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Is Threatened a good song to end MJs entire discography on?

I do think Threatened was just an attempt at another Thriller-type song. Did MJ even write it? (genuine question). I don't think it has any deep meaning or anything.
 
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SmoothGangsta said:
I do think Threatened was just an attempt at another Thriller. Did MJ even write it? (genuine question). I don't think it has any deep meaning or anything.
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That's how I feel tbh. Michael had already done Thriller in the form of Ghosts/is it scary and Threatened was just another attempt.

He sure loved those scary songs.

Songwriters: Fred Jerkins Iii / Lashawn Daniels / Michael Jackson / Rodney Jerkins

Ahh the Vince dream team right there
 
Blues_Away2023 said:
That's how I feel tbh. Michael had already done Thriller in the form of Ghosts/is it scary and Threatened was just another attempt.

He sure loved those scary songs.

Songwriters: Fred Jerkins Iii / Lashawn Daniels / Michael Jackson / Rodney Jerkins

Ahh the Vince dream team right there
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Ghosts and Is It Scary definitely have deep meanings, I just don't think Threatened does.
 
zinniabooklover said:
Maybe Michael would disagree with me here. He did tack Threatened on to the end of Thriller for This Is It, after all. And it sounded bloody great!
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It sounded bloody great mainly because they played it with real, musical instruments, as opposed to the album's generic-sounded version of the song.

Because of this, some fans even suggested that the whole 'Invincible' album should be mixed again but with real, musical instruments and should be re-released in that form.
zinniabooklover said:
An argument could be made, I suppose, for the formulaic nature of his albums - let's have a ballad, let's have a rock song, let's have something gospel-ly etc.
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Apparently, this came down also to marketing reasons because that move (reaching and appealing also to other listeners from other genres) would increase the sales of his albums.
Themidwestcowboy said:
Talking strictly about studio albums, I actually donā€™t think it was a fitting song. MJ had every reason in the world to feel that way and to express that in his songs but it makes me sad that the same guy who came on to the scene with songs such as I Want You Back and ABC had gone through so much that he had to make a song like threatened. Thatā€™s why, to me, For All Time will always be the song that bookended is discography. Itā€™s a song that makes me believe in the magic and wonderment that he provides for me, and the whole world with his artistry. I hope this makes sense.
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It would have been very laughable if Michael Jackson kept recording and releasing songs like 'I Want You Back' and 'ABC' in his later adult career.

Besides, dark and dreadful songs are the songs that truly define an artist.
 
Blues_Away2023 said:
That's how I feel tbh. Michael had already done Thriller in the form of Ghosts/is it scary and Threatened was just another attempt.
He sure loved those scary songs.
Songwriters: Fred Jerkins Iii / Lashawn Daniels / Michael Jackson / Rodney Jerkins
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I'd love to know what Michael's input was bc the lyrics seem to be very relevant to him. Not saying a gifted lyricist couldn't write a set of lyrics that captured aspects of Michael's life - I'm sure they could - but I'd love to know for sure. The song I'm not so bothered about. His input there might have been minimal. But the lyrics? I really would love to know more.

Threatened doesn't feel as deep as Is It Scary for me but I do get a lot out of the lyrics. Both if I think of them as a tale of Michael but, even more, when I'm connecting to them for myself. I see loads of layers in there and I connect to them way more than Ghosts. Then again, I mostly don't bother with Ghosts (the song) bc it feels surplus to requirements. I'd rather have Is It Scary.
 
mj_frenzy said:
It sounded bloody great mainly because they played it with real, musical instruments,
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Yes, I am aware of that.

mj_frenzy said:
as opposed to the album's generic-sounded version of the song.
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I love the album version of the song.

mj_frenzy said:
Because of this, some fans even suggested that the whole 'Invincible' album should be mixed again but with real, musical instruments and should be re-released in that form.
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Whatever. I love the album. šŸ¤·ā€ā™€ļø

mj_frenzy said:
Apparently, this came down also to marketing reasons because that move (reaching and appealing also to other listeners from other genres) would increase the sales of his albums.
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Yes, we all got that.
 
mj_frenzy said:
It sounded bloody great mainly because they played it with real, musical instruments, as opposed to the album's generic-sounded version of the song.

Because of this, some fans even suggested that the whole 'Invincible' album should be mixed again but with real, musical instruments and should be re-released in that form.

Apparently, this came down also to marketing reasons because that move (reaching and appealing also to other listeners from other genres) would increase the sales of his albums.

It would have been very laughable if Michael Jackson kept recording and releasing songs like 'I Want You Back' and 'ABC' in his later adult career.

Besides, dark and dreadful songs are the songs that truly define an artist.
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ā€˜Real, musical instrumentsā€™ as opposed to what?
 
Agonum said:
ā€˜Real, musical instrumentsā€™ as opposed to what?
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MJ should have only made music using cassette tapes and 8 tracks like the White Stripes. Forget everyone else in the pop industry making music with digital sounds that are all iconic now.
 
Mister_Jay_Tee said:
MJ should have only made music using cassette tapes and 8 tracks like the White Stripes. Forget everyone else in the pop industry making music with digital sounds that are all iconic now.
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Should've used a mandolin like Rod Stewart did on Maggie May, lol.
 
Agonum said:
ā€˜Real, musical instrumentsā€™ as opposed to what?
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Mister_Jay_Tee said:
MJ should have only made music using cassette tapes and 8 tracks like the White Stripes. Forget everyone else in the pop industry making music with digital sounds that are all iconic now.
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I am talking about the fact that the bulk of the production of the 'Invincible' album was made on machines (i.e., they mostly used synthetic instruments and programmed beats).

For example, they used drum machines in order to mimic the sound of real drums, they used synthesizers in order to mimic the sound of other real, musical instruments, and so on.
 
mj_frenzy said:
I am talking about the fact that the bulk of the production of the 'Invincible' album was made on machines (i.e., they mostly used synthetic instruments and programmed beats).

For example, they used drum machines in order to mimic the sound of real drums, they used synthesizers in order to mimic the sound of other real, musical instruments, and so on.
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I don't consider it "mimicking". It takes the place of them. Electrophones are a unique category, and the synthetic sound isn't concerned with accuracy. I'm sure they knew it wasn't real instruments. But they used real instruments also, check the liner credits.
 
BOB MOOG

"... Musical instruments have always, from the very beginning of human history, used the most advanced technology of their time. Musicians need advanced technology thatā€™s appropriate. Whether you need a particular advanced technology partially depends on what kind of music you want to make and how. Our stringed instruments were developed around three or four hundred years ago, when precision woodworking was the highest technology. Brass instruments were developed when there was really high quality brass and the ability to machine it to create very thin, accurate materials out of brass. The piano came into existence along with manufacturing technology. For most of us, the piano is likely to be the most hi-tech mechanical manufactured product that we will ever have in our homes. No brass instruments, or wood instruments, or mechanical instruments have been developed in the 20th century, because the technology of our time is electronics. For us itā€™s analog electronics, and now increasingly computer and digital electronics. So, this is an instrument of the 20th century ā€“ it doesnā€™t use the most advanced technology, but it uses one that came into existence during my lifetime, for instance."

From an interview with Bob Moog, 2003, talking about Moog synthesisers.
www.redbullmusicacademy.com

Bob Moog

Explore the Red Bull Music Academy archive, tracing the global music institutionā€™s more than 20-year history
www.redbullmusicacademy.com www.redbullmusicacademy.com
 
ZeconMusic said:
Ehā€¦ kind of. The band played over it, but pretty much every element of the original album version was still on playback underneath.
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Exactly. Imo, it's really just the extra loudness which makes it sound fab! That and the fact of it being something different.
 
Mister_Jay_Tee said:
mJ wasn't even satisfied with the TII band, wasn't he? He preferred the others he had stood by in the past.
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I can't even talk about this. If that story - about that note - that Kevin Dorsey tells is true it's just heartbreaking. I choose not to think about it.
 
mj_frenzy said:
It sounded bloody great mainly because they played it with real, musical instruments
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Free jazz & other avant-garde music is usually played on "real" instruments, even all acoustic ones. Depending on who you ask, it either sounds good or like noise.
mj_frenzy said:
It would have been very laughable if Michael Jackson kept recording and releasing songs like 'I Want You Back' and 'ABC' in his later adult career.
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Wings (Paul McCartney) released Mary Had A Little Lamb (yes that one) as a single as an adult. The Beatles released songs like Yellow Submarine & All Together Now. Stevie Wonder has sung London Bridge Is Falling Down in concert as an adult. It's even on a live DVD he released. Also many adult performers in many different genres have released Christmas songs like Frosty The Snowman & Jingle Bells as adults. Ringo Starr was Mr. Conductor and a lot of artists have appeared on Sesame Street. I Want You Back was originally written for Gladys Knight & The Pips anyway, not the Jackson 5. A lot of the songs on the Jackson 5 albums & the solo Motown albums were remakes of songs originally released by adult singers/bands. Very few J5 songs were written in a youth perspective like ABC.
mj_frenzy said:
Because of this, some fans even suggested that the whole 'Invincible' album should be mixed again but with real, musical instruments and should be re-released in that form.
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Who said this and where did you get this information from? šŸ¤£
mj_frenzy said:
Besides, dark and dreadful songs are the songs that truly define an artist.
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Sure if the act is a goth band/singer or a death metal band. Even many blues songs are not about bad things happening. Other than maybe songs about Jesus getting crucified, I wouldn't say the average gospel song is dreadful at all. Also if dark and dreadful songs "define an artist" how come there was so much criticism about gangsta rap? Can't get much darker than songs about drug dealers, gangs, murder, pimping, etc. There were parents claiming heavy metal caused their teenagers to commit suicide or worship Satan.
 
Mister_Jay_Tee said:
mJ wasn't even satisfied with the TII band, wasn't he? He preferred the others he had stood by in the past.
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According to Sugarfoot, MJ basically admitted this to him in the nicest way possible during rehearsals. He said to him personally that they were sounding great, but that the HIStory Tour band was his favourite.
 
DuranDuran said:
Who said this and where did you get this information from? šŸ¤£
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For example, Michael Jackson fans on various websites and online fan forums.
DuranDuran said:
Wings (Paul McCartney) released Mary Had A Little Lamb (yes that one) as a single as an adult. The Beatles released songs like Yellow Submarine & All Together Now. Stevie Wonder has sung London Bridge Is Falling Down in concert as an adult. It's even on a live DVD he released. Also many adult performers in many different genres have released Christmas songs like Frosty The Snowman & Jingle Bells as adults. Ringo Starr was Mr. Conductor and a lot of artists have appeared on Sesame Street. I Want You Back was originally written for Gladys Knight & The Pips anyway, not the Jackson 5. A lot of the songs on the Jackson 5 albums & the solo Motown albums were remakes of songs originally released by adult singers/bands. Very few J5 songs were written in a youth perspective like ABC.
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Paul McCartney was heavily criticized by many people for writing, recording and releasing simple and silly songs.

John Lennon even used to criticize him a lot for that.

That is why, Paul McCartney released his 'Silly Love Songs' (in 1976) as a response to this heavy criticism towards him.

Note also that the 'Girlfriend' song that Paul McCartney wrote for Michael Jackson is regarded as one of Michael Jackson's weakest songs ever.
DuranDuran said:
Sure if the act is a goth band/singer or a death metal band. Even many blues songs are not about bad things happening. Other than maybe songs about Jesus getting crucified, I wouldn't say the average gospel song is dreadful at all. Also if dark and dreadful songs "define an artist" how come there was so much criticism about gangsta rap? Can't get much darker than songs about drug dealers, gangs, murder, pimping, etc. There were parents claiming heavy metal caused their teenagers to commit suicide or worship Satan.
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One would say that there are also some very important messages in the gangsta rap genre.

The gangsta rap genre draws attention to certain dimensions and circumstances of the ghetto life (the life of poor, black, young people in urban areas).

Via gangsta rap, ghetto minorities can also raise awareness about social and economic conditions that are prevalent in their ghettos, they can voice their rage against social oppression and police brutality that take place in their ghettos, and so on.
 
mj_frenzy said:
Paul McCartney was heavily criticized by many people for writing, recording and releasing simple and silly songs.

John Lennon even used to criticize him a lot for that.

That is why, Paul McCartney released his 'Silly Love Songs' (in 1976) as a response to this heavy criticism towards him.

Note also that the 'Girlfriend' song that Paul McCartney wrote for Michael Jackson is regarded as one of Michael Jackson's weakest songs ever.
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Yet Paul had the most successful career of the solo Beatles. So Paul knew what the mainstream audience liked. You can look at what became hits over the decades, songs like Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep, The Purple People Eater, What Did The Fox Say, Disco Duck, Shaddap You Face, Speedy Gonzales, I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Barbie Girl, Hanky Panky, Funky Chicken, etc. Critics have never really liked what is commercially successful, they didn't think much of bands such as Journey, Boston, Styx, or Eagles. They labeled it "corporate rock", and 1980s glam metal was called "hair metal". Nor did they like adult contemporary (Barry Manilow, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Michael Bolton) or teen idols (New Kids On The Block, Justin Beiber, Debbie Gibson). Anyway, John was criticized for having Yoko on his records and to this day, some people think she broke up The Beatles. If John's records were new releases today, he probably would be criticized for being "woke" (Angela, Woman Is The N- Of The World, Happy Xmas). Even at the time a lot of stores refused to sell the Two Virgins album because of the cover, That's also why The Beatles "butcher babies" album cover was changed.
 
Threatened is a good song to end Invincible album, but I would like to see a short film for this song. I wonder, what Mike wanted to show us in this video. I bet it would be similar to Ghosts and Thriller video, but with more modern sounds and choreography
 
ZeconMusic said:
According to Sugarfoot, MJ basically admitted this to him in the nicest way possible during rehearsals. He said to him personally that they were sounding great, but that the HIStory Tour band was his favourite.
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This is one plus for the HIStory Your, the band does sound the best of them all. Tbh, if they got those same guys and their instruments to redub the Victory Tour or something, that'd be crazy.
 
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