George Michael and Michael Jackson
Two pop songwriters on one label. Epic Records and Sony Music appear on both records — George Michael arrived from Wham!, Michael Jackson from The Jackson 5. Their genres line up too: pop, soul, contemporary R&B. Neither man only sang: each record carries singer, songwriter and music producer. George Michael was born in 1963 and died in 2016 at Goring-on-Thames; Jackson was born in 1958 and died in Los Angeles.
How they met
Through Epic — the one label both records carry — and through the same shelf of genres. Each had a group first: Wham! for the Briton, The Jackson 5 for the American, so both went solo out of a line-up where they were already known. Their catalogues then spread across different companies: Virgin, DreamWorks, Columbia and Polydor for George Michael; Motown and Steeltown for Jackson.
The core tension
One label, two ways of using it. Jackson built a career as a dancer and showman, adding disco, rock and samba to pop-soul, and collected career awards — a Grammy Lifetime Achievement and a Grammy Legend Award. George Michael stayed closer to synth-pop and funk, took BRIT Awards and a Grammy, and a Golden Raspberry for worst original song along the way. The shared genre shelf underlines the difference in handwriting rather than the similarity.
