The nucleus of his own mammoth pop sideshow, pop singer Michael Jackson absorbed the most affecting African American musical traditions with which he had grown up, infused them with his own musical eccentricity and the popular trends and technology of the moment, and created a popular explosion of nearly unprecedented proportions. Although perceived as the ultimate sexual, racial, and social "Other," between 1982 and 1984 Jackson helped sell over 40 million copies of the record album called, most appropriately, Thriller. In the late 1980s, Jackson again established new records with his album Bad and its accompanying worldwide concert tour. During the early 1990s, Jackson's inscrutable off-stage antics made him one of the best-known eccentrics in modern history.

By the time Jackson left on the notorious 1984 "Victory Tour" as lead singer of the Jacksons pop-soul singing group, he had already broken all the rules of popular success in...