Review: Things you should know about Michael Jackson and his brother
Aha! I've been waiting for this question for a looooong time!
When Michael Jackson was a child, his voice type was an extraordinarily beautiful, expansive boy soprano. There has never been a voice like his boy soprano, and there never will be anything like it.
And then he matured, and his voice cracked, and his boy soprano descended into a lovely, rangy high tenor.
So…was Michael's boy soprano better than his adult tenor voice? Well, let's do this!
Beauty
As a child, Michael Jackson's soprano was — you guessed it — very high, light and expansive. He could easily reach high keys that some talented female vocalist couldn't even reach. The colour of his voice was extremely bright. And it always sounded beautiful.
As he matured, his voice became deeper, and his colour became noticeably darker as expected although it was still very light. He began to employ more vibrato which made his voice more appealing. His changing voice started to draw comparisons to that of the legendary Stevie Wonder.
However, it is worth noting that his boy soprano was a little more beautiful than his adult tenor voice. He just sounded more angelic when he was a child, and more unique as an adult.
Power
Michael Jackson was a powerful belter throughout his career. However, it was very clear that his adult voice was more powerful as his adult chest voice was a lot more developed.
Range
Michael Jackson had an expansive voice. However, this was more so with regards to his adult voice. As an adult, his vocal range was four octaves, one note and one semitone. Granted, he could not reach some of the highest notes he once hit with his boy soprano, but that didn't decrease his vocal range. His deeper voice meant that he could sing significantly lower while retaining the ability to sing absurdly high notes for a male. His adult voice extended from baritone to soprano.
Versatility
Michael's voice was unique not only for its sound and colour, but also for its versatility. He was a contemporary pop singer, but his adult voice could effectively cover nearly every musical genre. He could sing sweetly and fiercely, and his voice could accurately mimic musical instruments. He couldn't do some of these things as a child.
Technique
Michael's vocal techniques as a child were stellar and healthy. Many of the singers today would need a vocal coach to sing like he did when he was a child, and yet, Michael never had a vocal coach. He hired Seth Riggs when he was an adult though. As an adult, Michael's techniques were more stellar due to experience, and that's why it's impossible to sing some of his songs like Earth Song, The Way You Make Me Feel, Dirty Diana, Man In The Mirror…like him. However, he began to struggle to sing with healthy techniques later in his adult career. This was likely due to him quickly running out of air. He started to shout out his songs rather than sing them with healthy techniques. It was said that he had to breathe with the aid of oxygen bags between songs. He started to lip-sync some of his songs. That was why he hired Seth Riggs. All in all, his techniques as an adult were more beautiful, but at some point, they were less healthy.
Conclusion
The young Michael was an accomplished vocalist, but the older Michael was the one who should rank just behind Freddie Mercury, Luciano Pavarotti and Aretha Franklin as the fourth best vocalist of all time.
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