The Jackson 5 sprang from a family of nine children reared in Gary, Indiana, by their father, Joseph Jackson, a onetime professional guitarist who worked as a crane operator for a steel company, and their mother, Katherine Jackson, a devout Jehovah’s Witness who frequently led the children in song. The Jackson 5, American pop-soul vocal group featuring members of the Jackson family. The group was massively popular in the 1970s, launching the career of singer, songwriter, and dancer Michael Jackson, who was the most popular entertainer in the world in the early to mid-1980s.