Michael Jackson

Books about Michael Jackson’s art and impact are illuminating the true story long-awaited by music connoisseurs. (And tabloid crap gets a flush-you-for-stinking.) One to read: Man in the Music: The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson by Joe Vogel assesses Jackson’s solo catalog 1979-2009, drawing on archival material from Jackson’s Estate, Jackson’s own statements, and extensive interviews with collaborators, some of whom had never been interviewed before. Vogel constructs an historical record founded on meticulous research about Jackson’s creative process. He persuasively contextualizes Jackson’s masterworks within a culture that nurtured--but also painfully extracted from him—their creation. Embraced by critics and scholars, "MIM" has the substance to become a seminal and definitive text about the composition and message aspects of Michael Jackson’s art.