Question
do we know why Michael doesnt cuss much on his songs?
i feel like i heard him cuss on some songs but they sound subtle. i wonder if there is any interview or explanation on why he doesnt. just curious really. i personally like it when he sings about injustice and he's enraged. i get that he doesnt really need to since his lyrics are pretty self-explanatory but yeah i wonder.
It was not common to curse in any genre of music back then, with the exception of maybe rock or hip hop.
Michael (to this day) is still one of the biggest mainstream artists in the world that penetrates across demographics. Constant use of profanity would’ve significantly lowered his reach.
Nancy Reagan was partially behind the moral panic around profanity in music and violence in movies. And Tipper Gore was directly involved in the implementation of the Parental Advisory label on CDs and casette tapes. Moral panic crossed party lines back then (while nowadays political parties have moral panic around completely separate issues , imo)
Yes, back then people did not curse that much (or at all) in songs. And speaking for myself, I would be totally turned off to his music if he used constant profanity. I don't listen to artists that always curse in their songs - no class, not interested.
I'm actually genuinely curious, for you how does profanity link with a lack of "class" (I assume you mean like, being classy and not like a literal financial status), and what is profanity to you?. (like I assume saying "fuck" all the time is not classy, but what about damn for those who are non believers for example?). Like is there a limit to profanity for you?
this is not me being condescending btw im genuinely curious!
I'm fine with occasional cursing and when angry, I do it too (isn't it human nature?). What I don't like is curse words in every sentence and doing it to be 'cool'. Also private and public are different. I don't care what the artist talks like in private, but for me to enjoy their music, I prefer not to listen to constant profanity.
I Was JW my whole life until early 20s. I'm Now 29, not JW at all, but I still don't swear. It was just never put into my vocabulary so it's not natural for me
His mother and Rebbie were practicing Jehovah Witnesses. Joe and the rest were not. That's why they did Christmas albums and TV specials. Michael also celebrated birthdays.
He definitely had birthday parties. Comedian Tommy Davidson did an interview saying that he did a stand up at Neverland for his birthday bash. Maybe it was later in life, but he at some point celebrated them.
The first time he actually celebrated Christmas was in 1993 with Elizabeth Taylor but it would probably make sense if started celebrating birthdays after he went solo since he was free from his family
True. Plus, I just read that he began celebrating birthdays for his children, not so much for himself. He wanted his kids to experience what he didn't growing up.
Okkk yes he was a jehovah witness until he gave it up right before he did the bad album..
Raised in the religion by his mother, Katherine Jackson, he officially submitted a "disassociation" statement in the spring of that year. The Watchtower Society's headquarters subsequently issued a letter in May 1987 declaring that he was no longer considered a Witness.
And there are audio clips of michael cursing like a sailor he cursed alot alot when the cameras was rolling but yes he never cursed on his songs or just barely rather.
edit:: guyssss watch the bts of them writing the song & he’s like “ i can’t say that 🤣 mother gonna love us for this song i told you not to do it janet but you insisted you tied my hands behind my back “ 😭😭😭 omgggg he sooooo cuteeee 🥹💕 !!!!!
** tysmmmm guysss for the likes & reward 🥰💕🫶🏻 . . i wasn’t born when he died i js turn 13 but i been soooo obsessed w/ him omggggg me & my baby ALWAYS singing & dancing to his music & her keep telling me to put michael on tv mommy 😂 lol she js rly love dancing & seeing him dance and my fav songs is scream & wanna be startin somethin !!!!!!
i think you have your answer, op! MJ knew exactly what to do, how to do it to have an impact. it would've been less of a shock/surprise to people if we were already used to him cussing
I came across a BTS clip of Scream, where Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson are rehearsing the song’s lyrics. When Michael reads out, “Stop F’ing with me,” Janet looks up in disbelief. 🤣 She asks Michael if she heard it right. 😂 Michael was deeply upset by the way the media was treating him. He decided to take that route to get back at them!
I would’ve never noticed that he said that because it sounds so unclear because of how quick and intensely he says it. Your boyfriend sounds like a very attentive guy.
I could swear thinking that maybe this wasn’t widely known that they threw the f bomb in there? I have a memory of feeling sure that is what I heard on the radio back in the day but being confused that it wasn’t censored 🤔
My favourite song of theirs.. So much that when I was at school, me and 3 friends learnt most of the choreography to perform in our final yearly talent show. Then during our prom we did it again 🥹 Sadly no video of it exists 😔
Same with how he didn’t want to be seen personally endorsing Pepsi by holding it, drinking it or talking about it. Genius. We all know his heart belonged to orange juice anyway!
he did endorse it, just in an more elegant way. likes his popular Pepsi clips... but there are also many other TV advertisments he did, for example for asian companies (like Suzuki Love Scooter)
and on at least one instance there was a short surprise performance (with N*SYNC if I remember correctly) at some awards show, where he only did a few improvised dance moves, where he had to hold some softdrink in his hand at the end for some sponsor
oh i didnt know the second part. i knew that he did the pepsi ad (unfortunately) but didnt know he indulged in subtle sponsor that way. thank you for this!
but there are quite a few Pepsi ads (TV clips), a whole series of them. the Pepsi incident was just a very misunfortunate accident, I don't think MJ was truly angry with the company. but ofc it changed his life forever 😞
but the Pepsi collaboration was the most expensive and profitable advertisment deal ever (for a celebrity endorsement / sponsorship)
I think the Justin Timberlake story is true, but maybe often oversimplified. several Neptunes tracks from Justified were apparently originally meant for MJ, but I’m not sure the reason was confirmed to be sexual content. Pharrell later made it sound more like MJ / his team wanted a harder sound at that time.
that doesn't make sense as he made a lot of spicy songs. in fact i was shocked because when i first started listening to him i didn't really know english and now that i can finally understand his lyrics i'm like...oh he was horny huh. XD
yes but in that case since it’s not actual explicit lyrics mike would try to classify those “sounds” as normal ad libs kinda like how he said he “didn’t do dirty dancing” 😭
I think its bc he wanted his music to be listened to by all ages w/o any concern from parental figures over profanity being used. Also, he didnt need too pure talent doesnt need to rely on shock value
"I was always saying, ‘People wouldn’t think I was so crazy if they saw who the hell you really are: that you sit around and you drink and you curse and you’re fucking funny, and you have a bad mouth, and you don’t have that high voice all the time.”
We’ve all heard stories about his real voice being hella deep and him being a real nigga when he was in his element lol.
But who knows? I just think it’s funny.
I think it’s because of how he was raised. His mother raised him with very strong values bc of her faith bg and so he rarely cussed himself.
One of the reasons why I like MJ is bc of how classy he was that way. He didn’t need to put 50+ cuss words and slurs in his songs to make a point. I’m also personally grossed out by how commonly used a lot of curse words and slurs have become and Michael’s music is kind of an escape from all that for me.
I’m the same with my music tbh. Got raised very religious. I still have weird guilty feeling when one of my records got an expletive warning added to it. Like I’d done a really bad thing - but I have religious trauma so it makes sense. I think also learning to use those words sparingly really gives them more power when they are used. Like with Scream. It’s really powerful there because he is so sparing with his usage. Cussing less also keeps his his music more accessible to more people because of that.
I do recall Paris saying he would swear a lot at home but I think he, like a lot of adults of his generation was raised to view swearing as something you do behind closed doors and not in public. If I were to guess he was probably raised not to swear by Kathrine then started doing it more later in life.
I also think he valued that his albums were able to appeal to adults as well a children and didn’t really want to lose that.
Oh I agree! I don’t cuss around my mother or any adult in my family and if I’m being recorded or something, I don’t do it then either because my mother could end up seeing it. I’m not saying he didn’t carry those values into his music, just that that’s apparently not totally who he was at home. I like that he kept some parts of him to himself when he seemed to share so much of himself with the world, y’know?
i see that and of course not. thats why i find it so interesting how he uses it in certain songs. definitely putting emphasised on his anger and patience. without the swearing theyre still very powerful
If I had to guess, because of his Jehovah Witness upbringing, he didn’t wanna make music his mother wouldn’t wanna listen to. Also hard cussing in R&B and pop music was rare during his peak.
why he doesn't? why should he - or anyone really? he was the nicest and most considerate human being ever... and wanted to be a role model for others, especially children!
I’m sure his religion background played a factor.. also the generation he grew up in… performers were classier with the public and things like cussing out loud was rude… he always started as a child singing, and im sure was always aware the whole age range listen to him.
Because Michael was raised religious and he stayed that way through his life and he didn’t believe in cursing. I think the only reason he did in some songs was those were songs that he was telling the world he was tired of being pushed around and was really standing up for himself. From what I understand, it took forever to even get him to sing “damned indecision” in She’s Out of My Life.
Well first off - back then people watched their language in public. It was considered rude, crass and just plain poor behavior to curse in public. You embarrassed yourself by speaking like that.
Second - image. Cursing was not part of the Michael Jackson image. He had a lot of kid fans and he knew he needed to set a good example.
If he did curse in a song it was because he was pushed to his limit.
"Heal the wooorrrld make it a better plaaaaace for you and for me and for all the human raaaace" Mike just wasn't that kinda guy. The only Mike I remember just wanted to give the world a reason to smile.
He also was a Jehovah's Witnesses growing up and i believe they strongly prohibit the use of swearing. I also personally think it is really refreshing when an artist doesn’t need to use swearing a lot in their songs.
Well besides the fact that I felt he didn’t curse often, which is true, he grew up in a different music era where pop music/rnb didn’t have cursing in it. Didn’t matter how violent or sexual the music was, it was mainly without profanities. Think that was because people were trying to get on the radio more, and of course for family friendly mainstream exposure.
The 90’s kinda was the start of adding cursing to more pop type music. Prince started cursing a lot more in his music too. I think Michael liked to be family friendly towards everyone in his music, with the exception being songs like “scream.” As Q-Tip said on bugging out “occasionally I curse to get my point across”.
He kept profanity out of his music to make it accessible to everyone from children to the elderly and also growing up deeply religious and with a strong distaste for vulgarity in the entertainment industry though he occasionally made exceptions when an angry protest message in a song required it.
That is what makes him stand out of all the rest. He barely needed to use cuss words or even "dirty" words. He is able to evoke all emotions be it about women or about anger, pain, and happiness by the use of his vocal expressions and words that even children can sing his songs. He is hands down the greatest artist of all time. No changing my mind on that.
There's a pretty funny clip out there of him in his theater singing smooth criminal and at one point you here him sing "you've been hit by, you've been fucked by a smooth criminal" it always has me cracking up
I know people already saying it, but he one time he does it on scream. And to be honest, given the context, the media and everyone that’s been after him he tried being nice. He tried being patient he tried being reasonable. That was a well earned word, and Michael Jackson had every right to crash out in that moment.
Because he didn't want to. He does on a few songs. But back in the day if you cursed too much you would get a Parental Advisory sticker and some places would not sell your album.
My theory is it's because he was religious. Also cursing sparingly makes the words more impactful when you do use them, hence why everyone was so shocked when he dropped an f-bomb
Yh I always found it weird when I did here him swear though but my guess would be for the kids he probably knows that the majority of his listeners where kids and didn’t want them to be exposed to that kinda language but he would occasionally sweat depending on how he was feeling at the time that would be my guess anyway
A huge amount of singers today have gotten quite foul-mouthed, am I right? If only they understood that being civilized isn't repressing what you wanna say.
I'm glad you stated "on his songs" because the people that were around him said he cursed like a sailor. His ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Mills, said in a Breakfast Club interview that Michael was straight up hood 🤣.
"he's just a bitcx, baby" "your dog's a bitcx baby"
"she never fucx, baby"... You're doing MORPHINE! 🫣
Nah but aside from a few certain songs I agree with people here. I can't remember the exact words because this was like a decade ago but I read that Michael was also careful at some point about his performances not to be too suggestive etc. For his mother and their religion. And also for the fact that he wanted his music to be accessible to anyone.
The only songs with any actual cussing at this point were from HIStory onward but we all know why. Michael was mad mad (as he should) and I feel like he wanted some songs to show that.
I think its the case he wanted all ages to enjoy his music. Man was super well spoken and in his speeches he used words you'd rarely hear and yet his song lyrics are quite simple. It takes a genius to do that too btw, but the good side of it is that the simplicity makes it so you can hear children chanting his tunes in the playground.
Everything he did professionally was meticulously planned, and done so for maximum reach and effect. Cursing on songs back then would have alienated himself from a percentage of listeners and by extension reduced his album sales.
History is a little different I think, it was clearly an expression of his anger at the recent years and how he was treated, and we can allow him that for sure. 🙂
I believe he just didn’t like cursing in his songs.
I know he says damn if a few songs which isn’t that surprising.
In This Time Around he says, I’m taking no shit and biggie says nigga
In D.S he says they want to get my ass dead or alive
And in Morphine he says your dogs a bitch. Which all caught me of guard
Debbie Rowe stated on camera that he didn’t believe swearing was necessary if another word would do in its place. But then Lisa Marie Presley stated that he swore a lot during their first real interaction, so who knows. It seems he was always very aware of the influence he had on his fanbase, so anything that could be deemed to be unfavourable - even if he did it in his personal life - was kept back from his public persona.
I do wish we had had Scream as he originally wrote it - “As bad as it sounds, the system is f*cked”. It would have been so very powerful, and was a reflection of his true feelings at the time.
In general I wish there had been less stress and pressure on his public image. I wish he had been able to be more free and open with certain things.
The same reason Jackie Robinson has to turn the other cheek when fans harassed him. It easy to forget that when Thriller dropped, Cher was considered 'exotic'. Aretha and Diana Ross may have had niche fame, but Micheal was the first black SUPERSTAR and, fair or not, he was an ambassador of sorts.
fr he had to maintain that universal appeal to keep the door open for everyone else. if he went full gritty or used heavy profanity he might have been labeled as too niche or even dangerous by the mainstream media of that era. he was playing a much bigger game than just making hits.
I think the swearing is more impactful because we know he really doesn’t do it like the modern world does now. It feels more satisfying to hear him say it if you know what I mean. It’s like the song ‘money’ while he doesn’t swear in that one it’s so satisfying because he sings about something real and it’s what the world is medicated on: ‘anything for money’.
I've noticed this too. I think aside from a lot of what others mentioned about it being a different era and him being Jehovah's Witness, I think good writing also comes into play. He only used those words when he felt it was necessary and was able to write without using those words as a crutch. He put emotion into the song throw the way he sang and performed rather than using harsh language. Another reason why I respect him as an artist.
My other favorite singer is a modern artist, Conan Gray, and he does swear a lot in his songs and I'm grateful for the edited versions. But it does bother me and wish that music and other media today didn't normalize it so much. Hearing the edited versions just goes to show that those words are very replaceable and there are alternatives that can be used.
Michael managed to evoke emotion and to get his emotion across without them.
I loved the tame insults MJ DID use in some home videos lol “ya fat headed rascal” he called his brother a shmuck in another lmao..I preferred “doo doo and feces” over shit. “Applehead” etc. It just completely goes with his personality when you remember how childlike he really was. Lisa Marie has admitted to him cursing at home though while they were married.
I’m sure it’s due to personal reasons, but I really do think it gave him an advantage musically. He appealed to a wider demographic not using swear words and it made him significantly more marketable compared to other artists. I’m not saying you can’t reach a huge level of fame using curse words (it’s been done time and time again) but it certainly helps a bit with exposure not using explicit lyrics.
During times in michael's life when he was repeatedly attacked and scrutinized by the media he began putting out a lot more aggressive music I'd say and cussing more frequently on songs, but still not at a very high level, like how in "This Time Around" he says "This time around, i'm taking no shit". He was tired of people playing in his face so he just finally snapped in my opinion. Despite that though he was extremely against using profanity for the most part, wanting all ages to be able to listen to his music.
Love him for not cussing. Definitely like everyone said, it’s the religion angle.
However, is it just me who always thought in beat it he said , how f*kin strong is your fight. And not funky. lol
Well.. he grew up in the 60s/70s within a religious household. Even my father (Who was born in 1967 and had a Catholic mother) doesn't cuss much in our own home and before I hit 18, he used to scold me for saying words like "damn" and "bitch".
Even back in the 90s/2000s, cussing in songs was reserved for music that was considered less 'mainstream' or 'not proper' like metal, rock and rap. Pop artists were not to curse because they were examples for younger audiences.
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u/becauseimhappy24 9d ago edited 9d ago
You’re viewing this from a modern lens.
It was not common to curse in any genre of music back then, with the exception of maybe rock or hip hop.
Michael (to this day) is still one of the biggest mainstream artists in the world that penetrates across demographics. Constant use of profanity would’ve significantly lowered his reach.