michael jackson vocal analysis

[Mariah :)]

 

[Mariah :)]

informative stuff right there

 

[DDTT33442233]

I have seen this Video (and, the previous two others before it, that were taken down). The man narrating it (“B.M.A.”) still has a very strong bias in favor of the “Motown” era on up to the Jackson brothers’ 1981 “LIVE” album of their “Triumph” Tour, but against any- and everything that Michael had ever done from “Thriller” on up until his passing. That’s one issue I have. Why not give equal credit to Michael for his vocal abilities in ALL phases and eras of his 40+-year career, and not just during the eras we like of it and consider our “most favorite” ones? It would have been fair of “B.M.A.” to at least fully acknowledge such great vocal abilities and skills that had remained with him even after the period of time that “B.M.A.” considered was his best (and, that “B.M.A.” is SO heavily biased towards).

Another issue with “B.M.A.,” is that his “research” is faulty —— Where in THE WORLD does he get this ridiculous idea that “All boys whose voices were Sopranos before puberty will eventually develop either Baritone or Bass voices as they grow up into adulthood.” from? Not every boy has the same type of voice, nor will it develop at the exact same rate for everyone; There are as many different vocal types between individual men, themselves, as there are between Males and Females as separate groups, or between children, teenagers, and adults. Each individual HUMAN voice is unique and different on its own. —— and, is only used as another attempt to further emphasize and back up the views he already had. He goes along with this nonsense of Michael (supposedly, allegedly) having “faked” the natural sound of his voice, and calling it a “Baritone” when it clearly NEVER was. Like a lot of people who really don’t know very much about Michael’s Vocal Range, he very easily mistakes THE absolute physical bottom limit of that enormous 4-Octave (and, probably even wider) “after-puberty” Vocal Range for something else altogether. At either end/extreme, from bottom to top, the voice may sound completely different than what we think it “should” sound like.

“B.M.A.” also heavily favors certain genres, while he extremely dislikes others. His views on “raspiness” of the voice are clear evidence of his views. While he will allow for a “Gospel” singer* (*or, someone whose music is of a particular genre that he really likes) to use a raspy/hoarse-sounding voice as an expression of emotion in a song (as he has actually said this when narrating such Videos on “Gospel” singers), when Michael did the same thing with his voice, however, “B.M.A.” views it as a sign of “deterioration” rather than a change in vocal style and a way to express emotion.

He also shows his bias through the sound-bites/snippets of other singers’ quotes by misusing them and taking them completely out of the context in which they were probably made, as we don’t what interviews the quotes were taken from, when the interviews were given and what their subject matter was originally about. These other singers either may or may not even have been talking about Michael at all, but....Who knows? No one will ever know.

 

[dethorro]

Great post @DDTT33442233. I agree with you. Michael most definitely was not a baritone. And the whole nonsense of him faking his voice is also absurd.

 

[DDTT33442233]

Great post, @DDTT33442233. I agree with you. Michael most definitely was not a Baritone. And, the whole nonsense of him “faking” his voice is also absurd.

YES, @dethorro, what “B.M.A.” has said all along IS absurd. He even misuses and completely takes out of context Seth Riggs’ work with Michael, makes comparisons between Michael’s and Stevie Wonder’s vibratos (different voices/vocal types altogether, so, their vibratos were going to be different as well), and unfairly blames “deterioration” of Michael’s voice as the reason why he used vocal harmonies and “stacking”/“Wall of Sound” (as “B.M.A.” calls it) in his recordings, rather than correctly pay tribute to and mention the great Marvin Gaye and his phenomenal “What’s Going On” album as one of the many HUGE influences on Michael during the earlier part of his and his brothers’ “Motown” years. In fact, “What’s Going On” and Michael’s “Got To Be There”* (*both song and album, as the real start of his solo career, about eight years before “Off the Wall”) came out within that same year (1971), when he turned 13 in August.

Amongst his biggest musical influences were his former label-mates at Motown, including Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and “Smokey” Robinson as well. Berry Gordy, himself, at one point, also wrote songs for Jackie Wilson, another great singer/artist to whom Michael often gave proper credit as one of his biggest influences (alongside James Brown).

Around the time of the “HIStory” World Tour in 1996-’97, Michael had suffered from health problems, including not only those from the Lupus that affected his lungs, but also other throat problems as well, along with the bad case of Laryngitis he had which made him rely on lip-synching his vocals and using “playback” of songs he already recorded, while still trying his very best to give the audience the great show they came to expect from him and PAID to see. He likely was pressured to perform and to at least try to give a good LIVE show, no matter how HE personally felt physically, mentally, emotionally, and otherwise, even when he wasn’t up to par and feeling his best. No wonder the media and the fans reacted to him the way they did. The reason why he wanted to stop doing LIVE concerts and shows wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate his fans and support those who continued to support him, though. He not only appreciated his fans’ support, he truly loved them.

It was just simply that, as he and his body physically got older —— along with other things that had recently went on in his life, up to that point —— he became less and less interested in doing LIVE concerts, in travelling from one city, state/province, country or region of the world to another, as this took a severe toll on him and became too much.

Michael took what he learned from his elders and studied what they did, not in any attempt (no matter how well or how poorly done) to mimic and copycat off of them like most of today’s so-called “stars” have tried/are trying to do with his every dance-move and every note sung, but to have come up with his own unique, instantly identifiable style and way of dancing, singing, and performing. Unlike today’s youngsters trying their hardest to be the “new” or the “next” version of “The ‘King of “Pop,” ’ ” Michael always was identified as his own person, and never the “new”/“next” version of his predecessors. He often gave the rightful credit to his elders, and made it his business to recognize them whenever he could.

This Video fails miserably to do what Michael, himself, did. Why not give the rightful credit due to Marvin Gaye, for having influenced Michael’s use of “stacked”/“harmonized” and “doubled” vocals on “Got To Be There” and in his later work (as in “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough” and “Liberian Girl”)? In mentioning Stevie Wonder, why not view him as a major positive influence on Michael’s own singing-style, rather than negatively compare one voice-type to another?

And, finally, a few more issues with this Video. Why focus on, over-emphasize, single out and pinpoint the very few incidents out of the countless timesMichael had ever performed LIVE onstage in a career that spanned some 40+ years, to say that his voice was “deteriorating,” that it had “lost its Upper Range,” etc., when it had not? Why at the same time his childhood Soprano voice is being lauded and praised, complain that he was singing “too high and too loud,” based on whatever was written in 120+-year-old books that almost nobody had ever read, or based on the personal opinions of people who never actually worked with Michael, much LESS had ever met him? Ridiculous!!!

Why purposely mislead viewers into assuming that his voice was a “Baritone” after all, because of the surgery done on his nose, when such surgeries had nothing to do with any effect on his vocal cords? Why imply that he had “lost” his ability to sing as he got older, because, he couldn’t breathe? ALL of these negative implications and assumptions made in this Video are outright LIES made up to discredit his abilities, based on “B.M.A.’s” own musical personal preferences and tastes (particularly, his preference for certain genres such as “Classical”/“Opera” and “Gospel,” for instance), which might help to explain his biased views. By the way, “B.M.A.” really needs to listen to:

Here are some comments I made on the Video, posted on “YouTube”®:
“I had never heard ‘Angels Descend’ before, outside of the original ‘Ghosts’ short film and Michael’s rehearsals for ‘This Is It.’ Of course, we now know the REAL identity of the ‘background voice’ who actually sung on ‘Angels Descend’ —— having been finally revealed as that of none other than THE ‘ Maestro,’ himself, after more than a decade since ‘Ghosts’ had originally premièred in 1996 (Quite surprising....Who would have ever thought of THAT?) —— thanks to ‘out-takes’ from ‘This Is It’s’ rehearsal footage.”

What do YOU think? I would like to know.

 

[Immortal MJJ]

Agreed with @DDTT33442233 here,as well. Definetly not a baritone to me either,rather a tenor incapable of belting above A4 from around the Victory/Bad era and on,from what I've heard from his live shows at least.

 

[83magic]

I remember seeing this video before. apparently it was taken down and re uploaded.

I actually agree with most of it. I always felt that the screaming and raspiness began during the early jackson 5 days. he gained more control when he started recording solo albums for motown in 1972. I believe ‘music & me’ captured child michael his best, with the exception of ‘johnny raven’ where his voice was transitioning.

I don’t think that his speaking voice was deep during this time, when he spoke to dick clarke though.

I think there’s a difference between his live and studio voice, particularly when touring. I still maintain that touring is unnatural for the human body, and will cause damage regardless of what kind of performer you are.

I think michael would have been able to sing in the original key more often during tv appearances instead. I wish his performance of ‘ease on down the road’ on the diana ross special in 1981, was used as an example of this. these kind of performances would have him singing for a shorter duration and would have been less strenuous as a result. michael could also be heard singing along to the playback on the set of the ‘beat it’ video. he was clearly capable.

I agree that michael’s range expanded when he began recording for cbs/epic. however, i think that additional clarity came between 1978-1983i personally think his voice was at its peak between 1980-1983i wish they spent more time covering the ‘triumph’ era. I’m curious as to why michael sounded so much younger than he did the previous year on ‘off the wall’. he sounded so effortless and tender, like he was speaking at times. some claim that the album was pitched up. I don’t really hear much difference between the official release and the supposed original versions or demos..

I always thought that the ‘wall of sound’ was to make up for the absence of his brothers. it provided a great support for his lead vocals and wasn’t necessarily a crutch.

I loved that they used ‘wanna be startin’ somethin’ as an example of his high register however, they skipped over ‘we are the world’ as an example of him doubling his voice on the chorus.

I felt that this analysis was nitpicky at times. I certainly don’t believe that michael was a natural baritone. he was more of an emoter than a technical singer in my opinion, constantly adapting to the material and experimenting with sounds he found interesting. I also thought they waited too long to say that michael danced just as hard as he sang simultaneously. I agreed with the majority of it though.

 

[DDTT33442233]

I felt that this analysis was nitpicky, at times. I certainly don’t believe that Michael was a natural Baritone.

I certainly agree with this point, @83magic. He never was one, by any means at all, in any way. Yet, there are people who still like to fantasize and imagine that about his voice, though.

 

[DDTT33442233]

A Tenor incapable of belting above “A4” from around the “Thriller”/“BAD” era and on

@Immortal MJJ, Why do say this? Rather than his voice having been “incapable” of hitting and singing certain notes, it was a whole lot more than capable of doing things and having abilities that we may not really know about, nor do we give it nearly enough of the proper credit it rightfully deserves.