Explainer
Vitiligo
Vitiligo
Autoimmune Disease
exacerbated by
- stress
Symptoms
- skin loses color/pigment in patches
- often starting with face, hands
Affected areas:
- skin
- mucosa (genitals and mouth)
- eyes
Autopsy Report, page 11, Anatomical Summary point 3. ->
Otherwise mention of vitiligo in Autopsy Report: 1The decedent’s overall skin has patches of light and dark pigmented areas. Source for all the following: https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/251735/autopsy-0001-optimized.pdf,2There is focal depigmentation of the skin, particularly over the anterior chest and abdomen, face and arms.,3Sections of skin (slide U) show no melanocytic pigment. Melanocytes, although present, are reduced in number. The skin is otherwise unremarkable. No scar or suture material is present.
Autopsy Report
No. 2009-04415
Lupus
Lupus
Autoimmune Disease
exacerbated by
- stress
- sunlight
Symptoms:
- facial rashes, Malar Rash, “butterfly wings”
- skin lesions
Hair Loss on
- scalp
- eyebrows
- eyelashes
Dermatologist’s Opinion
Bleaching without having Vitiligo
TL;DR
Bleaching skin to turn white: It doesn’t work that way
- Doesn’t work for 30% of patients
- Repigmentation occurs almost always
- Lips almost never lose complete pigmentation
- Inner corners of his eyes (caruncle) changed their color. You can not bleach eyelids/inner eye without threat to eyesight.
- Fingernails sign of bleaching: Fingernails of both Black and white people are pink. MJ’s sometimes discolored nails are due to lupus
Scientific Paper
Forensic Anesthesiologist
Levy, Richard J.: The Michael Jackson Autopsy: Insights Provided by a Forensic Anesthesiologist. In: Journal of Forensic Research Vol. 2 Issue 8, 2011.
Accessed October 8, 2024.
Vitiligo Clinic and Research Center
Vitiligo and Bleaching
His skin color changed drastically in the late 1980s which fits the timeline, that he was diagnosed right after Thriller in 1982, tried to cover it up for a while and then decided to change course and use Benoquin to not look spotted. Benoquin is the right treatment for someone with vitiligo prefering to completely remove their remaining pigment than have spots all over. According to Oprah his hands had no pigment and were translucent in 1993, which is what Benoquin would do after about 12 months of use.
Microscopic examination of his skin [on his autopsy report] revealed a lack of pigment and reduced number of melanocytes, which is most consistent with vitiligo, with or without the use of Benoquin, and vitiligo was the official diagnosis on the report.
All medication found upon his death is useful and advisable to someone who has vitiligo and had depigmented their skin.
So there is no question that Michael Jackson had vitiligo, by his own admission and according to his autopsy after his death. He did appear to use Benoquin to help depigment his skin, but not because he “wanted to be white”, but as an FDA-approved treatment for his vitiligo.
Photo Explainer
Vitiligo Vulgaris vs MBEH-treated skin
After his death Benoquin cream was found in MJ’s home. Its active ingredient is MBEH and it is used to depigment skin. Technically you can call it bleaching. The treated areas have a confetti-like pattern. Vitiligo-affected skin is lighter and more uniform.
The pattern we see on this photo is consistent with that. Notably there are body parts without darker patches. We can conclude that these areas are not being treated. They are: face, hands, wrists, elbows, upper chest, neck.
These happen to be body parts where vitiligo vulgaris typically occurs, and this is a common distribution pattern. We can therefore reasonably assume that MJ had vitiligo vulgaris on these areas and used MBEH to even out the skin color on his arms and chest.4he got his chest and his hands and arms and things bleached up – Source: Katherine Jackson Interview
deep Voice
A one-of-a-kind vocal shape-shifter5Not our expression, but the great Arthur Jafa‘s
Many people refer to “his deep voice” and then present a concert clip where Michael speaks a bit lower than usually. However, that’s not truly his deep voice. In my opinion, Michael possesses three distinct vocal registers.
- To kick things off, we have his high-pitched, almost feminine voice.
- Next up is the smooth mid-range he employs during the spoken segments of ‘In the Closet’ and right at the start of the ‘You Rock My World’ music video.
- Finally, there’s his authentic deep voice, a baritone gem he kept under wraps from the public eye.
Honorable mention: A dazzling array of voice impressions. A seriously underrated and underutilized talent.
His role as the Scarecrow in ‘The Wiz’ requires him to scream when he is calling Dorothy in his usual high voice. He isn’t resoundingly loud but throttled and curbed in these scenes.6When they are looking for the yellow brick road; timestamp: Blu-ray 00:38.16 is one example Have you ever noticed how you can’t scream full force when you use a slightly different than your normal voice?7The same thing applies to Austin Butler in ‘Masters of the Air’ (2024) whose character has to speak loudly over aircraft engines. He can’t really assert himself vocally. He still uses his Elvis-voice he trained himself to use for 3 years, which is considerably lower than his natural speaking voice.
In the 1976 Westhaven Ranch video below you can see how Michael shape-shifts his voice constantly, switching between registers and modulating his voice. He not only changes his voice, he switches between different personas. He even says “another person” and “I get back to my daughter”. It’s a playful way of trying out voices and personas. Michael also says “that’s me controlling this voice”. It is an intentional act on his part. He chose what to present to the public.
I believe Michael’s high-pitched voice contributed to his non-threatening persona. It may also have stemmed from his struggles with body dysmorphia. He was told he sounded like a frog and wanted to avoid resembling his father.
I’ve noticed that the more relaxed or annoyed he was the deeper his voice tended to be. Others suggest that the context played a role as well: he often used his natural voice in private or business settings.
His voice coach kept insisting he should embrace that rich, deep sound of his, but apparently, those pep talks fell flat.
Vocal Ranges
Baritone Range
The soft-spoken high-pitched voice image is so pervasive, it is almost shocking. Fans argue on Reddit that his voice in ‘2000 Watts’ has been technically lowered, musicians explain on Youtube his voice while listening to audio that highlights Michael’s mid-range voice, arguing for his Castrato-like tone, thus reaffirming his child-like nature. Confirmation bias makes us collectively fit what we hear to what we have been told is true. But what we hear and see is an illusion for the sake of art.
Voice Coach Session with Seth Riggs (1994):
- lowest key he sings (uncomfortable): F2
- lowest key he sings comfortable: G2
- highest key he sings comfortable: G#5 (wtf)
This is a 3 1/4-octave range.
Vocal Ranges:8https://web.library.yale.edu/cataloging/music/vocal-ranges
Michael is as baritone as they come.
Vocal Styles
Castrato? Or Countertenor?
Castrato vs Countertenor:9https://vocalability.com/countertenors-vs-castrati/
A boy castrated before puberty will not have this larger larynx. This means that the castrato’s larynx is essentially the same as a typical adult woman’s. A hormonally normal man with a tenor or baritone speaking voice can only stay in the tessitura of an alto by using falsetto, and cannot usually unite this to the full chest voice. The castrato is not singing with falsetto, and therefore makes a different sound, mechanically and acoustically.
Usually. Michael is the exception. He sings Castrato-like.
This is one reason Michael was so adamant about limiting the use of his deeper voice: To keep his higher pitches as rich as they are.
The typical Countertenor range is G3–E5.10https://www.classical-music.com/features/musical-terms/countertenor,11https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countertenor
Michael also covers the Countertenor range.
If there are still questions about it: Was MJ chemically castrated?
infographic
Vocal Ranges vs Michael Jackson