy befriending a killer whale. The song won the MTV Movie Award for ‘Best Song in a Movie’ in 1994. Jackson also performed songs for the film’s two sequels. What was the original movie in which this song appeared? 9. Michael Jackson released his first and only autobiography in 1988, in which he talked candidly about his childhood, The Jackson five, and the abuse he had suffered. The book sold over 200,000 copies and stayed at the top position on The New York Times best sellers’ list for some weeks. The book was re-released in October 2009, after the singer’s death, with a new foreword and afterword. What was the title of this autobiography? 10. Tom Clancy is famous for writing spy novels. Four of his books are made into movies named, The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, and The Sum of All Fears. His leading character is fictional Jack Ryan who works for the US spy agency CIA. Three actors have played Jack Ryan’s role so far in movie adaptations. Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford are two of them. Who is the third and latest to play Jack Ryan character? 11. An American professor of psychology, who stressed the importance of focusing on the positive qualities in people, and not treat them as a ‘bag of symptoms’, once remarked: “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail”. Whose words are these? 12. The Lanka Sama Samaja Party or LSSP (which literally means ‘Ceylon Equal Society Party’), is a Trotskyist political party in Sri Lanka that was set up in 1935. It was the first modern political party in Sri Lanka and the first party to have an indigenous name rather than an English one. Who coined the Sinhala term samasamajaya in the Swadesa Mitraya newspaper to translate the term ‘socialist’? 13. On June 20, 2012, a 17-year-old school girl from Wellington, New Zealand,addressed over 130 heads of state from around the world who gathered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, also called Rio+20. She had won the ‘Date with History Contest, a global online search for a person under 30 to represent youth and future generations at Rio+20. Speaking truth to power, she said the world leaders: “Please ask yourselves why you are here. Are you here to save face? Or are you here to save us?” What was her name? 14. A passionate young Canadian girl similarly addressed world leaders gathered at the original Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992. They called it the “speech that stopped the world for six minutes.” It was uncluttered and sincere. “I am only a child and I do not have all the solutions, but I want you to realize neither do you...If you do not know how to fix it, please stop breaking it!” Name the 12 years old, young Canadian environmental activist whose powerful speech received a standing ovation. She is now a writer, activist and mother of two young sons. 15. In competitive soccer, Red and Yellow cards are shown to the players who have committed a foul. The colour of the card depends on the severity of the foul. A yellow card is shown to indicate that a player has been officially cautioned. A red card is shown by the referee to indicate that a player is officially sent-off or expelled from the game, and must leave the field immediately - he cannot play the rest of the game. Coloured penalty cards originated with British football referee Ken Aston, who decided that the colours of a traffic light would be the best way to convey the idea of warnings and removals to an international audience. In what major tournament was the red and yellow card system for soccer first introduced? Last week’s answers1. Indonesia 2. Vienna, Austria 3. Dutch Disease 4. Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo 5. Timor-Leste (East Timor) 6. Thomas L Friedman 7. Sugarcane 8. Royal Society of Literature 9. Rahul Bhattacharya 10. E R A Rathna 11. Sunil Jayaweera 12. The Economist 13. Briton Hadden (1898 - 1929) and Henry Luce (1898 - 1967) 14. Larry 15. Sha Zukang |
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