[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/joe_jackson_3186.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Lookin' sharp!]]
->''"Is she really going out with him?\\
Is she really gonna take him home tonight?\\
Is she really going out with him?\\
Cause if my eyes don't deceive me,\\
There's something going wrong around here."''
-->--"Is She Really Going Out With Him?"

David Ian "Joe" Jackson (born August 11, 1954) is an English singer and composer originally from Staffordshire in UsefulNotes/TheWestMidlands but spent his childhood in Portsmouth, working in UsefulNotes/{{London}} for most of his professional life. He first came to notice in the {{New Wave| Music}} era, although like his rough contemporaries Music/GrahamParker and Music/ElvisCostello he came from more of a pub rock than PunkRock background. Since then he’s made quite a CreatorsOddball, working in SynthPop, {{Jazz}}, and ClassicalMusic, among other things.

NB: [[AlmostFamous This]] Joe Jackson is not the father of Music/MichaelJackson, nor did he play shoeless for the UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} [[UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueBaseball Black Sox]]. His debut album wasn't [[Music/LookSharp recorded by]] Music/{{Roxette}}.

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!!Studio discography:
* ''Look Sharp!'' (1979)
* ''I'm the Man'' (1979)
* ''Beat Crazy'' (1980)
* ''Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive'' (1981)
* ''Night and Day'' (1982)
* ''Body and Soul'' (1984)
* ''Big World'' (1986)
* ''Will Power'' (1987)
* ''Blaze of Glory'' (1989)
* ''Laughter & Lust'' (1991)
* ''Night Music'' (1994)
* ''Heaven & Hell'' (1997)
* ''Symphony No. 1'' (1999)
* ''Night and Day II'' (2000)
* ''Volume 4'' (2003)
* ''Rain'' (2008)
* ''The Duke'' (2012)
* ''Fast Forward'' (2015)
* ''Fool'' (2019)

!!Don't you wonder what we'll find tropin' out tonight?
* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: ''Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive''.
* AllWomenAreLustful: “It’s Different for Girls”. Jackson has half-joked in concert that it’s about how women “just want to use us for our bodies.”
* AloneAmongTheCouples: ''Happy Loving Couples''
* BaitAndSwitch: The music video for "Steppin' Out" [[spoiler:has Joe Jackson as a pianist performing and singing the song on a piano while a maid pretends to be a debutante. Turns out Jackson is not a pianist -- he, too, was pretending to be someone he was not.]]
* BigApplesauce: "Steppin' Out" was Joe's love letter to New York City, where he had just begun living at the time. He'd live there for nearly 25 years, but left in 2006 because of the smoking bans.
* BreakupSong: "Breaking Us In Two".
* CampGay[=/=]ManlyGay: "Real Men" attacks the stereotypes. He himself is bisexual.
-->All the gays are macho\\
Can't you see their leather shine?
* ClassicalMusic: Some of his albums have come out on Sony Classical, including ''Symphony No. 1''.
* ConvenientSlowDance: "A Slow Song"
-->"And I'm brutalized by bass and terrorized by treble... play us a slow song!"
* CoatFullOfContraband: He sports one on the cover of his ''I'm the Man'' album.
* FantasyKeepsake: At the end of "Steppin' Out", Joe finds the rose dropped by the maid's fantasy persona.
* FourMoreMeasures: The intros for "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" and "Steppin' Out".
* GenreThrowback: ''Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive'' to classic Swing music, predating the 90s Swing revival by a decade.
* GreenEyedMonster: Jackson’s breakthrough hit “Is She Really Going Out With Him” is a guy’s envious lament about how other guys get all the women.
* HomageShot: The cover of Jackson's ''Body and Soul'' album is a recreation of the cover of jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins' 1957 album ''Vol. 2''.
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: ''Night and Day'' is divided into a "Night Side" and a "Day Side".
* IWantSong: A young man leaves his [[DyingTown dying industrial hometown]] to seek rock stardom in “Down to London”.
* ImagineSpot: [[{{Tearjerker}} Heartbreakingly]], in the video for "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJwt2dxx9yg Steppin' Out]]".
* ImAManICantHelpIt: This argument is used in [[https://youtu.be/wmMSoigohhs "Biology"]] by the narrator to justify cheating on his girlfriend. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] that his girlfriend is also cheating and throws the same arguments in his face.
* KansasCityShuffle: “Look Sharp” starts with the narrator listening to an unheard series of warnings about how he’s going to be eaten alive by the big bad world. It ends on a different note:
-->''Big shot, thanks a lot, gotta go, it’s getting late''\\
''I got a date with my tailor now, thanks for putting me so straight''\\
''Tell me how they rob me blind on every street''\\
''But check your watch and wallet now before I go and you’re too late.''
* LiveAlbum: ''Big World'' was recorded live, although the audience sounds were mostly mixed out. He's had several more conventional live albums since then.
* LoveHurts: "Breaking Us in Two" is about two people who can never make it work. Also counts as a BreakupSong.
* LyricDissonance: "Cancer" is a lively song with a Latin jazz beat about how [[EverythingTryingToKillYou everything gives you cancer]].
* NewSoundAlbum: ''Night and Day'' marked a shift from energetic NewWaveMusic and PowerPop to swing-tinged SophistiPop, a change that would define the rest of Jackson's output.
* NoBisexuals: The main theme of "Real Men". Joe Jackson was frustrated with having to choose between being straight or gay, and hated labels and gay stereotypes, and the hypocrisy behind it. Jackson himself would only come out as bisexual in 1999.
-->You don't want to sound dumb, don't want to offend\\
So don't call me a faggot not unless you are a friend\\
Then if you're tall and handsome and strong\\
You can wear the uniform and I could play along
* NWordPrivileges: Jackson, a bisexual man, openly uses the word "faggot" in the anti-biphobia song "Real Men". In the same line, he discusses this trope's applicability to himself, asking that the listener not refer to him with the slur if they're not already a friend of his.
* PlotTwist: In the aforementioned video for "Steppin' Out", it turns out [[spoiler: Joe Jackson was pretending to be a composer, leaving his hotel room before the real composer came back, as a parallel to the maid's fantasy.]]
* ProtestSong: "Right and Wrong" is a protest song about [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Reagan-era]] foreign policy.
* ARealManIsAKiller: The last verse of "Real Men" examines this attitude.
* SecondLove: "Be My Number Two" is about trying to find it.
* ShallowCannotComprehendTrueLove: "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" is a song about a shallow man who's baffled and angered by all the women he sees going out with "unattractive" men instead of him
* StopBeingStereotypical: The main themes of "Real Men" and "A Slow Song".
* StrawmanNewsMedia: "Sunday Papers".
* UglyGuyHotWife: If the narrator of "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" is to believed, he witnesses a lot of pretty women who indeed go out with ugly men that look more gorilla-like.
* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: "Is She Really Going Out with Him?", again.
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