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Why does Michael always have songwritters in for himself on his albums?

1) Jackson tries to be critical of his work
2) he tries to be objective to other people's creations
3) sometimes he like to keep private some of his works, even if those are strong and not give it out to new album no matter what, halting publication for years

Those three points always make Michael not giving any specific value to his own sole personal artistry comparing to whoever else' work when it goes to including music into the album.

Jackson easily "throws off" his own work or keeps it private if he does not feel it is as good as other people's writing or if he just does not feel like releasing his certain work yet.

That "or" I marked in bold is very important since it means that whatever we are getting with Michael's another album has nothing to with him being "worn out" as writer/composer to the level of what was actually included.

But no, there will be hardly ever album of all or even overwhelming most of Jackson's solo work as writer/composer. "Bad" was that because it was Quincy Jones' original intention (and we have to thank him for that). Still, even there Jackson threw some of the most powerful songs which were eventually never properly released and known just for the sake of work that had nothing to do with him as writer/composer -- "Man In The Mirror".

With this, we can hardly ever find less egoistical person than Michael. Considering the scale of his phenomenon as artist, it is unique. (I know there are a lot "uniques" about Jackson, but it is itself unique, so please bear this "stamp".)
 
Well, regardless, I hope that this new album has a lot of songs written fully by Michael. But I doubt it since so many writers are working with him....NeYo, Will I Am, Quincy and maybe John Legend. We will see.
 
nationtonation said:
I must be honest and say that I dont think MJ is a lyric genius. thats not his best part.
He knows for sure how to write lyrichs. but they are all very avrage...he is a music genius not a lyrich genius
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He's a musical genius, and a good lyricist. Some strong examples of his lyrical talent is "Heartbreak Hotel", "Billie Jean", "Bad- yes if you get passed the chorus", "Little Susie", "Earth Song", etc... But Michael's strength as a songwriter is the compositions. I think that's what everyone is talking about. He writes brilliant vocal parts, vocal layering, percussion parts, incredible harmonies and incredible melodies. He's a total genius and like benscarr said, I would love almost more then anything to see Michael write and produce an entire album on his own.
 
Tony R said:
Bad's widely regarded as his best album amongst fans and it's the one he had the most input on in terms of songwriting.

I agree some of his best songs weren't written by him (Man In The Mirror, Off The Wall, Smile etc) but most of his best were (and produced by him as well in many cases) Who Is It, Give In To Me, Billie Jean, TWYMMF, Smooth Criminal etc.

I prefer him singing the odd song that was written for him than about 5 or 6 people writing the same song, like a lot on Invincible. Even though I still like them a lot don't sound like MJ songs as they have lost their identity.

But yes Michael's talent as a songwriter & producer is even more immense than his singing & dancing ability.
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It's not greater, I'd say it's about equal. Michael is such a phenom because he's got world class talent in like 4 areas. As a singer, as a dancer, as a songwriter and as a performer. That's unheard of. But I do agree that Michael's best work is his own. When he sits down and writes a song without any outside songwriters taking part, it's out of this world. I don't mind him using other songwriters, because we've gotten some great songs that way, but Michael's best work has always been his own. His vocal prowess is what's made sometimes less then brilliant songs exceptional.
 
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If someone can tell me a person that has written every song on there album and had several top 10 hits from it.. let me know..

Michael is a great song writter.. NO DOUBT.. he's aware of that.

But others can offer much also. Gives ideas from other angels..

when ONE person writes it, it's will have less demension, because it's coming from the same person..

Michael presents music that touches EVERYONE..

this takes a TEAM of people..

U get the BEST product when you work as a TEAM..
 
AGB said:
I disagree, some of the songs on Dangerous and particularly on HIStory has very deep and were extremely clever. Listen to Stranger and Moscow and They Don't Care About Us, Scream, Little Susie, Will You Be There, Dangerous, Give In To Me, Who Is It. All of those songs have lyrics that are way above average in my opinion, same goes for Billie Jean and Wanna Be Startin Something, Heartbreak Hotel, Can You Feel It, Smooth Criminal, Dirty Diana. On the surface sometimes MJ's lyrics seem simple, but if you look further his songs actually say a lot e.g. Scared of the Moon, some people thought it was just a bedtime lullaby when in fact its actually about mental illness.
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You're very right. Actually, the best writing is done by those who say a lot in the fewest amount of words, the point is to create feeling out of words or create atmosphere. Michael is able to create vivid imagery with his lyrics and that's the mark of a strong lyricist. The songs you listed in particular.
 
because he doesn't have a big ego which is why his success is so massive, and we are arguing his massive talent on his behalf, while other artists are busy inserting the lyric 'in stores now', into their songs. lol
 
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And you know that how? Lionel Richie is a very accomplished songwriter. I'm sure he contributed more than that to the song.
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Well that's what Michael said. I believe him. They wrote the lyrics together, well, after the original demo. But most of the composition was Michael's.

"Scared of The Moon's" lyrics were actually written by another guy, the guy who did the lyrics for "Gone Too Soon", but Michael wrote the music I think, and the lyrics were based off of a story Michael wrote.

And just a point, most of Michael's biggest hits have been his own compositions. I think he's capable of having sceral hits if he wrote an entire album on his own. But as denis pointed out, it's not likely, because he's sometimes overly humble. But he's a phenom of talent.
 
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Why?

Maybe because two or more heads are better than one?

Life doesn't happen in a box, even for MJ. He gets ideas from all sorts of places, and people too.

Also, I believe MJ said in an interview that the competition on ideas and whatnot song-wise is good for producing superior results. I think he mentioned that being the case with himself and Temperton. They both tried to top each other in their songwriting, and look at the results... He spoke about that technique working for Disney animation artists as well.

And I don't think there's a singer in the world who hasn't covered songs written by other songwriters.
 
You can't do it all yourself. I mean sure, you could--but that'd be boring.

Two heads are better than one! :D

Just think--some of the songs that Michael has co-written, or has had produced by someone else, we might not have had the pleasure of listening to today (Human Nature, PYT, Rock With You, etc. etc). The combination of MJ's ideas + another great producer's ideas = magic!

Collaboration is a wonderful thing, IMO.
 
I personally like the way he does his albums.

Many artists are just puppets performing other people's pieces of work. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But with MJ, it's always him taking ideas, testing, playing around until he find what works, then he gives it his own signature. Of course, he always has some stuff that's "all him'' too.

If he didn't work with others people, we wouldn't have "You Are Not Alone", "Rock With You", etc. The key is finding artists to work with who can taylor their own sound and mesh it with MJ, like Rod Temperton and Teddy Riley did. I think will.i.am can do that, as can some of the other rumored artists. Akon too, I believe, some of his remixes of songs for other artists have been really good and taylored to the specific artist's style.
 
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