Rianna is the Movie News Editor for ScreenRant. After earning her BA in Film Studies, she began her career as an entertainment writer, contributing to several publications before joining ScreenRant. Her dissertation on the impact of streaming on traditional cinema sharpened her focus on the ever-evolving world of film and media. With 10 years in the industry, Rianna continues to cover the stories she loves while also advocating for awareness and representation of rare disabilities, such as Moebius Syndrome, which she lives with.
Michael 2 will finally confront some major issues.
Michael Jackson was a singer, songwriter, and dancer known as the King of Pop and became a global icon who helped reinvent music, dance, and fashion throughout history. He was initially the lead singer of the Jackson 5 before becoming a solo artist and continuously breaking records. Much to the world's dismay, Jackson died in 2009 while preparing for his comeback concert series, This Is It, and has since been the topic of many headlines, both good and bad.
ScreenRant.com|MJThe Groove Report
Interactive Quiz
ScreenRant/Music/Michael Jackson/Trivia
Side A · 33⅓ RPMHow Well Do You Know Michael Jackson's Music?“Who's Bad?”
🧟Thriller'Cause this is thriller
💎Billie JeanShe's just a girl
⚡Beat ItJust beat it
🕺MoonwalkMotown 25
🎩BadShamone!
QUESTION 1 / 8THRILLER
01
Released in November 1982, Thriller is the best-selling album of all time. The producer behind its glossy fusion of pop, funk, rock and disco had already worked with Michael on Off the Wall and would return for Bad. Who is he?
✓ Correct! Quincy Jones — Michael met him on the set of The Wiz (1978), and Jones went on to produce the trio of albums that defined Michael's solo career: Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982) and Bad (1987). Thriller has sold more than 70 million copies worldwide. George Martin produced The Beatles. Berry Gordy ran Motown. Rod Temperton wrote the title track but didn't produce.
✗ Off the beat. The answer is Quincy Jones. George Martin was The Beatles' producer. Berry Gordy founded Motown and signed the Jackson 5 but wasn't behind the boards on Thriller. Rod Temperton wrote the title track “Thriller” (plus “Rock with You” and “Off the Wall”) but it was Quincy Jones who produced all three of Michael's adult-era masterpieces.
QUESTION 2 / 8MOTOWN 25
02
On May 16, 1983, NBC aired the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever special. Dressed in a sequined jacket and single white glove, Michael unveiled the moonwalk to the world during a solo performance of which song?
✓ Correct! Billie Jean. After performing Jackson 5 hits with his brothers, Michael took the stage alone for a lip-synced “Billie Jean” and glided backwards across it — a move he'd been refining from street dancers and mime technique. Motown 25 became one of the most-watched TV specials of the 80s and cemented Michael as the biggest solo star on the planet.
✗ Off the beat. The answer is Billie Jean. “Rock with You” and “Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough” are from Off the Wall. “Beat It” is on Thriller but wasn't the Motown 25 solo number. It was “Billie Jean” — mime-walked, glove-flashed, and watched by an estimated 47 million Americans live.
QUESTION 3 / 8THE JACKSON 5
03
Long before Thriller, an eleven-year-old Michael fronted his brothers on the Jackson 5's first Motown single — a bouncing piece of bubblegum soul that hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1970. What was the song?
✓ Correct! “I Want You Back” — released October 1969, written by The Corporation (Berry Gordy and his in-house team) and topping the Hot 100 by January 1970. The Jackson 5 then did something no act had done before: their next three singles (“ABC,” “The Love You Save,” “I'll Be There”) also all hit #1, giving them four straight chart-toppers to start their career.
✗ Off the beat. The answer is “I Want You Back.” “ABC,” “The Love You Save,” and “I'll Be There” were the group's next three singles — each also hit #1, making them the first act ever to see their first four Motown releases top the Hot 100. But “I Want You Back,” from October 1969, was the one that broke them.
QUESTION 4 / 8BEAT IT
04
Thriller's genre-smashing rock crossover “Beat It” features a blistering guitar solo recorded as a favour to Quincy Jones — reportedly for a case of beer, with no pay and no credit on the original sleeve. Which rock legend played it?
✓ Correct! Eddie Van Halen — Van Halen were touring when Quincy Jones phoned. Eddie dropped by Westlake Studios, cut two takes for free (and, yes, allegedly a case of beer), and was so uncredited on the first pressings that fans didn't realise it was him. The solo helped “Beat It” become a smash on MTV and rock radio at a time when black artists rarely crossed that line.
✗ Off the beat. The answer is Eddie Van Halen. Slash played on Michael's later song “Black or White.” Jimmy Page is Led Zeppelin. Prince was famously offered the duet on “Bad” but turned it down. Eddie Van Halen's “Beat It” solo — recorded in a single afternoon, uncredited, supposedly paid in beer — is one of the most famous guitar solos in pop history.
QUESTION 5 / 8WE ARE THE WORLD
05
In January 1985, Michael co-wrote the charity single “We Are the World” for USA for Africa — recorded in a single overnight session with 46 superstars after the American Music Awards. Which fellow soul icon shared the writing credit with him?
✓ Correct! Lionel Richie — the two wrote the song in about a week, with Quincy Jones producing. Harry Belafonte had the original idea, Ken Kragen organised the session, and a handwritten studio sign told arriving superstars to “Check your egos at the door.” It sold over 20 million copies and won four Grammys including Record and Song of the Year.
✗ Off the beat. The answer is Lionel Richie. Stevie Wonder sang on the record and helped in the studio but didn't co-write it. Paul McCartney collaborated with Michael on “The Girl Is Mine” and “Say Say Say,” not this one. Smokey Robinson wrote at Motown. Richie and Jackson wrote “We Are the World” together in about a week, with Quincy Jones producing.
QUESTION 6 / 8MUSIC VIDEO
06
Released in December 1983, the nearly 14-minute “Thriller” short film — with its werewolf cold open, red leather jacket and graveyard zombie choreography — changed the music video forever. Which filmmaker directed it?
✓ Correct! John Landis — Michael had loved Landis' 1981 horror-comedy An American Werewolf in London and specifically asked him to direct. Special-effects maestro Rick Baker handled the werewolf/zombie makeup, Vincent Price delivered the iconic rap at the end, and the making-of documentary became one of the best-selling VHS tapes ever. Scorsese later directed “Bad.” Bob Giraldi directed “Beat It.”
✗ Off the beat. The answer is John Landis — fresh off 1981's An American Werewolf in London, which is why Michael picked him. Scorsese would direct the “Bad” video four years later. De Palma didn't do a MJ video. Bob Giraldi directed “Beat It.” Landis also made the 35-minute making-of special that turned into a home-video sensation.
QUESTION 7 / 8BAD
07
When Bad arrived in August 1987, Michael didn't just follow Thriller — he set a Billboard record that no album had achieved before. What was the milestone?
✓ Correct! Five #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 — a first for any album. The run: “I Just Can't Stop Loving You” (with Siedah Garrett), “Bad,” “The Way You Make Me Feel,” “Man in the Mirror,” and “Dirty Diana.” Bad also launched Michael's first world tour as a solo artist and featured the Martin Scorsese-directed title-track video opposite a young Wesley Snipes.
✗ Off the beat. The answer is five #1 singles on the Hot 100. Diamond certification wasn't created until 1999. The first album to debut at #1 was Elton John's Captain Fantastic (1975). Simultaneous CD/vinyl releases weren't a Bad-specific milestone. Bad's five chart-toppers — from “I Just Can't Stop Loving You” through “Dirty Diana” — was the record no album had ever hit before.
QUESTION 8 / 8KING OF POP
08
Michael is universally known as the “King of Pop,” but the nickname was specifically popularised by a close friend who bestowed it on him while presenting him with the Soul Train Heritage Award in 1989. Who was she?
✓ Correct! Elizabeth Taylor — a close friend of Michael's since the 80s — called him “the true king of pop, rock and soul” while presenting the Soul Train Heritage Award in March 1989. He embraced the moniker, eventually insisting media outlets use it when referring to him. Diana Ross had mentored him at Motown. Oprah did the famous 1993 Neverland interview. Whitney Houston was a peer and collaborator on USA for Africa.
✗ Off the beat. The answer is Elizabeth Taylor — at the Soul Train Heritage Award in March 1989, she hailed him as “the true king of pop, rock and soul.” Diana Ross was his Motown mentor. Oprah Winfrey later did the landmark 1993 living-room interview at Neverland. Whitney Houston sang on “We Are the World” but didn't coin the nickname. Taylor and Michael were genuinely close friends.
End of Side B · Stylus UpYour King of Pop Rank
🎤
/ 8
Moonwalker — or still warming up the turntable?
The biopic Michael reignited fans around the world, and it starred Jaafar Jackson stepping into the shoes of his uncle Michael. In a recent interview with GQ, Jackson addressed concerns over a potential sequel and whether it will address some of Michael's more problematic and complicated past, including abuse allegations that shook the world and had the pop icon face some serious accusations. Jackson seemed confident about a sequel and stated:
"I think the second film will give even more insight from his point of view, because at the end of the day, [the allegations] are always from someone else’s. It’s someone else’s story. It’s someone else’s idea of what it is, and it’s mainly driven by an agenda. And that’s really the issue we’ve been having as a family – not having Michael’s voice being heard. I think that’s very, very important, especially in the late years."
Jackson defended the decision to split the biopic into two films and said it in fact gives fans a clearer picture and deeper understanding of whom the King of Pop truly was:
"This first film focuses on Michael from his roots. So you get that idea of who he was before he had all the success and became the icon that people are familiar with, you understand who he was as a human being first, because at the end of the day, that’s who he was in the ’90s until he passed.
He never changed that purity, that sense of always wanting to find the good in other people. And no matter all the stuff he went through, how he was treated, what things were said about him, he never stopped treating people with kindness. He never stopped believing in and wanting to look for the good in people… even though he was broken, his heart still stayed the same… I hope that this is felt in the second movie."
The allegations surrounding Michael started in 1993 until he died in 2009, and they included multiple serious child sexual abuse allegations. The musician reached a financial settlement during the civil case in 1993, and was later acquitted of all charges in a criminal trial set in 2005, with his estate denying any and all wrongdoings.
After his death, Michael's past has come back to haunt him with posthumous claims about abuse with the infamous 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland.
However, despite the seemingly never-ending allegations, Michael's career is untainted as his fan base only grows despite having been dead for 17 years. In his interview, Jackson also teased the reason behind Janet Jackson's own absence and lack of mention of Michael despite being an integral part of the artist's life and story. Jackson stated that "I don’t want to speak too early, but Janet has ideas of maybe doing her own film," giving fans even more content to appreciate from the Jackson family.
At the time of writing,Michael 2has yet to have an official release date.
Jaafar JacksonMichael Jackson
Joe Jackson
