How Jackie Wilson, James Brown and Diana Ross Influenced the performance of Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson was influenced by several artists, the main ones being Jackie Jackie Wilson, James Brown, and Diana Rose. From what is seen from the performance of Jackie Wilson, from his stage presence, and how he, easily, received the name, Mr. Excellent. Wilson’s manifestation of electrifying dance moves involved twisting, jumping and sometimes included his boxing movements to showcase his elegant footwork during his performance. These were movements studied by Michael Jackson, and he employed them in return, in the way he drifted across the stage and spun up with ease and at the same time while still managing to hit his musical tone (Rhymes, 2018).
In the case of James Brown, also nicknamed the godfather of soul, Michael Jackson refers to him as his primary influencer of how he performed. Michael was fascinated by the way he performed with charisma and energy. He enjoyed the way he moved with ease and danced moving his feet during his performance. He would watch him perform and practiced the steps while the godfather performed and would get frustrated when they would not show James Browns feet while he danced. Michael performed with a lot of energy while displaying beautiful dance moves just like his mentor did. It is even seen from the famous moonwalk dance that had some similarities with one of James Browns dance moves.
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In the case of Diana Rose, Michael attributes his vocal techniques to Diana Rose. He would observe how she moved during rehearsals. Diana Ross was a good performer who Michael described her as art in motion. He had learned how Diana Ross sang and moved and would apply these techniques in his performance. Michael also attributed his style of including the interjection oooh to Diana Rose, during his performances, he frequently used the interpolation oooh in punctuating most of his verses. In most of Diana’s songs, she included this effect.
Why Quincy Jones was a great producer for Michael Jackson
The reason why Quincy Jones was a great producer for Michael Jackson is that he had a keen eye to good music and the resilience and time he took to go through hundreds of records only to find a handful which were good. When joining Mercury Records, he thought it would be easy to make music only to find the experience humbling. After sometimes he gets a demo tape from a 16-year-old and decides to go with that. This record goes to the top of the chat. When producing Michael’s music, he went through 600 demo tapes only to come up with 12 which he deemed worthy. This included Thriller which sold over a hundred copies all over the world (Leight, 2018).
Why the Thriller album was a great success
The Thriller album had redefined music by breaking the culture of black and white music. It could be played in rock stations which mainly had a white audience, and it could also be played on urban-dance radio stations which had a black audience. It also broke down ethnic obstacles on television channels such as MTV. Tracks like beat it which were released later on also portrayed in the video dances which brought rival gangs together. A pop critic at the Times called Michael, "a pioneering entertainer" because of the presence of culture in the Thriller album.
Strengths and conflicts of Michael Jackson at 24
At 24 Michael Jackson has evolved as a progressive entrepreneur reaching for the stars. He has a determined personality; he is dedicated to his work and strives to do things according to the way they should be. Even though he encounters setbacks, he never loses hope and works even harder to realize his goals. It ages he also has some conflicts within him, mostly attributed to the fact that he has not experienced his childhood. He primarily associates with children, probably because it reminded him of his youth. When he breaks his nose during a rehearsal session, he decides to do a nose surgery to transform his nose just because he was being called "big nose" by his brothers (Cabrera, 2017).
Listening responses
The song Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough has a sweet and funky harmonious melody with a repetitive rhythm. In the song it is a bit difficult to hear some lyrics but due to the way Michael sings them because of the notes involved within the song. On the other hand, Girlfriend has a bouncy or flexible melody the pleasant backing harmony was added by the falsetto singing. It is a weak song compared to songs like Wild Life with only exiting part being the guitar line. Get on the floor has a quick melody to it with a gripping and an upbeat harmony. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin’ has sweet and complicated rhythm and it is also a sing a long song. Human Nature has a battery harmony with a smooth melody which makes it a very powerful song. The song P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) has a curly melody made for a rich disco paradise but compared to the other thriller album songs it was a little bit weak. Thriller has a sufficiently groovy melody with a high harmony that makes the song beautiful to listen to, while Billie Jean had a gloomy yet eccentric melody and a feel good song at the same time, one would say a terrifying rhythm with the falsetto singing adding the harmony.
The Thriller song itself was written by Rod Temperton who wanted to do a dramatic song to fit Michael’s fascination of film. He extemporized with drum and base until he got the baseline that goes through the song. The initial version of the Thriller song was named Starlight and was supposed to have the word in the chorus. The production team rejected the title saying that they wanted something mysterious and that is when Temperton came up with the title Thriller. He, however, thought that the word Thriller would be crappie to sing but through practice, they managed to incorporate it in the lyrics.
John Landis directed the video of the Thriller song. In the music video, Jackson is with his girlfriend when zombies attack them. Michael Jackson also transforms into a zombie, and they dance with the undead. This video takes its attributes from several horror films that had already been produced. The idea was developed after Michael spoke with Landis and they both conceived a 13-minute video for Thriller. Another idea funded it called the making of the Thriller featuring for the first time on MTV, and it went on in doubling the sales of the music.
The song Billie Jean was about groupies. It was written and produced by Michael and Quincy Jones. Michael says Billie Jean was the name of the groupies who use to hang around backstage and have relationships with any band that came to perform. It is also said that it was inspired by a woman who claimed that Michael fathered one of her twins. She sent a lot of letters which were ignored by Michael. She even complained about why Michael was ignoring her letters. Michael suffered from nightmares from these letters, and later on, the lady sent another message instructing Michael to kill himself at a particular time and that she would also do the same after killing their sun so that they could meet in the afterlife. Michael framed the picture that was sent to him and hanged it in his dining room.
The video was one of the regularly played music from a black artist on MTV at the time because the channel said that black music was not rocking enough. The video shows a photographer who follows Michael, but he never catches him, and when he does the photo never materializes when it is developed. Michael dances while going to Billie Jean's room and while walking on the sidewalk, as he touches the sidewalk, each title lights up.
Thriller song and Billie Jean were related in that they almost had the same tempo to them, they were both easy to dance to songs. The videos also involve girls only that in thriller Michael likes the girl but in Billie Jean Michael is denying having a child. This is a very unique way to capture and relate to an audience, perhaps some of the reason why thriller and Billie Jean did so well.
References
Cabrera, C. E. (2017, November 30). Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ at 35: A Look Back at the Groundbreaking Album. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/arts/music/michael-jacksons-Thriller.html
Leight, E. (2018, September 21). ‘Quincy’: 10 Things We Learned from New Quincy Jones Doc . Retrieved from https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/quincy-10-things-learned-quincy-jones-doc-726372/
Rhymes, S. (2018, January 22). Jackie Wilson’s Influence on the American Soundtrack (Demo) . Retrieved from https://nmaam.org/2018/01/22/jackie-wilsons-influence-american-soundtrack/
