If Michael Wasn't a Jackson...

[DuranDuran]

That is fair enough.

Although, I am in he personal opinion that if you want to master your craft, you should be good in both, especially if you want to really make it in a band. However, since Jermaine seems to want to be more a vocalist so he may not of tried as hard on the guitar. Although, he does not have very good vocals, imo.

I honestly think Jermaine would had far better success if he became more like Slash and Eddie Van Halen, but I guess it does not really matter.

Jermaine is an R&B/pop singer, not a hard rock singer. Jesse Johnson is just as good as Eddie Van Halen or Slash, but he didn't have big success. Playing metal like Eddie & Slash is mostly white. Black groups that tried like Living Colour and the Jon Butcher Axis didn't get as big an audience like Iron Maiden or something. Most guitarists don't play bass and vice versa. Anyway, being a great player in itself don't make you in demand. Yngwie Malmsteen is probably better than Van Halen, but he just plays a lot of notes with a lot of speed and no soul. It's more like showing off than playing something that's listenable, lol.

 

[Ramona122003]

Was Jackie really popular than Mike back in the J5 days?

When I read old teen mags in the 70's, it's usually Mike who has his own exclusive story and Jermaine.

Can anyone old enough verify this? I've always thought Michael was the most popular...

or was it just the media... but not the Jacksons' real fanbase...?

My parents grew up in that era.

In terms of stage presence and talent, Michael was the most talked about and was the highlight. Jermaine was mention here and there, but it was more like second banana talk.

Jermaine and Jackie was the most popular among the ladies because they both screwed the fans after the show. This was confirm by Michael as well. Since Michael was way too young for such spicy thoughts, he seen as just being cute by these girls. Although his brothers did used him as a lady magnet.

 

[Ramona122003]

Jermaine is an R&B/pop singer, not a hard rock singer. Jesse Johnson is just as good as Eddie Van Halen or Slash, but he didn't have big success. Playing metal like Eddie & Slash is mostly white. Black groups that tried like Living Colour and the Jon Butcher Axis didn't get as big an audience like Iron Maiden or something. Most guitarists don't play bass and vice versa. Anyway, being a great player in itself don't make you in demand. Yngwie Malmsteen is probably better than Van Halen, but he just plays a lot of notes with a lot of speed and no soul. It's more like showing off than playing something that's listenable, lol.

I think you nailed the problem with Jermaine. It is the fact that he never branch out of R&B. That is how Michael found his most success when he branch out into other area of music. Btw, it was not specially Pop. R&B can be classified as Pop since Pop just means popular music.

As for that last point, it helps to be a great player. Sure he may still not be in demand, but he would be must more noted than he is now. However, I am not a guitarists expect, so I will just leave it there.

 

[DuranDuran]

I think you nailed the problem with Jermaine. It is the fact that he never branch out of R&B. That is how Michael found his most success when he branch out into other area of music. Btw, it was not specially Pop. R&B can be classified as Pop since Pop just means popular music.

As for that last point, it helps to be a great player. Sure he may still not be in demand, but he would be must more noted than he is now. However, I am not a guitarists expect, so I will just leave it there.

Jermaine doesn't have a voice to do rock, he basically has a R&B crooner voice. Other R&B singers during that time like Luther Vandross, Freddie Jackson, Alexander O'Neal, & Peabo Bryson didn't sing rock either. Their voices are not suitable for that. It's not like Luther could take Vince Neil's place in Motley Crue. In the 80s, R&B didn't cross over much, so it wasn't considered "pop". The ones that had big success on the mainstream Top 40 made obvious pop records that was less R&B based like Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie, & Billy Ocean, dance music like Jody Watley & Janet Jackson or Pat Benetar style pop rock like Tina Turner. Basically Jermaine didn't make it as big because he doesn't have an image. He's more a Johnny Mathis or Frank Sinatra as far as performance goes and that didn't fly in the MTV generation. He's not that interesting to watch, lol. That's why Jermaine had more success on the R&B charts than the pop charts. An image wasn't that important, at least as far as adult R&B went. Acts like Rene & Angela, Anita Baker, and Maze fit into that category. Besides, I don't think Jermaine had competent people working for him like Michael & Janet. The behind the scenes people like mangers and so on are very important. Let's face it Michael & Janet or other acts like Bon Jovi, The Police, or George Michael wouldn't have gotten anywhere if they had a Joe Jackson as their representation lol. Look at what happened with the Victory Tour with people like Joe, Chuck Sullivan, & Don King who didn't know what they were doing running things. Janet's 1st album doesn't sound any different than Shalamar's music (because it had their producers) and they were popular, but they didn't have Joe as a manager like Janet. When Janet fired Joe after the 2nd album she blew up.

 

[Ramona122003]

Jermaine doesn't have a voice to do rock, he basically has a R&B crooner voice. Other R&B singers during that time like Luther Vandross, Freddie Jackson, Alexander O'Neal, & Peabo Bryson didn't sing rock either. Their voices are not suitable for that. It's not like Luther could take Vince Neil's place in Motley Crue. In the 80s, R&B didn't cross over much, so it wasn't considered "pop". The ones that had big success on the mainstream Top 40 made obvious pop records that was less R&B based like Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie, & Billy Ocean, dance music like Jody Watley & Janet Jackson or Pat Benetar style pop rock like Tina Turner. Basically Jermaine didn't make it as big because he doesn't have an image. He's more a Johnny Mathis or Frank Sinatra as far as performance goes and that didn't fly in the MTV generation. He's not that interesting to watch, lol. That's why Jermaine had more success on the R&B charts than the pop charts. An image wasn't that important, at least as far as adult R&B went. Acts like Rene & Angela, Anita Baker, and Maze fit into that category. Besides, I don't think Jermaine had competent people working for him like Michael & Janet. The behind the scenes people like mangers and so on are very important. Let's face it Michael & Janet or other acts like Bon Jovi, The Police, or George Michael wouldn't have gotten anywhere if they had a Joe Jackson as their representation lol. Look at what happened with the Victory Tour with people like Joe, Chuck Sullivan, & Don King who didn't know what they were doing running things. Janet's 1st album doesn't sound any different than Shalamar's music (because it had their producers) and they were popular, but they didn't have Joe as a manager like Janet. When Janet fired Joe after the 2nd album she blew up.

Just to clear some things up, I was not talking specially about Rock. I meant other areas like hip hop or even country. Apparently, Mrs. Jackson is a very good country singer, but that is beside the point. Jermaine is no Luther Vandross and despite being R&B singer, he had a wonderful voice that could not be ignored by the mainstream. He was also like Frank Sinatra because Luther was not interesting to look at either, but he made it during the MTV generation. Also, Whitney Houston was more gospel focus, but we can have whole another discussion about that.

As for the whole image, I am incline to agree with you to a point. An image would had done wonders for Jermaine as well as a good management team. However, he fire his father around the time of Thriller, so Joe had no say on his career at that point. He was also away from the Jacksons for several years, working for Motown. Even with Motown working with him and trying to market him, he didn't have that much success.

Yeah, it is true that Joe could not market a ham sandwich to a hungry homeless man and Jermaine was a fool for using Joe for any connections if he wanted a career. However, Michael made Off the Wall and Thriller when he was still under his father's management, so that is not a real excuse. Michael made his own image and knew what he wanted. That is not the case with Jermaine. If anything, he should had hired Michael's team and used his connections in that way instead of always trying to get Michael to tour.

In Jermaine's case, there were many factors that held him back. One being his rather so-so talent. The other being that instead of trying to improve himself and grow as an artist, he bullies, demeans, and rely on others to make himself great. The other being that he never seems to hire the right people. You think 40 years in the business would help him on that.

 

[DuranDuran]

Even with Motown working with him and trying to market him, he didn't have that much success.

At the time Motown wasn't having much success with anybody except Stevie Wonder, Rick James, Commodores/Lionel Richie, & maybe DeBarge to a lesser degree. That's why the other brothers (and a lot of their other classic era acts) left Motown in the 1st place. The later J5 records weren't promoted and didn't sell and Motown wouldn't let them do their own material. That's what I meant by bad people behind him. Michael didn't have Joe by himself as a manager like Janet. Mike had a team. Jermaine's manager wasn't Joe, but he had bad management