He added: “I’ll take that bass lick and put the chords of the melody over the bass lick and that’s what inspires the melody.”
During this case, which saw songwriter Crystal Cartier take Jackson to court for plagiarism over his song Dangerous, Jackson even beat-boxed in court to show how he writes his songs, explaining his writing process.
He explained further how he came to write the song Billie Jean: “Listen, you’re hearing four basses on there, doing four different personalities, and that’s what gives it character, but it takes a lot of work.”
In the end, the judge ruled in favour of Jackson and his co-writers, Bill Bottrell and Teddy Riley, due to lack of evidence for Cartier’s claim.
