Michael Jackson

Off the Wall, released in 1979, brings disco, soul and pop together with an unusually fluid sense of movement. Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough and Rock with You make the rhythm feel buoyant rather than merely forceful. The singing can be light and precise while the instrumental parts carry a strong physical momentum. It is an important starting point because so much of the later catalogue grows from that relationship between voice and groove.

Thriller followed in 1982. Billie Jean, Beat It and Human Nature offer remarkably different settings within the same album. A spare, insistent groove, a rock-guitar confrontation and a more suspended electronic atmosphere can all support the same recognisable performer. The production changes the scale and texture without making the vocal identity disappear.

Bad in 1987 sharpened the rhythmic and visual character further through songs including The Way You Make Me Feel, Man in the Mirror and Smooth Criminal. Dangerous and HIStory later placed the voice within different rhythmic and thematic frames, giving 1990s listeners their own points of entry. The music reached YGEN’s era both as current singles and as a catalogue that newer pop and R&B records were already responding to. A productive return is to listen beyond familiarity. Follow a bass line through the verse, notice how a backing vocal answers the lead or hear what changes when the drums briefly fall away. The recordings reward that attention independently of the vast public mythology surrounding their maker.