Does Quincy Jones get to much credit for producing Michael?

I don't wanna take any credit away from Quincy. His contributions to MJ's albums were very important. He was the one who recomeded Rod Temperton to Michael and he also brought in alot of the instrumentalists to play on those albums so i will give credit where credit is due

However i do think things get out of hand when you hear things like ''Michael owes all his success to Quincy'' or ''Thriller was really Quincy Jones vision'' so yeah i do think that Quincy get's way to much credit

Michael was in charge of those albums himself, he was in the drivers seat. Yes he would listen to what others would have to say but the final desision was always his.

analogue said:

However i do think things get out of hand when you hear things like ''Michael owes all his success to Quincy'' or ''Thriller was really Quincy Jones vision'' so yeah i do think that Quincy get's way to much credit

Michael was in charge of those albums himself, he was in the drivers seat. Yes he would listen to what others would have to say but the final desision was always his.

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:agree:

The problem is that Quincy Jones thinks that he deserves more credit for producing OTW, Thriller and Bad................

...........He probably thinks that he is the reason that Thriller is the worlds No.1 album!!!

Does Quincy really get that much more credit than he is due as the producer of some of the most successful - both artistically and commercially - albums of all time? It's understandable that Michael Jackson fans would complain that he got too much credit, but just listen to some of Quincy's other projects of that time like The Brothers Johnson albums, George Benson's Give Me the Night and his own The Dude and you'll hear that unmistakable sister sound and style of production that is so prominent on OTW in particular. And without Q there would presumably have been no Rod either, so no TLIML, Off The Wall, Baby Be Mine, Rock With You...

I see OTW and Thriller - not so much Bad - as true collaborations where Mike and Q both helped to bring out the very best in each other and snuff out each other's potential weaknesses. Michael's name is the one in big font on the albums, and he's always been the one who got the lion's share of the adulation, so I'm not really seeing where the 'Quincy gets too much credit' thing comes from.

Maybe it's true that he gets a smidgen too much credit though, that much accepted. You can see that Q didn't do much more than apply a bit of spit and polish to the likes of BJ, DSTYGE and WDAN by listening to Mike's home demos. Or maybe I don't spend enough time around the casual fans who apparently over-praise him for his work with Mike. Who knows.

It's hard to tell from the outside what is due to Quincy and what is due to Michael on these albums but I definitely think Quincy was a big part of OTW and Thriller (I don't hear it as much on Bad).

Generally speaking I would say he is given way too much credit by 'music purists' (not so much by the general public I think), and sometimes not given enough credit by fans - I think his contributions started to get discredited by some fans in response to the ridiculous things he has been saying about Michael.

No I think he got the credit he deserves . Michael always thanked and remembered him even in 2006 during the WMA speech because his efforts is undeniable . However I don't believe any kind of bullsh!t like "without QJ there will be no Thriller" .. nah Sorry !

MJTheKing said:

No I think he got the credit he deserves . Michael always thanked and remembered him even in 2006 during the WMA speech because his efforts is undeniable .

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Michael definitely always gave him credit.

However I don't believe any kind of bullsh!t like "without QJ there will be no Thriller" .. nah Sorry !

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I agree. It is already extremely annoying that the quality of MJ's work post-Bad is downplayed enormously by so-called music purists. It's even more irritating when they then, as if ignoring or downplaying all his 90's work is not satisfying enough, also try to undermine his work on OTW/Thriller/Bad ("Well, do remember that a lot of that is Quiincy Jones' work"). I have seen this happen so often.

Do producers participate in the musical arrangements? I know they're the ones who invest financially on the albums and they get the right people, equipment to work with but other than that, I don't know exactly what a producers does...

I'm not saying he doesn't deserve any credit, I'm sure Q helped him a lot specially in OTW, part in Thriller. This album and Michael didn't became famous just because of Q, combination of lots of stuff, Thriller is a genius record because of the lyrics, the music quality, the fact Michael is one of the best performers ever, the genius collaborations, genius marketing to promote it through Mike's mini films who was quite involved in the stories, choreographies, etc, etc. IMO Q doesn't deserve all the credit he gets.

The proof is that after BAD, Michael was still creating such classics and masterpieces, Dangerous and HIStory are superior than his 80's albums because he was able to exploit his genius, creativity and imagination as much as he wanted, nobody limited him or stopped him; however, Q couldn't have another #1 album after BAD. He needed Michael the most than Michael needed Q.

Somebody once summed it up perfectly when they said ''Quincy Jones was the production but Michael Jackson was the vision''

Also if you listen to Michael's early demo's of Don't Stop Til You get Enough, Working Day And Night, Wanna Be Startin Somethin, Billie Jean and Beat It, not much as changed from those early demo's and what ended up on those albums. Michael's vision definatly outweighed Quincy's contribution there

The credit for Q is all over the notes of those albums. But this is how I think of it: Those albums didn't become the astronomical sellers because of Quincy Jones, that's for sure.

ChickenMcNuggets said:

Does Quincy really get that much more credit than he is due as the producer of some of the most successful - both artistically and commercially - albums of all time? It's understandable that Michael Jackson fans would complain that he got too much credit, but just listen to some of Quincy's other projects of that time like The Brothers Johnson albums, George Benson's Give Me the Night and his own The Dude and you'll hear that unmistakable sister sound and style of production that is so prominent on OTW in particular. And without Q there would presumably have been no Rod either, so no TLIML, Off The Wall, Baby Be Mine, Rock With You...

I see OTW and Thriller - not so much Bad - as true collaborations where Mike and Q both helped to bring out the very best in each other and snuff out each other's potential weaknesses. Michael's name is the one in big font on the albums, and he's always been the one who got the lion's share of the adulation, so I'm not really seeing where the 'Quincy gets too much credit' thing comes from.

Maybe it's true that he gets a smidgen too much credit though, that much accepted. You can see that Q didn't do much more than apply a bit of spit and polish to the likes of BJ, DSTYGE and WDAN by listening to Mike's home demos. Or maybe I don't spend enough time around the casual fans who apparently over-praise him for his work with Mike. Who knows.

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Depends on who you ask, what you read. When people say he's a great producer who contributed a lot in terms of arrangement, getting certain musicians on board and even encouraging Michael to write more songs, then he is not getting too much credit, because that's what he did. I think when people say he gets too much credit is about the fact that some say Michael was only great because of Q. When people literally think that Q wrote Michael's music, when in fact he only ever co-wrote one song (PYT) for Michael and most of Michael's songs were written by Michael. But many people actually do believe Q wrote all those albums and songs. I have even read article claiming "We Are The World" was a Lionel Richie-Quincy Jones song, with no mention of Michael at all. It's ignorance of course, but where does that ignorance come from? How dit it emerge? I think because the media gave this impression, constantly and delibaretely playing down Michael as a musician and suggesting he never did anything great after he left Q. That's very unfair and not even factual. And that is when Q becomes overrated and Michael underrated about who contributed what.

analogue said:

I don't wanna take any credit away from Quincy. His contributions to MJ's albums were very important. He was the one who recomeded Rod Temperton to Michael and he also brought in alot of the instrumentalists to play on those albums so i will give credit where credit is due

However i do think things get out of hand when you hear things like ''Michael owes all his success to Quincy'' or ''Thriller was really Quincy Jones vision'' so yeah i do think that Quincy get's way to much credit

Michael was in charge of those albums himself, he was in the drivers seat. Yes he would listen to what others would have to say but the final desision was always his.

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He doesn't get too much credit for the producing part, but he does for the success part.

It was more than MJ's songs that made him the world reknown he was and is. It was the combination of the song, Quincy's production, MJ's singing ability and his dancing. Some people actually think MJ a dancer first, then a singer. He was equally brilliant in both. It was his PERFORMANCE on Motown 25 and Thriller that put him into another stastrophere. The songs and Quincy's contribution were elemental, but the magnitude of his success is due greatly to what he ALSO did on stage.

I think he does.

gerryevans said:

He doesn't get too much credit for the producing part, but he does for the success part.

It was more than MJ's songs that made him the world reknown he was and is. It was the combination of the song, Quincy's production, MJ's singing ability and his dancing. Some people actually think MJ a dancer first, then a singer. He was equally brilliant in both. It was his PERFORMANCE on Motown 25 and Thriller that put him into another stastrophere. The songs and Quincy's contribution were elemental, but the magnitude of his success is due greatly to what he ALSO did on stage.

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:agree:

For me he's given too much credit in that a lot of the mainstream white rock magazines and reviewers give him ALL the credit.

These magazines will only ever really be positive about Off The Wall and Thriller, and they'll speak more about Quincy than about Michael, Quincy this, Quincy that. Quincy is considered "cool" and credible to them, Michael is not. It's a much more sexy idea for them to try and talk to their readers about Quincy being the guy who really makes the Thriller album what it is, than talk about Michael Jackson.

There's this pervasive idea that Quincy would've been able to find anyone to make those two albums and that Michael wasn't that musically talented. That before Off The Wall Michael had not written any of his own songs which were hits. I remember some people even saying that all MJ did was hum some things into a tape recorder and Quincy worked around it. People don't seem to believe Michael wrote his own songs or the music, they seem to believe Quincy was a song writer and a musician, and that because Michael didn't play any instruments it was Quincy doing all of that. When I point out to these people that Quincy only cowrote PYT and that Quincy doesn't play any instruments on these albums either - most of them are shocked because they'd never even though to look it up, Quincy is given so much credit in the press they just assumed this must be the case. It's a very common theme among music critics and music fans to suggest these things "all credit goes to Quincy...", and that's because they don't want to give Michael credit for anything.

No he isnt given too much credit for producing Michael's Albums becuase fact is he did produce them. He was very instrumental in the success as "The Producer" He is a very respected genious in his field as a producer. One of the greats so to speak. It was a great colaboration between Michael and Quincy Regardless of anyones personal feelings about him. They BOTH were intrumental in the success of those albums.

Now some media critics are biased and seem to want to give Quincy more credt than Michael and those are the ones we focus on.. but for the most part it is well know it was a shared colaboration and Both deserve the credit for the end result .. I dont think anyone else could have it better on those albums .. Michael and Quincy were a Dinamic Duo.

I actually prefer MJs work after Jones. People don't seem to realise that Michael knew how to work the board, and he knew exactly what he wanted and how to get it.

Snow White luvs Peter Pan said:

Do producers participate in the musical arrangements? I know they're the ones who invest financially on the albums and they get the right people, equipment to work with but other than that, I don't know exactly what a producers does...

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The recording industry has two kinds of producers: executive producer and music producer; they have different roles. While an executive producer oversees a project's finances, a music producer oversees the creation of the music.

Quincy is a Music producer .. Involved with the musical arrangement the placement of songs on the album. Bringing in background singers, musicians adding instruments strings, horns ect ect .. Producing the songs Michael presented to him. They collaborated .. each bringing in their vision and expertise for the completed project. If they didn't see eye to eye on different aspects they would discuss it and come to an agreement. Michael placed his faith in Quincy to do a good job and he did.

There have been many who have reproduced, remixed and played with Michael's classical songs from these albums.
But fact is the originals always stand as the Masterpieces. Because they were Masterpieces.

Quincy also doesn't deserve more credit than Michael. He didn't bring more ingredients to the table then Michael did.
Michael brought most of the ingredients and Quincy was instrumental in mixing and baking the cake so to speak.

analogue said:

I don't wanna take any credit away from Quincy. His contributions to MJ's albums were very important. He was the one who recomeded Rod Temperton to Michael and he also brought in alot of the instrumentalists to play on those albums so i will give credit where credit is due

However i do think things get out of hand when you hear things like ''Michael owes all his success to Quincy'' or ''Thriller was really Quincy Jones vision'' so yeah i do think that Quincy get's way to much credit

Michael was in charge of those albums himself, he was in the drivers seat. Yes he would listen to what others would have to say but the final desision was always his.

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Yes...this is hot button with people who have egos, but the magic was exclusive to Michael. That's just the way it is. Wherever he went, the music liked him..seemed to follow him..was magic only for him. it didn't work, until his was the final touch on it. and if anybody ever tried to take over and 'finish' it, after he did..they messed it up. it never failed. that's the way i feel about 'Hold My Hand'. There was a 2008 version that Michael had the last hand on..and it was light, and airy, and not overdone, and it was magical. then, Akon took over at the command of sony, and others, and other people joined in and 'finished' the song..and ruined it. it was overdone...overproduced..too heavy on the stomach, syrupy and phony. it lost its life and magic. It was the stuff arguments were made of, so i just liked keeping my mouth shut on it. but in my heart, i knew it was true of Michael. He's the one and only true producer in all he ever did.

Yes, I believe he does. I'm sick of hearing that the only good albums of Michael's were the once where Quincy was producer. :mat:

The way I see it - I am sure that without Quincy Jones, Michael would still have recorded great albums and great hits. Would any of them have been as popular as "Thriller"? We can only guess, but I don't see why not! On the other hand - without QJ, they wouldn't have been exactly THOSE albums... the albums that we now know and love. So in that way, I do think he deserves credit for being a part of creating some of the best pop albums ever. But it was with Michael that he helped create the success that "Thriller" was and still is... not on his own, or with any other artist.

It was a team effort. He deserves as much credit as MJ does. Obviously, he wasn't singing or dancing, but never the less. He was part of crafting the sound, the songs, and so on.