That Voice
Michael Jackson's tragic death put me in mind of a question that first struck me some years ago: How did Jackson keep that boyish treble voice as he matured? The boy who sang on the Jackson Five's early hits became the grown-up Michael Jackson without apparently going through the vocal changes brought on in boys by puberty. Did his voice ever truly "break"?
I remember dancing wildly to "I want you back," in 1969, the year Jackson turned 11. For him, puberty loomed. One can imagine that those close to him worried about what might happen when that voice dropped.
What lengths might they go to in order to avoid any interruption to the Jackson Five's musical and financial progress? Was Michael given some medication to retard or mute the normal processes of puberty, so that his voice would remain high, and retain its appeal? If so, this might help to give a context to some of his later "weirdness."
Quincy Jones on NBC Nightly News the other night called Jackson a victim. One can understand that what Jones probably meant was that Michael Jackson was a victim of his fame. Perhaps he meant more than that. But if Jackson was given drugs to stop his voice from dropping, then he was also the victim of a unique kind of child abuse.
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You are just wrong. Haven't you heard JERMAINE??? He also has a high breathy voice. Maybe they inherited their voices from someone besides their dad. DNA is like that!
After watching hours of clips of his interviews and performances, I came to the same conclusion as Robert Davey. It does seem like MJ was well on his way to becoming a extremely talented and very attractive man, and then around the age of 14 or so he started taking hormones to keep his voice high. You really do see in the interviews he starts speaking more softly and his face becomes a bit rounder than you would have expected it to be. I'll bet that was his problem with his father- that JJ started him on this trail of weirdness that he couldn't back out of- because who knew what would happen if the truth came out...
I think probably some people tried to get him to stop- Janet and Quincy Jones especially.
As great as he was, it's so sad to think what he could have been. His fabulous dancing would have been even better if he would have been as masculine as he should have been. His naturally beautiful voice probably would have had an even more amazing full sound- It really does seem that the range of his voice became higher and narrower after he turned 14- except for footage from The Wiz- where his voice is truly beautiful as it hits the low notes.
If that is what happened, then no wonder the poor guy had so many problems.
Now we should be happy with the great music and performances he did share with us.
My theory has always been that he was castrated to prevent his voice from changing. This was long before the rumors started swirling about his odd sexual behavior. Years later when the child abuse accusations came to light, I did not think he was guilty because I truly believed he was completely and totally asexual. People were shocked when he matter-of-factly stated in an interview that he didn't see anything wrong with another boy sleeping in his bed. It makes complete sense though, because the idea of sex never even occurred to him.
His family was looking at millions going down the drain; from what I have read about his father (controlling, abusive) it wouldn't surprise me at all if he was the one who authorized the procedure.
There's too much we won't ever know about Michael Jackson. His voice is just another thing on the list. It's probably the least fascinating of all the mysteries surrounding him. This man was absolutely out of his mind. He was extremely weird and secretive. He didn't speak honestly about his life. He certainly didn't owe us anything- but his continued eccentricities fueled the fire. Something damaged him very early on in life and it caused the craziest chain reaction I've really ever seen in show business. One thing after another. Changing constantly. Drastically. Then flaunting it, denying it and circling around it for his entire career. It's exhausting to read about him. He was so messed up. Part of me feels so so bad for him--- and another part of me is just deeply disturbed by it all. Assuming child abuse is a major factor-- it hit Michael amazingly and unusually hard. It created this unmatched talent machine trapped in a self-destructive and deeply scarred man.
that's one of the best posts i've read yet, and a great summation. as for me, like many, i idolized him as a kid and ridiculed him as an adult. but now, with his death, i'm seeking to understand him and what drove him to be so amazingly talented yet so psychologically fragile.
There's so much we'll never know and there's so much that his tightly knit family will never admit to--or even wake up too, as far as the damage that has been done. Its going to be interesting if another Jackson breaks his silence when the parents, especially Joe dies.
I don't care...I enjoy listening to him sing
Nuts I saw a video yesterday of Jackson singing ABC and The Love You Save. He was sixteen and could not reach the notes he had reached at eleven.
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Judge for yourself and be done with it.
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The rest of his life he sang falsetto, like Jackie Jackson, Smokey Robinson, and Eddie Kendricks.
Oh no! Maybe it is a conspiracy
Well, since you mention conspiracies may I remind everyone that in previous eras it was not at all unusual for boys to be castrated in order to retain their high-pitched voices.
This was not considered a form of "abuse" as it would be today, but a means for those with the most beautiful voices to retain them as long as possible. Five-hundred years ago and more, not unlike women in some cultures today, women were not permitted to perform in public. Whether on stage in a Shakespearean play or in musical theater, young boys and "castrati" performed the roles of women.
If such was the case with Mr. Jackson it would certainly explain why he was unable to father his own children. You might watch the fairly recent film, "Farinelli" for a depiction of the life of a famous castrati, who, while able to perform sexually, was not fertile.
jackson was a victim. a victim of his fame, and he was a victim of his family, specifically his father. and as he became an adult he continued to live as a victim. while he was alive we adored and idolized him when we were kids. he was no less than a superhero. as we became adults we ridiculed him for his weirdness, his feminine voice, his plastic surgeries.
but we never stopped to try to empathize with him. we never stopped to try to realize how having a father who told him his nose was too big, that he was ugly, that there were men in the audience with guns who would shoot him if he didn't move fast enough would affect him as an adult.
we never stopped to think that this is a man who'd been pushing his body as hard as a professional athlete for 45 years. pro athletes get what? 10 good years, fifteen if they're lucky? michael had 45 years of pro athlete wear and tear on his body. last week his body said "enough!".
i think he should have retired after the Dangerous album. by that time he'd given us his best and then some. unfortunately being a performer was the only thing he knew. so he resorted to a coctail of drugs so his body could keep going like it used to.
how many of us wouldn't be psychologically scarred if we had been raised as he was?
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next.
nice.
Where do you people come up with this stuff from? It's amazing how people are trying to find relevance in the midst of this death!
We enjoyed the VOICE...pe
For the record, I think we are becoming a crazy society even when it comes to regular people..,.
You only have to compare 'Ben' to 'One Day In Your Life' to hear that his voice changed.
His voice changed from sounding like a little boys to a pre-adolescent--and it stayed that way. I was always suspicious of that. Even Donny Osmond's, who became famous around that same period , voice had matured. There was a vast differnce between his singing 'One Bad Apple' and his singing on The Donny and Marie Show.
Female hormones,
Talk about denial - if people really think MJ demonstrated normal developmental growth over the years after his teenage years, they have their eyes closed and their brains shut down. MJ was clearly on his way to growing into a normal, healthy young man, and this was clearly not in everybody's best interest. He veered sharply off that track - and I mean physically; if you think that voice was just an affectation, show me ONE time he spoke in a normal male register. ONCE. He was an experiment that paid off handsomely for 40 years or so, and then the test tube exploded.
Where? Can you be more specific about when he started showing the physical effects of female hormone therapy? I see lots of photos of him with acne, spotty skin, his nose, adams apple and ears grew more prominent, he grew a heavy beard and he grew taller, heavier and became much more muscled, his shoulders broadened and his hips grew slimmer and he obviously become physically stronger with more endurance (try singing -really well- while dancing and running non-stop and see how long you can do it). He had a dancer's body - very thin and supple, but certainly not at all feminine. You could bounce a quarter off most of his body with ease, not an ounce of fat anywhere.
None of the things I see indicate any use of female hormones so perhaps you can point me to what you are seeing that is proof of the contrary?
That theory could possibly hold water.....
Michael's voice clearly changed and deepened as he got older so I'm not sure what you're talking about. Listen to one of his Jackson 5 tunes and follow that up with one of his later songs. It's more than clear. As for his speaking voice, his brothers are all just as soft spoken. That's just genetics.
What a non-story. Zero substance and all speculatio
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