31 years ago today, Michael Jackson released his “Dangerous” album. What is your favorite song from the project?
They accidentally announced Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous” album release on radio and the record stores were flooded with calls demanding for an early release and so they opened up at midnight and sold 300 copies in 2 hours.
Music Radar quoted Teddy Riley who at the time admitted he did not want to disappoint the King Of Pop.”There was more pressure,” he says. “I didn’t want to be the one to fail Michael. And I’m so grateful it didn’t. It thankfully went on to become a success, selling about 34 million records, I think.”
He also believes it is not a comparison the production of Quincy Jones with Thriller.
“It’s not a comparison to Thriller,” says Riley. “Thriller is a massive album, Bad is a big album, but Dangerous sits in the middle.”The legendary producer states, “For Dangerous, I brought RnB back to Michael in its barest form; RnB and Funk,” says Riley. “We recorded it in California, at Record One, and then we ended up in Larrabee Studios. I was using a lot of vintage stuff to get the sound we needed. Reeds and SSL XLs were mainly the boards we used – I always loved vintage better than digital. It’s way better… much warmer.”
Michael took on the New Jack Swing style that was in vogue, and made it sound incredibly slick and powerful. This is not to say that Jackson did not follow his formula for success with groundbreaking visuals. Witness the simulcast debut of the album’s kickoff single, “Black or White,” on both broadcast and cable networks worldwide.
Just 2? Impossible.
— 🖤 KJM (@LoveKarenx) November 26, 2022
The Black Or White visuals came at a time when society was in outrage over police misconduct in the Rodney King situation that occurred months earlier. The visuals caused some backlash as we see Michael Jackson trashing cars and turning into a black panther which some saw as him siding with the 1960s civil rights group. The album and its title presented a Michael Jackson that was ready to evolve for the incoming gritty nature of music in the 90s.
Premiering worldwide on November 14, 1991, Black or White and the Panther Dance are simultaneously the product and the cause of an urgent debate about prejudice and racial inequality, a debate that started that year with the brutal beating of Rodney King.
— Manu Bezamat (@manuelabezamat) May 9, 2020
The black panther is the symbol of the Black Panther Party, a political organization founded in1966 by college students Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. With an ideology of socialism, black nationalism and armed self-defense, the BP's primary goal was to confront police brutality. pic.twitter.com/ehKyIbhbXo
— Manu Bezamat (@manuelabezamat) May 9, 2020
Another timeless classic from the album is the single “Remember The Time.” Michael Jackson digs into historical aspects of ancient Egypt to present black Americans as kings and queens. The visuals included celebrities such as Eddie Murphy, Magic Johnson, and Iman.
Iman is stunning
— Saywhatnow?! (@Almost_sexy79) November 26, 2022
wait what, Eddy Murphy is in Michael Jackson's video clip. DAMN
— Tony (@Tony2ndT) November 20, 2022
