Review Summary: After three spectacular albums, Jackson released the next album without longtime-producer Quincy Jones...
After the success of
Off the Wall, which sold more than 20 million copies,
Thriller, which is still the best-selling album of the world with sales estimated between 51-65 million copies and
Bad, being the first album to get five #1 hits in the world, Michael Jackson was surely the best. These three albums were produced along with legendary Quincy Jones, who was also a producer for some of Frank Sinatra's albums, but after Jackson desired to update his music, he and Jones went in their own way.
In 1989, it was said that Jackson would release a compilation album, named
Decade, which would contain every single that Michael had released up to that point plus a few bonus tracks, e.g., some Beatles covers, which never happened because Jackson was truly unhappy with the result, and decided that the bonus tracks (except the covers) would be better suited in a new studio album.
During 1989, 1990 and the first half of 1991, Jackson worked with a lot of songs, and even some of them, came from previous albums ('For All Time' is one of these examples) and were considered to be into this one. But, finally, Jackson was ready to release it. How? By publishing its first single, which was 'Black or White' that it also had a successful video, and it proved to be a #1 hit for Jackson. The music video was watched by 500 million people during its first broadcast, a new record. But, the video was also controversial, for its final 4 minutes because of the dancing Jackson was doing and its references to Hitler, KKK, and some other historical figures. Sony then cut off those 4 minutes and release a new version of the video. The video is also famous for being the first music video to use a technique named morphing. This technique was new at the time and it was used to change people's faces and bodies in a realistic way. The video also starred Macauley Culkin, famous for the film "Home Alone".
Jackson released then more singles and videos: Remember the Time, which starred comedian Eddie Murphy and supermodel Iman, an also basketball player "Magic" Johnson. The video lasts about 9 minutes and is set in Egypt, where Jackson tries to make the Empress remember the love they had. He also does a magnificient and spectacular choreography and its special effects were innovative and great; In the Closet, which is considered his most sexual song, was accompanied with a short film, in which he and supermodel Naomi Campbell dance sexually suggestive moves. In the studio version, the voice of the girl was recorded by Princess of Monaco, but, due to unknown reasons, she was labeled as 'Mystery Girl' in the booklet of the album (this is also present in the 2001 special edition). These three songs are some of my favourites from this album because of their lyrics (which had improved a lot since Bad) and their updated sound. Before continuing with the other songs, I'd like to say that this is one of best Jackson albums. Here is Jackson, angry because of social problems, concerned about poor people, and worried about the social inclusion of people. This theme of anger is present in songs such as 'Jam' (its music video starred Michael Jordan in a very impressive way), 'Why You Wanna Trip On Me' and 'Black or White'; on the other hand, Jackson is also shown to have a sexual side, especially in 'the Closet' and in 'Dangerous' (it is also present in 'Can't Let Her Get Away', 'Give in to Me' and in 'She Drives Me Wild'); 'Heal the World', 'Will You Be There' and 'Gone Too Soon' show a softer side of Jackson, which are songs I love because of the brightness of his voice. One song that is one of the best Jackson has ever done and it is completely underrated is Keep the Faith. Just listen to the lyrics, and you'll get what it's about
: self-esteem; there's also the theme of love in Remember the Time while Who Is It talks about infidelity.
In fact, Dangerous is the album from which Jackson produced more music videos. Like I said before, Jam had a wonderful video featuring mega-star Michael Jordan (promoted as the other 'MJ') and rapper Heavy D (who died last year). The special effects are simple; yet, powerful in a visual way. In the end, you have a wonderful moment between Jackson and Jordan, where Jackson teaches Jordan how to moonwalk and Jordan teaches him how to play basketball. In this part, you can see how Jackson does his famous techniques. Heal the World, which is similar to Man in the Mirror (from Bad), features kids asking for peace in the world. Jackson does not appear in this video. Who is It is my favourite of all Dangerous videos. There is Jackson feeling sad because his girlfriend 'cheated on' him with someone else, but we can clearly see that it isn't that: the girl works as a prostitute (in my opinion). The visuals and the tension surrounding Jackson are awesome and particularly great. This song has another music video, more simple, where it is a recollection of Jackson's past music videos. Give in to Me features Jackson in a concert (again, similar to Dirty Diana) along with guitarrist Slash (who would work with Jackson until 2001). Gone too Soon deals with the loss of the loved one, in this case, Jackson laments the loss of his friend, Ryan White, who had died of HIV in 1990. This video has two versions, the one shown in the DVD Dangerous: The Short Films and other one, (which is more produced) shown in Michael Jackson's Vision. Jackson felt sad because of his death, and decided to help a lot of HIV-related organasations in order to make people understand the risks of this disease. Will You Be There served as the main theme of Free Willy. In fact, Jackson had some problems because of copyright issues regarding of a Beethoven's Symphony used in the intro. Dangerous was also meant to be a single, but due to Jackson's 1993 child abuse issue, this didn't happen. Lyrically, it is similar to Dirty Diana.
Dangerous is Jackson's most complete album. It has a lot of different themes and its rhythms are so cool and awesome. For this album, Jackson embarked in another world tour (
Dangerous World Tour) which was supposed to have more than 100 concerts, but when Jackson was accused of child molestation in 1993 by his friend Jordan Chandler and his father, Evan Chandler, Jackson started to take painkillers and went downhill with his health. Eventually, the tour was canceled and Jackson only did 69 concerts. Jackson finished the promotion of the album in 1993.
This album was an improvement of Bad, and it can be compared to Off the Wall because of their production and sound in general. I enjoyed this album a lot and still is my favourite one released by him. This is the last studio that Jackson would produce until 2001, when Invincible was released.
