Michael Jackson's INFLUENCES

Michael Jackson has used ideas from a number of great entertainers from dancers, actors, and entertainment moguls. He was influenced by a great number of people and he mixed ideas and styles into a very original and unique persona and dance. Most know the common names Michael has mentioned for influencing him such as James Brown, Jackie Wilson, and Fred Estaire; however the influence goes much deeper than that.. I will be taking time to start topics regarding several different influences such as Bob Fossey, Jefferey Daniels, Judy Garland and MANY more.. I will start off with the obvious and work my way to the least known influences.

JAMES BROWN will be the first topic and I will post the start of it soon!!!! (working on it now)

JAMES BROWN

Most tributed by Michael Jackson is by far James Brown. His largest influence in every aspect of what we know of Michael Jackson; the dance, the style, some clothing, and the passion and soul that goes into a vocal melody as well as performance.. It all starting with the "Godfather Of Soul" James Brown..

Aside from the dance, Michael is know to put his entire heart into his vocals.. From songs starting from "who's Loving You?" To songs like "dirty Diana" Throughout Michaels career he has always put his SOUL into each song. This started from from James Brown.

Many staging ideas also came from James Brown, most famously known; when you see Michael drop to his knees and someone helps him up. (Man In the Mirror) This came from James Brown..

J.B.(1:03-1:10) http://youtube.com/watch?v=F0JAdavjY3E
MJ (4:56-5:13) http://youtube.com/watch?v=1zpTQCQEFhg

Many other ideas from staging dancers, and placements on the stage was heavily influenced by Mr. Brown.

As you see Michael glyde across the stage with fast feet movements, to the side, to the back, and to the front. This all was inovated by James Brown. Even when you see Michael shuffle his feet in place, this was the "harlem shuffle" later named "James Brown shuffle".

James Brown Shuffle (.40-1:05)
Also you can see the 'brown pause' which MJ does in the 'Bad' performance.. (1:46-1:52)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vRbqHyoYrFU

MJ "Brown Pause" (.55-.58) http://youtube.com/watch?v=NJj1-KpRqPU


(I will add more as more comments and questions come up with James Brown)

yeah n just look at how many people michael has influneced (sorry cant spell lol)

Michael is a legend, wooooooooo

Jackie x

I found this very interesting. There was a marathon of '"I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here" a couple of days ago. In the episode where they show everyone going to the hotel and getting ready for the grand final, David Gest personal assistant/security guard is getting the hotel room ready for him. He gets a CD ready for Dave. I don't know exactly which CD it is but the guy said it was by Glen Campbell and he said it's David Gest's and Michael Jackson's favourite CD. I thought that was interesting. Do you think Glen Campbell is and influence on Michael, or just an artist Michael likes?

Vocally, at least one of the singers Michael was influenced by early on and the woman who was partly responsible for changing his life:

DIANA ROSS

He covered some of her Supremes tunes during the Motown years (I just heard his version of "Love Is Here And Now You're Gone" the other day). But he learned a lot from the way Diana used her vocal phrasings. You can see her influence on him when he sings the ballads. Michael also obviously looked up to her and admired her and still admires her. She was one of the elements that made Michael Jackson who he is, I feel.

Another person from the Motown years, while not a present influence, was probably an inspiration into the Jackson 5's dance moves. His name is CHOLLY ATKINS, who is a legendary choreographer and dancer who helped Motown artists from the Temptations to the Supremes give their dance moves. I feel Cholly (alongside Bob Fosse) played an important role in the in-line dance routines Michael would do when he started that trend with "Beat It".

Bob George said:

I found this very interesting. There was a marathon of '"I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here" a couple of days ago. In the episode where they show everyone going to the hotel and getting ready for the grand final, David Gest personal assistant/security guard is getting the hotel room ready for him. He gets a CD ready for Dave. I don't know exactly which CD it is but the guy said it was by Glen Campbell and he said it's David Gest's and Michael Jackson's favourite CD. I thought that was interesting. Do you think Glen Campbell is and influence on Michael, or just an artist Michael likes?

Click to expand...

An artist Mike probably liked.

Though I have to say Isaac Hayes' version of Glenn's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" is the better cover. Sorry, I just thought I say that.

I'm not sure if you're looking for feedback or not, but I just wanted to add James Cagney to the list of his dancing influences. Please take a look at the old film "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and find where Mike got the signature move where he comes up on his toes and pauses! That blew me away when I saw that and then I remembered Mike saying that he and Elizabeth would always watch old movies together every Thursday for a while. That must be where he picked that move up.

Ticie,
The JACKSONOLOGIST

JUDY GARLAND

Most of us know Michael Jacksons friendship with Liza Minelle, but not EVERYONE knows the influence her mother Judy Garland, (most famous from her roll in The Wizard Of Oz) had on Michael Jackson. From some styling of positioning of the body durring performances, to basic ideas of performances came from Judy Garland.

In this video you will see several things that influences Michael.
1) The Begining is very simular to DANGEROUS performance
2) Even the sound of the beginning of the performance is the same
3) You'll notice the way she lits her hat often
4) her stances at times while she tilts her hat etc.

J.G. 'Get Happy' http://youtube.com/watch?v=2U-rBZREQMw
M.J. 'Dangerous' http://youtube.com/watch?v=nrqzj81YU-Q

Also you'll notice something simular in this MJ performance. See if you can figure it out..
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rVZUwulimAU

*climbs out from underneath table and shouts*: Jackie Wilson! *then crawls back under before someone throws an Off Topic placard at me* *or KOPV throws a "r u trying to give me more work?" placard*....

I got another:

SAMMY DAVIS!

:lol:

Og Mandino, who was a self help writer. Maybe Marlon Brando. MJ said once that The Godfather was one of his favorite movies, and probably an influence on the look on "Smooth Criminal". He also mentioned Gamble and Huff, Stevie Wonder, & Paul McCartney as far as in the studio.

The Beatles are an influence on Michael, he's been a fan of there's since he was a young child. The Bee Gees are also an influence on Michael, as are various classical musicians. Jimmy Ruffin (I think that's his name), the original lead singer of the Tempations was one of the influences on Michael vocally.

on Pink's video 'Don't Let Me Get Me', she has the morphing faces like on 'Black Or White'

benscarr said:

The Beatles are an influence on Michael, he's been a fan of there's since he was a young child. The Bee Gees are also an influence on Michael, as are various classical musicians. Jimmy Ruffin (I think that's his name), the original lead singer of the Tempations was one of the influences on Michael vocally.

Click to expand...

David Ruffin was in The Temps, Jimmy is his brother who was a solo singer and never in a group

laurenjayne said:

on Pink's video 'Don't Let Me Get Me', she has the morphing faces like on 'Black Or White'

Click to expand...

There's an older "morphing" faces video from around 1984 or 85 called "Cry" by Godley and Creme.

Guess what I found:



Any of those moves look familiar?

^ i remember we had a massive thread on MJNO about that particular Bob Fosse sequence.

all i'll say is Fred Astaire is a genius, and Fosse's a great intermediate for how the steps evolved through to Mike.

^^ As is Bob.

Fred Astaire :yes:

I knew someone was going to post Snake in the Grass, lol. If you look hard enough you can find everything has some trace back somewhere else.