Dangerous is the eighth studio album by the American singer Michael Jackson, released through Epic Records on November 21, 1991. It was released four years after Jackson's previous album, Bad (1987). Jackson departed from longtime collaborator Quincy Jones, instead co-producing the album with Bill Bottrell, Teddy Riley, and Bruce Swedien. The album features guest appearances from Heavy D, Princess Stéphanie of Monaco, Slash, and Wreckx-n-Effect. The album incorporates new jack swing, pop, R&B, and hip-hop. Jackson wrote or co-wrote most of the songs, centered on topics like lust, unity, social issues, and self-improvement.
Dangerous is considered an artistic change for Jackson, with a more socially conscious material and a broader range of sounds and styles, including underground sounds. It features industrial, funk, electronic, gospel, classical, and rock. Nine singles from the album premiered between November 1991 and December 1993, including one exclusively released outside North America ("Give In to Me"). In support of the album, Jackson embarked on the Dangerous World Tour, which grossed $100 million.
Dangerous was generally a critical success, with praise for its artistic leap compared to Jackson's previous albums. It debuted at number one on the US Billboard Top Pop Albums chart and remained there for four consecutive weeks. It also reached number 1 in fourteen other countries. In 1992, it became Jackson's third consecutive album to become the year's best-selling album worldwide. "Black or White" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Remember the Time", "In the Closet", and "Will You Be There" reached the top ten.
Dangerous is one of the best-selling albums of all time, having sold 32 million copies worldwide, and is certified eight-times platinum in the United States. It has been included in several best-album lists and received numerous awards, including Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical at the 1993 Grammy Awards and Favorite Pop/Rock Album and Favorite Soul/R&B Song (for "Remember the Time") at the 1993 American Music Awards. It has since been credited by critics as Jackson's final "classic" album and his most artistically ambitious work.
Background After the success of his seventh studio album, Bad (1987), Michael Jackson wanted more independence and control over the creative process. He separated himself from longtime producer Quincy Jones to avoid the perception that his success depended on him. Jackson began working on new tracks in 1989, with a handful of members from the B-team of Bad, including Matt Forger and Bill Bottrell. The album was conceived as a greatest hits collection, Decade, with a handful of new songs, similar to Madonna's The Immaculate Collection. Jackson received $18 million in advance.
Decade was scheduled for a late 1989 release, but was delayed several times, before another release date was set for November 1990. Jackson was preoccupied with ongoing changes in his management team while also attempting to realize his filmmaking ambitions. In June 1990, reports stated that he had collapsed while he was dancing in his home studio due to a possible panic attack, with symptoms of chest pains, dehydration and inflammation of the ribs. Soon after the incident, Decade was dropped entirely and Jackson determined that his new material constituted a full album.
Recording
For over two years starting in June 1989, recording took place primarily at Record One in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, where Jackson arranged for executive control for $4,000 per day. Most work proceeded with three producers – Bill Bottrell, Bruce Swedien, and Bryan Loren – at three different studios with Jackson. Bottrell co-wrote and produced tracks such as "Give In to Me" and "Black or White", and received writing credits for "Dangerous" and production credits for "Who Is It". He had been forced out of the production of Bad by Jones, but Jackson brought him back for Dangerous, for which he was known as the "rock guy". Bottrell introduced Jackson to classically-trained keyboardist Brad Buxer, who was originally hired as a technician for his expertise in electronic equipment. Buxer recalled: "Musically speaking, we were on the same wavelength; we spoke the same language." The Jackson–Buxer partnership continued for 20 years.
For most of the rhythm-oriented tracks, Jackson worked with Loren primarily at Record One. Together, the two had recorded tracks such as "Work That Body", "She Got It", "Serious Effect", "Do Not Believe It", "Seven Digits", and "Man in Black". Loren wanted to recapture the organic R&B feeling of Jackson's album Off the Wall. American rapper LL Cool J was invited to rap on "Serious Effect" and "Truth About Youth", because Jackson wanted to add hip-hop elements to the record. LL Cool J had been critical of Jackson, but praised him after their collaboration. None of Loren's recordings made the album. Though Loren's material was strong, its sound was not what Jackson was looking for, in which was more akin to a sound as compelling and successful as Rhythm Nation (1989) by Michael sister Janet.
Jackson discovered new jack swing, which featured a more aggressive and urban sound, after reaching out to producers Antonio "L.A." Reid and Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds. In early 1991, Jackson hired producer Teddy Riley, who had been a pioneer of the new jack swing genre. Initially recording at Record One, Riley moved to nearby Larrabee Sound Studios after a few weeks, because other producers were working at Sherman Oaks. Unlike Loren, Riley wanted Dangerous to sound different from Jackson's earlier work, and Jackson admired Riley for bringing in contemporary styles. Jackson challenged Riley to create new instrumentation without relying on stock synth and drum machine sounds. Riley further developed the tracks "Jam" and "Dangerous", and also contributed his own song ideas, such as "Remember the Time" and "In the Closet". "Dangerous" was originally recorded with Bottrell, but Jackson was not satisfied until improvements were made. Riley said that he brought Jackson's music back to its "barest forms" of R&B and funk.
In mid-1991, Jackson had finished the track listing, which includes several tracks that he recorded with Riley, such as "Remember the Time", "Dangerous", and "In the Closet". He had planned for "In the Closet" to be a duet with pop singer Madonna, but Princess Stéphanie of Monaco was featured on the track instead. The meeting with guitarist Slash took more than a year to co-ordinate and the two collaborated on "Give In to Me". Swedien recalled recording sessions lasting up to 18 hours. On one occasion, he ordered Jackson not to leave the studio until he sang the vocals for the track "Keep the Faith" all the way through: "This was scary but he did it. He didn't leave the studio until dawn."
Jackson spent $10 million to record Dangerous. Executives at Epic set a deadline for the album, wanting it released before Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1991. For the last two months of recording, Jackson and Swedien rented hotel rooms located four minutes from Record One, so they could get back to work as soon as possible. Riley said, "When the deadline came, [Jackson] wanted to do more and more songs. ... And then when Michael saw the commercial for Dangerous, the David Lynch thing, we started working hard to get it finished." Dangerous was completed and mastered, by Bernie Grundman, on Halloween 1991.
Jackson recorded roughly 60–70 songs for Dangerous, some of which were released later, including the environmental anthem "Earth Song", which was included on Jackson's next album, HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I, in 1995. Three other tracks—"Superfly Sister", "Ghosts", and "Blood on the Dance Floor"—were released on the remix album Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix (1997). Loren helped develop "Superfly Sister", while Riley worked on "Ghosts" and "Blood on the Dance Floor". Another Riley-produced outtake, "Joy", was featured on Blackstreet's 1994's debut studio album. The track "For All Time", a romantic pop ballad that Jackson liked, but did not feel fit Dangerous, was released on the 25th anniversary edition of Thriller. "Slave to the Rhythm", originally produced by the duo of L.A. Reid and Babyface, was remixed and released on the compilation album Xscape (2014).
Composition and lyrics Dangerous is largely influenced by new jack swing and primarily spans R&B and pop. The album also features hip hop and incorporates elements of several other genres, including industrial, funk, electronic, gospel, classical and rock. In a 1992 interview with Ebony magazine, Jackson said, "I wanted to do an album like Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. So that in a thousand years from now, people would still be listening to it." Much of the album contains samples from CDs that Riley had created himself using a variety of instruments.
The album features catchy pop hooks and choruses while also introducing underground sounds to a mainstream audience. The album's tone is noted by critics as gritty and urban, with sounds including synthetic basslines, scratching, and drum machine percussion, as well as unconventional sounds like honking vehicle horns, sliding chains, swinging gates, breaking glass, and clanking metal. Throughout the album Jackson also implements beatboxing, scat singing, and finger snapping. The album is considered by Joe Vogel in PopMatters to be an artistic change for Jackson, because of its focus on socially conscious material, and a broader range of sounds and styles. The car sound effects on "She Drives Me Wild" were taken from a sample CD; this marked the first time Riley used unusual sounds in place of the drums on a song.
The album featured Jackson rapping for the first time. The inclusion of Wreckx-n-Effect and hip-hop rhythms were attempts to introduce Jackson to a younger generation of urban listeners. Riley was a pioneer of new jack swing, and he was hired by Jackson specifically for his work in the genre. Riley co-produced half the songs on the album. Swedien said of Riley, "He'd come in with a groove, we'd say it wasn't exactly right, and there would be no complaining. He'd just go back and then come back in and blow us away with something like 'Dangerous'." In recordings with Bottrell, the sounds were more diverse (e.g. "Black or White" and "Give In to Me"). The rap in "Black or White" was written and performed by Bottrell, credited under the pseudonym "L.T.B." Jackson hummed melodies and grooves before leaving the studio, while Bottrell developed on these ideas with drum machines and samplers, including an Akai S1000. Bottrell operated a Neve console and two 24-track Studer analog tape machines to draft ideas and demos. He then used a 32-track Mitsubishi machine to assemble the album.