Major Events in Music Industry During My Birth Year

January 21 - "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood reaches number one in the UK singles chart; it spends a total of forty-two weeks in the Top 40.

January 27 - Michael Jackson's scalp is burned during the filming of a Pepsi commercial and he remains calm as he is admitted to a hospital. Around this time, Jackson also releases the title track from his Thriller album as the LP's final single.

February 14 - Elton John marries studio engineer Renate Blauel. Also Joe Perry and Brad Whitford attend an Aerosmith concert and re-join the band, embarking on their reunion tour "Back In The Saddle" later in the year.

February 16 - Jerry Lee Lewis surrenders to federal authorities on charges of income tax evasion. Lewis is later acquitted.

February 28 - Recovering from the scalp burns sustained a month earlier, Michael Jackson wins eight Grammy Awards out of twelve nominations, breaking the record for the most Grammys won in a single year. He wins seven for the critically acclaimed album Thriller and the other for a song featured in the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

March 1 - Sting plays his last concerts with The Police at the end of the Synchronicity tour; the band takes a "pause" after the tour and only play a few special events together after this, until 2007, when they would organize a reunion tour.

March - Alice Cooper, who has not toured for his last two albums, parts ways with his longtime label Warner Bros. and goes on hiatus from the music industry. Cooper begins mulling over plans for a comeback, which he would carry out in 1986.

April 1 - In Los Angeles, California, Marvin Gaye is shot and killed during an argument with his father.

May 1 - Mick Fleetwood, of Fleetwood Mac, files for bankruptcy in the United States.

May 2 - Lionel Richie's hit "Hello" becomes Motown's first ever UK million selling single.

May 5 - The Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde marries Simple Minds singer Jim Kerr. Meanwhile, in Luxembourg, the Eurovision Song Contest 1984 is won by the Swedish entry, Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley by the Herreys.

June 8 - Billy Joel performs a concert at Wembley Arena that is soon broadcast on BBC Television in two parts.

June 16-August 11 - Frankie Goes to Hollywood spend nine weeks at the top of the UK singles chart with "Two Tribes".

June 18 - The climax of a Judas Priest concert at Madison Square Garden goes awry when fans begin ripping out the cushions from the seats and throwing them on stage. Judas Priest will pay damages through insurance and be banned from MSG for life over the incident.

July 1 - During his performance at the first ever Cornerstone Festival in Grayslake, Illinois, Steve Taylor jumps off the stage, breaking his ankle. Taylor hops back on stage and finishes his show. The next few shows on Taylor's tour were performed from a wheel chair.

July 10 - The last original member of Menudo, Ricky Meléndez, leaves the group and is replaced by Ricky Martin. Meanwhile, Menudomania reaches Asia in 1984.

July 14 - Eddie Van Halen makes a special guest appearance at a concert by The Jacksons in Dallas, Texas, playing the guitar solo for "Beat It" live.

August 9 - Iron Maiden kicks off their World Slavery Tour in Warsaw, Poland, with shows in Hungary and Yugoslavia soon to follow. This marks the first time a Western band has ever brought a full concert production behind the Iron Curtain.

August 27 - British band Depeche Mode releases their 4th album Some Great Reward. The first single People Are People is the first big Depeche Mode hit in the USA.

August 31 - Canadian music video channel MuchMusic debuts. The first video played is Rush's "The Enemy Within".

September 2 - Van Halen concludes its 1984 world tour with a show in Nuremberg, Germany as part of the Monsters of Rock festival tour. This would be the band's last concert with David Lee Roth as lead singer until 2007.

September 7 - Janet Jackson elopes with fellow singer James DeBarge. The marriage would be annulled in 1985.

September 11 - Country singer Barbara Mandrell suffers serious injuries in a head-on automobile collision on a Tennessee highway. She will make a comeback after spending over a year rehabilitating.

September 14 - The first annual MTV Video Music Awards are held in New York City. Herbie Hancock wins the most awards with five, and The Cars take the highest prize of Video Of The Year for "You Might Think". However, much attention is garnered by Madonna for her controversial performance of her hit single "Like a Virgin" in which she rolls around on the stage, revealing lacy stockings and garters, and grinds her crotch against her veil.

September 21 - The first Compact Disc manufacturing plant in North America opens in Terre Haute, Indiana. CDs have previously had to be imported from Japan. Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. is designated as the first CD ever made in the United States.

October 1 - The Jesus and Mary Chain release their first single, "Upside Down".

October 19 - A-Ha's career begins with the release of the "Take On Me" single in the UK.

October 27 - Turner Broadcasting System launches Cable Music Channel, a music video channel intended to compete directly with MTV. The first video played is "I Love L.A." by Randy Newman. The channel would only last 34 days.

November 20 - Michael Jackson receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame directly in front of Mann's Chinese Theater. Jackson leaves after only three minutes at the request of security, as the crush of 5,000 onlookers becomes a safety concern.

December 1 - Frankie Goes to Hollywood become the first act to take their first three singles to the UK #1 position since Gerry & The Pacemakers in 1963, when "The Power of Love" tops the chart.

December 3 - Bob Geldof and Band Aid release the single "Do They Know It's Christmas".

December 8 - Mötley Crüe member Vince Neil is involved in a serious car accident. He is drunk at the time, and Razzle (Nicholas Dingley) of Hanoi Rocks is killed in the accident.

December 9 - The Jacksons conclude their Victory Tour with the last of six concerts at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The tour, which consisted of 55 shows over five months, has reportedly grossed $75 million, a new industry record.

December - Tipper Gore forms the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) in response to the "filth" she hears on her daughter's Prince album Purple Rain.

December 31 - Def Leppard's drummer Rick Allen loses his left arm in a car wreck.

* UK singles sales this year are the second highest ever, after 1978.

Two Icons In One Day

It was a day of great sorrow and grief when the stars, two great icons in music and movies stop illuminating. They both died of a dreaded illness that cut short of their life, mutilated the peak of their career, and even shattered the hearts of many. Michael Jackson (1958-2009) the "King of Pop" died of cardiac arrest while Farrah Fawcett (1947 - 2009) one of the original member of "Charlie's Angels" succumbed to anal cancer.

Michael Jackson should not be blamed for the scandals and controversies he took headlines most especially with children because he himself was a victim as young kid. Young Michael Jackson was molested by his father and never fully enjoyed his youth because he already seriously working at a young age. Instead, we should remember and let us be reminded by the legacy he left us. His music, pioneering dance styles, his charities and ideals must serve as an inspiration to many. On the other hand, Farrah Fawcett should be commended for her exemplary life. She showed extreme strength and endurance despite the unbearable sufferings, she is losing ground with her battle against cancer yet she is a valiant warrior. A symbol for women and a woman of austerity behind the glamour of limelight.

The world is weeping over the loss of these two icons in just one day because they will surely miss them but by reliving their music, dance, movies and charities they will always be alive in our hearts.

Michael Jackson, "King of Pop" Dead at 50

Los Angeles (AP) - Michael Jackson, the "King of Pop" who once moonwalked above the music world, died Thursday as he prepared for a comeback bid to vanquish nightmare years of sexual scandal and financial calamity. He was 50. Jackson died at UCLA Medical Center after being stricken at his rented home in Holmby Hills. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him at his home for nearly three-quarters of an hour, then rushed him to the hospital, where doctors continued to work on him.

"It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However, the cause of his death is unknown until results of the autopsy are known," his brother Jermaine said. Police said they were investigating, standard procedure in high-profile cases.

Jackson's death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music's premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.


His 1982 album "Thriller" - which included the blockbuster hits "Beat It," "Billie Jean" and "Thriller" - is the best-selling album of all time, with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide and also the world's longest music video with a duration of 32 minutes.


At the time of his death spread, MTV switched its programming to play videos from Jackson's heyday. Radio stations began playing marathons of his hits. Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital. In New York's Times Square, a low groan went up in the crowd when a screen flashed that Jackson had died, and people began relaying the news to friends by cell phone.


"No joke. King of Pop is no more. Wow," Michael Harris, 36, of New York City, read from a text message a friend had sent him. "It's like when Kennedy was assassinated. I will always remember being in Times Square when Michael Jackson died."


The public first knew him as a boy in the late 1960s, when he was the precocious, spinning lead singer of the Jackson 5, the singing group he formed with his four older brothers out of Gary, Indiana. Among their No.1 hits were "I Want You Back," "ABC" and "I'll Be There."


He was perhaps the most exciting performer of his generation, known for his backward-gliding moonwalk, his feverish, crotch-grabbing dance moves and his high pitched singing, punctuated with squeals and titters. His single sequined glove, tight, military-style jacket and aviator sunglasses were trademarks, as was his ever-changing, surgically altered appearance.


"For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just dont' have the words," said Quincy Jones, who produced "Thriller." "He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I've lost my brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him."


Jackson ranked alongside Elvis Presley and the Beatles as the biggest pop sensations of all time. He united two of music's biggest names when he was briefly married to Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie, and Jackson's death immediately evoked comparisons to that of Presley himself, who died at age 42 in 1977.


As years went by, Jackson became an increasingly freakish figure - a middle- aged man-child weirdly out of touch with grown-up life. His skin became lighter, his nose narrower, and he spoke in a breathy, girlish voice. He often wore a germ mask while traveling, kept a pet chimpanzee named Bubbles as one of his closest companions, and surrounded himself with children at his Neverland ranch, a storybook playland filled with toys, rides and animals. The tabloids dubbed him "Wacko Jacko."


"It seemed to me that his internal essence was at war with the norms of the world. It's as if he was trying to defy gravity," said Michael Levine, a Hollywood publicist who represented Jackson in the early 1990s. He called Jackson a "discipline of P.T. Barnum" and said the star appeared fragile at the time but was "much more cunning and shrewd about the industry than anyone knew." Jackson caused a furor in 2002 when he playfully dangled his infant son, Prince Michael II, over a hotel balcony in Berlin while a throng of fans watched from below. In 2005, he was cleared of charges he molested a 13-year old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003. He had been accused of plying the boy with alcohol and groping him, and of engaging in strange and inappropriate behavior with other children. The case followed years of rumors about Jackson and young boys. In a TV documentary, he acknowledged sharing his bed with children, a practice he described as sweet and not at all sexual. Despite the acquittal, the lurid allegations that came out in court took a fearsome toll on his career and image, and he fell into serious financial trouble.



Michael Joseph Jackson was born August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana. He was 4 years old when he began singing with his brothers - Marlon, Jermaine, Jackie and Tito - in the Jackson 5. After his early success with bubble soul, he struck out on his own, generating innovative, explosive, unstoppable music.



The album "Thriller" alone mixed the dark, serpentine bass and drums and synthesizer approach of "Billie Jean," the grinding Eddie Van Halen solo on "Beat It," and the hiccups and falsettos on "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'." The peak may have come in 1983, when Motown celebrated its 25th anniversary with an all-star televised concert and Jackson moonwalked off with the show, joining his brothers for a medley of old hits and then leaving them behind with a pointing, crouching, high-kicking, splay-footed, crotch-grabbing run through "Billie Jean." The audience stood and roared. Jackson raised his fist. By then he had cemented his place in pop culture. He got the plum Scarecrow role in the 1978 movie musical "The Wiz," a pop-R&B version of "The Wizard of Oz," that starred Diana Ross as Dorothy. During production of a 1984 Pepsi commercial, Jackson's scalp sustains burns when an explosion sets his hair on fire.


He had strong follow-up albums with 1987's "Bad" and 1991's "Dangerous," but his career began to collapse in 1993 after he was accused of molesting a boy who often stayed at his home. The singer denied any wrongdoing, reached a settlement with the boy's family, reported to be $20 million, and criminal charges were never filed. Jackson's expressed anger over the allegations on the 1995 album "HIStory," which sold more than 2.4 million copies, but by then, the popularity of Jackson's music was clearly waning, even as public fascination with his increasingly erratic behavior was growing.


Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley in 1994, and they divorced in 1996. Later that year, Jackson married Deborah Rowe, a former nurse for his dermatologist. They had two children together: Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., known as Prince Michael, now 12; and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, 11. Rowe filed for divorce in 1999.
Jackson also had a third child, Prince Michael II. Now 7, Jackson said the boy nicknamed Blanket as a baby was his biological child born from a surrogate mother.


Cardiac arrest is an abnormal heart rhythm that stops the heart from pumping blood to the body. It can occur after a heart attack or be caused by other heart problems.


Billboard magazine editorial director Bill Werde said Jackson's star power was unmatched. "The world just lost the biggest pop star in history, no matter how you cut it," Werde said. "He's literally the king of pop." Jackson's 13 No. 1 one hits on the Billboard charts put him behind only Presley, the Beatles and Mariah Carey, Werde said. "He was on the eve of potentially redeeming his career a little bit," he said. "People might have started to think of him again in a different light."