HIStory: Magazine Covers

Michael Jackson, featured at Newsweek Magazine,  July 16, 1984

"Such is the magic of America's newest Pied Piper of pop. The most explosive phenomenon since the Beatles, he defies easy categorization. Like James Brown, he's the pre-eminent black pop musician of his era, a master of soulful singing and impassioned stagecraft, able to dance with a furious precision that is innovative yet steeped in black tradition. Like the early Beatles, he's a master of upbeat musical confections, sometimes created in collaboration with the most popular ex-Beatle of all, Paul McCartney. Like Pat Boone, the prototype of rock teen idols, he's cute, wholesome and pious. He's a virtuoso of the modern recording studio; but like Fred Astaire and Frank Sinatra, he aspires to be an old-fashioned entertainer. He's a stunning live performer, but also a notorious recluse with an otherworldly mystique—imagine Howard Hughes and E.T. rolled into one. Like Judy Garland or Johnny Ray, his appeal is freakish—he's utterly unlike you and me, with a streak of wildfire that unpredictably lights his eyes."

--- Excerpt from the article clipping below