Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009)has passed away, multiple media outlets are reporting.The singer suffered a cardiac arrest Thursday afternoon and was rushed to the emergency room.When paramedics arrived at Jackson’s home, he had no pulse and they never got a pulse back.Once at the hospital, the staff tried to resuscitate Jackson but they had no luck.Such a sad loss, especially for his three young children.

To call him an ‘icon’ would only give us a glimpse of a fraction of what he was. Jackson was a historic figure that the world over let into their lives, their language, their parties and their dance moves.

The tragedy of Jackson’s death at 50, reportedly from cardiac arrest, caps a career full of larger-than-life incidents. He was Wacko Jacko, the Moon walker, the Man in the Mirror. He was Bad but not Dangerous. Off The Wall and yet the guy who most of us tried to emulate on the dance floor when we were small. In the end, wipe away the three decades of plastic surgeries that deformed him, erratic behavior that made his name synonymous with the warping powers of fame and the child abuse trial, and what you have left is a child who never really grew up.

Michael Jackson was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1984. There are actually two stars bearing the name Michael Jackson in the walk, the other being that of the Los Angeles talk radio show host of the same name; while Jackson’s name is marked with a record icon, the radio Jackson is denoted with a microphone icon. Jackson had a notable impact on music and culture throughout the world. He broke down racial barriers, transformed the art of the music video and paved the way for modern pop music in his own country. Jackson’s work, distinctive musical sound and vocal style have influenced hip hop, pop and R&B artists, including Mariah Carey, Usher,Britney Spears, Justin Timberlakeand R. Kelly. For much of his career, he had an "unparalleled" level of worldwide influence over the younger generation through his musical and humanitarian contributions.

Throughout his career he received numerous honors and awards, including the World Music Awards’ Best-Selling Pop Male Artist of the Millennium, the American Music Award’s Artist of the Century Award and the Bambi Pop Artist of the Millennium Award.He was a double-inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, once as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1997 and later as a solo artist in 2001. Jackson was also an inductee of the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002. His awards include multiple Guinness World Records (eight in 2006 alone), 13 Grammy Awards, 13 number one singles in his solo career—more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era—and the sale of over 750 million records worldwide, making him the world’s best selling male solo pop artist.

He was characterized as "an unstoppable juggernaut, possessed of all the tools to dominate the charts seemingly at will: an instantly identifiable voice, eye-popping dance moves, stunning musical versatility and loads of sheer star power". In the mid-1980s, Time described Jackson as "the hottest single phenomenon since Elvis Presley". By 1990, Vanity Fair had already cited Jackson as the most popular artist in the history of show business.Daily Telegraph writer Tom Utley called him an "extremely important figure in the history of popular culture" and a "genius".His total lifetime earnings from royalties on his solo recordings and music videos, revenue from concerts and endorsements have been estimated at $500 million; some analysts have speculated that his music catalog holdings could be worth billions of dollars.Cited as one of the world’s most famous men, Jackson’s highly publicized personal life, coupled with his successful career, made him a part of popular culture for almost four decades.

On June 25, 2009, Jackson collapsed at a rented home in Holmby Hills in Los Angeles. Attempts at resuscitating him by his personal physician were unsuccessful.Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics received a 911 call at 12:21 pm ,and arrived nine minutes later at Jackson’s location. He was reportedly not breathing and CPR was performed. Resuscitation efforts continued both en route to the UCLA Medical Center, and for an hour further after arriving at approximately 1:14 pm .He was noted to have already been in cardiac arrest by the paramedics who attended his house.Jackson was pronounced dead at about 2:26 pm local time.The cause of death has not been determined. Many news organizations were generally very cautious about the initial reports of his death.

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Tags: Guinness World Records, Hollywood, Holmby Hills, Michael Joseph Jackson, microphone icon, Millennium, paramedics .