I have never been a big fan of Michael Jackson, the so called “King of Pop.”
But I was listening to some of his songs on Spotify recently, and I was reminded how many great hits he had – Thriller, Bad, Smooth Criminal and Blame it on the Boogie, to name a few.
What you also notice about Michael Jackson is his unique singing style. He punctuates his singing with little squeals and funky noises, which are a bit like high-pitched coughs.
“Ah-hnng – Stop pressuring me! Ah-hwyygh – Stop pressuring me – Glagh – It makes me wanna scream – Whoo!”
Listening to the great variety of little noises he made while singing, it made me wonder how he came up with his unique singing style.
After much consideration, I decided that probably he was performing in shoes which were two sizes too small for him. One day, he must have ordered a new pair of shoes, and put them on just before the concert started. They were too tight for him, but the concert was just about to start and he had no time to find another pair. So he went on stage and started singing and dancing, all the while in a lot of pain from his tight shoes.
“You know I’m bad – Aoow! – I’m bad – Eek! – I’m really, really bad – Ouch!”
The audience loved his new sound. And Michael wore those tight shoes for the rest of his career.
Vocabulary:
to punctuate A with B – to mark A with regular little breaks of B. For example, “He was very unhappy. He told me what had happened, but he punctuated his story with cries and sobs.”
a squeal (verb: to squeal) – a very high cry or sound. For example, “The piglets (baby pigs) squealed to get their mother’s attention.”
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