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Michael Jackson the vocalist

I think his lower register is the most underrated part of his voice, he has such a beautiful tone there.
 
^ I think it's because he held out on us over the years a lot so when we hear lower registers it's like YESSSS!! keep em coming!
 
I think there is no doubt he was an amazing vocalist.

Just listen to the Motown audition - and he was what - 5 years old??

Then listen to Human Nature from the This Is It rehearsals... - 45 years later - the voice was better than ever!!

The range in which he could sing was amazing, from best of you to Morphine, 2000 Watts to You are not alone. - Dirty Diana to She's out of my life.

No doubt he had problems with his voice in the late 90's - and therefore a lot of playback on the HIStory tour. - BUT he was a great live singer.

You were there - Amazing.

And the rehearsal footage from both Dangerous Tour - and the This Is It footage showed he could perform and sing at the same time. - Perfectly....
 
MattyJam said:
Not sure I agree with this. I remember the first time I heard the song, and the way he sings "tell her this from MEEE-EEE" absolutely floored me. His voice is so rich and strong in that part. And the percussive ad-libs at the end, "I can't stop, lovin you"... who else does stuff like that? With MJ, it's the little touches and the older he got, the more nuanced they became.
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His voice was so good, I could and should write up a dissertation on that ALONE without even touching on his dancing or songwriting abilities.
 
InvincibleMJ said:
I feel that Michael's abilities as an amazing vocalist are very often overlooked even by people who love his music. In my opinion he has some of the best vocal performances I've ever heard both studio and live. Do you think Michael gets the appreciation he deserves for his singing?
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I think his singing completely did when he first started out as a nine year old child, but his other talents, particularly his dancing, gained so much attention that his vocals became part of the consummate package. That is, all the parts of the whole were equally astounding. That's why no one IMO compares to him, and you have sometimes raging debates as to what he was first--a singer or dancer or songwriter, when he was first in everything.
 
Psychoniff;4175887 said:
His voice was so good, I could and should write up a dissertation on that ALONE without even touching on his dancing or songwriting abilities.
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You really should, Psychoniff. That would be great, because, when Michael grew up out of his “cute” younger childhood stage, his vocals were either not written about* very much, mostly ignored altogether or completely forgotten about, in favor of highly praising his skills as a dancer and an overall entertainer. (*And, in the few times such vocal skills were noticed — if, at any time at all — during the last year or two of the Jackson brothers’ Motown career, going into their signing with another label as “The Jacksons,” I don’t think Michael’s voice and vocal skills were ever mentioned very often, during that period.)

The most praise that Michael had ever received, directed specifically towards the subject matter of discussing his singing-voice and how great it was, was during his and his brothers’ Motown label debut, as “The Jackson 5,” and in the first few years of the Early-1970’s, when his voice still had yet to slightly deepen (as it actually ended up doing) and go through the effects of puberty and adolescence. When he was a child/young teenager, a great deal of excitement, interest and emphasis was put on how “emotionally mature” he was at such a young age — for a youngster between the ages of 11 and 14, at the height of his Early-Motown career, both solo and with his brothers — even though he hadn’t yet understood the meaning of a particular song’s lyrics. As Michael physically went through puberty and grew up, however, his voice got even better, though it hadn’t deepened all that much; Yet it had, indeed, changed. What do you think, Psychoniff? Do you agree, or no?
 
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gerryevans;4175894 said:
I think his singing completely did when he first started out as a nine year old child, but his other talents, particularly his dancing, gained so much attention that his vocals became part of the consummate package. That is, all the parts of the whole were equally astounding. That's why no one IMO compares to him, and you have sometimes raging debates as to what he was first--a singer or dancer or songwriter, when he was first in everything.
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The general public (nationally and internationally, outside of the Jackson family’s home state where they originally hailed from) didn’t even know who the Jackson brothers were, until Michael had already turned 11, after they signed with Motown and made their debut on national T.V. Other than that, I agree with everything else you said. But, I still think Michael’s later “post-puberty” older teenage and adult vocals deserve more appreciation and much better recognition than they‘ve been given. Don’t you think so?
 
Scream said:
I actually think my favourite vocals are when he seems at his most angry. Mostly around the HIStory era with songs like They don't Care About Us and Scream. Obviously what he was going through after the allegations can't have been fun at all, but it gave much of his later albums a real raw emotional edge which I just love. You can tell when listening to songs like D.S. and They Don't Care About Us that singing those songs must've been like therapy for him, the emotion is real and we believe every word he sings.

It's for this reason that I think HIStory is so underrated. I think the public still wanted that happy-go-lucky Michael from Off The Wall and to some extent, Thriller, but after all he'd been through that obviously wasn't gonna happen. So when they heard the vitriol coming from this record I think some people were put off it. I love it though.
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Yasssss.
I love this comment.
That's why I can't stand people that think his career ended (or seemingly would have liked it to end) after Bad or Dangerous era.
I love how he opened all of the HIStory tour concerts with scream (which always gets me hype).

HIStory era was a lot about him fighting back against the bullshit that was thrown at him, and I love it.:)
 
Good thing I check on old posts before posting a new thread. I was about to ask the same thing the OP asked.

I've been seeing a lot of articles and fan-made videos relating to him lately and his vocal ability (i try to ignore comments, although i must admit sometimes it get through me). I am really not technical about singing voice and stuff, so I really don't understand the Fs, Es, head voice, chest voice, etc. What matters to me is if the voice "connects" emotionally and its natural melody.

The downplaying of MJ's vocal ability seems to me comes from people who just want to "raise" their idols ahead of him and/or to just put a dent to his perfect and natural talent in singing (and dancing). Gee, lately I have seen a vocal battle video downplaying his voice comparing it to a female pop star! ????

BUT, as fans we got solid albums manifesting this guy's magnificent voice, plus some well-documented live performances! I for one always resort to Earth Song, Dirty Diana, IJCSLY, I'll Be There (young MJ version), Who's Loving You, DSTYGE, among some others if some people would like to listen to some astonishing vocal performance from the King!
 
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