You remember how animated your kindergarten teacher was while reading a book? How’d she knew to be intense at certain parts and be quiet in others? That’s Michael Jackson, he’s a singing story teller
Michael Jackson was the man back in the day for sure! My older brother and I as kids used to dress up like Michael Jackson during the Smooth Criminal Era! Who doesn't love the moonwalk?! Fun times! Btw is your YT Profile Name supposed to be a mockery of Our Lord Jesus Christ (hope not as that is a grave sin and should be avoided/corrected). Have a good day man! Peace!
i think this is why i like ppl like ariel pink. the way they play around with it and how they will just do something left field that makes your body melt.
A hyper pure, flat, lighty voice. Michael's main technique is to dirty, to give texture and aggressiveness to this purity. The clarity of his voice allowed him to use the enormous dynamism that you, Chris, highlighted. Such a bless
Finally!!! A Vocal Coach, who actually appreciates Michael Jackson for his VOCALS. People seem to forget he is a child prodigy who was singing "Soul" songs, since he was 5!!! People focus on his dancing too much, don't get me wrong here, he was a master at dance, one of the greatest that ever lived, but so was he a vocalist! Long Live The King!!!
@@HypnoticHollywood That's kinda complicated to affirm that he was the GREATEST vocalist of all time, once we had lots of others. I'm a HUGE fan of him, I know his history and surely he was a god in everything he did. BUT we had Freddie Mercury, Stevie Wonder, Ronnie James Dio, true legends, and some others around at the time. We can't forget it. Listen to the isolated vocals of Freddie, for example, you will tremble..
Michael has said many times in his interviews that he sings rhythmically. All of those vocal artifacts are like rhythmic flourishes, like a percussionist. He views all instruments from a percussive perspective.
Chris Cornell was originally a drummer and did the same kind of thing. Especially when you listen to his live acoustic album where’s there’s very little compression. Gives this push/pull feel.
megavega, 👍👍👍 Yep. And for me, that’s one of the coolest and most exciting things about his voice - the incredible rhythmical funk and drive in his voice. Every note and every breath in his singing is dance. You can’t separate his dancing from his singing, imho :)
Michael sang the lead like a demon, but the harmonies were angelic. A man of many contradictions. His life and his whole being was an artistic expression in itself. It was in everything he did, from singing to dancing and of course, his image. Simply phenomenal. I will always love him.
I watched one of the interviews where he’s been explaining his technique…he simply said he’s becoming the sound. In my opinion it’s the best explanation, because as it’s been said in the video he didn’t think much about it. He couldn’t write music in music notes, he recorded himself singing. He simply felt motion, tension…he become those slamming door and many different things. Phenomenal artist.
Those isolated harmonies are just so amazing! The "Chiller, thriller, here tonight" part always gives me goosebumps, so good. I love this, really makes you realize how much work went into this song.
Michael's singing is like a perfect instrument itself complementing every song and melody. He prioritized emotion over techniques, that why his songs make you want to bob your head and dance, you can't sit still 😊
At 19:20, Michael is jumping around a C# fully diminished chord (C# E G and Bb) before landing on a crispy B9sus4. (Voiced as an A B C# E and F# as that last chord on “ToNIGHT~”) it’s crazy how specific he is in this voicing because of how unstable a fully diminished chord is and his vocal acrobatics to execute this harmony are insane!
Michael just sings by instinct...nothing else to see here...he does that without thinking too much...he was born to do this without too much effort....just listen dont overanalise...
Nah, he clearly was influenced by soul/gospel vocalists before him especially James brown. He didn’t just come out the womb singing with these little quirks. He worked at it and clearly experimented with vocal techniques.
hahaha - MJ would like you to believe that. He worked hard. Seth Riggs was his vocal coach. He always spent 30-60 minutes warming up before each recording session.
@@Elena-er7zp Now, what does that have to do with anything, precisely, let alone what the OP stated, lol? I'm genuinely curious, no matter how much smartassery *[I’ll admit it, lol]* is present throughout my initial question, which the only reason that I said what I did with any smartass tone is that what you expressed precisely, especially in regards to the original comment, not only has positively and blatantly no relevance to what OP commented but, furthermore, all your statement did was establish that you have an understanding of how Michael placed significance on vocal health and strength and maintaining that for as long as he could, especially considering *how long* he had been singing throughout his life, not to mention the illnesses that he faced for a considerable portion of his life, so I don't quite understand what is so “funny,” hence the “hahaha” leading your comment that has zero relevance, lol. By all means, however, please do explain.
Which is why he’s one of the few who could be forgiven for lip-syncing. He more than proved his might as a vocalist, and singing while dancing is hard enough to keep up with on its own (see Rob Zombie), especially considering the way Michael danced
As he should. As Chris has said many times, singing is a bodily experience. You use muscles that are there to help you poop, in order to push sounds out of your mouth. I'd say that's a bodily experience in itself.
Everybody is the music industry has lip synced, specially on TV specials, but also sung as well, it just depends on what it is and Michael sung all the time as a kid on those shows, so you want to hear some real singing go look at him when he was a kid.
Michael Jackson's voice is a result of hard work, experimentation, expression and power. Back in the day where you have to sing all the song at once without break. no melodyne, autotune or audio effects. just singing perfect.
Well, he took lots of breaks and did lots of takes. If you see some of the documentary footage of him tracking in the studio, you can see them taking little sections and analyzing them and singing short pieces until he gets stuff right. AS IT SHOULD BE though!! His perfectionism in the context of his singing made the tracks what they are forever. His ability to sing something, listen to it, and do again so that it is as good as it can possibly be! AND YESSSS... He made these wonderful tracks before there were any of the 'easy cheats' for sure!!
Everybody took breaks even Stevie wonder but I do agree with you and back then you had to have talent sadly that changed in the late 90s starting with j-lo and now look where we’re at today lol
It's true they had no autotune/melodyne. And not by fare the same after prossesing tools as today. But the technicians were very skilled in doing "jump ins" and quite precisely operated the big tape machines from a remote controller right next to them. Micheal was a perfectionist that patiently would repeat the same frazes over and over again until it was right (When most of us really couldn't tell the difference)
@@chrisliepe Really? Wow. I thought the tape machines back in the day would be hard to edit on so phrases would have to be one take instead of multiple takes comped.
What I hear Micheal he seemed to never lose the childlike passion of singing he reminded of when your a kid and you sing a weird song but instead of nonsense he made it professional but it seemes he never lost fun in singing.
I am so glad your videos rediscovered MJ for me. It is awesome how rhythmic are all the tiny things he does with his voice, as if he had a beatboxer along him.
He was a beatboxer himself btw. He beatboxed his own beats before he went to the studios and producers with it to recreate the beats. You should check out Michael Jackson’s beatbox collection on RU-vid or just listen to who is it and listen to the ending where he finished off the song beatboxing with a few instrumentals. The greatest to ever do it!
You can actually hear the hope in the word "hope" when Mike sang it. it's like he added the expression of the words as if he were performing them rather than singing them. This was an eye opener for me. Thanks Chris💯
I will never understand why people feel the need to "correct" subtle nuances out of music. It makes it less than what it was when you iron out the human element, not more.
@@chrisliepe I find it hard to believe that MJ's tuning variations in his backing vocals were not on purpose. It is these variations that make it sound big and textured. These were no accidents. Had it been an accidents then his main vocals would not be as brilliant.
He has a fast vibrato like Stevie Wonder. Really cool. He also is percussive with his voice and breath sounds, softening ts to ds reducing plosives that would be a product of percussive singing, very relaxed and intentional. I grew up on this album.
I'm listening to it and I'm flipping out... It's impossible to imitate this man singing... Thanks so much for this analysis! I don't know where or how to start doing to use Mr. Jackson's skills to sing.... Bloody hell!!!!
Correcting little cracks and shakes in MJ's voice screws with the entire gritty sound ESPECIALLY in Thriller. You're supposed to get the angsty nearly cowering sound in his voice because it's a song about spooky supernatural stuff going on...
Those harmonies are undoubtedly the Jackson 5 influence, and the auto tune knocks out the natural flanging in the chorus; fascinating hearing this classic unpacked like that.
The vocal variation that isn’t auto tuned, if not completely off-pitch, has a chorus kind of effect. For those that don’t know part of the chorus effect is just slightly wavering the pitch some cents. Not like half/whole notes necessarily, just enough to make it not perfect. So that could explain why it sounds good 😁
At 19:20, Michael is jumping around a C# fully diminished chord (C# E G and Bb) before landing on a crispy B9sus4. (Voiced as an A B C# E and F# as that last chord on “ToNIGHT~”) it’s crazy how specific he is in this voicing because of how unstable a fully diminished chord is and his vocal acrobatics to execute this harmony are insane!
First off we cant sing like MJ so we can all forget the attempt. I am certain MJ is the greatest male vocalist of all time. He used his voice as a instrument and it kept changing every decade, meaning he was using and practicing for the voice to sound different every album. Also the reason why Michael was singing so rhythmically, was because his foot never stopped tapping...he was dancing while singing in the studio.
That's really complex harmonic voicing for his voice in the backing. With him not playing any chordal instruments fluently, it's really interesting he could have a grasp of harmony to that degree. Shame they tuned him. As for the lead, you have the exact philosophy I have had on singing, that the best singers sing like they are painter. With light, color, form, and motion. Sometimes it is rough, sometimes it is smooth. Sometimes it is tighter, sometimes looser. But it is ultimately like they are expressing their voice on the canvas of the song.
@@mssha1980 I haven't heard acapella home demos written and sung by those artists, so maybe they are. But Michael Jackson is a really specific case because he would write entire songs with no instruments to guide the key, no outside songwriters, just his voice. That's a very rare ability. Any singer can be coached to sing a harmony by mirroring an instrument or mirroring another singer. Going from scratch acapella requires advanced ears.
@@mssha1980 Temperton wrote it, Quincy produced it, I wasn’t alive in 1983 but seeing as there was basically no way to arrange and hear it back like you can today without recording to tape, I imagine Temperton’s contributions were primarily writing the song at a piano which Quincy arranged into the song
Michael has been singing his whole life, it is his art, and a perfectionist. And he is a genius. And as years went by he just got better and better and better at his art of singing. ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️ It's sad that he is gone, and people are still amazed by his singing and what he has done, which has influenced us. Me myself can I get enough of him still. And I am 60. He put his whole heart and soul into his music.
Jackson is wildly underrated as a vocalist. Always in the top ten of all time vocalists but never number 1. For me he is number 1. The greatest variation of tones and an undeniably individual sound like no other. Immediately identifiable!
Great Job Chris......As a Vocal Coach and recording artist, I always try to get my students and the artists that we record, to listen to what artists like Michael Jackson and Bruno Mars etc., do with articulation and pronunciation on their voices. People do want to hear everything you sing, believe it or not....Lol Again, great job!
@@TheBcoolGuy Back in the 90s, I've seen many bands /singers ect but MJ was beyond this world ...Just an amazing experience i was lucky to witness so maybe i got some good karma lol
It is so refreshing to listen to a vocal coach who actually is a great singer himself. Who are not just talking, but also can demonstrate perfectly. Thank you for that. It's a well known fact among real musicians that slight variations in pitch is what makes overdubbing harmonies sound really magical and big. The mathematical pitch tuners only make it smaller and dull sounding
Rod Temperton was a genius writer, composer, and vocal arranger. If you like Thriller, go listen to any Heatwave album, you get to hear the genius of Rod Temperton's arrangements
That whoo hoo that he does is a technique he's been using since he was about 10 years. The tune Chained to your love from the Jackson Five days is where he started using it. He began the tune with Whoo hoo listen darlin.
He’s got an incredible approach to hold and cut off notes with a very natural feel. This is what hold back vocalists like Myles Kennedy who have incredible talent, but lack that phrasing with a strong push/pull feel.
16:10 It's pitch-corrected for sure! We can clearly hear "you start to freeEeeEeeeeeEeze".. I don't know, but I think this is evidence of pitch correction..
I remember his music teacher back in kindergarten or elementary (?) said that she was once messed a note and continued but the class didn’t notice except Michael. He saw Mike was surprised and looking at her, laughing. + he cant read note but he knows what it sounded like and thats f awesome.
To have a great voice is something... To be very talented is something... But to have the vision and to be able to put a song together from scratch with that level of detail...that's Michael Jackson's genius
I would like to see today’s singers do even a quarter of what Michael Jackson dead back in the day. There’s far too much pitch correction autotune et cetera these days. Talent? You don’t need it these days.
Hey Chris, I was just watching this video for the first time. I actually have a keyboard right next to me run through a minimoog VST. I played along with each of those isolated vocal notes in the harmonies and there are some WILD variations (going flat/sharp) on his voice. It's definitely not tuned. My only guess is that what you're hearing is a lot of audio compression quality issues and possibly even the way the person in that video mixed the vocals. The truth is, I think Mike is just so amazing that we don't distinguish it lol. But yeah, not tuned. Hope that helps demystify it!
This is so awesome to experience. Thanks Chris. IMHO, pitch correcting great vocal works is like painting over the original paintings of great painters. It would be assuming that I know better than what the creator wanted. It’s just wrong to me. After watching your video, it suddenly made sense why the re-releases didn’t feel as moving to me as what I remember hearing on vinyl when I was a kid. Maybe I should just go ahead and get a record player and start collecting vinyls again. Is there any chance at all that the new vinyls have been pitch corrected?
Thank you for the amazing analysis... MJ songs should be all studied... each one is a masterpiece that its hard to comprehend without being an expert, you doing a great job... more MJ song please!
MJ certainly knew how to utilise the multi-track recorder to its ultimate potential when recording backing vocals. Credit, in my opinion, has to also go to the inventor/s of the tape machine, the sound engineer/s, songwriter/s, producer etc… Without whom none of these incredible sounds would’ve been possible. Everyone involved has to take equal credit. Phenomenal work by all..
I really appreciate how Michael’s style is singing never changed! I love this breakdown ♥️ I often close my eyes and just focus on his ad-libs and background vocals as well. I’m such an impersonator of vocals so this is right up my alley😅
the background vocals without pitch correction were even more impressive. the lead had so much character that really helped to tell the story. the song was so well written melodically and lyrically. an atmosphere was created before the short film - which took it to another level. i watched this video in one go, which is rare for me considering the length. thanks for making it :)
I've heard Steve Lukather said that when he was working in studio on songs that Michael wrote (on tape recorder), Michael used to sing him every notes to play for each chords by ear. Lukather said he was amazed by MJ's musical ears. He probably had perfect pitch.
Yea! He couldn't totally understand sheet music! But if you played a key or note... He'd hit the same note in the same key and say... that's C sharp or whatever! And then play it on keyboard or piano!
One of my favourite things about this channel is how Chris can make me get excited again about something I have heard so many times before. Four thumbs up Chris (well, two of them are toes but you get my drift...)
It's funny, I always felt like the "Door slam" line was sung much more aggressively and faster....... But this isolated track really shows how non aggressive he is. I pulled up the final mix version to see if it still felt aggressive............ Let's just say, I won't be hearing that "Door slam" line with the same, umpff!
That oooh sound that Michael made from time to time here emulated a ghost sound, but he made in such a cool way that we don't even notice it. We just dive into the experience. Because this song performed by Michael Jackson is a true musical experience.
The "double inhale" is a punch in as this was way before Pro Tools fixes. Double breaths were common in tape based recordings though not often heard unless the track is isolated.
Hey there, vocalist here. New to the channel. You got yourself a sub. I got excited about the exact same things as you at the exact same moment in the video. Love how you're so passionate about those little details. Also, I love the "Paralyzed" at 3:41.
Hey Chris! This one would be a bit different but you should absolutely do “Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap. It’s already an “acapella” song so it’s already isolated, but the acapella part is mostly (if not all) vocoder. You can still hear the main vocal melody on top. Just an all around beautiful song and great example of how to write an entirely voice driven song!
@@WinterhouseRecords A vocoder applies the volume envelope across corresponding frequency bands of one signal (the modulator) to another signal (the carrier). Essentially, the carrier signal (usually a synth) provides the pitch, while the modulator signal (usually a vocoder) provides the pronunciation. Basically, the vocoder effect is a process of applying the speech and pronunciation of a vocal recording to a synth, making it sound like the synth is "talking" or "singing". No pitch information from the vocal performance makes it through. A harmonizer, on the other hand, is applied directly to a vocal. Imogen Heap uses an Eventide or a TC Helicon if I recall correctly. Not sure if she's ever used Digitech before. Anyway, the harmonizer can operate one of two ways; it will create copies of live incoming audio (vocal) and apply controlled pitch shifting to the copies so that they stack up and form vocal harmonies, and it may or may not (depending on the settings) apply this to the lead vocal. For this reason, harmonizers have been (secretly) used for archaic pitch correction on backing vocals as far back as their introduction in 1975 (Eventide H910). So basically, the difference is that vocoders work by mixing two signals together, while a harmonizer is processing applied directly to a vocal. A vocoder does not retain a vocal performance, only the pronunciation, whereas a harmonizer does indeed retain the vocal performance; inflection, vibrato, intonation, everything.
@@mgmg116 oh okay that actually makes sense! The Digitech thing I just saw on Wiki so it could be wrong. Interesting stuff tho! Maybe I should look into getting a harmonizer in the future 😁
For me the uncorrected version sounds more like old tape playback speed inconsistences than MJ missing the pitch 🤔. I love this kind of analysis thanks for making great content!!
Considering that we as singers, lay our vocal lines over guitars and basses, which are never really “tuned”, all those fluctuations in pitch, make everything real. The voice is a wind+cord instrument, imperfect by nature. MJ singing is out of this world. That’s how awesome human ear and real intonation should sound like, in my humble opinion :-)
"Be a composer with your own voice." Such great advice! I've seen videos of MJ and Beyoncé talk to their musicians about their instrumental parts by imitating the instrument with their voice. Not in a goofy way but a pitch-perfect replication of the sound or melody that they envision.
By the way, all of Michael Jackson's vocals (between Off The Wall through Dangerous) were recorded using a Shure SM7 dynamic microphone, rather than a high-end condenser. You can tell by the nuance in the sound.
I’ve never ever heard anyone sing like Michael did. Yet he inspired millions. Is there anyone? The first time I heard him it was just wow; the most beautiful thing I ever heard. I was a small child, and it really blew my mind. I know he said: when it feels right, it’s right… meaning he wasn’t extremely concerned about singing “correctly”. That’s so cool.
(14:23) The way you say, "What was that?" ha ha ha ha! I can't stop laughing! It doesn't even sound like Michael. Maybe it was a Producer that wanted to join in. Ha ha ha ha!
I spent SO many years with vocal lessons/ training that focused on technique and breathing and theory and such. And while that’s good, I did realize in hindsight that it got completely in the way of creativity of the art. Imperfection and individual approach is THE thing that makes it so special! I kind of missed out on the beauty of that freedom, because I didn’t think I was allowed to do that. You’re right on with your analysis’s. So far I’ve heard you analyze Kurt Cobain, Kayne Stanley, Thom Yorke, and David Draiman, and now Michael Jackson..
MJ, I always felt and thought was the ultimate example of expression, and it made a huuuuge imprint on how I model my own vocals (not copy but you know what I mean)! Stellar sound, thank you so much for unpacking, it was pure magic! 💫
