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Post by mistermaxxx08 on Sept 23, 2017 3:49:28 GMT
you hear various arguments that young Michael had incredible music, Production
and his voice was scary soulful.
on the Adult side MJ expanded his range
and went to another level.
which side do you come down on
and what are the Pros to Both aspects of his career
and what are the cons
for you and why?
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Post by dancingmjsdream on Sept 23, 2017 16:56:28 GMT
I prefer adult MJ. I think his voice became very unique, and he experimented with it. Can't imagine little Michael singing Give Into Me or DSTYGE lol.
But I love young Michael. This is one of the best vocal performances of a kid I have ever seen:
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Post by MattyJam on Sept 23, 2017 17:05:34 GMT
Why should it be a competition? He had a God given gift, and this was apparent on the Ed Sullivan show in 1969 right through to This Is It in 2009.
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Post by dancingmjsdream on Sept 23, 2017 17:09:01 GMT
I guess some people think that he lost his great voice or something. Just another reason why Invincible is really underrated by the public imo, the songs have some of his best vocals.
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Post by MattyJam on Sept 23, 2017 18:23:32 GMT
From OTW-Invincible, MJ's vocals were always stunning. He was always such a nuanced, soulful and diverse vocalist. There are countless examples on each album where I could pick out certain lines, or phrases where I just think "man, I love how he delivers that line."
I guess there was a certain purity to his voice as a child which wasn't so evident in his vocals as an adult, but then he developed other areas of his voice instead as he grew older, such as the grovelly, angry voice that he started using from the Bad-era onwards. I'm talking about the voice he uses on the "what about us" bits in Earth Song, the choruses to Dirty Diana and Give Into Me, the outro to We've Had Enough, the adlibs in Whatever Happens, most of TDCAU etc. I've never heard anybody else successfully replicate that style of singing.
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Post by dancingmjsdream on Sept 23, 2017 18:47:10 GMT
it's very interesting for me to hear how his voice changed over time. I wish he re-recorded some more old J5 songs.
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TonyR
The Legend Continues
Posts: 8,490 
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Post by TonyR on Sept 23, 2017 18:50:15 GMT
This makes me want to start another thread on Live At The Forum, best live vocals of young Michael.
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Post by respect77 on Sept 24, 2017 7:42:04 GMT
From OTW-Invincible, MJ's vocals were always stunning. He was always such a nuanced, soulful and diverse vocalist. There are countless examples on each album where I could pick out certain lines, or phrases where I just think "man, I love how he delivers that line." I guess there was a certain purity to his voice as a child which wasn't so evident in his vocals as an adult, but then he developed other areas of his voice instead as he grew older, such as the grovelly, angry voice that he started using from the Bad-era onwards. I'm talking about the voice he uses on the "what about us" bits in Earth Song, the choruses to Dirty Diana and Give Into Me, the outro to We've Had Enough, the adlibs in Whatever Happens, most of TDCAU etc. I've never heard anybody else successfully replicate that style of singing. This. I think he was a phenomenal child singer, but his voice wasn't that unique as a child. Most child singers have the same type of voice, same tone - even if they aren't as great singers as MJ was. (Case in point: when One Bad Apple by the Osmonds came out, people believed it was a J5 record. Of course, when you pay attention to details and nuances you can clearly hear that Donny isn't as great of a singer as Michael is, but the tone, voice is similar enough that they could be genuinely mistaken for each other.) As an adult his voice was more unique and on top of that he used his vocals in a very unique and creative way. He developed his own way of singing. I love it how he used his vocals like an instrument (most often as a percussive instrument). I guess that's a James Brown influence but MJ took it to another level. I guess people associate a certain innocence with MJ's child voice and an era that was less controversial than his adult years, so it is "safer" to like child MJ. Another version of this is "I prefer black MJ to white MJ" and all variations of it ("I liked MJ when he was black."). This even goes as far as people almost literally treat him as if he was two different persons. I have seen "fans" who say they like him up until Thriller or Bad but literally hate everything about him after that - almost to hater levels. As if he personally offended them by his skin turning white, or something. Because it sure as hell isn't really about the music. The most extreme example of this is some people we know from MJJC who literally believe that the "real MJ" was murdered in the 1980s and they replaced him with someone else. LMAO. It's madness. |
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Post by mjjfan810 on Sept 24, 2017 7:42:09 GMT
In terms of his adult vocals, I prefer his voice pre-Dangerous. His vocals on OTW, Thriller and Bad are just the perfect mix of youthful exuberance and soul. He started to sound a little world-weary from Dangerous onwards. I think Invincible was his best album vocally speaking since Bad, but even then, there were a few songs where he sounded tired/rough (Heaven Can Wait and the middle eight to The Lost Children are particularly painful to my ears).
And as a live singer, I think from 79-88 (Destiny tour - Bad tour) he was the greatest to have ever done it. I think his live vocals in the 90s were mostly rough, out-of-breath and scratchy sounding. He did sound a bit better on TII though.
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Post by mjjfan810 on Sept 24, 2017 7:59:29 GMT
From OTW-Invincible, MJ's vocals were always stunning. He was always such a nuanced, soulful and diverse vocalist. There are countless examples on each album where I could pick out certain lines, or phrases where I just think "man, I love how he delivers that line." I guess there was a certain purity to his voice as a child which wasn't so evident in his vocals as an adult, but then he developed other areas of his voice instead as he grew older, such as the grovelly, angry voice that he started using from the Bad-era onwards. I'm talking about the voice he uses on the "what about us" bits in Earth Song, the choruses to Dirty Diana and Give Into Me, the outro to We've Had Enough, the adlibs in Whatever Happens, most of TDCAU etc. I've never heard anybody else successfully replicate that style of singing. This. I think he was a phenomenal child singer, but his voice wasn't that unique as a child. Most child singers have the same type of voice, same tone - even if they aren't as great singers as MJ was. (Case in point: when One Bad Apple by the Osmonds came out, people believed it was a J5 record. Of course, when you pay attention to details and nuances you can clearly hear that Donny isn't as great of a singer as Michael is, but the tone, voice is similar enough that they could be genuinely mistaken for each other.) As an adult his voice was more unique and on top of that he used his vocals in a very unique and creative way. He developed his own way of singing. I love it how he used his vocals like an instrument (most often as a percussive instrument). I guess that's a James Brown influence but MJ took it to another level. I guess people associate a certain innocence with MJ's child voice and an era that was less controversial than his adult years, so it is "safer" to like child MJ. Another version of this is "I prefer black MJ to white MJ" and all variations of it ("I liked MJ when he was black."). This even goes as far as people almost literally treat him as if he was two different persons. I have seen "fans" who say they like him up until Thriller or Bad but literally hate everything about him after that - almost to hater levels. As if he personally offended them by his skin turning white, or something. Because it sure as hell isn't really about the music. The most extreme example of this is some people we know from MJJC who literally believe that the "real MJ" was murdered in the 1980s and they replaced him with someone else. LMAO. It's madness. How can you say that? Little MJ had a way of singing that was so tender and pure, it was completely unique to him. I have heard I'll Be There covered dozens of times by different child singers, and none of them have been able to translate the emotion and feeling of the song the way MJ did as a child.
I think as a singer, MJ had a natural gift for making you feel like he believed every word he was singing from the depths of his soul. Very few singers possess that natural ability, at least not to MJs level. The only other singer I can think of who rivalled MJ in that department was Stevie Wonder.
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Post by respect77 on Sept 24, 2017 8:17:50 GMT
This. I think he was a phenomenal child singer, but his voice wasn't that unique as a child. Most child singers have the same type of voice, same tone - even if they aren't as great singers as MJ was. (Case in point: when One Bad Apple by the Osmonds came out, people believed it was a J5 record. Of course, when you pay attention to details and nuances you can clearly hear that Donny isn't as great of a singer as Michael is, but the tone, voice is similar enough that they could be genuinely mistaken for each other.) As an adult his voice was more unique and on top of that he used his vocals in a very unique and creative way. He developed his own way of singing. I love it how he used his vocals like an instrument (most often as a percussive instrument). I guess that's a James Brown influence but MJ took it to another level. I guess people associate a certain innocence with MJ's child voice and an era that was less controversial than his adult years, so it is "safer" to like child MJ. Another version of this is "I prefer black MJ to white MJ" and all variations of it ("I liked MJ when he was black."). This even goes as far as people almost literally treat him as if he was two different persons. I have seen "fans" who say they like him up until Thriller or Bad but literally hate everything about him after that - almost to hater levels. As if he personally offended them by his skin turning white, or something. Because it sure as hell isn't really about the music. The most extreme example of this is some people we know from MJJC who literally believe that the "real MJ" was murdered in the 1980s and they replaced him with someone else. LMAO. It's madness. How can you say that? Little MJ had a way of singing that was so tender and pure, it was completely unique to him. I have heard I'll Be There covered dozens of times by different child singers, and none of them have been able to translate the emotion and feeling of the song the way MJ did as a child.
I think as a singer, MJ had a natural gift for making you feel like he believed every word he was singing from the depths of his soul. Very few singers possess that natural ability, at least not to MJs level. The only other singer I can think of who rivalled MJ in that department was Stevie Wonder.
I did acknowledge his greatness as a singer and that he was way above his peers ("even if they aren't as great singers as MJ was"), but I don't think the tone of his voice and use of his vocals was as distinctive, as unique and creative as an adult. Of course, he was the most soulful kid I ever heard sing and it is very true that the conviction he could sing a song with was very unique as well - but that was always there from childhood to the end. And of course you will realize the differences in direct comparation. Eg. this makes it very clear that Donny wasn't Michael (and no one else was). Not even Stevie, IMO. So as you can see, I do think MJ was a child prodigy. What I meant was that I think as an adult the way he used his vocals became even more distinctive and unique, he developed his own way of singing - not to mention the special, unique warmth in his tone. |
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TonyR
The Legend Continues
Posts: 8,490
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Post by TonyR on Sept 24, 2017 8:25:46 GMT
The best thing about young MJs voice was the fact that although you can tell it wasn't an adult singing, he didn't sound like a kid.
It wasn't gimmicky.
It was believable.
Even when singing serious love songs such as Who's Loving You, it made sense.
There seemed to be a history there, as Berry Gordy put it - an old soul.
Normally an adult wouldn't play songs sung by a kid, to use The Osmonds analogy, these were for teenage girls, where as thirty or forty years later, grown men and women still play the songs of the Jackson Five.
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Post by respect77 on Sept 24, 2017 13:36:33 GMT
I also really love MJ's transitional voice in the mid 1970s. It already has its adult tone and characteristics, but also still has some of its childhood characteristics.
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Post by SoCav on Sept 24, 2017 14:37:09 GMT
I also really love MJ's transitional voice in the mid 1970s. It already has its adult tone and characteristics, but also still has some of its childhood characteristics. I agree, his vocals on the Forever Michael album feature that transitional voice most prominently. One Day In Your Life is an exception though imo. His voice sounds different altogether on that song, not like a mixture between his childhood and adult voice. It's a fantastic vocal. He uses the fragility of his transitional voice perfectly to emote the melancholy of that song. |
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Post by Snow White on Sept 25, 2017 2:58:37 GMT
What made Michael stand out from other child singers despite having a similar tone is that he emoted all the feelings depending on what the song was about, you belive every single word that came out his mouth. On Who's Lovin' You you believe his anguish, sadness and pain for losing his lover making your heart squeeze even though he recorded the song when he was 10 years old. Even if some people might think he lost the innocence in his voice he had in his chilhood when he got older, Michael never lost the ability to make you believe what he sang about with such emotion and passion but as an adult, his voice became more versatile, distictive and unique. He didn't copy anyone, no one like Michael to perform his own songs and that's the reason I prefer to listen instrumental covers without singing because performers hardly make him justice.
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