Dangerous (Michael Jackson album)



Dangerous is the eighth studio album by American recording artist Michael Jackson, released by Epic Records on November 26, 1991. It is his fourth studio album released for Epic, and his first since Forever, Michael (1975) not to be produced by longtime collaborator Quincy Jones who had agreed to split after the completion of Bad (1987). He co-produced it with Bill Bottrell, Teddy Riley, and Bruce Swedien.

Jackson wrote twelve of the fourteen songs on the album. Lyrical themes expressed on the album included racism, poverty, romance, the welfare of children and the world and self-improvement, topics Jackson had covered before. The album covers a wide range of genres including hip hop, gospel, rock, soul and pop. Nine singles were released from Dangerous between November 1991 and December 1993, with seven singles issued in the United States, and two others released only outside the US. The two singles released outside the United States were successful, charting within the top ten and top forty respectively. Dangerous peaked at number one in nine countries, while charting at the top ten in four other territories. The only songs not released as singles were "Why You Wanna Trip on Me", "She Drives Me Wild", "Can't Let Her Get Away", "Keep the Faith" and "Dangerous"; a video and single for the latter was planned, but was postponed due to Jackson's touring commitments and allegations of child sexual abuse in 1993.

Dangerous received several Grammy nominations, winning one for Best Engineered Album (Non Classical) by Bruce Swedien and Riley. The album also received three nominations at the American Music Awards of 1993 ultimately winning two awards: Favorite Soul/R&B Single for the single "Remember the Time" and Favorite Pop/Rock Album for the album itself. Dangerous has sold 32 million copies worldwide, 8 million albums were shipped in the United States alone, and has been cited as one of the best-selling albums of all time.

The album produced four top ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including the number-one hit "Black or White". Similar to Jackson's previous material, the album's music features elements of R&B, pop and rock while also incorporating a newer genre, new jack swing, after the inclusion of producer Teddy Riley to the project in a bid to present Jackson to a younger urban audience. According to Chicago Tribune journalist Kelley L. Carter, it is the most successful new jack swing album of all time.

Background
In January 1989, Jackson completed his 1987–1988 Bad tour to support his previous album Bad (1987), which included 123 concerts attended by 4.4 million people. Among the projects he pursued next was the release of two greatest hits albums, Decade 1979–1989 and Decade 1980–1990, comprising hits from his studio albums Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), and Bad, plus four new songs. However, after Jackson had written half an album's worth of material deemed strong enough for release, subsequent meetings with his associates and management at his label, Epic Records, led to the decision to instead produce a full studio album.

In March 1991, days after his sister Janet Jackson had signed a $32 million deal with Virgin Records, the 32-year-old Jackson secured a $65 million deal with Sony Music; the label had inherited Jackson following its takeover of Epic Records. It remains the most lucrative recording contract in music history. The deal granted Jackson an advance of $5 million per album with a 25 per cent ownership of royalties based on retail sales. Jackson's stipulations for the contract were that he must release at least three studio albums, two greatest hits collections, and one remix album and box set. It also granted him the right to his own label, Nation Records, and full rights to sign artists.

Recording
Dangerous was recorded between June 1989 and October 1991, with an advance of $18 million. The album was recorded in seven recording studios, including Ocean Way, Westlake Recording Studios, Record One, and Larrabee Sound Studios in Los Angeles. At twenty-eight months, the album remains one of the longest recording periods for an album in Jackson's career. For over two years Jackson had exclusive 24-hour access to Record One Studios at an estimated cost of $4,000 per day, and secured Larrabee Sound for around nine months at roughly the same price. This was done partly due to Jackson's secrecy for the album, preventing other artists from adjacent studios hearing the music being developed. Jackson had video game consoles set up and posters of Peter Pan and other Disney film characters on the studio walls. Epic management enforced a deadline for the album to be released before November 28, 1991, the same day as Thanksgiving Day. For the last two months of recording, Jackson and Swedien rented hotel rooms located four minutes from the studio.

Jackson's concept for the album was to create one that was similar to The Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky, "so that in a thousand years from now, people would still be listening to it. [...] I want it to live". It's at once the most sterile and creative process I've been involved in," remarked Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash, who guested on two songs. "Everything is pieced together from samples: you use the same drum beat and chords, then later add things to make it different... Michael hires out the studio for like ten years and shows up once a month." Upon receiving a tape of "Give in to Me" without guitars other than some "slow picking", Slash called Jackson and sang what he wanted to play over the phone.

Dangerous was produced by Jackson, Teddy Riley, Bill Bottrell, and Bruce Swedien which marked the end of Jackson's collaboration with his longtime producer Quincy Jones which began in 1978. Jackson wanted the album to have a hard edge and contemporary sound, and worked with several individuals to assist. Riley felt a considerable amount of pressure regarding his involvement because he did not want to "fail Michael". Riley helped to introduce "RnB back to Michael in its barest form" with a mixture of funk music. The main mixing desks used were by Reed and an SSL XL-Desk which Riley preferred over digital units as they gave a warmer sound. Bottrell had worked on Bad as a musician and engineer, and Jackson called him to be a producer for his follow-up. Bottrell co-wrote "Dangerous", "Give in to Me", and "Black or White", and produced the latter two tracks plus "Who Is It". The three songs Bottrell co-wrote developed from Jackson humming various melodies and beats, after which the singer would leave the studio while Bottrell developed them by adding samples and drum machine tracks, including a Akai S1000. Bottrell recalled that none of the material he worked on at Ocean Way Studios made the album. When sessions relocated to Westlake, Bottrell, Swedien, and musician Bryan Loren worked from a studio room to themselves, with Bottrell operating a Neve console and two 24-track Studer analogue tape machines to put down ideas and demos. He then used a 32-track Mitsibushi machine to assemble the album. Swedien recalled some recording sessions lasting for as long as 18 hours. In one incident, he ordered Jackson not to leave the studio unless he sang the vocals for "Keep the Faith" all the way through, adding: "This was scary but he did it. He didn't leave the studio until dawn".

Some sessions were put on hold due to Jackson's health problems as he had spent time in a Los Angeles hospital for weeks after complaining of chest pains. When he was released, he continued work, desiring to take his music to a harder sound than in previous albums, inspired by his sister Janet's edgy sound on Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814. Prior to working with Riley, Jackson had desired to work with producers Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and Antonio "L.A." Reid. Around the same time, his brother Jermaine Jackson, who had signed with La Face Records, was set to work with them and, since Michael didn't tell Jermaine about it before, Jermaine considered it as an act of betrayal, though he later dismissed the notion. Jermaine's song, "Word to the Badd", was composed with lyrics aimed negatively at his brother, and were later revised to lyrics aimed at a bad relationship.

Jackson recorded 60 to 70 songs for Dangerous. Among those recorded but left out include "Lisa, It's Your Birthday", "Monkey Business", "She Got It", "Work That Body", "Man in Black", "Serious Effect" (featuring rapper LL Cool J), and "If You Don't Love Me". Some were picked up during development of later albums or as bonus demos, including the ballad "For All Time", later released on Thriller 25; "Slave to the Rhythm", later remastered and released for 2014's posthumous Xscape; the environmental anthem "What About Us", dropped close to completion and later finished as "Earth Song" for HIStory; "Superfly Sister" and "Blood on the Dance Floor", which would both be issued on Jackson's remix compilation, Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix. Another song that didn't make Dangerous was the Riley-produced "Joy" - later be included on Blackstreet's 1994 self-titled debut, from which it was released as the third single.

Composition and lyrics
With Riley, Jackson recorded under the new jack swing genre, a genre Riley has been often credited with inventing. It was also the first album in which Jackson began rapping. The inclusion of the rap group Wreckx-n-Effect, Jackson's embrace of hip-hop rhythms and new jack swing were designed to give Jackson a new younger urban audience. In other recordings, with Bottrell, Jackson's sounds were more diverse as it had been in other albums with "Black or White" recorded under the pop rock genre while the Slash-featured "Give In to Me" was recorded as a hard rock ballad. The rap in "Black or White" was written and performed by Bottrell, who is credited as a pseudonym "L.T.B". "Jam" developed from a collection of sound loops that Swedien and René Moore had worked on, including drums and the sound of sleigh bells. Assistant engineer Brad Sundberg recalled: "It kept growing and growing [...] Teddy's industrial hits were added. Horns. Orchestral hits. Vocals. Lots of vocals. More of Teddy's sounds. More of Rene's sounds", to the point where around 128 tracks of sounds were played simultaneously. The ballads, "Keep the Faith", composed by Jackson and his "Man in the Mirror" collaborators Siedah Garrett and Glen Ballard, and the self-composed "Will You Be There" both featured strong elements of gospel music while the other ballads "Heal the World" and "Gone Too Soon" were softer pop ballads. The smooth R&B number, "Remember the Time", featured elements of not only new jack swing but also funk, while "Who Is It" and "Jam" had stronger funk elements.

Lyrics for the songs' subject matter were more varied than in Jackson's previous records. Though he often talked of the subject of racial harmony in some of his songs with his brothers, The Jacksons, Dangerous was the first of these albums in which he talked openly of racism, which was the main topic with the hit song, "Black or White". Other social commentary topics that Jackson had never touched as a solo artist including poverty and inner city life were discussed in the song "Why You Wanna Trip on Me", in which he compared social ills to his own alleged publicized eccentricities that were covered in the press at the time asking critics and tabloid media why were they focusing on him when other more social problems were going on. He addressed similar issues in the album's opening track, "Jam", which included rapping from Heavy D. "In the Closet" had originally been set as a duet between Jackson and Madonna though this recording never happened and focused on two lovers carrying on a discreet affair without being open about the affair. The album also included songs of other personal nature especially in songs such as "She Drives Me Wild", "Remember the Time", "Can't Let Her Get Away", "Who Is It" and "Give In to Me". The social commentary "Heal the World" was in the middle of the number of personal songs. "Gone Too Soon", written by Larry Grossman and Buz Kohan, was written and recorded for Ryan White following White's death from AIDS in 1990. The title track's lyrics were compared to that of "Dirty Diana" with the song focusing on a seductress.

Release
Being his first album in four years, plus his lucrative recording deal with Sony, David Browne of Entertainment Weekly wrote: "There is more riding on the success of Dangerous than on any other album in pop history". Five days before the album's release, three men armed with guns robbed 30,000 copies of the album from a Los Angeles warehouse.

The album was released on November 26, 1991. After its first week of release, it debuted at number-one on the Billboard 200, staying there for four weeks. It spent a total of 119 weeks on the chart. In January 1992, the album was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over 4 million in the United States. In August 2018, this number had grown to eight million certified units sold.

Globally, Dangerous dominated worldwide charts debuting at number-one in the United Kingdom while also reaching number-one in seven other territories including Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. It was also a huge success in Asian countries. Sales of the album eventually reached over 32 million copies worldwide.

Promotion
Similar to how Jackson's label had approached the Bad album, expectations again were raised high for the Dangerous album. In September 1991, Jackson netted a deal to have his videos air on the Fox TV network alongside regular music-video channels, MTV, BET and VH-1. The eleven-minute "Black or White" video debuted on November 14, 1991, and was seen in 27 countries and reportedly watched by a record 500 million viewers, said to be the most to ever watch a music video. The airing and later controversy of the video helped the sales of Dangerous, as did the broadcasting of two other Jackson videos for "Remember the Time" and "In the Closet". Jackson's first HBO concert special, Michael Jackson: Live in Bucharest, also helped in the sales of Dangerous after it aired in October 1992, reviving sales of the album. After several weeks of tapering off again, Jackson made personal appearances in early 1993 including the American Music Awards and Grammy Awards, the latter in which he accepted the Grammy Legend Award from his sister Janet, and the much talked about interview with Oprah Winfrey, helping to return the album to the top ten.

Singles
The album's leading track, "Black or White", was an instant number-one hit upon its release that November, debuting at the top of the charts several weeks after it was released, staying there for seven weeks. It would be his only number-one single from the album on the pop charts. Jackson had four top ten singles in the United States from the album including "Remember the Time", which peaked at No. 3 but reached number-one on the R&B chart, his first R&B number-one since "Another Part of Me" nearly four years earlier; "In the Closet", which peaked at No. 6 on the Hot 100, but also reached number-one.

The last top ten single for the album was "Will You Be There", which reached number seven and was boosted by an appearance on the Free Willy soundtrack, helping to boost more sales from Dangerous. "Who Is It" peaked at number fourteen, while "Jam" and "Heal the World" would both peak at the top thirty on the Hot 100 respectively, Jackson's lowest pop showings since early 1979; and the overseas-only singles, "Give In to Me" and "Gone Too Soon" with "Give In to Me" reaching the top five in the UK, Netherlands, Australia and hitting the top of the charts in New Zealand, while "Gone Too Soon" was more moderately received, charting within the top forty.

The singles success of Dangerous was more successful overseas than in Jackson's native United States: in the UK alone, seven of the singles from the album all reached the UK top ten. This was a record for any studio album in the UK until Calvin Harris broke this in 2013.

Critical reception
In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, Alan Light wrote that Jackson was "a man, no longer a man-child, confronting his well-publicized demons and achieving transcendence through performance", on an album that rose to "the impossible challenge set by 'Thriller'" during moments when Riley's production dance rhythms "prove a perfect match for Jackson's clipped, breathy uptempo voice". Robert Christgau of The Village Voice deemed it Jackson's "most consistent album since Off the Wall, a step up from Bad even if its hookcraft is invariably secondary and its vocal mannerisms occasionally annoying." While he felt Jackson was too insistent with the "faith-hope-and-charity" message songs, Christgau applauded the production's "abrasively unpredictable" rhythms and the "sex-and-romance" songs, calling them the most plausible of Jackson's career. Jon Pareles was less receptive in The New York Times, calling it Jackson's "least confident" solo album yet. He believed the singer sounded anxious and out of place with Riley's electronic beats while panning the "dogmatically ordinary" lyrics of the love songs, writing that "they seem based on demographic research rather than experience or imagination." Los Angeles Times critic Chris Willman found the record "relatively tame" and "wildly unfocused", being particularly critical of the songs not produced by Riley such as the "embarrassingly oversentimental" "Heal the World"; of the overtly "black" first half of songs, Willman found the music innovative although lacking in substantial themes. Dangerous received four Grammy nominations including three for Jackson including Best Pop Vocal Performance for 'Black or White', as well as Best R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song for 'Jam', while Teddy Riley and Bruce Swedien won the Grammy for Best Engineered Album – Non Classical.

In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine believed Dangerous was "a much sharper, riskier album than 'Bad'." Culture critic Joseph Vogel was of the opinion that it fulfilled Jackson's creative ambitions and was at once his most socially conscious record, "his most personally revealing", and "a dazzling musical odyssey", comparing it to Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life as "the work of an artist engaging with the world around him-and inside him-as never before." Writing for PopMatters, Vogel argued that the R&B/New jack swing album's music was more groundbreaking than any other pop record of the time. "If indeed it is considered a pop album, Dangerous redefined the parameters of pop. How else to explain an album that mixes R&B, funk, gospel, hip-hop, rock, industrial, and classical; an album that introduces one song ('Will You Be There') with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and another ('Dangerous') with what sounds like the heart of a steel-city factory; an album that can alternately be paranoid, cryptic, sensual, vulnerable, idealistic, bleak, transcendent, and fearful?" In 2007, the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) ranked Dangerous at number 115 on its list of the "Definitive 200 albums of all time developed by the NARM". Chuck Eddy named it the eighth most essential New jack swing album in a list published by Spin.

Track listing
Notes
 * undefined signifies a co-producer

Personnel
Personnel as listed in the album's liner notes.
 * John Bahler – vocal and choir arrangements (track 7)
 * The John Bahler Singers – choir (track 7)
 * Glen Ballard – arrangement (track 12)
 * John Barnes – keyboards (track 8)
 * Michael Boddicker – synthesizer (tracks 1, 7, 11-13), sequencer (8), keyboards (9), programming (9)
 * Bill Bottrell – producer (tracks 8-10), recording engineer (8-10), audio mixer (8-10), percussion (8), guitar (8, 10), rap (8), Father speaking part (8 intro), drums (9-10), synthesizer (9), bass guitar (10), mellotron (10)
 * Craig Brock – guitar recording engineer assistant (track 10)
 * Brad Buxer – keyboards (tracks 1, 7-9, 11), synthesizer (1, 14), percussion (8), programming (9)
 * Larry Corbett – cello (track 9)
 * Andraé Crouch – choir arrangement (tracks 11-12)
 * Sandra Crouch – choir arrangement (tracks 11-12)
 * The Andraé Crouch Singers – choir (tracks 11-12)
 * Heavy D – rap (track 1)
 * George Del Barrio – string arrangement (track 9)
 * Matt Forger – recording engineer (track 7), audio mixer (7), engineering and sound design (8 intro)
 * Kevin Gilbert – speed sequencer (track 8)
 * Endre Granat – concertmaster (track 9)
 * Linda Harmon – soprano voice (track 9)
 * Jerry Hey – arrangement (track 12)
 * Jean-Marie Horvat – recording engineer (track 14)
 * Michael Jackson – producer (all tracks), lead vocals (all tracks), background vocals (1-12, 14), arrangement (1, 9), vocal arrangement (1, 3-7, 11, 14), rhythm arrangement (7, 11), director (8 intro), soprano voice (9)
 * Paul Jackson Jr. – guitar (track 2)
 * Terry Jackson – bass guitar (track 8)
 * Louis Johnson – bass guitar (track 9)
 * Abraham Laboriel – bass guitar (track 13)
 * Randy Jackson: Guitar
 * Christa Larson – ending solo vocal (track 7)
 * Rhett Lawrence – synthesizer (tracks 1, 11-12, 14), synthesizer programming (11), arrangement (12), drums (12), percussion (12)
 * Bryan Loren – drums (track 8-9), synthesizer (8)
 * Johnny Mandel – orchestral arrangement and conductor (track 11)
 * Jasun Martz – keyboards (track 8)
 * Andres McKenzie – Son speaking part (track 8 intro)
 * Jim Mitchell – guitar recording engineer (track 10)
 * René Moore – arrangement (track 1), keyboards (1)
 * David Paich – keyboards (tracks 7, 9, 13), synthesizer (7, 13), keyboard arrangement (9), programming (9), rhythm arrangement (13)
 * Marty Paich – orchestral arrangement and conductor (tracks 7, 13)
 * Greg Phillinganes – keyboards (track 11)
 * Tim Pierce – heavy metal guitar (track 8)
 * Jeff Porcaro – drums (track 7)
 * Steve Porcaro – synthesizer (tracks 7, 13), keyboards (9), programming (9)
 * Teddy Riley – producer (tracks 1-6, 14), recording engineer (1-6, 14), audio mixer (1-6, 14), arrangement (1), keyboards (1-6), synthesizer (1-6, 14), drums (1), guitar (1-2), rhythm arrangement (2-6, 14), synthesizer arrangement (3-6, 14)
 * Thom Russo – recording engineer (track 14)
 * Slash – special guitar performance (track 8 intro, track 10)
 * Bruce Swedien – producer (tracks 1), co-producer (tracks 7, 11-13), recording engineer (1-7, 11-14) audio mixer (1-7, 11-14), arrangement (1), keyboards (1), drums (1, 11-12), percussion (11-12)
 * Jai Winding – keyboards (track 9), programming (9), piano (12), bass guitar (12)
 * Mystery Girl (Princess Stéphanie of Monaco) – vocals (track 3)