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Were the The Jackson Five/Michael Jackson's Sound "Proto" and "Pre" Disco?

Funkystrong

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"The Love You Save"

"Never Can Say Goodbye"

"I wanna Be Where You Are"

"Looking Through The Window"
 
By proto do you mean "the first" disco?
No. It was called Bubblegum soul as I remember. But I didn't hear anything bubblegum about it besides the fact that we kids loved it. So did parents and grandparents.
 
barbee0715 said:
By proto do you mean "the first" disco?
No. It was called Bubblegum soul as I remember. But I didn't hear anything bubblegum about it besides the fact that we kids loved it. So did parents and grandparents.
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Yes. I think their early sound was the foundation for disco.
 
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Hmm, I do not really see these tracks as pre-disco. There are some elements of the Motown sound in general that made their way into disco (e.g. lush string arrangements), but to me what you can really call pre-disco started a bit later on when Philly soul first started emerging. Artists like The O'Jays, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, The Intruders and (a little later) MFSB, basically anyone who worked with Gamble and Huff (the Jacksons of course eventually would as well in '76). Disco evolved much more directly from the Philly sound than the Motown sound. As for the J5, I think the earliest stuff they did where you can really hear a pre-disco sound were some of the songs on Get It Together in 1973.
 
SoCav said:
Hmm, I do not really see these tracks as pre-disco. There are some elements of the Motown sound in general that made their way into disco (e.g. lush string arrangements), but to me what you can really call pre-disco started a bit later on when Philly soul first started emerging. Artists like The O'Jays, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, The Intruders and (a little later) MFSB, basically anyone who worked with Gamble and Huff (the Jacksons of course eventually would as well in '76). Disco evolved much more directly from the Philly sound than the Motown sound. As for the J5, I think the earliest stuff they did where you can really hear a pre-disco sound were some of the songs on Get It Together in 1973.
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That's my point though. It certainly sounds like it has elements of disco. That G.I.T.: Get It Together album certainly is disco with Dancing Machine and Hum Along and Dance are fully fledged disco recordings.
 
SoCav said:
but to me what you can really call pre-disco started a bit later on when Philly soul first started emerging. Artists like The O'Jays, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, The Intruders and (a little later) MFSB, basically anyone who worked with Gamble and Huff (the Jacksons of course eventually would as well in '76).
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Barry White & Love Unlimited Orchestra too, and maybe Isaac Hayes a little before him with Shaft. Isaac was also one of the first R&B/soul acts who made really long songs, which many later disco songs were.
 
Funkystrong said:
That's my point though. It certainly sounds like it has elements of disco. That G.I.T.: Get It Together album certainly is disco with Dancing Machine and Hum Along and Dance are fully fledged disco recordings.
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yes, I would agree that these 3 are pre-almost full fledged disco unlike the songs in original post. Between the really extended lush rich instrumentation and relentless beat, they're disco.

(I used to go to discos a lot back in the day and used to request Gloria Gaynor's version of Never Can Say Goodbye. Loved that.)
 
Definitely, all of the early hits had a full on dance sound and a driving beat. The funky wah wah bass lines could also be seen as proto disco.
In my opinion, the song Dancing machine is pure early disco. Yet not all disco was just dance msic, some disco songs are very melodic and most of MJ's songs up to Thriller could be called disco. Most of Destiny, Off the Wall and Triumph is disco or has a strong disco feel. That is not a bad thing, because I love disco, and one of my favourite all time disco singers is Donna Summer who was the undisputed queen of disco.

In fact it is my love for disco that first got me into Michael Jackson with the disco infused hits Don't stop til you get enough and Rock with you. Disco elements exist in most 1974 to 1982 Jackson material, even smoother Philly sound jams like Let me show you the way to go and Enjoy Yourself. Dreamer has a sexy disco ballad feel along with I am Love even. Whereas Shake your Body down to the ground and Blame it on the boogie are the two most deliberately disco Jackson songs of the lot.

The fact Michael Jackson transistoned into seamless pop and rock along with some very electro funk in the Bad era and then new jack swing with Dnagerous and an almost alternative pop feel of history. Plus his dabbling with rap and even R and B auto tune with Invincible, shows how he can easily mold musical styles and trend into a mold of his own distinctly original style.

Plus a lot of disco culture and music is dancing and we all know how Michael was the greatest dancer of all time, so there we reinforce the importance of the disco sound in his music.

Proto Disco sound - Most 1969 - 1973 period (Up to Skywriter)
Early Disco (Barry white, 3 degrees type stuff) Get it together up to Goin Places (1974 -1977)
Classic Disco - Beegees, Donna Summer, Chic etc - Albums Destiny, OFTW, Triumph (1978 -1980)
Post disco, 80s dance - Thriller, Victory,
80s Dance pop - Bad
New Jack swing - Dangerous
Melodic rap and Gfunk/Pop rap - History
R and B autotune, Techno - BODF/Invincible, songs like Blue Gangsta, Xscape etc.
 
mjprince1976 said:
Definitely, all of the early hits had a full on dance sound and a driving beat. The funky wah wah bass lines could also be seen as proto disco.
In my opinion, the song Dancing machine is pure early disco. Yet not all disco was just dance msic, some disco songs are very melodic and most of MJ's songs up to Thriller could be called disco. Most of Destiny, Off the Wall and Triumph is disco or has a strong disco feel. That is not a bad thing, because I love disco, and one of my favourite all time disco singers is Donna Summer who was the undisputed queen of disco.

In fact it is my love for disco that first got me into Michael Jackson with the disco infused hits Don't stop til you get enough and Rock with you. Disco elements exist in most 1974 to 1982 Jackson material, even smoother Philly sound jams like Let me show you the way to go and Enjoy Yourself. Dreamer has a sexy disco ballad feel along with I am Love even. Whereas Shake your Body down to the ground and Blame it on the boogie are the two most deliberately disco Jackson songs of the lot.

The fact Michael Jackson transistoned into seamless pop and rock along with some very electro funk in the Bad era and then new jack swing with Dnagerous and an almost alternative pop feel of history. Plus his dabbling with rap and even R and B auto tune with Invincible, shows how he can easily mold musical styles and trend into a mold of his own distinctly original style.

Plus a lot of disco culture and music is dancing and we all know how Michael was the greatest dancer of all time, so there we reinforce the importance of the disco sound in his music.

Proto Disco sound - Most 1969 - 1973 period (Up to Skywriter)
Early Disco (Barry white, 3 degrees type stuff) Get it together up to Goin Places (1974 -1977)
Cassic Disco - Beegees, Donna Summer, Chic etc - Albums Destiny, OFTW, Triumph (1978 -1980)
Post disco, 80s dance - Thriller, Victory,
80s Dance pop - Bad
New Jack swing - Dangerous
Melodic rap and Gfunk/Pop rap - History
R and B autotune, Techno - BODF/Invincible, songs like Blue Gangsta, Xscape etc.
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Yes like ABBA

Yes, but in a style so refined and so MJ/Jacksons -like. I labelled this period to be from The Jacksons, Goin Places, Destiny and Off The Wall as MJ's classic period.

MJ classic period (1976-1979) -
The Jacksons
Goin Places
Destiny
Off The Wall

MJ Commercial/post disco period (1980-1989) -
Triumph
Thriller
Victory
Bad
2300 Jackson Street

Introspective/experimental period (1990-1997) -
Dangerous
HiStory
Blood On The Dance
 
I think we are stretching it a bit, I mean Disco definitely had roots in Motown sound and so on.. but to consider Jackson 5 music pre-disco is a bit of a stretch.. When the Jackson 5 were starting wit Motown so was Disco. so I'd say disco's true influence was pre Jackson 5, in fact the term disco startd in the 60's when talkin about a type of dress a woman would wear to go party at a club.. So disco in terms of music has to do with party music, it's a fusion of Pop, Funk, Soul, salsa, and physcolelic music.

It was the NYC party scene started disco... Motown quickly adopted elements of disco, but the Jackson 5 more so slowly evolved there sound to more disco as time went on.. more even so when they left Motown.

I'd like to say Michael helped start the disco craze, but we can't.. lol! he let it influence him which I'm sure became a segue for some non disco lovers to listen for he first time but.. Michael is heavily a product of disco.. he adopted a lot from disco sound techniques, dance, and style.. A lot of MJ swag came from disco.
 
Disco had a lot of funk elements in it. That's how 1970s funk & R&B songs was labeled as "disco" by some. I've even seen Black Betty by Ram Jam on different disco compilations. That's more like some southern rock, which often had jazz and some R&B elements
 
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