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If MJ was like Prince...

Mister_Jay_Tee

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A multi instrumentalist, proficient at playing and recording many things, do you think the quality of his work would increase? I say no. But more interestingly on a quantifiable scale, would the quantity of his work increase? Do you think there'd be more MJ records, or at least outtakes? Or was MJ's MO still quality over quantity.
 
I'd think he would create record labels, produce acts (men and women), learn how to play instruments, and recording more songs.
 
Interesting question! I would say no to both.

Quality-wise, MJ has one of the greatest and most influential catalogs of any recording artist. I don’t think swapping out musicians would pose any immediate difference. It would be awesome to see more credits like “guitar solo by Michael Jackson,” but alas.

I also don’t feel the quantity of his work would increase by any significant margin. MJ could summon the world’s best musicians at the snap of a finger—hell, nearly every producer he worked with was a multi-instrumentalist. Getting parts recorded was never the issue, it was developing the tracks to the point where MJ was satisfied with them. At best, I’d say his songs might’ve gotten their foundations laid out a little faster since he would be able to identify the chords himself rather than waiting for a third-party to figure them out, but the actual development wouldn’t change.
 
Quality over quantity, always. I'm admittedly unfamiliar with a big chunk of Prince's work outside of his big hits, but the truth is that usually, when an artist produces an extremely large body of work, there's a fairly high chance that not everything will be to the same standard. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the case with many of Prince's songs as well, though of course, taste is subjective (and like I said, I am mostly unfamiliar).

Michael was a perfectionist, him often taking time in-between albums was not a bad thing at all in my opinion. In theory, I'd rather see an artist make one, very solid album in their career and then never release anything again, than 50 mediocre ones.
 
AlwaysThere said:
Interesting question! I would say no to both.

Quality-wise, MJ has one of the greatest and most influential catalogs of any recording artist. I don’t think swapping out musicians would pose any immediate difference. It would be awesome to see more credits like “guitar solo by Michael Jackson,” but alas.

I also don’t feel the quantity of his work would increase by any significant margin. MJ could summon the world’s best musicians at the snap of a finger—hell, nearly every producer he worked with was a multi-instrumentalist. Getting parts recorded was never the issue, it was developing the tracks to the point where MJ was satisfied with them. At best, I’d say his songs might’ve gotten their foundations laid out a little faster since he would be able to identify the chords himself rather than waiting for a third-party to figure them out, but the actual development wouldn’t change.
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Great answer! And that's a great perspective.
 
DangerousGal91 said:
Quality over quantity, always. I'm admittedly unfamiliar with a big chunk of Prince's work outside of his big hits, but the truth is that usually, when an artist produces an extremely large body of work, there's a fairly high chance that not everything will be to the same standard. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the case with many of Prince's songs as well, though of course, taste is subjective (and like I said, I am mostly unfamiliar).

Michael was a perfectionist, him often taking time in-between albums was not a bad thing at all in my opinion. In theory, I'd rather see an artist make one, very solid album in their career and then never release anything again, than 50 mediocre ones.
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I agree with MJ taking the time to make quality over quantity.

I personally wouldn't agree about Prince, or the standards being lower due to quantity. He maintained a very high standard overall. It was maybe a very brief period he did have an "Invincible" phase, but that was due to Warner Bros. Like MJ, he always turned out at least some bigs.

He did maybe start to tread the same ground, sonically.
 
Mister_Jay_Tee said:
I agree with MJ taking the time to make quality over quantity.

I personally wouldn't agree about Prince, or the standards being lower due to quantity. He maintained a very high standard overall. It was maybe a very brief period he did have an "Invincible" phase, but that was due to Warner Bros. Like MJ, he always turned out at least some bigs.

He did maybe start to tread the same ground, sonically.
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Huh, alright. I'll be honest, a lot of that was speculation on my part since I don't follow Prince at all. I do stand by my general point that the chances of mediocrity increase with larger bodies of work, but there can always be exceptions.
 
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DangerousGal91 said:
Huh, alright. I'll be honest, a lot of that was speculation on my part since I don't follow Prince at all. I do stand by my general point that the chances of mediocrity increase with larger bodies of work, but there can always be exceptions.
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I don't think anyone has a bigger body of work than Prince tbh. 39 albums.
 
I don’t think it would make much of a difference. MJ liked working with other artists too much, this is probably something he picked up from his Motown days. His beatboxing might have been less efficient but I don’t think we would see a lot more music. He would still have set those high standards before releasing a song.
 
I don't think Michael was that bothered by not being a multi-instrumentalist. I don't remember him expressing anything like that in interviews. He seemed more determined in being the best vocalist, dancer, and contributing to creating great music (but not being the sole songwriter or creating it all himself.) I don't think the music would have suffered, but there would be less attention to other parts of his work (like music videos, dancing, choreography, etc.) Michael wouldn't have been able to focus on all that and writing/recording the music.

Prince has 39 albums, but Frank Zappa beat him (Zappa made 63 albums during his lifetime, and he's had like 50 or 60 albums come out since his death, making total albums well over 100). Most of Zappa's work is downright awful, with a great album here and there. Michael is so popular because the work he did release was so awesome, and because his studio output was so solid. It wouldn't have been as good if he had gone the Zappa route.
 
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Mister_Jay_Tee said:
I don't think anyone has a bigger body of work than Prince tbh. 39 albums.
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Frank Zappa released 62 albums during his lifetime including his Mothers of Invention stuff as well as solo stuff. I don't really care, I'm just standing up for my man! Also, derailing, lol. So I'll quickly mention Elvis with 57 albums released during his lifetime although loads of those must have been the film soundtracks, I guess. Plus, someone is bound to point out that he didn't write his own material which disqualifies him as an artist for some people. Frank Sinatra recorded 59 albums during his lifetime, afaik.

Back on topic - wot f&m said!
 
ShipOfFools said:
Frank Zappa beat him (Zappa made 63 albums during his lifetime, and he's had like 50 or 60 albums come out since his death, making total albums well over 100).
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Snap! I just said the same thing, lol.

I just checked and apparently it's 119 Zappa albums in total including the posthumous stuff.

ShipOfFools said:
Most of Zappa's work is downright awful,
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Can't argue with that.

ShipOfFools said:
Michael is so popular because the work he did release was so awesome, and because his studio output was so solid. It wouldn't have been as good if he had gone the Zappa route.
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Yeah, horrible idea. I loved Zappa, early 70's, but his body of work as a whole, don't wanna know. And Michael was a totally different kind of artist.

Michael's ability to collaborate with other songwriters is a massive artistic skill in its own right, imo, and seems to be weirdly underrated. I don't understand that.
 
ShipOfFools said:
I don't think Michael was that bothered by not being a multi-instrumentalist. I don't remember him expressing anything like that in interviews. He seemed more determined in being the best vocalist, dancer, and contributing to creating great music (but not being the sole songwriter or creating it all himself.) I don't think the music would have suffered, but there would be less attention to other parts of his work (like music videos, dancing, choreography, etc.) Michael wouldn't have been able to focus on all that and writing/recording the music.
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100% agreed!
ShipOfFools said:
Prince has 39 albums, but Frank Zappa beat him (Zappa made 63 albums during his lifetime, and he's had like 50 or 60 albums come out since his death, making total albums well over 100). Most of Zappa's work is downright awful, with a great album here and there. Michael is so popular because the work he did release was so awesome, and because his studio output was so solid. It wouldn't have been as good if he had gone the Zappa route.
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Not exactly familiar with Zappa, but if what you're saying is true, I absolutely stand by my original point, lol.
 
If you’re absolutely crazy about an artist and then you record 100 albums worth of music like Zappa then it is an absolute dream come true. If MJ had released this many albums I would know them all because I’m crazy about his voice.
As for Frank Zappa I have been into him for a couple of years decades ago. I listened to Sheik Yerbouti (what a fantastic title lol): apostrophe, Waka Jawaka, Hot rats, Joe’s garage among other. He is pretty cool.
 
Prince also wrote songs for other artists, some of them very successful like "Manic Monday" for The Bangles.
I don't understand why Michael never cared about writing songs for other artists. I know he did it sometimes, like "Muscles" for Diana Ross but he isn't recognized like a great songwriter like Prince
 
filmandmusic said:
As for Frank Zappa I have been into him for a couple of years decades ago. I listened to Sheik Yerbouti (what a fantastic title lol): apostrophe, Waka Jawaka, Hot rats, Joe’s garage among other. He is pretty cool.
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I liked Zappa's Mothers of Invention stuff. Never paid much attention to his solo stuff. I know he did a lot of 'weirdy' instrumental stuff which I can't be doing with. The few bits I heard, it was all a bit exhausting.

Imagine if you love Frank Sinatra's voice? He recorded 59 albums in his lifetime. Elvis released 57 albums but lots of those would have been the film soundtracks which weren't all that great, imo. But Frank's catalogue must be quite something for his fans.

I'm not having a go at Michael. I'm not comparing him to Frank. Apples and oranges. But 59 albums is pretty cool.

James Brown released 3 albums in 1973. I just remembered.
 
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ShipOfFools said:
I agree. Michael picked some really great songwriters to collaborate with, too.
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Imagine if he refused to work with other songwriters. We would have never gotten Human Nature, Man In The Mirror, Thriller, Rock With You. I just wish he would have made one album where he wrote and composed all the songs himself. The closest we got to that was BAD
 
analogue said:
Imagine if he refused to work with other songwriters. We would have never gotten Human Nature, Man In The Mirror, Thriller, Rock With You. I just wish he would have made one album where he wrote and composed all the songs himself. The closest we got to that was BAD
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Technically Michael is now all songs written by MJ. A few cowrites sure but overall.
 
zinniabooklover said:
Frank Zappa released 62 albums during his lifetime including his Mothers of Invention stuff as well as solo stuff. I don't really care, I'm just standing up for my man! Also, derailing, lol. So I'll quickly mention Elvis with 57 albums released during his lifetime although loads of those must have been the film soundtracks, I guess. Plus, someone is bound to point out that he didn't write his own material which disqualifies him as an artist for some people. Frank Sinatra recorded 59 albums during his lifetime, afaik.

Back on topic - wot f&m said!
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James Brown deserves a mention at a whopping 76 album tally!
 
Jackson Rules said:
I know he did it sometimes, like "Muscles" for Diana Ross but he isn't recognized like a great songwriter like Prince
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It was rather odd that Michael Jackson wrote 'Muscles' because one would expect that this is a song that a woman would write, not a man.

'Muscles' is a song that refers to a woman's sexual desire for a muscular man.

And its music video makes the song's theme even more emphatic (Diana Ross in bed while dreaming of muscular men).
analogue said:
Imagine if he refused to work with other songwriters. We would have never gotten Human Nature, Man In The Mirror, Thriller, Rock With You.
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It is also the other way around.

If Michael Jackson refused to work with other songwriters, his fans would have never got substandard songs (like, 'Cry', 'Why You Wanna Trip On Me', 'She's Out Of My Life', 'Butterflies', 'Girlfriend', etc).
 
Mister_Jay_Tee said:
Basically I was dead wrong!
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Man, you were SO wrong, lol. In your defence I would say, if Prince was still alive he would obviously still be knocking out endless albums. It's just the very sad circumstances that got in the way.

I am now slightly obsessed with this! Bob Dylan has released 39 albums. That's just the studio albums, not the live stuff, compilations, bootlegs. Apparently there are 22 box sets! Neil Young has released 45 studio albums. Donny Osmond has done 65 although I dunno if that includes compilations and stuff like that.
 
mj_frenzy said:
It was rather odd that Michael Jackson wrote 'Muscles' because one would expect that this is a song that a woman would write, not a man.
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That's really limited thinking. A creative person can quite easily write a song from the point of view of another person.

mj_frenzy said:
If Michael Jackson refused to work with other songwriters, his fans would have never got substandard songs (like, 'Cry', 'Why You Wanna Trip On Me', 'She's Out Of My Life', 'Butterflies', 'Girlfriend', etc).
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Cry and Butterflies are both brilliant. Beautiful and brilliant. In my world, lol.
 
Technically you could say session musicans/singers like The Waters, Funk Brothers, Bernard Purdie, Wrecking Crew, The Swampers, Toto, Booker T & The M.G.'s, Bar-Kays, Memphis Boys, Seawind Horns, The Meters, etc. released way more albums than anyone else mentioned in this thread. Probably all of their albums put together. Same for producer musicians like Jam & Lewis, Jay Graydon, David Foster, Masters At Work, or Babyface. A lot of jazz musicans like Miles Davis, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, George Benson, Kenny G also didn't only release their own records but played on other jazz albums as sidemen. Herbie played on R&B records too including a Jermaine Jackson album. Jazz pianist George Duke played on some Frank Zappa records. Phil Collins played drums on a lot of records, not only his own & Genesis.
 
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