He has been the first and only artist who has managed to start and finish the year with an album at # 1 ( Thriller ) and the first and only artist in history to achieve number 1 in the 1960 , 1970, 1980 and 1990 . (See " Awards and honors " section for more information ) .
His contribution to music , dance and fashion , along with his publicized personal life, made him a figure of popular culture. He began his career with his brothers in the band The Jackson 5 in the mid- 1960s, in which he published ten albums with them until 1975. In 1971 he began his solo career, although he continued to belong to the band of brothers . Due to the extraordinary impact of his album Thriller (1982 ) , the biggest selling album in the history of music (even in 2013) , became the biggest star in pop music at the time. Some of his published albums like Off the Wall (1979 ) , Bad (1987 ) , Dangerous (1991) and HIStory : Past , Present and Future , Book I ( 1995) , are among the best-selling albums of all time , what that helped him get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Furthermore, thirteen of the 98 singles Jackson reached the top of the Billboard 100. It is estimated that Michael Jackson has sold between 350 to over 400 million of its musical productions , making it one of the best-selling musicians of recent times .
Later , he became involved in two controversial chapters: the first in 1993 and later in 2003. In both cases, the singer was accused of child abuse, through allegations of sexual abuse of two children of thirteen years in each case. However, the charges were withdrawn after paying a sum of more than twenty million dollars to avoid a trial in the first case and in the second , to be acquitted at trial for lack of evidence . These events had global impact and affected the final years of his life and career.
Almost a decade later , was released Invincible ( 2001) , whose launch was recognized as a total failure , since sales were lower than the costs and the artist was involved in a dispute with his record . After more than ten years since their last tour, Michael Jackson announced his comeback with a tour that would be titled This Is It , however , almost twenty days before the start of the tour, June 25, 2009 , the singer died of cardiac arrest .
The Forensic Department of the County of Los Angeles said his death was a homicide, and his personal physician pleaded "not guilty" to charges of involuntary manslaughter in court and paid a deposit for not entering prison, his trial was postponed by January 2011 . The sudden death of the artist led to an avalanche of global shame, and to more than two billion people watched his public funeral live on television . In 2010 , Sony Music Entertainment signed a contract with his family for $ 250 million to retain distribution rights to his records and publish seven posthumous albums until 2017.
