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Were The Jackson 5 a Group or a Band?

What's the difference?

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They were a band since Tito & Jermaine played instruments along with unofficial members Ronnie Rancifer & Johnny Jackson (at least in concert if not on the records). The term "group" doesn't really mean anything specific. It can refer to a vocal group or a group of instrumentalists. But a band always has people playing instruments, that's why the term "boy band" doesn't make much sense to me. They were called vocal groups in the past and there were different styles like doo wop and barbershop.
 
I'd say they were a band.
A group is just kinda vague to me.

One thing I've always wondered though is how much input Michael had on the writing of the Jackson's music when they were together.
It's very impressive to think that even as young as he was that Michael had already started cultivating his music writing skills, and took part in the writing of hit songs when many seasoned adult artist struggle to even write one line of a song. :rofl:

Michael was/is so multi-talented. :)
 
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Pink Diamond Princess said:
I'd say they were a band.
A group is just kinda vague to me.

One thing I've always wondered though is how much input Michael had on the writing of the Jackson's music when they were together.
It's very impressive to think that even as young as he was that Michael had already started cultivating his music writing skills, and took part in the writing of hit songs when many seasoned adult artist struggle to even write one line of a song. :rofl:

Michael was/is so multi-talented. :)
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Jackson 5 wasn't allowed to write their own music....
 
Michaels Lover said:
Jackson 5 wasn't allowed to write their own music....
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I know.
That's why I said the Jacksons and not the Jackson 5.

Either way though, I'm sure they all (especially Michael, we all know how much he valued practice) didn't gain music writing abilities overnight and that they had been practicing/writing little things long before the Jackson 5 became the Jacksons. :)
 
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I agree with you, SkyWalk. The Jacksons were both, and they were talented. By the way, I think the term, “boy band” sounds completely stupid, when used in reference to The Jacksons (just because they happened to have been boys/young men at the time, who were talented performers singing, dancing and playing instruments together), because they were so much more than that.

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Pink Diamond Princess said:
I know.
That's why I said the Jacksons and not the Jackson 5.

Either way though, I'm sure they all (especially Michael, we all know how much he valued practice) didn't gain music writing abilities overnight and that they had been practicing/writing little things long before the Jackson 5 became the Jacksons. :)
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yeah, Michael has said he started writing songs as young as 9. omg I would die to see what he would write for a song at that age!!! or even at age 16
 
Definitely a band at the start. It was the 5 brothers and Randy Rancifer and Johnny Jackson (Not a relation as Jackson is an incredibly common African American surname). It is likely all black Jacksons in the USA are descended from slaves at Andrew Jackson's (1767 - 1845) plantation, the Hermitage.
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They did not write any songs until the era of Jacksons, and as a result, the Jackson made a bit of money, but would have made more as songwriters. They had the fame and the hits, but being a Motown act, they were not paid anywhere near they deserved. I think it was something like each brother recieving 0.2 of a cent per single sold which was like $4k per brother for I want you back. The average wage in 1970 America was about $80 a week of $4000 a year, so itw as an average income at best.
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Also they lose the group camaraderie, as the press was 90% focussed on Michael, 7% on Jermaine, 3% on Tito, Jackie and Marlon and 0% on Ronnie and Johnny, who were just like Roadies who played instruments. It was like they were ignored and probably paid scale. I feel bad for them and it would be great if they worte a book and saw what it was like. You never hear anything about them!
 
Michaels Lover said:
yeah, Michael has said he started writing songs as young as 9. omg I would die to see what he would write for a song at that age!!! or even at age 16
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Prince wrote a song called "Funkmachine" at the age of 7 and was regularly writing by his teens, but even his early bands played nearly all covers until about 1975 when they were 17. Prince even played a lot of songs by the Jackson 5 and the regular singer Chas Smith stood aside for Prince to do the Michael parts as only he had the high voice needed.
 
They were a "recording group" because that is what they were most successful at commercially and then their extreme successes of playing live and touring came afterwards. The term "band" means some sort of large amount of people in it but I don't remember what that number would be. It's really just a clusterphuck of people in this world not knowing what in the hell they are yapping about. :D
 
What were the Beatles called? A group or a band? I'd say the J5 were a band-since they played instruments. I wouldn't consider them a "vocal group" like the Temptations or the Four Tops, etc.

Thought the names "Boy Bands" and "Girl Groups" came later-with all the copy cat KID groups.
 
The Beatles were a recording group. They were also live performers for the first few years and then they were not by something real early on like 1965. The term "band" apparently was miss used probably since rock n' roll came around. No the Jackson 5 weren't a vocal group for the most part because Tito and Jermaine played instruments on the recordings and concerts.
 
Jermaine & Tito weren't allowed to play on Jackson 5 studio songs. They only sang. But they played in concert. They were on the live album, but not the studio stuff. I think they played on the MDLT Willis songs, but they weren't on Motown. Jermaine did play bass on his solo albums. I don't know about the first 2 though, but he did on the ones after he left the group. On I Want You Back and a few other songs the bass was played by Wilton Felder from The Crusaders. James Jamerson also played on some songs.
 
DuranDuran said:
Jermaine & Tito weren't allowed to play on Jackson 5 studio songs. They only sang. But they played in concert. They were on the live album, but not the studio stuff. I think they played on the MDLT Willis songs, but they weren't on Motown. Jermaine did play bass on his solo albums. I don't know about the first 2 though, but he did on the ones after he left the group. On I Want You Back and a few other songs the bass was played by Wilton Felder from The Crusaders. James Jamerson also played on some songs.
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Berry obviously wanted the best musicians for his recordings, so he used them. But wouldn't you still consider them a band?

I guess they qualify as both.
 
WHAT?!!! Jermaine and Tito did not play their instruments on the studio recordings?!! NO!!! Are you KIDDING me?!!!
 
AlexRox said:
WHAT?!!! Jermaine and Tito did not play their instruments on the studio recordings?!! NO!!! Are you KIDDING me?!!!
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No, Gordy wanted the session musicians to play on the records. I think the reason was because it would be faster to do as the brothers were really busy. That's why they couldn't do the speaking voices on their cartoon series. One of the voices was done by Edmund Sylvers from The Sylvers. Sort of like some 1960s rock bands used the Wrecking Crew on some of their studio recordings instead of the band members. Some later 1960s Supremes songs are really Diana Ross with the Motown session singers called The Andantes, particularly several during the Cindy Birdsong era. No other Supremes involved.

Tito did record an instrumental album at Motown that was never released. So I assume he played guitar on it, since it's instrumental.
 
I struggle with this disappointment. Hmm, but they DID play the stuff live. Very sad. Hmmm.

Do you know what year Tito recorded this studio l.p. you are talking about?

Jesus. Did Tito play on The Jacksons studio l.p.s?! What about Jermaine when it came to the "Victory" l.p.?!
 
Victory

According to the liner notes of the limited edition Joyful Jukebox Music/Boogie reissue, the Tito solo tracks were recorded circa 1972-73. Tito also mentioned in one of his recent interviews about his new single Get It Baby that he recorded some solo stuff at Motown. Stevie Wonder released an instrumental album at Motown called Eivets Rednow, so I wonder if it's like that. Motown not letting the brothers play was one of the reasons Joe wanted to get the group off the label. Tito played guitar on The Jacksons albums at CBS.

I don't think Jermaine played bass on any Victory songs. He wasn't originally a part of the album and came in halfway during the sessions. Most of the songs had been already recorded. Torture was originally a duet between Jackie & Mike. But when Jermaine came aboard, he replaced Jackie's part. Jackie's adlibs are still on the 12" version, but not on the album. There are several publicity photos that were shot before Jermaine rejoined the group and also a photo shoot for the Victory album cover that had a Little Rascals theme, not the painting eventually used.
ir26hi.jpg

On the 2300 Jackson Street album, only 2 songs contain a bass, and neither is played by Jermaine. A few songs on 2300 are New Jack Swing though, and New Jack generally doesn't have bass guitar. Some songs have guitar, but not credited to Tito. It does say Jermaine plays percussion on one song. Many of the songs contain synth and/or drum programming, which is also the case on a lot of songs on Jermaine's Arista albums.
 
Re: Victory

DuranDuran said:
According to the liner notes of the limited edition Joyful Jukebox Music/Boogie reissue, the Tito solo tracks were recorded circa 1972-73. Tito also mentioned in one of his recent interviews about his new single Get It Baby that he recorded some solo stuff at Motown. Stevie Wonder released an instrumental album at Motown called Eivets Rednow, so I wonder if it's like that. Motown not letting the brothers play was one of the reasons Joe wanted to get the group off the label. Tito played guitar on The Jacksons albums at CBS.

I don't think Jermaine played bass on any Victory songs. He wasn't originally a part of the album and came in halfway during the sessions. Most of the songs had been already recorded. Torture was originally a duet between Jackie & Mike. But when Jermaine came aboard, he replaced Jackie's part. Jackie's adlibs are still on the 12" version, but not on the album. There are several publicity photos that were shot before Jermaine rejoined the group and also a photo shoot for the Victory album cover that had a Little Rascals theme, not the painting eventually used.
ir26hi.jpg

On the 2300 Jackson Street album, only 2 songs contain a bass, and neither is played by Jermaine. A few songs on 2300 are New Jack Swing though, and New Jack generally doesn't have bass guitar. Some songs have guitar, but not credited to Tito. It does say Jermaine plays percussion on one song. Many of the songs contain synth and/or drum programming, which is also the case on a lot of songs on Jermaine's Arista albums.
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Wow. That's great.

Much better than that awful painting used.

Thanks for this.
 
Re: Victory

DuranDuran said:
According to the liner notes of the limited edition Joyful Jukebox Music/Boogie reissue, the Tito solo tracks were recorded circa 1972-73. Tito also mentioned in one of his recent interviews about his new single Get It Baby that he recorded some solo stuff at Motown. Stevie Wonder released an instrumental album at Motown called Eivets Rednow, so I wonder if it's like that. Motown not letting the brothers play was one of the reasons Joe wanted to get the group off the label. Tito played guitar on The Jacksons albums at CBS.

I don't think Jermaine played bass on any Victory songs. He wasn't originally a part of the album and came in halfway during the sessions. Most of the songs had been already recorded. Torture was originally a duet between Jackie & Mike. But when Jermaine came aboard, he replaced Jackie's part. Jackie's adlibs are still on the 12" version, but not on the album. There are several publicity photos that were shot before Jermaine rejoined the group and also a photo shoot for the Victory album cover that had a Little Rascals theme, not the painting eventually used.
ir26hi.jpg

On the 2300 Jackson Street album, only 2 songs contain a bass, and neither is played by Jermaine. A few songs on 2300 are New Jack Swing though, and New Jack generally doesn't have bass guitar. Some songs have guitar, but not credited to Tito. It does say Jermaine plays percussion on one song. Many of the songs contain synth and/or drum programming, which is also the case on a lot of songs on Jermaine's Arista albums.
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I had never seen that picture before, thank you.
 
A little difficult to explain properly. Group is a collection of people or an entity working together for a target cause, it is used widely across various contexts. Band is more synonymous with a collective entity of people who perform any form of music. So the Jackson 5 were a group of people performing as a band! Hope that helps, I could be wrong though. :)
 
Does the answer to this question change how good the music sounds?
 
RaZoR007 said:
A little difficult to explain properly. Group is a collection of people or an entity working together for a target cause, it is used widely across various contexts. Band is more synonymous with a collective entity of people who perform any form of music. So the Jackson 5 were a group of people performing as a band! Hope that helps, I could be wrong though. :)
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:lol:
isn't all bands that?
 
Thanks so much for the Little Rascals picture. Love that photo shoot and had no idea it was for Victory.
 
Michaels Lover said:
:lol:
isn't all bands that?
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Hahaha, as I said it's a tricky question. Okay, as a band they always made wonderful music & as a group they probably worked for other social causes, not everyone does both. Thinking of a more concrete explanation is out of my scope! :)
 
RaZoR007 said:
Hahaha, as I said it's a tricky question. Okay, as a band they always made wonderful music & as a group they probably worked for other social causes, not everyone does both. Thinking of a more concrete explanation is out of my scope! :)
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but it takes a group of people to make a band :D
 
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