Earliest inspiration Major soloists have spoken of Michael Jackson's pivotal effect on their dream of becoming a singer or as an early inspiration: •
Beyoncé went to see Jackson in concert for the first time at age 5 and claims to have realized her sole purpose, saying "If it wasn't for Michael Jackson, I would never ever have performed." •
Celine Dion, who had posters of Jackson in her bedroom growing up, cited Jackson as a major motivation for her to learn English and fueled her desire to want to be a megastar. •
Chris Brown has claimed Michael Jackson as his biggest inspiration of all time, stating "Michael Jackson is the reason why I do music and the reason I am an entertainer [...] Being able to see Michael Jackson's success, to be able to inspire the world as well as his talent and musical ability, his eye for detail – automatically inspires me to try to be better and try to be great." •
Chris Martin of
Coldplay has said Jackson was his early introduction to music through
Bad and
Off the Wall album, and dedicated a letter in Martins' handwriting on Coldplay's official website, "Michael Jackson was the best of the best. His music and performances made the world a brighter place. His light will shine on forever." •
Ciara explained, "Whenever someone asks me who inspires me to do what I do, I always say Michael. That's it for me. He's everything to me [...] I feel it's important for me to continue to let my generation know how important he was to music." •
Dave Keuning, lead guitarist of
The Killers, says listening to "Thriller" made him love music and inspired him to become a musician.
David Guetta's beginning in
audio mixing was a "beat mash paying homage to Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". He voiced regret they had not collaborated before his passing, after his Jackson-inspired 2014 single "
Bad" went number one in several countries. •
Eddie Vedder from
Pearl Jam has said that listening to Jackson's music got him into singing "And my parents became the new foster parents for seven kids in this group home. They were mostly African-American kids and some Irish kids. [...] I started singing to Michael Jackson records." Eddie also notes that his first album was "
Got To Be There". •
Greg Gonzalez of
Cigarettes After Sex credits Jackson as his primary influence to become a musician, "Yeah for me I started young, I think I was born the year that
Thriller came out and pretty much Michael Jackson became like this immediate idol, and I wanted to be a performer; just sing and perform and just seeing everything that he was doing." •
Icona Pop's initial track that made them want to make music was
Black or White by Michael Jackson. "I think it was because it's such a powerful pop song. Even though I was really young when I first heard it, I really felt what it was all about. I guess at even such an early age I knew that I wanted to be making music and I can thank Michael Jackson for that." •
Iron & Wine's earliest impression of music was with his friend to "Beat It", saying "I still remember, to this day sitting on his couch" narrating their amazed reaction listening on a
cassette tape. •
James Morrison explained "I was four or five and I used to watch
Moonwalker every day, there was a clip of him singing "Man in the Mirror" at a concert where everyone's lighters are out and that was a massive moment in my life. Something clicked in my head, which was 'I want to do that, I want to sing.' [...] Michael Jackson was my first love singing wise." •
Janet Jackson, his sister, says he inspired her in many ways and helped her perform, recalling Michael and I would tape every old musical, and we made a collage. All the dance numbers, we put them all on one tape and we used to just watch them and watch them. He was Fred Astaire, i was Ginger Rogers, and we'd learn every routine. Our mirror was the reflection off the window [...] Seeing all the things that he's accomplished, and saying okay I've got to keep growing, I've got to keep pushing forward, move on, on and upward. [...] And I think he's the greatest there is. •
Jason Derulo states, "He is the reason I am who I am today. When I was four years old, I saw him for the first time. I saw how he moved the crowd and how people were just so touched." •
Jeremiah Green of
Modest Mouse, said that he was a big fan of Jackson musically. When he was asked what he wanted to be as a grown up, he responded, "Well, duh, dude, I might be Michael Jackson". •
Kevin Parker of
psychedelic super project
Tame Impala has said of one of his earliest introductions to music, My brother Steve, who was a few years older than me, had Bad on tape and I remember listening to Smooth Criminal and just thinking it was the coolest thing ever. I must have been five or six at the time and I remember walking around school by myself thinking I was Michael Jackson. I wasn't dancing, exactly – more like walking musically. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Additionally, he says, "Michael Jackson's one of my favorite artists of my whole life [...] In fact, I think he is my favorite." •
Lenny Kravitz, "Michael Jackson, just because he was the first thing that made me want to play music. The Jackson 5 was monumental to me — in my development, in my music, in my childhood, in my adult life." He mentions seeing him in concert, "It was magical. He was six or seven years old. It was crazy. I had a picture in my bedroom that my father took of them that night on stage. It was my earliest memory of what changed my life." •
Matty Healy, frontman of
The 1975, cites Jackson as his earliest musical influence, "Michael Jackson [...] The first gig I went to was Michael Jackson at
Wembley when I was six. It was the
HIStory tour. Watching him catalysed a real drive in me. He was such a phenomenal performer." •
Ne-Yo said in 2008, "Michael Jackson is one of the reasons why I sing." Additionally, on 2019
Larry King Live and 2024, "Without Michael Jackson, there would be no Ne-Yo." Particularly for his
Libra Scale album, he referenced Jackson's need for quality was a motivation to make his music better. •
Pat Monahan from
Train described that he left his basketball career behind after listening to Jackson's music in a
carpool ride back home. He claims the whole car including himself was singing to a song by Jackson, until the others in the car turned to him in shock from his vocal quality. He also named
Off the Wall as one of five albums he couldn't live without. •
Robin Thicke, "Michael's music was one of the first things that made me want to become an artist. When I was on the school bus at seven or eight years old I would sing Michael songs to get attention. It was one of the first times I knew that I wanted to be an artist." •
Tom Chaplin of
Keane says, "
Bad] was the first album that had a huge impact, and kick-started feelings of making music myself." •
Troye Sivan credits Jackson for making performing his dream career, after seeing footage of the
Bad tour on VHS tape. •
Usher has on many occasions named Jackson as his biggest influence, "I wouldn't be who I am today without Michael Jackson. [...] You can't say you are an artist in this century and wasn't inspired by Michael ... and I'm always gonna remember. I'll be a fan for life." They performed together at the
Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Special for "
You Rock My World". •
Victoria Monét was asked what made her want to be a musician, said,It was after watching a Michael Jackson concert on tape when I was around six or seven. He had a certain magic about him, seeing how many people were having a great time in the crowd, it was like they had no worries, they were just so overjoyed to be celebrating together in the one space. To child-me, it looked like there were millions of people in the audience, and they were so emotional – people bursting into tears, or passing out – the passion he exuded in every move. [...] So I was like, 'I wanna do that!'. •
The Weeknd referenced Michael Jackson in a Complex magazine article, he says "He's everything to me, so you're going to hear it in my music.
Off the Wall was the album that inspired me to sing." Tesfaye covered "
Dirty Diana" re-titled "D.D." on his third mixtape
Echoes of Silence. The Weeknd also cites Jackson's
falsetto on
Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough helped him train his own falsetto. •
Brandy, who admires Jackson, has influenced her to stack vocals in an unconventional way for
Full Moon. •
Camila Cabello credits Michael with inspiring the content of her debut album,
Camila. She also explains the music video for "Thriller" inspired her to make an extended version of "Havana". •
Charlie Puth's virtual music class on
sound reproduction uses Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson's vocal recording trick as a focused
case study on 2-note phrasing (also
tie notes) using
Pro Tools. •
Clean Bandit's Jack says of him and Grace's emphasis to focus on their music videos was from Jackson, "I used to watch so much MTV 2 and VH1 Classics when I was like 15 or 14. I guess the first music video I had was the
Michael Jackson Greatest Hits on VHS [...] I completely wore out that tape. Since I started working with Grace [...] we realised that she had worn out the same tape. I think Michael Jackson music videos are the pinnacle of that medium." •
Common has said watching Jackson on Motown 25 stuck with him as a performer for his energy, "I can see it now. I remember where I was; a friend videotaped it and I rewound it and watched it so many times. It was one of those moments where it was out of body in a way, because his energy was so incredible. [...] It became part of the breakdance culture at some point, too." He highlights this move motivated him to use energetic movements when he's on stage. •
Hanson, the group popular for "MMMBop", implement the term "apply the "Michael Jackson theory" during their production process to emphasize their songs must have the standard of "lots of groove and melody". • Both members of
Honne, describes that Michael Jackson is a main influence to their music, "For me, growing up I loved Michael Jackson." They borrowed 80s style drum and snare elements, like the
Simmons snare that Michael Jackson used. •
Imogen Heap appeared on
Thrillercast podcast in 2008, to talk in depth about Jackson's methodology, As a singer, the way that you would breathe, people kind of dip down their breaths, when it comes down to their vocal take, I love the way he incorporates it. The breaths are just as important as the vocal melody. [...] Michael Jackson's collection of words that don't exist in the English language or perhaps any language apart from Michael Jackson's own special
dictionary. Words like
shamone, I have no idea what shamone means but what's great about that is it leaves a door wide open for people like myself to also make up entirely nonsensical words and create even whole songs about them! •
Jack White of
The White Stripes has praised him numerous times, "["Let God in the room"] [...] I saw Michael Jackson say that once. I thought, Wow, I've been saying that to myself for a long time, and I was glad to hear him say that. The ultimate thing to do is to relinquish all control." "And I want to write like Michael Jackson would write—instead of writing parts on the instruments or humming melodies, you think of them. To do everything in my head and to do it in silence and use only one room." He copied Jackson's melody-before-lyrics approach specifically for
Boarding House Reach. •
James Bay mentioned as a child he was obsessed with Michael Jackson, attributing his trademark wide-brimmed hat was inspired by the image of Jackson's single silvery glove. •
Junior Senior's "
Move Your Feet" was a song often mistaken for Jackson's voice. Junior Senior said in a 2005
The Reykjavík Grapevine interview that this wasn't the listener's imagination, it was intentional. •
Meghan Trainor listed Jackson amongst four other entertainers who inspired her, Just how much he was involved with every music video, every photo shoot, every production. I didn't know any of that. I've been watching recently because I'm like, 'Am I doing too much stuff?' I'm involved in every little thing you see (in my career). I looked it up because I was like, 'Am I alone?' and I was like, 'No, that's what Michael did. You're doing the right thing. •
Muse's song "
Time Is Running Out" was specifically created during a studio session where the band wanted to have a sound similar to "Billie Jean". •
The Newton Brothers infused retro music of Radiohead and Michael Jackson for their composition work in the ''
X-Men '97'' soundtrack. •
Maxwell covered "
The Lady in My Life" at the
2022 Billboard Music Awards. He said ever since, he wanted to make such songs like Jackson that were used at his friends weddings to walk down the aisle to, just like Lady in My Life. •
Pharrell Williams has expressed admiration for Jackson, having once said "I met Michael at his video shoot in California. I told him from the age of 6 I would burn holes in my socks moonwalking in the bathroom." Williams stated he was motivated to write songs for Jackson, though it would eventually end up on Justin Timberlake's album
Justified. •
PinkPantheress created songs on
GarageBand in her college dormitory. Influenced by Jackson's music style, she became a viral sensation from her Michael Jackson-remix track "Just A Waste" on
TikTok in 2020. It both sampled
Off the Wall and lyrically copied
Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'. It never officially released due to
his estate rejecting authorization but helped her land a record deal with
Parlophone four months later. •
Roddy Ricch credits Michael Jackson as inspiration behind his Grammy-nominated song, "
The Box," explaining on
HBO's
The Shop that he saw Jackson do the iconic "EE RR" adlib, "I seen Michael Jackson do it...That's what made me want to do it. Cause he was in the studio one time and he was talking about some song that he made but he started beatboxing and he said he put that in the beat." •
Sky Ferreira's grandmother was Jackson's hair stylist, and she mentions he suggested at age 9 that she join a gospel choir. She was saddened by his passing, and recalls his advice, "He was like, 'Don't focus on things that are just around you – you need to look back to the history of music.' And that's what I did." •
Sufjan Stevens expressed admiration for Michael Jackson in a 2011 interview by stating "I watched the Michael Jackson documentary
This Is It [...] just the work that goes into that kind of production and how invested the dancers were and also how hands-on Michael Jackson was. [...] I realized for the first time that all of his music is based on physical ideas. They'd be working through something, and he would explain a musical gesture with his body." Jackson's techniques influenced his tour,
The Age of Adz. •
Xavier de Rosnay from Justice says electro hit single
D.A.N.C.E was a creative homage to Michael Jackson, "The music of Michael Jackson is something we believe in. So, we built the lyrics mainly around the titles of his songs."
P.Y.T.,
A.B.C.,
Black or White,
Working Day and Night and
Whatever Happens are lyrics in the song. • Composer and rapper
Will.i.am for
Thriller 40 documentary did a recording session breakdown of the track layering on "
Beat It", "It shows the freedom and how comfortable he felt in the studio without worrying about people's judgement or like 'What's that' cause you know he was bringing freaking skill. You knew he was bringing ultra talent, and imagination for him for him to be like 'You know what I feel like yawning right here.'" In another interview, he predicts the future of "perfecting" music, "It's a peek of what's coming [...] In the future, I would bet that tomorrow's Michael Jackson is not a person. It's a machine that will be able to talk to millions of people at the same time. Tomorrow's big superstar will be able to make custom songs Michael Jackson wasn't able to record. Tomorrow's superstar is going to be perfect." He has founded the AI-powered company RAiDiO.FYI that intends to be used for radio consumption.
Other major influence Various named him a main or major influence or have known to heavily reference him. •
Adam Levine of
Maroon 5 contributed to a
Rolling Stones column declaring that "I never met him, but he was probably the single most important musical influence for me." •
Amy Winehouse, who said in a 2004 interview, "I could never decide whether I wanted to be Michael Jackson or marry him. I don't care what people say about him now because he's a fucking genius." •
Ariana Grande's early UK screen test for
Nickelodeon contained a question on who would she trade places with for one day to which she chose Michael Jackson. Her tribute to him, "
ABC" she put in the description, "I have his music to inspire me." •
Billy Martin of Good Charlotte, "I've got every Michael Jackson album [...] He is one of my major musical influences." •
Bruno Mars, a long-time fan, explains Jackson set the bar for music artists for his "attention to detail [...] Any artist, I don't care what genre you do, you should always aspire to be like Michael Jackson." Mars wrote a dedication across on his social media platforms that Michael Jackson "will forever be the man that turned music into magic." • South Korean band
BTS has cited Jackson as a major influence, and the members also own various memorabilia of Jackson. Their dance cover of "Black or White" and "
Love Never Felt So Good" were aired on television. Their first English single "
Dynamite" is an indirect homage to Jackson's dance moves while their second English single "
Butter" begins with a Smooth Criminal reference. •
Jay Kay of acid jazz band
Jamiroquai mentioned Jackson in a statement, "I was hugely influenced by
Off the Wall particularly. He will always be remembered for that level of brilliance which will doubtless never be replicated again." •
Kendrick Lamar is influenced by Jackson and in a CBS Morning interview says he is his dream collaboration. In an interview on
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he called Michael Jackson "the legend". Lamar's award-winning album
To Pimp a Butterfly references Jackson twice, in "
King Kunta" and "
Mortal Man". •
Keri Hilson, "Michael Jackson has been an influence so much to why I love the stage. I remember particularly a performance of his song, "
Dirty Diana". I was in the
nosebleeds section, but I felt so much a part of his whole show. That has never happened since, never happened before that, and don't think it will ever happen again." •
Lady Gaga has named Jackson as a source of her influence, both musically and fashionably. She owns around 400 pieces from his personal collection, buying them through
auction. In 2016, she wore Jackson's jacket from his 1990 visit to the White House at Hillary Clinton's final campaign rally, during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. •
Mariah Carey has mentioned Michael Jackson as one of the major influences who helped shape her artistry. When asked in an interview who her inspirations were, she said "Looking at the time I was little, Michael Jackson when he was a kid, and then when he did
Motown 25 when he was there making history." •
Mark Ronson, producer of
Uptown Funk, is a fan of Jackson's music, and dedicated a tribute mixtape for him called "Mark Ronson Presents Rhymefest - Man In The Mirror". •
Miley Cyrus has a "
Bad" font
tattoo on her fingers in honor of her favorite album of Jackson, and expressed great admiration. "I wish I would have had some kind of determination to be like 'How can I get in touch with Michael Jackson and let him know how much he means to me?" •
Pete Wentz of
Fall Out Boy stated, "Michael Jackson has been a part of my life for as long I have heard music. He in my mind is the ultimate entertainer of our generation. I can remember exact moments of my life based on Michael Jackson songs and videos." Fall Out Boy officially covered Jackson's music, releasing a studio version of "
Beat It" on
Live in Phoenix. •
Rita Ora references Jackson as her "king" and greatest inspiration: "I've always been a big fan but I didn't really understand how amazing he was until I got older. When you start to understand his music, it's like, "Whoa. What was he drinking? What was he breathing?"
P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) is my favourite song. He's an inspiration to me, and the whole world, because he was himself throughout his whole career. He wrote whatever he wanted to write and wore whatever he wanted to wear. I really admire anyone with that sort of confidence. You don't have to be famous; it's really admirable in anyone." On some concerts, she notes she wears Michael Jackson socks to keep up a high energy. • Nigerian duo
P-Square has named Jackson as their major music inspiration. In the late 1990s, the dancing group they belonged to majorly mimed Jackson's dance routines in Africa. The costumes for
Invasion, which won Album of the Year in Africa was inspired by Jackson as well. •
Tyla in an interview for
Vogue Japan on the artist who has the greatest influence on her is Michael Jackson, "He is loved by people of all ages all over the world and is an eternal presence."
Zayn Malik says Michael Jackson is his greatest inspiration. Actress and singer
Zendaya says Michael Jackson's lack of
profanity in every song was admirable, "I've loved Michael Jackson since the minute I was born. He always had a positive way of doing what he did. He had such a love for the art of music and tried to make people feel better through that."
Widening the craft Michael Jackson is given mention by artists to have widened particular aspects of the music industry or expanded their view on their own ability. •
Chris Cornell, the singer of
Soundgarden and
Audioslave, "The next thing that had a clear impact was when I was already a musician, probably about 18 years old, and was working in restaurants but was also starting different bands at the time, and was obviously watching MTV all the time, just to see what was on it. I wasn't a fan of most of it. Then, "Thriller" happened, and to see that shift from pretty much an entirely white audience watching an entirely white music channel change because of this one guy [Michael Jackson]." •
Chance the Rapper did
Michael Jackson impersonations at his school talent shows and exclusively only listened to him up until the fifth grade. Once becoming a musician, Michael Jackson's philanthropic side and social commentary greatly inspired him and helped shape his desire to make activism part of his artistry. •
Drake challenged the snub of "One Dance" in other categories following his 2017
Grammys Award for Best Rap Song win for Hotline Bling, "There's pop obligations that [the Recording Academy] have," he said. "And I fluked out and got one of the biggest songs of the year, that is a pop song, and I'm proud of that. I love the rap world, and I love the rap community, but I write pop songs for a reason. I want to be like Michael Jackson."
Scorpion and
Certified Lover Boy have featured or were inspired by Jackson posthumously. •
Jason Mraz who is known primarily for
acoustic songs, says he wanted to make a dance album, "[Michael Jackson] That brilliant falsetto, the groovy songs, the harmony with his brothers. It dominated music through the 1970s and 1980s. It was how I learned to dance through his records." •
Kanye West interviewed with
BBC Radio 1's
Zane Lowe, "There would be no Kanye West without Michael Jackson [...] I would not be Kanye West were it not for Michael Jackson. He had to fight to get his video played because he was black." West has name dropped him in multiple songs, most controversially the line "[I am] The only rapper compared to Michael" for "
I Am a God". West also credits Jackson for his inspiration to make his 2008 album
808s & Heartbreak as he mentioned that when the pair met in New York City a year prior, West had played him "
Good Life" and said Jackson loved his singing voice. •
Shawn Stockman of
Boyz II Men said witnessing the achievements of Jackson was a massive inspiration to the
black community. On June 27, 2009 in
Atlantic City, they sang a tribute to him and following a playback of Billie Jean he ranted, "I have to say something about this song. This song right here revolutionized music as we know it. Here's the bug out. MTV did not want to play (
broadcast) this song. I remember that. For those that don't remember, there was a big controversy around this song. They didn't want to play it because it was R&B music." He also declared, "If there wasn't Michael Jackson, there would be no little dudes from South Philly like myself trying to emulate his moves [...] There would be no Boyz II Men."
Overall impact Michael Jackson has also been referenced by artists as a major influence on the music industry. •
Alicia Keys gave her thoughts, "I think Michael Jackson has influenced every performer on the face of the earth. What he really inspired me to do and influenced me to do is my best, and I feel like what he represented is quality and craftsmanship with his performance." •
David Cook, winner of
American Idol season 7 highlighted Jackson, "I think the impact that Michael Jackson has on me as an artists is the same impact he's really had on everyone as an artist," says Cook. "He blew pop music wide open, you know, and made it bigger than just music." •
Ed Sheeran hailed Michael Jackson as the most influential artist of the past 25 years in an interview with
Q Magazine.
John Mayer wrote a
Time article on Jackson's influence on himself and music as a whole, "I mean, what are the '80s? A Rubik's Cube, 3-D glasses and Michael Jackson. [...] As a musician, the man was one of the purest substances ever in music. [...] They don't want to remember that that kind of greatness is achievable because it skews the
bell curve completely."
Katy B described, "You can have the youngest boy who wanted to be Michael Jackson learning his dance routines, and the girliest girl [also]. I just think his music can just connect with different kinds of people. [...] I just think that's amazing." ==References==