Off the Wall - What pop music should be

1/4/11 – Off the Wall (Michael Jackson)

The truest expression of a people is in its dance and music.
- Agnes de Mile

            Amid the American Idols, teenybopping former Disney stars, and reality-show-slash-musicians, one thing is for certain; they don’t make pop like they used to.  From the opening track’s latin groove over disco strings and MJ’s trademark falsetto, “Don’t Stop ‘Till You Get Enough” is everything a catchy pop tune needs to be.  Of course, it also reminds me of that coming of age moment where I began to dislike pop music; oddly enough another Michael Jackson tune.  The fact that a 6 minute piece can contain a sum total of two chords drove my inner music theorist insane at the age of seventeen.  But that’s another story; come back at the end of October for that one.

            While it is common knowledge that most pop-tarts today are overproduced; be it the overuse of auto-tune, background vocalists carrying the lines better than the star, or an array of abused effects in the studio.  It’s clear that trend got it start at least as far back as Off the Wall, but this tows a tight line between overproduced and simply meticulous detail to production values.  The sampled drum grooves are mechanical to a degree, but the warmth and innate hippness of actual strings and horns on top of the rhythm machines keep it human and tight at the same time.  Sure, there was probably some studio magic going on, cut and pasting actual tape and the like, but these grooves were legit.  “Rock With You” is a solid tune with killer vocals, smooth harmonies, and hooks to kill for.

            The album has its misses too, though.  “Working Day and Night,” “Get on the Floor” and the title track don’t grab the ear as readily as the first two, although they contain the same traits enumerated above.  This may be a chicken and egg situation, though; since these tracks weren’t hits in their day, they don’t hit the nostalgic nerve the bigger chart-toppers do. 

I never noticed the disco influence in MJ’s music before.  I believe some of it may be due to his switching labels from Motown and beginning to work with Quincy Jones.  This seems incredibly evident in the intro to the title track.  Everything from the drumbeat to the Rhodes lines, falsetto BGV’s, and wah guitar riffs sound straight off a KC and the Sunshine Band record.

“Girlfriend” seems more in the Motown groove, however.  It has elements of Stevie Wonder’s more ultra-pop tunes, like “I Just Called to Say I Love You.”  Very bright, major, and light, it really is bubblegum music.  Then, just as soon as I think I’ve got this album nailed, the tearful ballad “She’s Out of My Life” comes along.  There’s an honest pain in both the song’s lyrics and Jackson’s delivery.  Michael employs a vibrato that is nary perceived in his groove driven tunes, and ends with an emotionally drained crack in his voice as the song comes to a close.  In fact, Quincy Jones has said that Jackson was literally in tears by the end of every take in the studio.  You can’t fake this kind of emotion.

“I Can’t Help It” wouldn’t seem out of place on a cool jazz album – the groove seems to hint at Sade, with an understated sensuality, again, not found earlier on this recording at least.  Again, a shout out to the incredible brass and string sections is in order; they add so much warmth and color, even when hidden deep in the back of tracks like this one.

The penultimate song, “It’s the Falling In Love” gets back in to the disco-ish groove, and is once again a less memorable track.  The final song, “Burn this Disco Out,” has more funk elements that the previous singles.  Off the Wall offers as a whole, a snapshot of an era; early 80’s pop at its best.  Jackson to this day remains the undisputed Prince of Pop, and for a good reason.  His music laid the groundwork for all those American Idol teenybopper queens to come.  If only they could do it half as well.

Next up – Piano Sonata #29 in Bb major (Ludwig van Beethoven)

Next week – A Hard Day’s Night (The Beatles)