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Musical Parallels Thread

The jazzy 'ouh whoo' intro of 'The Way You Make Me Feel' used at The Grammy's is similar to 'Muscles' and was also used as an intro for 'Smooth Criminal' at one point, iirc
 
There’s some similarities between the verse melodies of Jam and Heartbreaker. Correct me if I’m wrong.
 
'Elizabeth, I Love You' and 'Free' (outtake from the 'BAD' album) share a similar melody at a certain section.
Victorious said:
Teddy Riley said 'Remember The Time' was inspired by 'Rock With You' and I must say they could work great as a mash-up!
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It appears that this is true, especially considering that an official remix of 'Remember The Time' (released by the DiscoTech label in 1992) actually samples certain portions of the 'Rock With You' song.
 
Victorious said:
There is also this specific background sound that is in (at least) three of his songs, sounds like a car brake or something lol.
Is it possible these songs were created during the same sessions..?

Here it is (very soft!) starting at 0:05, then again at 0:09 etc.:
Here it is at 0:09, then again at 0:14 etc:
And here it is at 3:30, then again at 3:47:
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Yes these are all Dangerous outtakes, and made with Teddy Riley. These songs all bear their production collaboration signatures.
 
Coming back to my thread with more;
Bless His Soul's bridge and Dangerous' Chorus are similar. Melodically. And phonetically. Because they both have the words Dangerous

But I've actually noticed some album parallels:

Off The Wall: The title track is 5th to the last.

Thriller: The title track is 5th to the last.

Bad: The Title Track is the Opener.

Dangerous: The title track is the Closer.

(Blood on The Dance Floor: The title track is the Opener.)

HIStory: The title track is 3rd to the last song.

Invincible: The title track is 3rd to the first song.

And also, as a bonus:

Go Deep by Janet and Slave to the Rhythm, hook wise, are phonetically similar. Not by a lot but just a little bit. And with similar harmonies.
 
Mister_Jay_Tee said:
Yes these are all Dangerous outtakes, and made with Teddy Riley. These songs all bear their production collaboration signatures.
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Yes fascinating to think that those three were made during the same sessions and yet so much time between release dates! I personally felt BOTDF and Ghosts should have been remixed at the time because they sounded too much 'Dangerous era'/outdated for me upon release
 
Sunset Driver: 'All alone she's in the ego zone, The word is out that you're doing wrong'
Bad: 'The word is out you're doin' wrong, Gonna lock you up before too long'
2Bad: 'Told me that you're doin' wrong, Word out shockin' all alone'
 
Victorious said:
Sunset Driver: 'All alone she's in the ego zone, The word is out that you're doing wrong'
Bad: 'The word is out you're doin' wrong, Gonna lock you up before too long'
2Bad: 'Told me that you're doin' wrong, Word out shockin' all alone'
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The Sunset Driver‐2 Bad similarity is even greater if you boldface the second line of the latter!
 
D.S.: 'You know he really tried to take me down by surprise, I bet he missioned with the CIA

Cheater: 'You know I work too hard for this kinda play, I wrote a letter for the ghetto of the CIA

Tabloid Junkie: 'Who's the next, for you to resurrect, JFK exposed the CIA'

Maybe he took inspiration from The Beatles' 'Dig It', since he is recorded singing this song (on the 'Give In To Me' demo?)

'Like the FBI
And the CIA
And the BBC
B.B. King
And Doris Day..'
 
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Anyone find the beat of Streetwalker similar to that in Janet Jackson's Control?
I wonder if it was a common beat preset or just brilliant minds thinking alike.
 
jmoses said:
Anyone find the beat of Streetwalker similar to that in Janet Jackson's Control?
I wonder if it was a common beat preset or just brilliant minds thinking alike.
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Yeah I hear some similarity! MJ was very, very much inspired by Janet so it could be that Streetwalker was based on 'Control' I guess.

One of his favourite songs of Janet; 'The Knowledge' also reminds me of something, 'Who Is It' maybe..? (And the intro sounds a bit like 'Jam')
And he used her interlude 'Let's Dance' for the live version of Dangerous!

Oh and I just realized the 'There's something I have to say to you' in the intro of Janet's 'Someday is Tonight' is similar to 'There's something I have to say to you' of 'In The Closet!
 
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Victorious said:
D.S.: 'You know he really tried to take me down by surprise, I bet he missioned with the CIA

Cheater: 'You know I work too hard for this kinda play, I wrote a letter for the ghetto of the CIA

Tabloid Junkie: 'Who's the next, for you to resurrect, JFK exposed the CIA'

Maybe he took inspiration from The Beatles' 'Dig It', since he is recorded singing this song (on the 'Give In To Me' demo?)

'Like the FBI
And the CIA
And the BBC
B.B. King
And Doris Day..'
Click to expand...
Surely just mentioning ‘CIA’ can not be seen as a “musical parallel”, can it?
 
Michael Jackson's 'She Got It' (unreleased) song sounds similar to the 'The Knowledge' song.

He even stated that 'The Knowledge' was one of his favourite songs from her, which explains why he also used to dance to it:

 
wonderouzmj said:
Well.... then there's these
(...)
(...)
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Since it includes Motown, That video is missing missing "Just look over your shoulders, honey!" repeated by Michael when the Jackson Five covered the Four Tops song Reach Out I'll Be There , misspelling "shoulders" instead of "shoulder" , and then they reused it in I'll Be There.
 
Madonna - Vogue - 1990 : "It makes no difference if you're black or white".
Michael Jackson - Black Or White - 1991 : "It don't matter if you're black or white".

It's a weak one since, maybe it's just because it's the same language to express the same idea, but when hearing this in Madonna's song, can't help thinking of MJ.
 
Bad = 2 Bad

Unbreakable = Invincible

Ghosts and Is It Scary, Get on The Floor and Everybody, share lyrics.
 
What a Lovely Way To Go and Days in Gloucestershire have very similar vocal melodies actually. MJ stretches out his vocals in a similar way in both.
 
In that same vein, Chicago 1945 and Ghosts have similar melodies as well. More than Chicago 1945 and Behind the Mask anyway.
 
Here's something else that I've noticed about the Streetwalker Demo:

The chorus seems to share the same string arrangement as Don't Be Messin Round on Bad 25. The two choruses in general have a similar melody ("Won't you give me some time" and "Dont be Messin Round")

I wonder if Streetwalker developed out of Messin' in some capacity 🤔
 
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