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Post by pg13 on Aug 7, 2023 12:12:32 GMT
According to GetBPM and a couple of other sites, WYBT and Got To Be There have similar BPMs of 83. Got To Be There is described on Wikipedia as "The song was composed as a pop ballad with soul and soft rock elements." And by Rolling Stone as "A Top Five pop and R&B hit, the buttery ballad "Got to Be There"..." In terms of music history, it's only really since 1950 that it became common to refer to ballads as slow, sentimental love songs. Even so, today a ballad isn't just a slow love song. Today we have "jazz ballads", "pop ballads", "rock ballads", "R&B ballads" and "power ballads". Form and narrative content is what makes a ballad, not tempo. This explains the different types of ballads. Oh I didn't know there were websites where you could look up song BPMs So WYBT is 83 bpm, MITM is 100 BPM, YANA is 120 BPM, but the latter is a ballad and the other two aren't? How come? How about this one? Little Susie = 135 bpm.
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Post by MattyJam on Aug 7, 2023 13:20:35 GMT
Oh come on, Matty. You should know by now that Chucky Berry, James Brown, Little Richard, Elvis, The Beatles, The Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, The BeeGees, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Queen, ABBA, Prince, Madonna, Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, George Michael, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Nirvana, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Eminem, Beyoncรฉ, and Taylor Swift are just a footnote in music history compared to Michael Jackson. Have you not read "Michael Jackson Fan For Dummies"? ๐ It's funny cuz it's true. Although I take umbridge with the inclusion of Justin Timberlake amongst the rest of those artists.
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TonyR
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Post by TonyR on Aug 7, 2023 13:27:49 GMT
Other notable ballads include We Will Rock You Welcome To The Jungle Smells Like Teen Spirit Highway to Hell Barbie Girl According to GetBPM and a couple of other sites, WYBT and Got To Be There have similar BPMs of 83. Got To Be There is described on Wikipedia as "The song was composed as a pop ballad with soul and soft rock elements." And by Rolling Stone as "A Top Five pop and R&B hit, the buttery ballad "Got to Be There"..." In terms of music history, it's only really since 1950 that it became common to refer to ballads as slow, sentimental love songs. Even so, today a ballad isn't just a slow love song. Today we have "jazz ballads", "pop ballads", "rock ballads", "R&B ballads" and "power ballads". Form and narrative content is what makes a ballad, not tempo. This explains the different types of ballads. You can hear his BPM at the beginning of Smooth Criminal, is that a ballad?
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Post by pg13 on Aug 7, 2023 14:02:00 GMT
According to GetBPM and a couple of other sites, WYBT and Got To Be There have similar BPMs of 83. Got To Be There is described on Wikipedia as "The song was composed as a pop ballad with soul and soft rock elements." And by Rolling Stone as "A Top Five pop and R&B hit, the buttery ballad "Got to Be There"..." In terms of music history, it's only really since 1950 that it became common to refer to ballads as slow, sentimental love songs. Even so, today a ballad isn't just a slow love song. Today we have "jazz ballads", "pop ballads", "rock ballads", "R&B ballads" and "power ballads". Form and narrative content is what makes a ballad, not tempo. This explains the different types of ballads. You can hear his BPM at the beginning of Smooth Criminal, is that a ballad? Are we not talking about music?! Last I checked a heartbeat isn't a piece of music. ๐คทโโ๏ธ Needless to say, a ballad isn't strictly defined by the BPMs. Form and narrative content defines them.
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Post by pg13 on Aug 7, 2023 14:04:01 GMT
A ballad isn't just a love song although many think it is. How on God's green earth is WYBT not a pop-gospel ballad?! True, I always considered songs like MITM, WYBT and Cry to be ballads. I agree with Matty that the Invincible trio BOD/HCW/Butterflies aren't ballads though. They're obviously mid-tempo but don't have the hallmarks of a traditional ballad. First line - good lad! Last line - what do you think the hallmarks of a traditional ballad is? I mean, you didn't say at all.
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Post by pg13 on Aug 7, 2023 14:07:37 GMT
Stupid thread. MJ delivers more passion in one ad-lib than Prince or Madonna could ever hope to muster. Thread is about who had the better ballads not who did the best adlibs. Sure, but as you've seen a ballad is considerably wider than you appear to have thought.
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Post by Russg on Aug 7, 2023 15:36:41 GMT
True, I always considered songs like MITM, WYBT and Cry to be ballads. I agree with Matty that the Invincible trio BOD/HCW/Butterflies aren't ballads though. They're obviously mid-tempo but don't have the hallmarks of a traditional ballad. First line - good lad! Last line - what do you think the hallmarks of a traditional ballad is? I mean, you didn't say at all. It's hard to quantify. Do you consider those songs to be ballads then?
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Post by MattyJam on Aug 7, 2023 15:42:11 GMT
Thread is about who had the better ballads not who did the best adlibs. Sure, but as you've seen a ballad is considerably wider than you appear to have thought. I don't buy it, sorry. There's more to whether a song is a ballad than just BPM. It's about feeling, emotion, delivery. For me, there's a distinct difference between a song like Earth Song and a song like YANA. Let's look at Invincible ballads, YAML, Speechless and Don't Walk Away all have a very different tone than songs like BOD/HCW/Butterflies. It's not an exact science of course, but a ballad is a lighters-in-the-air moment, you have to be able to sway to it, maybe slow dance. You can't sway to Butterflies, you can groove to it, but not sway. And you certainly can't sway to Earth Song or MITM!!!
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Post by pg13 on Aug 7, 2023 15:48:10 GMT
First line - good lad! Last line - what do you think the hallmarks of a traditional ballad is? I mean, you didn't say at all. It's hard to quantify. Do you consider those songs to be ballads then? I consider BoD, Butterflies and HCW to be R&B Ballads. Wikipedia states this about Butterflies: "Butterflies" is a midtempo ballad". Indeed, this too: ""Cry" is an R&B ballad with lyrics that highlight problems with the planet." The tempo of the two is similar, but this isn't what strictly defines a ballad. Four line verses is one criterion and a story narrative is another one. But ballads have always had quite a wide range of tempos.
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Post by pg13 on Aug 7, 2023 16:22:56 GMT
Sure, but as you've seen a ballad is considerably wider than you appear to have thought. I don't buy it, sorry. There's more to whether a song is a ballad than just BPM. It's about feeling, emotion, delivery. For me, there's a distinct difference between a song like Earth Song and a song like YANA. Let's look at Invincible ballads, YAML, Speechless and Don't Walk Away all have a very different tone than songs like BOD/HCW/Butterflies. It's not an exact science of course, but a ballad is a lighters-in-the-air moment, you have to be able to sway to it, maybe slow dance. You can't sway to Butterflies, you can groove to it, but not sway. And you certainly can't sway to Earth Song or MITM!!! What you're talking about there is purely subjective experiences when listening to the songs. But that isn't the same thing as classification of ballads. From what you're saying here, to you a ballad is a slow sentimental song. Historically speaking, ballads were songs you'd dance to. You speak of swaying to slow songs - that's a more recent idea circa 1950 onwards. The ballad has since diversified from the traditional ballad into R&B, Power, Pop, etc, today. But a narrative story of love, loss, heroism or some other dramatic event is one important characteristic of the ballad. Another is a simple, straightforward melody - can you hum it? I mean, you don't have to be convinced personally. But the objective reality is that various types of ballads ARE officially accepted today. Otherwise we wouldn't have power, R&B, Pop, Rock, etc, ballads. Earth Song and WYBT are both ballads.
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TonyR
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Post by TonyR on Aug 7, 2023 16:28:25 GMT
Possibly overthinking a lot of this.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2023 19:01:06 GMT
One Day In Your Life is MJs best ballad.
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TonyR
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Post by TonyR on Aug 7, 2023 19:04:52 GMT
One Day In Your Life is MJs best ballad. Dirty Diana says hello.
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Post by pg13 on Aug 7, 2023 20:02:50 GMT
Who's Loving You says hello to ODIYL and DD.....
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Post by butterflies2 on Aug 7, 2023 22:05:25 GMT
Yes dirty Diana is a power ballad as well, I read somewhere it was inspired by killing me softly
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