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Janet's Vocal Ability


FreelovesJJ

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What's up everyone, so here's a topic that's a hot one usually but never discussed in full enough...IMO. What songs do you feel express Janet's best vocals. I might miss some, but here's mine, and if you want you can name some live performances BUT! She has to be actually singing live...soooo that's the catch. Go!

 

He Doesn't Know I'm Alive

Pleasure Principle - Kinda

Funny How Time Flies

Rhythm Nation 

Escapade

Lonely

Love Will Never Do

You Need Me

Come Back To Me - Live Janet. tour & RN your

Again - ESPECIALLY VR tour when she says "just one more time"

Funky Big Band

Because of Love

Anytime Anyplace - SNL & Track

I Get Lonely - Rosie & all other times

24Play

Anything

My Need 

Special

All For You

When We Ooo

Come On Get Up - Maybe (Give or Take)

Island Life

Im Here - Bridge & Outro ONLY

What Can I Say

Luv 2 Luv

Let Me Know - was ok for the more matured voice

Night

Dream Maker

Well Traveled

No Sleeep bridge

Broken Hearts Heal

Unbreakable - toward the end 

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I like a lot of what you wrote....I would add "Accept Me", "State Of The World", "Empty", "Cant' Be Stopped" and "Trust A Try".  

mmmm those are all honorable mentions. I always felt the extra production on her voice for Trust a Try disqualified it but I fucking love that song. Can't Be Stopped is one of my favorite Janet songs hands down but there's parts where I wish she was vocally clearer. Nonetheless it's one of my favorite songs over all

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Hmmm... I must admit I don't really think of Janet as much of a vocalist in the traditional sense. Obviously she can hold a tune but when I think about the reasons why I love Janet as an artist, her vocal ability is not something that immediately springs to mind.

With that said though, I do love her vocals on Love Will Never Do (Without You) - particularly the way she tackles the low notes at the beginning (I think the song was originally intended to be a duet and those parts were meant to be sung by a male vocalist). I also love how her high notes toward the end blend in seamlessly with the music.

I Get Lonely and Black Cat stand out as great vocal performances too.

And even though I've never been a fan of the song, I remember being impressed when she hit the big note in Again when she performed it live on the All For You tour DVD.

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How about "Black Cat," "This Time," and "What About"? Those songs aren't extremely demanding but they do show that Janet can pull off a rock-influenced song. I think she did What About live at the VR Tour, or it could have been pre-recorded.

"What About" was live as well as when she performed and sang it on the VH1 Fashion Awards. 

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With that said though, I do love her vocals on Love Will Never Do (Without You) - particularly the way she tackles the low notes at the beginning (I think the song was originally intended to be a duet and those parts were meant to be sung by a male vocalist). I also love how her high notes toward the end blend in seamlessly with the music.

Yes it was meant to be a duet and they thought a duet with Prince would be a great idea. It never happened but damn that would have been even more iconic but at the same time it could have distracted us from Janet's new sexy look that she unleashed in the video. Regardless it's a duet with Janet and Janet. 

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"What'll I Do."  Nice runs in this one.  Also LWND is amazing vocally (pretty much all of RN is actually). 

 Janet's got nice vocal ability and tone, just not vocal "chops" to blow u away.  And that's ok. Doesnt make her any less of a valid artist.  Her art is extremely effective and moving. 

Edited by JJATL
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JJ - Young Love, Say You Do, and The Magic Is Working

DS - Don't Stand Another Chance and All My Love To You

Control - He Doesn't Know I'm Alive, Let's Wait Awhile, and Funny How Time Flies

RN1814 - Rhythm Nation, Escapade, Black Cat, Lonely, You Need Me, and LWNDWY

Mo Money - The Best Things In Life Are Free

janet - Any Time Any Place, What'll I Do, This Time, And On And On, and Again

DOAD - Twenty Foreplay

History - Scream

The Velvet Rope - Empty, I Get Lonely, My Need, Can't Be Stopped, Tonight's The Night, Anything, What About, and Accept Me

Extinction Level Event - What's It Gonna Be?!

Aida - I Know The  Truth

All For You - All For You, Come On Get Up, Trust A Try, China Love, Someone To Call My Lover, and Feels So Right

Damita Jo - Sexhibition, Moist, Truly, I Want You, Island Life, What Can I Say, and Just A Little While

20 Y.O. - Roll Wit Chu, With U, Do It 2 Me, Enjoy, and Take Care

Discipline - 2nite and Can't B Good (that acapella especially)

#1s - Make Me

Unbreakable - Unbreakable, The Great Forever, Night, No Sleeep, Gon B Alright, 2 B Loved, Take Me Away, Lessons Learned, and Well Traveled

Edited by Kishi
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Janet has proven great vocal ability on tracks such as Love Will Never Do (Without You),  "What'll I Do" (wish that would have been released as a single), Enjoy, Make Me, and most of the songs on Unbreakable (Especially Gon Be Alright ) which I feel is her best vocal album.

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Janet has proven great vocal ability on tracks such as Love Will Never Do (Without You),  "What'll I Do" (wish that would have been released as a single), Enjoy, Make Me, and most of the songs on Unbreakable (Especially Gon Be Alright ) which I feel is her best vocal album.

one of her best vocal albums indeed along with R.N. and The Velvet Rope.  I did love her vocals on 20 Y.O. too.   

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#1 "What Can I Say?"

#2 "Sexhibition"

#3 "Love Will Never Do (Without You)"

#4 "Again

#5 "Black Cat"

#6 "I Get Lonely"

#7 "Rhythm Nation"

#8 "Trust A Try"

#9 "Unbreakable"

#10 "All For You"

Honorable Mentions:  "Scream", "Island Life", "Who?", "Roll Wit'chu" and "What'll I Do"

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The only reason I don't mention songs like Trust A Try is because her voice is so altered with studio effects, I wouldn't say it's a natural tone that she could pull off sitting on a stool with a mic. 

Do you like Janet in higher range, lower range, or the airy vibe? To me she sounds better when she's a little higher & somewhere around I Get Lonely range 

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I think she sounds best when she does mid-high or higher notes. Those always stand out and she makes them sound nice-sometimes even easy. Her voice has also aged very well also. 

Examples: I Get Lonely, Rhythm Nation, He Doesn't Know I'm Alive, Black Cat, Escapade, I Know the Truth, Love Will Never Do and plenty of others.

Her airy/breathy vocals are also really nice because her voice is soft and she's always been the best with harmonies. 

With All For You and Damita Jo she shows it a lot I think. Of course she's done them her entire career.

Examples: All For You, FHTF, Anything, Feels So Right, China Love, Spending Time With You, All Nite, Make Me

Edited by BlackCat77
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^^^ I agree with the things you named. But I feel like her voice has aged, and Unbreakable made me feel like it's not in a bad direction but 20 YO with the exception of Enjoy & Luv 2 Luv had me worried. Discipline was an ok album but it had me worried too. Her smoothness felt a little gone from before 

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  • 4 weeks later...

^^^ I agree with the things you named. But I feel like her voice has aged, and Unbreakable made me feel like it's not in a bad direction but 20 YO with the exception of Enjoy & Luv 2 Luv had me worried. Discipline was an ok album but it had me worried too. Her smoothness felt a little gone from before 

It has aged but like you said now with Unbreakable it's not worrisome. In 20YO her voice was probably at her lowest but a some of the songs still shown some nice vocals nonetheless. Have you seen these videos? What do you think of them?

 

 

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It has aged but like you said now with Unbreakable it's not worrisome. In 20YO her voice was probably at her lowest but a some of the songs still shown some nice vocals nonetheless. Have you seen these videos? What do you think of them?

 

 

see for me, some of those examples don't count like TATs, which is a great song but it's HEAVILY produced with effects. Janet couldn't sit on a stool & just sound the way she does on that track. Same goes for SOAG. I think Janet more natural tones are beautiful. Take Care was great on 20YO prob one of the best, also Luv 2 Luv. She's sounded great on Unbreakable. She might not be able to get as high as RN days & Control or even VR but she still sounds equally good. Like on IGL Live (debatably) but I love her voice. I always want more of it. 

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see for me, some of those examples don't count like TATs, which is a great song but it's HEAVILY produced with effects. Janet couldn't sit on a stool & just sound the way she does on that track. Same goes for SOAG. I think Janet more natural tones are beautiful. Take Care was great on 20YO prob one of the best, also Luv 2 Luv. She's sounded great on Unbreakable. She might not be able to get as high as RN days & Control or even VR but she still sounds equally good. Like on IGL Live (debatably) but I love her voice. I always want more of it. 

I see what you mean. But I think it's a different story with Janet though because I'm sure she could actually sing those notes. People who put those types of videos for newer artists like to include any sort of squeal or random exclamation to make the artist seem like they gave more range than they actually can sing in. I think her voice has always been under-utilized even at its peak. She does have a really nice voice though and she has great pitch control so she's pleasurable to listen to and she knows how to use it 

Edited by BlackCat77
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I see what you mean. But I think it's a different story with Janet though because I'm sure she could actually sing those notes. People who put those types of videos for newer artists like to include any sort of squeal or random exclamation to make the artist seem like they gave more range than they actually can sing in. I think her voice has always been under-utilized even at its peak. She does have a really nice voice though and she has great pitch control so she's pleasurable to listen to and she knows how to use it 

I fully agree that her voice has been under utilized but I don't think Janet sounds robotic & songs like Trust A Try are very studio based tracks. Her voice even has a distortion on it along with You, which to me is one her most genius songs. But, I think Janet's natural range is LWNDWY & IGL, What Can I Say, FHTF, ATAP, Lonely, You Need Me, and all the adlibs you hear her do. But she has a very nice voice. I like it more stripped down. 

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