Michael Jackson's music sales keep soaring as fans purchased more than 800,000 of his albums last week, Billboard magazine said.
Vocal style
Jackson sang from childhood, and over time his voice and vocal style changed noticeably, either through puberty or a personal preference to align his vocal interpretation to the themes and genres he chose to express. Between 1971 and 1975, Jackson's voice "descended ever so slightly from boy soprano to his current androgynous high tenor".In early 1973, the singer adopted a "vocal hiccup", first heard in the song "It's Too Late to Change the Time" from the Jackson 5's G.I.T.: Get It Together album.Jackson did not employ the hiccup fully until the recording of Off the Wall; its usage can be seen in full force in the "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" promotional video. The purpose of the hiccup—somewhat like a gulping for air or gasping—was to help promote a certain emotion, be it excitement, sadness or fear.With the arrival of Off the Wall in the late 1970s, Jackson's abilities as a vocalist were well regarded; Allmusic described him as a "blindingly gifted vocalist".At the time, Rolling Stone compared his vocals to the "breathless, dreamy stutter" of Stevie Wonder. Their analysis was also that "Jackson's feathery-timbred tenor is extraordinarily beautiful. It slides smoothly into a startling falsetto that's used very daringly".1982 saw the release of Thriller, and Rolling Stone were of the opinion that Jackson was then singing in a "fully adult voice" that was "tinged by sadness".
Jackson's albums hold all 10 top positions on Billboard's top pop catalog albums chart, according Nielsen SoundScan sales data released Wednesday. That feat broke a record Jackson set last week when he had eight albums on that chart. Jackson's albums are not eligible for the Billboard 200 chart, which is for newer albums. Jackson's "Number Ones" sold a whooping 339,000 copies last week. Two other Jackson albums, "Thriller" and "The Essential Michael Jackson," sold more than 150,000 copies.
Physical albums constituted 82 percent of Jackson's sales last week -- 656,000 of those versus 144,000 download albums.
Downloads of Jackson's songs dropped last week compared with the week before. Fans downloaded 2.2 million Jackson songs last week compared with 2.6 million the previous week.
But the "King of Pop" still had five singles on the Top 10 list of digital downloads.
Jackson's 1988 hit "Man in the Mirror" was his most popular single, with 159,000 downloads.
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