The official remixes

mj_frenzy

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In my opinion, remixes (in general) are kind of a necessary evil in music industry (serving, mainly, marketing purposes). I think that, apart from the fact that they lack originality, they tend to be, also, annoyingly uninspired, monotonous & repetitive.

In regard to Michael Jackson, is there any (officially released) remix that really does justice to the original song?
 
I think the Refugee Camp mix of Blood on the Dance Floor is great. Normally I don't like remixes. The only remix album I like is Xscape. :D
 
Gonna go against the crowd and say there's actually quite a few official MJ remixes that I enjoy. I actually enjoy many of the remixes on BOTDF and I often find myself playing them when I'm casually doing something. They're pretty cool to play quietly in the background when you're online early in the morning.

Whether or not they do justice to the song... I think a couple do. The remixes for Money, Earth Song, You Are Not Alone and maybe... HIStory do some justice for the songs I feel. I'm not expecting any of the remixes to reach the level of the original song and honestly as long as the remix sounds good (as in, I like the instrumental and how they've played with Michael's vocals), I'm satisfied.

I do find myself enjoying unofficial fan-made remixes more though. I actually typed out a whole bunch with links to them before seeing this thread was for official remixes :p

EDIT: Oh yeah, if you count the contemporisations on Xscape, then I looooove LNFSG, Loving You, APWNN, STTR and Xscape. The respective producers did an excellent job on those tracks (and honestly, I play them more than Michael's demos. No disrespect to Michael obviously, it's merely a subjective thing)
 
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Well, speaking from a remixers point of view who has adored remixes since childhood and the general concept of being able to transform a song into something different, I can't say that I find remixes boring or just being a necessary evil. Surely I understand the point of view of remixes being an industry standard to generate more income based on a target group they otherwise wouldn't be able to reach without said remix, but I genuinly love that you can take a song and change up the emotion or general vibe to create something totally new.. And about most remixes being unoriginal or uninspired, that is a very individual thing. I mean, if you like hiphop and get a hiphop single that includes a house remix, odds are that the house remix wouldn't appeal to you, thou your friend who dislikes hiphop but loves house would love it and thanks to that your friend will discover a new song or artist that he/she would never have listened to in the first place.. And regarding if there are any official MJ remixes that do justice to the original song, well, yes there are - it all depends on what type of remix you're talking about. During the 80's you had all the extended remixes from the Bad album (which are remixes) but they are built upon the original arrangments so they might feel less like remixes, so they don't try to erase or replace the sonic personality of the original song. My personal favorite remix that does the original justice somehow is the "Most Patient Remix" of Who Is It. I find it very unique in the sense that it keeps the original vibe and sound yet succeeds to be something different..
 
There are some cool remixes that i'm quite fond of

In The Closet Club Mix
[youtube]13MXv4zD7Kw[/youtube]

One More Chance R kelly Remix
[youtube]j-5Bye_48FQ[/youtube]

Is It Scary Downtempo groove mix
[youtube]ymAB36MGIIM[/youtube]
 
Here's a bunch of other official remixes I love!

Black Or White (The Clivilles & Cole House Dub Mix)
I looooove the part that begins at 1:22. My favourite version of this remix is actually the 'Club Mix' off the King of Pop Deluxe UK Edition, however I can't seem to find it on YouTube but this is pretty close!

Jam (Silky 12" Mix)

Scream (Classic Club Mix)

The next two remixes (which are the same, just different lengths) rank really high on my favourite remixes ever list. I feel these remixes definitely do justice to Michael's original song :D

Blood On The Dance Floor (TM's Switchblade Edit)

Blood On The Dance Floor [TM's Switchblade Mix]


^_^
 
Galactus123;4088631 said:
I think the Refugee Camp mix of Blood on the Dance Floor is great.

At least, it doesn’t sound so much pre-programmed than the rest remixes of that album.

HIStoric;4088654 said:
Gonna go against the crowd and say there's actually quite a few official MJ remixes that I enjoy. I actually enjoy many of the remixes on BOTDF and I often find myself playing them when I'm casually doing something. They're pretty cool to play quietly in the background when you're online early in the morning.

Whether or not they do justice to the song... I think a couple do. The remixes for Money, Earth Song, You Are Not Alone and maybe... HIStory do some justice for the songs I feel. I'm not expecting any of the remixes to reach the level of the original song and honestly as long as the remix sounds good (as in, I like the instrumental and how they've played with Michael's vocals), I'm satisfied.

I do find myself enjoying unofficial fan-made remixes more though. I actually typed out a whole bunch with links to them before seeing this thread was for official remixes :p

EDIT: Oh yeah, if you count the contemporisations on Xscape, then I looooove LNFSG, Loving You, APWNN, STTR and Xscape. The respective producers did an excellent job on those tracks (and honestly, I play them more than Michael's demos. No disrespect to Michael obviously, it's merely a subjective thing)

It is not rare for these unofficial (fan-made, etc…) remixes to turn out to be more interesting (or less uninteresting) than the officially released. Also, sometimes, remixes that already had gained popularity in many countries didn't eventually make any official MJ’s releases.

Sometimes, I am really curious how many different remixes are previewed before a music company officially releases a few of them…

I am referring to the official, mostly promotional type of remixes (club mixes, extended versions, 3”, 7”, 12”, etc…) & also those that have already been included on official MJ’s albums (“Blood On The Dance Floor”, Thriller 25, etc…) but not to posthumous albums, mixes or remixes.

Nighty;4088659 said:
Well, speaking from a remixers point of view who has adored remixes since childhood and the general concept of being able to transform a song into something different, I can't say that I find remixes boring or just being a necessary evil. Surely I understand the point of view of remixes being an industry standard to generate more income based on a target group they otherwise wouldn't be able to reach without said remix, but I genuinly love that you can take a song and change up the emotion or general vibe to create something totally new.. And about most remixes being unoriginal or uninspired, that is a very individual thing. I mean, if you like hiphop and get a hiphop single that includes a house remix, odds are that the house remix wouldn't appeal to you, thou your friend who dislikes hiphop but loves house would love it and thanks to that your friend will discover a new song or artist that he/she would never have listened to in the first place.. And regarding if there are any official MJ remixes that do justice to the original song, well, yes there are - it all depends on what type of remix you're talking about. During the 80's you had all the extended remixes from the Bad album (which are remixes) but they are built upon the original arrangments so they might feel less like remixes, so they don't try to erase or replace the sonic personality of the original song. My personal favorite remix that does the original justice somehow is the "Most Patient Remix" of Who Is It. I find it very unique in the sense that it keeps the original vibe and sound yet succeeds to be something different..

This is true. One of the reasons for making a remix is that record companies want to reach (indirectly) specific target groups (ambient, hip-hop genres, etc…) & make their promoted artist known & probably attractive to them. On the other hand, it does not mean necessarily that these different (musically) target groups will eventually become fans of the genuine work of the promoted artist.

I think that the most challenging & interesting aspect of remixes is that a remix should have a personality & take, at the same time, the original song to another level.
 
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Best official remix ever IMO:

They Don't Care ABout Us remixed by Charles Roane.


It's great how it replaces the loud extroverted original music with this fragile light beat.
This way Michaels voice is much more the driving force of the song.
This version is not outdoing the original of course, but a really nice alternative.
It's not a "by the numbers" remix like most of those House/Dance remixes that all follow the same formula.
There are some rather good ones among those too anyway.
But I mostly prefer the R'n'B ~ Hip Hop type of remixes.
 
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HIStoric;4088690 said:
Here's a bunch of other official remixes I love!

Black Or White (The Clivilles & Cole House Dub Mix)
[video=youtube;Gz1ckXM3n_w]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz1ckXM3n_w[/video]
I looooove the part that begins at 1:22. My favourite version of this remix is actually the 'Club Mix' off the King of Pop Deluxe UK Edition, however I can't seem to find it on YouTube but this is pretty close!


That remix was played along with a video special (09:22) during the “Oprah Interview” in 1993:

[video=youtube;NuZMx7KNCrE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuZMx7KNCrE[/video]

Electro;4088712 said:
Best official remix ever IMO:

They Don't Care ABout Us remixed by Charles Roane.

[video=youtube;Picq-0FtiXU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Picq-0FtiXU[/video]

It's great how it replaces the loud extroverted original music with this fragile light beat.
This way Michaels voice is much more the driving force of the song.
This version is not outdoing the original of course, but a really nice alternative.
It's not a "by the numbers" remix like most of those House/Dance remixes that all follow the same formula.
There are some rather good ones among those too anyway.
But I mostly prefer the R'n'B ~ Hip Hop type of remixes.

I remember that remix capturing my attention due to its very unusual style.
 


Ahhhh! Thank you for posting this! I remember looking for this remix back when I was a tweenager, I had dial up internet, and Youtube didn't exist. Haha. I never found it, and now my flashbacks are strong :p
 
For me there's even one remix that is BETTER than the original version!

And that is:



& again, without the live outro:

 
MJJuniorSinceMW;4088816 said:
For me there's even one remix that is BETTER than the original version!

And that is:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ew0SztoMPVc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

& again, without the live outro:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c45Znv65pGE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The melody is nice in the beginning of the song (0:00 &#8211; 0:10).
 
Thanks for all the great remixes here! Lately I love listening to the good ones because it's something different, adds a cool spin to my favorites.

I agree wholeheartedly with the Refugee Camp Remix of 2Bad. I listen to it all the time.

If you count Xscape....not gonna lie, I love that entire album so yeah. :p

And you know? I ACTUALLY like the 2008 remix of The Girl Is Mine & P.Y.T. with Will I. Am. I might be in the minority re: this one. But in general, I think if anything else, Will makes beats that are easy to dance to :lol: And I'm a sucker for something with a good bass and those two mixes did just that.
 
J5master;4088975 said:
And you know? I ACTUALLY like the 2008 remix of The Girl Is Mine & P.Y.T. with Will I. Am. I might be in the minority re: this one. But in general, I think if anything else, Will makes beats that are easy to dance to :lol: And I'm a sucker for something with a good bass and those two mixes did just that.

It is still inexplicable to me why these specific remixes were included on an anniversary MJ album…
 
I guess the record company wanted something new to add on to the album to market?
 
J5master;4089043 said:
I guess the record company wanted something new to add on to the album to market?

In my opinion, those specific remixes ("Thriller 25") did not bring something new. Personally, I expected a modern & innovative twist of the original songs. On the contrary, their lack of innovation is quite apparent to me (not to mention that they were totally uninspired, pointless & easily forgettable).

On the other hand, different remixes, even worse than those, would have had (more or less) no effect on that album&#8217;s sales performance. There is no doubt that people bought "Thriller 25" for its original material.

I know that you disagree because that type of (dance) remixes probably meets your requirements.

What is more, I get the impression that MJ, sometimes, was totally being manipulated (or being ignored) by the record company.

To be more specific, although MJ never liked remixes, the record company went against his will & decided to include remixes (once again) on one of his albums:

&#8220;The least I can say is that I don&#8217;t like them. I don&#8217;t like it that they come in and change my songs completely, but Sony says that kids love remixes.&#8221; (Michael Jackson)
 
Well I certainly didn't forget them lol

i respect your opinion though and I respected MJs opinion too. But I do get the point of remixes especially in today's market. It's those extra few sales for DJs And mixers that would want to play this stuff in clubs. And I remember hearing those remixes played in clubs a lot in college lol. It obviously would get the place pumped more than the original (especially in the case of The Girl is Mine).

i also think it's a reasonable marketing tactic to get fans to buy since they would already have the original songs. It's a new version with a collaboration with another artist.

And I'm sure the thought was to keep MJ relevant with the younger market. That wasn't going to happen with just the older songs.
 
Thanks for all the great remixes here! Lately I love listening to the good ones because it's something different, adds a cool spin to my favorites.

I agree wholeheartedly with the Refugee Camp Remix of 2Bad. I listen to it all the time.

If you count Xscape....not gonna lie, I love that entire album so yeah. :p

And you know? I ACTUALLY like the 2008 remix of The Girl Is Mine & P.Y.T. with Will I. Am. I might be in the minority re: this one. But in general, I think if anything else, Will makes beats that are easy to dance to :lol: And I'm a sucker for something with a good bass and those two mixes did just that.

Actually I think I've never said this out loud but I really like the PYT and Billie Jean remix on T25! lol. Esp PYT :)
 
Will.I.Am's "Beat It" Remix was great. But it would be better without Fergie IMO.
What he changed / added to the instrumental is very interesting.

All the T25 Remixes are actually some of the better ones.
But being in the big T25 anniversary spotlight they received more hate as other
remixes that just appeared on singles = under the radar of 'normal' listeners.
 
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Oh wait, i almost forgot about my actual alltime favorite official remix:

Speed Demon remixed by NERO (for BAD 25)


Banger!
 
@TinnyandOdd
ok, but it's not official. (i.e. released through Sony)
And the keys of music and vocals don't really match at parts.
 
Will.I.Am's "Beat It" Remix was great. But it would be better without Fergie IMO.
What he changed / added to the instrumental is very interesting.

All the T25 Remixes are actually some of the better ones.
But being in the big T25 anniversary spotlight they received more hate as other
remixes
that just appeared on singles = under the radar of 'normal' listeners.

For me, it is not hate, but indifference.

Also, they became automatically (overly) overestimated by being released on an anniversary edition.
 
I like the Butterflies remix with Eve
And the You Rock My World remix with Jay-Z

Talking about Jay-Z. Has anyone ever heard the Girls, Girls, Girls remix that Michael supposedly did the chorus for?
 
I like the Butterflies remix with Eve
And the You Rock My World remix with Jay-Z

Those are not really "remixes" though (the way it's usually understood).
More alternative versions of the original with additional guest vocalists.
 
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