Glad you enjoy it, I like it too, better than other posthumous releases but it's alright. Chicago and Loving You are my favourites. | |
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Sources: Connect Amarillo – By Chelsea Goss| Edited By – All Things Michael AMARILLO — It’s a jam-packed production featuring dancers, singers, Michael Jackson music, a Biblical lesson and a message of hope. The show, put on by the Break-Free Foundation, is meant to propel the mission and vision of the organization as they try to impact the community and change lives. “It’s about the human condition, the heart, hope, destiny and the possibility of a changed life, “You hear Michael Jackson and he’s a great artist, and to hear those two things, and intertwine it with our vision and our mission (of the Break-Free Foundation), people are taken by surprise when it comes to the conclusion of this story. But it’s worked to where they are able to grasp the entirety of the message,” said Saavedra. The Break-Free Foundation is focused on helping people who may have struggled with obstacles in their past and are looking to overcome those. The production, which is both a fundraiser and an outreach, is meant to help share the organization’s message. “It helps us to be more effective in our community, to do more products and to help those that are less fortunate, those that need help with addiction, abuse, alcoholism,” explained Luis Diaz, The Break-Free foundation’s director. The play is mostly based off of the late Michael Jackson. Saavedra explained that the pop star’s tragic death had touched him, especially acknowledging that everyone, even superstars, have a hidden, internal struggle. And since The Break-Free Foundation focuses on helping people overcome that internal struggle, the message of the faith-based ministry is clear. “The audience comes and they see the change that God has done in people’s lives and it makes a difference, and it gives the hope that God can do something in their lives,” said the foundation’s director, Luis Diaz. “Even Michael Jackson had a problem, and there was hope for him. There’s hope for anybody. Jesus can change anybody’s life.” The cast and crew, made up of members of the foundation, worked hard to create the production, decked out with tech, props, costume changes, and a live band. “It is a lot of work and it is very time consuming. Many of the people that are involved have kids and full time jobs,” said one of the lead actors, Adrian Farley. But for Farley, the time is well worth it. ““I love being involved with it because there are so many opportunities to see lives changed for one, because of what was changed in my life.”
http://vallieegirl67.com/2014/11/01/faith-based-foundation-uses-michael-jacksons-life-and-music-for-outreach/ | |
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So Tom Sneddon is dead. | |
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Every day has a silver lining ..... | |
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbI2JFMwKCo
Audio of mj recording childhood | |
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^Very cool Rodney, thanks for posting! MJ L.O.V.E: https://www.facebook.com/...689&type=2 / YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/us...nderSilent | |
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That's incredible, sting sounds awesome over the dirty diana beat...the two should have collobarated! | |
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A Sting+MJ collab would have been HOTT! MJ L.O.V.E: https://www.facebook.com/...689&type=2 / YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/us...nderSilent | |
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fluid said: No electronic soulnds on Thriller
Michael was always cutting edge. His ablbumms since Bad had electronics sounds on them. Interesting cause syntheseizers were out then. Only songs which really had any were PYT and Baby Be Mine. I guess there was some slight ones in other songs like Thriller. But those were 70s ELectro-Boogie sounds. No 80s synth sounds. Cause MJ loved to experiment and do things weird. Funny he hadn't caught to the electronic sound everyone waqs using. Part of his being "cutting edge" was his reliance on both electronic and acoustic instruments. Synthesizers and the Linn LM-1/ Roland TR-808 drum machines were used throughout the "Thriller" album along with live instruments and percussion. | |
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Not sure of that. Thriller sounds basically like Disco-Funk. Bad and later albums have a Dance sound. Infact his last one escape is categorized as Dance. Working up a purple sweat. | |
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fluid said:
Not sure of that. Thriller sounds basically like Disco-Funk. Bad and later albums have a Dance sound. Infact his last one escape is categorized as Dance. Yeah, alot of those typical "80's" sounding dance records were left on the cutting room floor once Thriller got trimmed down. His team used all of the newest and popular gear of that time, but they made it come alive by blending them with live instrumentation. Yamaha CS-80s, Roland Jupiters, Sequential Circuit Prophet-5s, and Moog synths are sprinkled all over the Thriller album. [Edited 11/5/14 10:39am] | |
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How Branding Launched Michael Jackson’s Solo Career“Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough” was the first big hit from Off the Wall, the album that first and finally distinguished Michael Jackson from the rest of the Jackson 5. And that phrase could also describe Mike Salisbury’s process of art directing what became Michael’s most iconic cover image. This is in spite of the fact that Epic Records used dumb and inappropriate title lettering and did a lousy printing job. Above: concept sketch illustrated by Toril Bækmark For the past half-century Mike Salisbury has successfully branded magazines and motorcycles, perfumes and theme parks, Levi’s and Gotcha, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park. And, most notoriously, Joe Camel. Smokin’ Joe was actually the subject of my first Print interview with Mike, and was recently reprinted and deconstructed in Steven Heller’s Writing and Research for Graphic Designers. Off the Wall was released in 1979, when Michael Jackson’s personal reputation had not yet been blemished. And since this year marks the 35th anniversary of Mike’s ushering in Michael’s coming out on his own, I got a behind-the-curtains account of Mike’s creative triumph over a variety of temperamental and logistical obstacles in order to produce his seminal image. And the man who branded the “King of Pop” wraps up the interview with an extended riff on his early career trajectory. Michael Dooley: How does Michael’s shoot compare with album covers you’ve art directed for other pop stars? Mike Salisbury: George Harrison took more work. He wasn’t difficult but we were way out in Henley on Thames, England shooting film that was sent to London for processing then back to us at Friar Park, his estate, to review, then shoot more. It was a tight deadline and there was no way to get prints and retouching. And I had no concept. Nor did I get one from anyone else. I wanted the cover to be a big deal portrait of just George, yet impressionist. Wandering through his ancient greenhouse one of the days I was there I went outside and saw him through a mossy broken window and had him move close to that and shot him with a longish lens to create, I think, an almost painterly portrait. For the inside of the covers I used another long lens and from a distance shot him full figure, looking down, walking along a hedge, with him at the far left edge of the frame. Sort of Sergio Leone. That gave me a contrast to the full head shot. And, I think, it gave me two views of George Harrison not captured before. He went with my choices. No problem. With George, Randy Newman, James Taylor, and Ricky Lee Jones I had the support of their producer, Russ Titelman. But no problems. The music business was very much teamwork. Unlike some jobs, such as the marketing of over 300 movies I worked on. That had a lot of voices and opinions on the client side, with a lot of input but also a lot of change orders. I had Norman Seeff shoot Ricky Lee for me because she was perfect, with her own styling, for his style of glamor shot. And James had specific ideas, and to carry them out I again used Norman, to have the shots be technically perfect, to have James’ concepts read without any interpretation by the photographer. I had Steve Harvey shoot Michael for me because we just got along. Dooley: It was Michael’s performance in The Wiz that made you want to brand him. What did you see there? Salisbury: To me he was no longer that kid on the Saturday morning kids’ TV show. He was a major performer. And I think he had to hold back not to upstage the rest of the headliner cast. I thought he needed to be positioned as his own star. He needed to be branded as Michael Jackson. Dooley: How did you hit on the tuxedo metaphor to connect his emerging from his family’s shadows with Frank Sinatra’s early opening in Vegas? Salisbury: Sinatra coming onstage in a tux said big deal performer. And I wanted Michael to taken as a big deal performer. And Michael got it. Dooley: At first, his agent had rejected the concept. Luckily for you, Michael had been in the office throughout your pitch, but he was hiding behind the drapes. Did you find that odd? Salisbury: It was odd but very cool. And businesslike that he was there to see the presentation. That was Michael Jackson. Dooley: Why did he originally insist on shooting at the Griffith Observatory? Salisbury: My only thought was it was the iconic teenage location: Rebel Without a Cause and that memorable scene there with the knife fight. But there was no way the classic deco architecture would not overpower Michael as an individual. He was late for the shoot, roaring up the hill in a blue Rolls with his new driver’s license in his wallet and a dent in every fender. He had the tux on a hanger, and the loafers. Park guards continually patrolled the observatory and we didn’t have much time between their rounds. Michael ran to the men’s room, but it was closed! Without a pause he went to the ladies’, changed, did his own makeup, and was out and ready. A real trouper. The architecture of the entire building meant nothing to my concept but I had found a circular stairway on the side of a tower overlooking the Hollywood sign in the distance behind the bust of James Dean that might work as a simple stage. I got Michael up a few stairs and he leaned against the wall of the tower and with the sun setting over the Hollywood hills behind him we got it just as the park guard was passing the observatory and on his way to our location. Dooley: Why did he want to wear white socks? Salisbury: It was a very typical ’40s, ’50s American young adult thing, but also emulated by Cary Grant, almost, I think, to offset his too-much handsomeness. I also wanted to use the socks and make it work for the concept. Dooley: And why did you outfit him in a women’s tux? Salisbury: He was too thin for a men’s fit. And most mens’ tuxedos didn’t have the style of Yves St. Laurent. Dooley: After the Observatory shoot failed to capture the attitude and style you wanted, how easy was it to convince him to do a reshoot? Salisbury: No problem. Michael Jackson was about getting it done right. Dooley: So now you have a studio location, but it’s not working out. You walk outside, see a loading dock area, and get inspired. You give it a backstage Broadway theater vibe, and there’s your set. A neat bit of serendipity and creative improvisation. Do you recall another shoot that came together for you in the final moments? Salisbury: Truman Capote wanted me to shoot him in his Palm Springs home to replicate the Cartier-Bresson shot of him on the back cover of his first book, Other Voices, Other Rooms. It’s a photo which he said the world found so scandalous because of his age and the pose. After a day of doing that he took off the silly hat, gold rimmed aviator sunglasses and art director attitude and quit posing. And I said, “Just look at me.” And he did.
http://www.printmag.com/design-inspiration/mike-salisbury-and-michael-jackson/ | |
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So I just got back from traveling. My trip included a short stop at Disney World for the first time. I got to see "Captain EO" for the first time the way it was meant to be seen... in 3D. What a great show! I could easily have gone on no other rides and it would have been worth it. The theatre was packed at Epcot Center. Amazing 28 years after its release. You also get a sense of how Disney really influenced MJ. The whole Disney World experience is so awe-inspiring. To All the Haters on the Internet
No more Candy 4 U | |
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Spike Lee Announces New Michael Jackson Documentary For Off The Wall
Nearly three thousand young people gathered at the Centro Banamex to attend a presentation by filmmaker Spike Lee, one of the special guests at the festival TagCDMX technology and creativity. The director of Malcolm X and Do The Right Thing, among other films, urged attendees to look for something that inspires them in life and are devoted to it in soul, mind and heart. “People always say you find something you love and work it. Not only looking to make money, but work on something that makes them better people. The filmmaker said that if people really focus on this and follow their dreams, the world would be a better place to live. “There are people with lots of money in the bank commiting suicide every day and it is because they are not happy and know that money buys anything but. “So, if you find something to love, that is the greatest wealth, because it is no longer a job. I do not even need an alarm to get up, because I’m excited to go to my job.” Besides talking about the future of film, US history and sport, announced that Lee is working on a documentary about the making of the album Off The Wall, Michael Jackson. He didn’t give many details, but it is believed that the making of the film would be in the style of “BAD 25,″ which is filled with some previously unseen images, trivia and interviews about the songs and music videos from the album.
http://vallieegirl67.com/2014/11/11/spike-lee-announces-new-michael-jackson-documentary-for-off-the-wall/ | |
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What a show and what a sight to see this man perform at his absolute best..fukkin vocal beast! | |
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HAPPYPERSON said: Spike Lee Announces New Michael Jackson Documentary For Off The Wall
Nearly three thousand young people gathered at the Centro Banamex to attend a presentation by filmmaker Spike Lee, one of the special guests at the festival TagCDMX technology and creativity. The director of Malcolm X and Do The Right Thing, among other films, urged attendees to look for something that inspires them in life and are devoted to it in soul, mind and heart. “People always say you find something you love and work it. Not only looking to make money, but work on something that makes them better people. The filmmaker said that if people really focus on this and follow their dreams, the world would be a better place to live. “There are people with lots of money in the bank commiting suicide every day and it is because they are not happy and know that money buys anything but. “So, if you find something to love, that is the greatest wealth, because it is no longer a job. I do not even need an alarm to get up, because I’m excited to go to my job.” Besides talking about the future of film, US history and sport, announced that Lee is working on a documentary about the making of the album Off The Wall, Michael Jackson. He didn’t give many details, but it is believed that the making of the film would be in the style of “BAD 25,″ which is filled with some previously unseen images, trivia and interviews about the songs and music videos from the album.
http://vallieegirl67.com/2014/11/11/spike-lee-announces-new-michael-jackson-documentary-for-off-the-wall/ Bring it on!!!!! | |
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I think in some circles this might be known as 'swag' . | |
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This too. In front of a crowd of German zombies.
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They'll for sure make something for the HIStory tour, I believe they were thinking of releasing the Munich concert in 3D as a theatrical release (since that tour was filmed with 3D cameras if I'm not mistaken). HIStory might not be big in the US, but worldwide it is very much considered a Michael Jackson classic - that album made him known even in rural places in the Amazones in South America... In certain countries in Europe, they even had HIStory candy and cans, so yes it was influential and people still remember the statue that floated on the Thames river... Just think about all the flash mobs that have been done in his honor- "they don't care about us"... Honestly though, I'm actually most excited about this era, since we have very little unreleased material from this era and I'd like to see some behind-the-scenes stuff, (perhaps the childhood performance on video!). When the power of love overcomes the love of power,the world will know peace -Jimi Hendrix | |
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I'm ALL about getting Bad 25 treatment for each album, but I don't think they should have a Theatrical release of the HIStory Tour. MJ lipsynched 90% of the time during the tour, and critics would have a field day with that.
I wish they would go ahead a just repackage "Off The Wall" and "Thriller" as both anniversaries of these have passed. Repackage Off The Wall with a few outtakes and some extended mixes, this Spike Lee documentary, and a Triumph Tour DVD. And then Thriller with a few additional outtakes (I'd love to hear Buffalo Bill,Who Do You Know(i'm assuming is the original version of Behind The Mask), and Victory with Freddy Mercury, some extended mixes, a Spike Lee Documentary for Thriller, which in my opinion they should pull all the stops with and release to theatres, as the general public would be interested in it. Everything from the creation of the album, in the studio, the impact, the videos, the records, everything. And of coarse a Victory Tour DVD.
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Armond White on MJ
MR. White spoke nothing but truth!! Michael's most importants works were his 90's output.
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I highly recommend you guys to get a copy of Keep It Moving: The Michael Jackson Chronicles by Armond White! It's available on his website for $10
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“The Voice in the Mirror”. Michael Jackson: from a vocal identity to its double in sound2011 young researcher IASPM French-Speaking Europen branch prize « The five young brothers […] impressed Berry Gordy with their precocious professionalism, discipline, and raw talent at their audition in the summer of 1968 ». (Smith, 1999 : 229) 10The “artist development” program of the Jackson 5 group was then drawn up according to the Hitsville tradition, with every aspect of the performance or the public image being under control. Motown’s writers and producers created a repertoire of specific songs and covers [3] Pl... Motown... [3] of various aestheticisms for the Jackson 5, without letting them the slightest possibility to propose one of their own compositions, and thus feeding little by little the reasons for the breaking-off in 1976. “I don’t want to be a copy of those who were there before me, I don’t want to constantly repeat myself, I must always innovate”. (Cachin, 2009 : 39) 14Michael Jackson’s precept is an echo, at this crucial moment of his career, to Glynne Jones’ words: « It is important for singers to develop a unique style […] The singer must cultivate those aspects of his singing which are unique to him ». (Martin, 1983: 98) 16Michael Jackson will inscribe his vocal personality and his catalogue in a soaring dynamic which gave up the comfort of repeats for an evolution that is sometimes destabilizing for the audience.
Resonance | |
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If the producer Quincy Jones was the vector of the encounter between Bruce Swedien and Michael Jackson in 1979, it was however Michael Jackson himself, as a producer but above all as an artist, who will extend and cement his collaboration with the sound engineer for many years, well after the break-up with his initiator. «Close microphone placement brings the sound forward, suggesting, as one writer says of Bing Crosby’s crooning, “an intimate, personal relationship with fans”». (Chanan, 1995 : 128) 45A new phenomenon of intimacy, underlined by Simon Frith (Frith et al., 2001: 98), then springs up between the audience and the artist, who participates in the barthesian voice grain and who, thanks to the mike, lets the audience suddenly hear a voice tone that was until then kept for intimate conversations. And this approach, relayed by Bruce Swedien and Michael Jackson, also participated in this intensification of the vocal supremacy, started in the late 1940s, and which ended up by superseding the compositional touch in the aestheticism of popular songs. “The cinema only needs to take the voice sound from very close and let hear in their materiality, their sensuality, the breathing, the rocky sound, the lips’ flesh, a whole presence of the human muzzle...”(Barthes, 1973: 88-89) «What I listen for is transparency, where the idea moves from its inception to the listener with the least amount of forces impeding it». (Zak III, 2001: 169) 49To implement this approach and reproduce with fidelity the corporeal vocality of this vocal body, Bruce Swedien’s technical choices resulted in processes of sound capture that were the most natural possible (in the non-technological meaning of the word) – which met his friend George Massenburg’s [33] G...cer and... [33] concern for transparency. Operated by the necessarily invisible hand of the engineer, this capture had to comprehend a whole sonorous and bruitist body, generated by the body theatre of its source, always moving and interacting somehow with the voice’s rhythmic impulsions. His irrepressible dance movements during recording sessions and the percussive and emotional use of the singer’s body and mouth (breathing, sonorous inspirations, vocal hiccups, distorted or exaggerated pronunciation of words, finger snapping or feet stamping) could only be, as reflects of his personality and his ethnic and social origins, necessary stakeholders of his vocal field. And this does not take into consideration the direct and traditional research of effects, highlighted by Matt Forger [34] Q...ew with... [34] , another of the artist’s sound engineers, and which translates into deliberated attitudes towards the mike (moves or occasional distancing) as well as a parsimonious use, reduced to minute exceptions, of the compression tool on the singer’s voice (use that is otherwise widespread and almost inevitable for most pop artists), and this so as not to write off or alter this assumed bruitist dimension. «One aspect of an engineer’s task is to afford performers a sense of well-being in the studio » (Zak III, 2001 : 166) 53Michael Jackson was as much a singer as a dancer. The practice of these two arts participated in a one and only nature, so much so as the fact of singing irrepressibly generated corporeal movements in the artist. Forbidding the interpret to dance or eliminating the sound and vocal impacts his movements had by means of compression would have been close to what Bruce Swedien calls a totally distorted surgery approach. “[The voice grain] implies a certain erotic connection between the voice and the listener”. (Barthes, 1981 : 200) 56The eroticism Roland Barthes brings to light here is closely linked to the singer’s body tangibility, his own “body contributions to the piece“, according to Paul Valery’s [35] S... sur le... [35] own phrase, underlined by a physical proximity to the mike which, we will see, was precisely used to amplify the barthesian vocal grain found in Michael Jackson. If choosing a type of mike was carefully done for this restitution, we will see that it was indeed the same for the position of the singer.
This is how Bruce Swedien’s favorite mike, the very one he will use to record all Michael Jackson’s vocal parts (except for a sole song we will later mention), is the dynamic Shure SM-7 mike. Bought in 1977 from the Westlake Audio in Hollywood, his Shure SM-7 was the first one to be used in great-scope musical projects. The sound engineer explains his choice in relation to Michael Jackson’s prerogatives and particularly to the quality of the sound that it reproduces, transparent, accurate, non artificial in the high-pitched sounds and offering much presence. Well suited to dynamic voices, the Shure SM-7 does not flay the sibilant consonants the singer frequently uses. These ones appear smoothed, with a slightly piping sonority, without losing body. On the contrary, the mike slightly enriches the texture. The Shure SM-7 indeed requires, in accordance with Bruce Swedien’s practices with Michael Jackson, to be used very near the source of sound emission, and gives a great warmth that flatters the voice, as much as an acute restitution of the vocal dynamic. By recording Michael Jackson with this mike, Bruce Swedien obtained a very neat and acute sound image. Being, moreover, hardly reactive to the surrounding sounds, the Shure SM-7 was a first “natural” filter to the singer’s corporeal sounds, and warranties, with the plywood, to only keep the necessary part. This is the reason why Bruce Swedien did not assign any more windscreens, which would have run the risk to erase the breathing sounds and the explosives sonorous emissions that were indeed intended. «Voices became central to the group’s musical arrangements – vocal harmonies and back-up chorus sounds had to do the job of the strings and echoes and studio tricks of the teen pop records». (Martin, 1983 : 32) 64This very paradigm spreads the vocal structures of Michael Jackson’s songs, notably when beyond the vocal leads which form the emerging part carried and expressed by his voice, his vocal personality fans out in the different musical stratums of the songs, from the melody harmonization to the almost-instrumental implementation of melodic, rhythmic or buccal and unvoiced elements of the accompaniment. All these elements were suitably recorded so as to find a position in a sound space that Bruce Swedien does not only want to be stereophonic but also tri-dimensional.
Vocal harmonies: impact of stereophony and depth of field 72The poly-expressive nature of Michael Jackson’s vocal personality was thereby exploited, underlined and emphasized through recording techniques. We saw how the singer’s vocal harmonies were not only stratified but also put into perspective in the acoustic field and what impact the stereophonic sound takes play in this sound staging: applied to the vocal backgrounds, they play on the depth of field; applied to the choir, they give it a tangible presence. Finally, used for the orchestra, as in the song “Childhood [48] M...uture ,... [48] ”, the stereophony exploited by Bruce Swedien weaves a network of spatial relationships between the instrumental ensemble and the listener and maintains the latter in a real perspective of concert audience. Bruce Swedien has also been raising an interest in stereophony since the 1950s, when many directors of recording companies did not anticipate the upcoming revolution and did not want to invest in this field. Whereas some of them bet that, not more than a “shower with two heads [49] I...n front... [49] ”, stereophony had not any interest, Bruce Swedien, like his model and friend Bill Putnam, had, on the contrary, installed a separated control station hidden at the back of the studio to make some experiments in stereo, which allowed him later to be a step ahead in this field. He had indeed grasped from the beginning its interest in terms of depth of sound space and expressive impact. 73Let’s note that Bruce Swedien’s recordings by stereo pairs, applied to vocal backgrounds but most of all systematically applied to the instruments, were for a long time a unique method of work, called Acusonic Recording Process by Quincy Jones, and had a whole generation of engineers think about the notion of stereophony again. Suspected at a certain time to be a new technological tool kept secret, the Acusonic Recording Process (combination of accurate, referring to the accuracy of the sound image of real stereophony, and sonic, referring to the sound one tries to personalize) actually designated a process designed by Bruce Swedien, aiming to combine several multi-track recorders, so as to multiply the stereophonic pairs [50] B...ophonic... [50] . He used up to ninety-six of them for the song “Places you find love [51] A... Jones,... [51] ” by Quincy Jones. Michael Jackson’s music required on average sixty-six audio tracks (that is three linked appliances of twenty-four tracks, given that a track of each appliance was used to synchronize the time code SMPTE and that another one was kept empty to avoid generating any interference) (Swedien, 2009a: 109-110). The fact to have on disposal as many tracks as necessary [52] N...ations,... [52] indeed allowed Bruce Swedien to multiply the stereo images in the sound fields of Michael Jackson’s music and this process contributed more than any other to create a qualitative demarcation and a new sound identity. 74But the singer’s vocal harmonization also led to other specific recording processes. Indeed, very early in his collaboration with Michael Jackson, Bruce Swedien grabbed the opportunity to create, from the singer’s voice, a sound perspective using the width and depth of the space. He explains that the artist’s vocal abilities, coupled with his interest and his liking for sound experiments, made him a great laboratory of experiments. Moreover, Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson being always enthusiastic about Bruce Swedien’s creative sense, the latter was always entirely free to bring his own personality to music. It is in this favorable context that, supporter of natural techniques, Bruce Swedien had Michael Jackson make, singing live, effects on the dubbing of his main voice: to give even more relief to the sound texture of these vocal blocks, the sound engineer would very slightly slow down the recording of the main voice during the dubbing (three or four percents), and thus, at the same time, very slightly lower its tone. Michael Jackson would record the dubbing keeping into account this new micro-tone. Then, Bruce Swedien would combine the two voices, with their near imperceptible gap in frequency, by mixing the sound level of the double track slightly below that of the vocal lead. This technique, which needs a good relative sense of tone and a great vocal precision, as Bruce Swedien, for which this experiment remained unique, underlines, allowed bringing support to the voice by enriching its sound spectrum in a natural and real way, without resorting to any artificial reprocessing. Conclusion 75So, if Michael Jackson did not stop developing, improving or renewing his vocal and musical personality, he particularly took care, in parallel, to convey it with fidelity. He was committed to developing an innovative and independent aestheticism, symptomatic of a driving force consisting in always going forward instead of enjoying the safe comfort of the previous success. By coupling his vocal abilities with daily work on his tessitura and vocal timbre, he managed to create an original sound personality, summoning and restoring the entire corporeal sphere in his voice. 76In the manner of contemporary creation which has a taste of this barthesian voice grain and which lends an ear to the body, Michael Jackson’s approach focused on reinstating a tangible physicality in the vocal field. Using his voice as a music instrument in its own right, the singer laid it on his songs’ every musical stratum including melody, harmonies, voiced cells or rhythmic projections of the melodic-rhythmic framework, low-pitched vocalized lines. He did not confine it to conveying an expression of intellect and emotion, but established it as the sound media of a whole body organically interacting in the vocal image and whose smallest particles of presence, maintained in the final mix spectrum, play a major part in restoring this authenticity. The techniques used to that effect by the sound engineer Bruce Swedien aimed to, by studio strategies avoiding artificial reprocessing, structure each vocal intervention, be it linear or pointillist among an acoustic space that is deeply three-dimensional, without losing any of the link of auditory intimacy woven between the interpreter, through his sound double, and the listener. 77Michael Jackson established his vocal personality through a very large popular musical aestheticism, not stigmatized, by developing an expressive plurality looking into the multiplicity of aesthetical, ethnical or social references of the pop cultural syncretism. Admittedly, the work conditions offered by the artist, in terms of budget and time, will remain for a long time an exception accounting for the long studio strategies often implemented – from parsimonious recording of orchestras to the creation of unprecedented sound entities combining concrete elements, electronic and instrumental timbres – as well as the hard-line character of the approach. Indeed, Michael Jackson self-funded a great part of his work in studio, trying at the same time to keep certain autonomy; he also equipped the studios with state-of-the-art facilities and allocated much extended work deadlines, sometimes facing the contracts requirements; in short, he managed to gather paramount factors which all and each of them contributed to achieve a substantive work. http://www.cairn.info/zen...U_082_0222 | |
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I have got to say no other artist have made such a global impact with their artistry like Michael did.
United States
United Arab Emirates
Uganda
Sri Lanka
South Africa
Saudi Arabia (1)
Saudi Arabia (2).
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