walking upstream…
Michael Jackson
sourcesWikipedia · The Vision
Michael Jackson entered showbiz at five years old as the preternaturally gifted lead singer of the Jackson 5 and spent the next four decades redefining what a pop star could be — reshaping the music video into a short film, the dance break into choreography studied for generations, and the album, with Thriller, into the best-selling record ever made. He fused the showmanship of James Brown, the vocal control absorbed from Diana Ross, and a horror-movie theatricality all his own into a persona so total it eclipsed the man behind it. He died in 2009, still universally known as the King of Pop.
the sound in question
1983
Billie JeanMichael Jackson
walk the tributaries ↓
James Brown1960s–70s · Funk / Soul / R&B
Jackson called James Brown his greatest inspiration, recalling that as a boy of six his mother would wake him from sleep just to watch 'the master at work' on television.
listen: upstream & here
1956
Please, Please, PleaseJames Brown
1988
Smooth CriminalMichael Jackson
listen forBrown's 1956 debut 'Please, Please, Please' is less a song than a demonstration of stage combustion — knee drops, spins, a voice that pleads and screams in the same breath; trace that same physical urgency, sharpened into precision choreography, through Jackson's own 'Smooth Criminal,' where every lean and turn still owes something to Brown's blueprint of dance as exclamation point.
Diana Ross1960s–70s · Pop / Soul / R&B
As a Motown mother figure and mentor, Diana Ross rehearsed alongside the young Jackson 5, and Jackson later credited her — not only for support but for the vocal technique behind his signature 'oooh' interjection — as a direct influence on how he sang.
listen: upstream & here
1964
Where Did Our Love GoDiana Ross
1970
I'll Be ThereMichael Jackson
listen forRoss's airy, effortlessly floating delivery on 'Where Did Our Love Go' shows the poise Jackson studied up close during his earliest Motown years; hear him applying that same soft, cooing control as a child prodigy on the Jackson 5's 'I'll Be There,' recorded while Ross was still mentoring the group.
Jackie Wilson1950s–60s · R&B / Soul / Doo-wop
Jackson wrote in his autobiography Moonwalk that Jackie Wilson 'had that audience so bug-eyed with his dancing that no one could feel sad or lonely,' naming him alongside James Brown as a formative model for what a performer's body could do onstage.
listen: upstream & here
1958
Lonely TeardropsJackie Wilson
1979
Don't Stop 'Til You Get EnoughMichael Jackson
listen forWilson's 'Lonely Teardrops' turns heartbreak into an athletic event, all leaps and knee drops punctuating the vocal; listen for that same conversion of feeling into physical release in Jackson's 'Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough,' where the falsetto whoops and the dancing are inseparable, just as they were for Wilson.