Hmmm, how long has it been since they’ve been seen in the same room togeter?
Whatever else he is. MJ is a very vocally talented performer. If there were ever a guy who had the ability [& may feel the need to always being “on” for the camera] to pretend to talk like a kid everytime a camera is in sight, MJ seems to be it.
Let’s keep in mind too that it isn’t unheard of for a performer to adopt a public accent/affectation persona ala Charo or Kathleen Turner, or Madonna’s English accent … to somewhat unfairly name names – “Who would guess that a performer has a public persona?”–sarcasm
I was going to say exactly what Diogenes did. So much of his public persona is childlike that I think the high voice is another part of it.
I think he simply took a good falsetto range (whether he got it naturally or worked to develop it I couldn’t say) and trained himself to speak in it when out in public. I’m not going to touch the question of why he would choose to do that.
Does a singer’s voice determine what age range they appeal to? I can’t hear MJ’s voice, but if it sounds like a girl’s voice I would wonder why he sold so much music.
I wonder what specific forms of “force” the govt. is able to exert upon a person to compel his voice into a lower register. Also, the idea of having to be “real” in a California courtroom would have to be applied evenly, and that certainly doesn’t seem likely to happen anytime soon. One example that still sticks out in my mind is Detective Mark Fuhrman testifying with a straight face that he, an ex-marine and veteran LA cop, disappeared behind the house for 15 minutes–alone, unarmed and without telling any other cops–because he was looking for whoever just murdered two people in a spectacularly violent, bloody manner. It doesn’t get much more unreal than that.
FWIW, I think the poster who said his high-pitched speaking voice is imitative of children and not women hit the nail on the head. He feels he had his childhood arrested or taken from him, and so now he compensates with all this fantasyland Peter Pan BS. The famed shopping sprees are like an endless Christmas morning, courtesy of MasterClaus. He’s Jacko the Wacko all right, but I don’t see him as malevolent. The children in the bed thing is certainly inappropriate, though the parents know what goes on at the sleepovers. Kids love their experience at Neverland and can’t wait to go back. I believe his separation from reality is so complete that he perceives this kind of warm fuzzy “puppy love” in the same innocent way as normal people who sleep with their dogs in the bed but are not, and are not presumed to be, having sexual contact with them. They love their pets; they get escape from the stresses of the day in an unconditional love environment where the pets adore them endlessly. We all know this is inappropriate and people are not pets, but this isn’t about us. It’s about a person who has spent a lifetime crafting mechanisms for separating from reality while attempting (with extremely limited success) to remain sane.
Creepy? All the way. He could of course be a child molester. But his bizarre behavior doesn’t *necessarily[/] make him a child molester.
Jermaine has a VERY high voice and a feminine voice as well. Did anyone hear the interview he gave CNN. He was clearly upset and sounded like a screaching woman.
This is unlikely to be faked.
MJ voice is average. It is defintely nothing spectacular. He has a breathy range which may be more of the style he came from 70s (think Olivia Newton-John who popularized the breathy singing method)
The whole family sounds like that. And if you notice on interviews they never change range. Even when excited. This leads me to believe it is natural.
But there are a lot of women that sound like men and vice versa. Woman as they age go lower as their vocal cords thicken with use.
…but if it sounds like a girl’s voice I would wonder why he sold so much music.
His singing voice sounds like a lot of men who sing in the higher range’s Handy – he really isn’t unusual in that respect (Jon Anderson and Geddy Lee of Rush are two already mentioned rock “stars” who generally sing in higher registers than Jackson does). Also, many/most male singers even if they sing lower will hit a high note every now and then … singing voice is really very different than speaking.
Better Pop-Rock Historians than me can explain the phenom that the Thriller Album was and why.
The history of soul and R&B music is full of male singers who go high range: Smokey Robinson, Sam Cooke, Stevie Wonder, Aaron Neville.
Well, for what it’s worth, I’ve got a soulful “Barry White” bass voice in spite of the fact that I have a rather small penis. Go figure.
As an aside, I was really hoping to see a mug shot of Michael Jackson without all his whiteface makeup…
Barry
Yyyyyeah…but at some point, his friendship with “J. Chandler” stopped being warm and fuzzy. Chandler was asked to do something he didn’t want to do, and which made him uncomfortable. It wasn’t something that just happened; it was MJ’s attempt to take the relationship out of “puppy love” mode and into heavy petting, at least. Based on that, I wouldn’t call it innocent.
I didn’t hear the song you mention, but it does not follow that that is Jackson’s own singing voice. There is editing and production software that will electronically raise or lower sounds, including the human voice. Furthermore, it does not follow that he can go that low even in a live concert; he can lip-sync to a recording.
Robin
Can he make any other kind?
Who knows.
I’m pretty sure he doesn’t make the funny faces himself. If you ask him nicely though, maybe he will give you the guy’s card…
I’m wondering, IF MJ gets convicted and IF he does time, will he still be white when he gets out? My totally unsubstantiated/biased/no-fact-to-back-it-up opinion is that he would rather die than be seen au natural.