History Music / DangerousAlbum

->''Because there's something about you, baby''\\
''That makes me want to give it to you''\\
''I swear there's something about you, baby''\\\
''Just promise me whatever we say''\\
''Or whatever we do to each other''\\
''For now we will be making a vow, to just''\\
''Keep it in the closet''
-->'''"In the Closet"'''

''Dangerous'' turned out to be Jackson's last blockbuster. Early in 1992, it was unexpectedly and symbolically knocked off the #1 position on the ''Billboard'' 200 album sales chart by Music/{{Nirvana}}'s ''Music/{{Nevermind}}'', suggesting that TheEighties' focus on internationally famous mega-acts was at an end.

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''I swear there's something about you, baby''\\
\\

* SecretSexWorker: In the music video for [[Music/{{Dangerous}} "Who Is It?"]], Jackson discovers a nametag for someone named "Alex" in his girlfriend's room and suspects that she may be cheating on him. As the rest of the video shows, she's secretly a HighClassCallGirl who's slept with multiple men and women while dating Jackson, and "Alex" is one of many aliases that she uses with her clients to make her harder to track down.

In 1989, Jackson had begun work on a GreatestHitsAlbum called ''Decade'', which would've spanned his entire solo career on Epic at the time, in addition to some brand new tracks. But after several delays, and recording an overabundance of new songs for the compilation, Jackson decided to scrap it, and record a new studio album instead. He wouldn't revisit the compilation idea until [[Music/HistoryPastPresentAndFutureBookI six years later]] (and even that would come packaged with a second disc of new material).

For the first time since the 1975 album ''Forever, Michael'', Music/QuincyJones was not the producer; instead that function was jointly held by [[Music/{{Guy}} Teddy Riley]], Bill Bottrell, Bruce Swedien, and Jackson himself. Riley's involvement came at the recommendation of both Quincy and Music/HeavyD, both of whom had worked with Teddy prior to ''Dangerous''. This, of course, meant the album would have Michael jump head-first into Riley's NewJackSwing genre. Several of its songs, including "Remember the Time", "Jam", and "In the Closet", would be rich with its influence.

This album was yet another monster hit. It went eight-times Platinum in the United States, and ten-times Platinum in the United Kingdom. When all was said and done, it sold 33 million copies. It finished #2 on the Billboard Top 200 year-end chart for 1992, and was still in the upper half of the chart in 1993. It would finish as the 44th best-selling album of TheNineties in the U.S.

The album spawned ''nine'' singles: "Black or White", "Music/RememberTheTime", "In the Closet", "Jam", "Who Is It", "Heal the World", "Give In to Me", "Will You Be There", and "Gone Too Soon". Four would reach the Top Ten of the Billboard Hot 100, though only "Black or White" would hit #1. Seven would be Top Ten in the United Kingdom.

Naturally, there would be many memorable music videos among the album. There were cameos in "Black or White" (several, including Creator/MacaulayCulkin) and "Remember the Time" (again several, including Creator/EddieMurphy and Creator/{{Iman}}). The video for "Black or White", however, would see controversy due to its post-song epilogue.

"Will You Be There" was also included in the soundtrack of the 1993 film ''Film/FreeWilly''.

It turned out to be Jackson's last blockbuster. Early in 1992, ''Dangerous'' was unexpectedly and symbolically knocked off the #1 position on the ''Billboard'' 200 album sales chart by Music/{{Nirvana}}'s ''Music/{{Nevermind}}'', suggesting that TheEighties' focus on internationally famous mega-acts was at an end.

* EpicRocking: From ''Dangerous'' onward, all of Jackson's albums max out the total available runtime of a CD at 70-76 minutes each. As for individual songs, "Dangerous" is the longest on the album at 7 minutes total. (While "Will You Be There" clocks in at 7:39, the opening minute-plus choral stretch is a segment of Music/LudwigVanBeethoven's Ninth Symphony.)

** In the music video for "Jam" a window is smashed in by a basketball. In the music video for "Stranger In Moscow" on his next album ''[=HIStory=]'' (1995), a window is broken by a baseball.

** Jackson is noted as a "smooth criminal" during the rap segment of "Jam", calling back to ''Music/{{Bad}}''.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: The video for "Black Or White" would originally feature a four minute scene of Michael morphing from a black panther and causing damage to an abandoned alleyway, capped off with a cameo from Homer and Bart Simpson, mirroring the beginning with Macaulay Culkin and George Wendt's bit. For later later airings of the video, it ends just after the morphing scene, cutting out the alleyway destruction due to public outrage over the use or racial slurs and Jackson's suggestive dance moves (though a version exists that simply removes them via post-production editing). The Simpsons cameo was also removed for the shortened version for unexplained reasons, as whether it was due to its ties with the destruction scene (it transitions to the Simpsons' living room after it completes), issues regarding copyright for the characters' use or even both remains unclear to this day. The full version has since seen a release on [=YouTube=], though it's the version with the slurs erased.

* SpokenWordInMusic: "In The Closet", "Heal The World", and "Black Or White" all open with this; in the last case it's a conversation between a boy and his father (not Macaulay Culkin and George Wendt -- that's just the video). "Will You Be There" ends with a spoken-word prayer.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The music video for "Who Is It" is the most adult video Jackson ever released, in terms of subject matter.[[note]] In the video, Jackson finds a silver card with the name "Alex", thinking his lover was two-timing him, when the card actually was one of many fake names that she used in her job as a high-class prostitute. Jackson's assistant eventually tells him where the card actually came from, and Jackson quickly moves out their house in grief, leaving her behind.[[/note]] Since Jackson still had a heavy kid fanbase at the time, the music video did not get a USA release for several years, and was replaced by a video package showing clips from past performances and videos.

* AppealToWorseProblems: "Why You Wanna Trip On Me" is basically this in song.

* GlassShatteringSound: Heard in "Jam" (caused by a basketball crashing through a window in the video), "Why You Wanna Trip on Me", and "In the Closet".

* StockSoundEffects: Besides the aforementioned multiple uses of a GlassShatteringSound, "She Drives Me Wild" starts with a car motor starting up and car horns.

In 1989, Jackson had begun work on a GreatestHitsAlbum called ''Decade'', which would've spanned his entire solo career on Epic at the time, in addition to some brand new tracks. But after several delays, and recording an overabundance of new songs for the compilation, Jackson decided to scrap it, and record a new studio album instead. He wouldn't revisit the compilation idea until [[Music/HistoryPastPresentAndFutureBookI six years later]].

* ConceptVideo: Most of the singles received one of these. "Remember The Time" and "Black or White" are considered the two most notable videos from the album.

* GriefSong: "Gone Too Soon" (see CoverVersion above).
* HotterAndSexier: "In the Closet", both song and video. ''Supposedly'', this was intended as a duet with Madonna, who challenged him to write a song that fit this trope, but she thought the result was too poor for her to waste time with; other accounts allege that Madonna herself brought forward a set of lyrics for the song that were more overtly raunchy, only for Jackson to turn them down out of personal discomfort.

* NewSoundAlbum: ''Dangerous'' was Jackson's first foray into the NewJackSwing fusion genre; it also marked the transition away from the disco/post-disco sound of his three Quincy Jones-produced albums to a more contemporary R&B sound that would dominate his music for the rest of his career.

** The "Remember the Time" video includes Creator/EddieMurphy, Magic Johnson, Music/ThePharcyde, wrestler Creator/TinyLister, and Iman.

* UpdatedRerelease: Averted; ''Dangerous'' was reissued in 2001 as a [[InNameOnly "Special Edition"]] to promote {{Music/Invincible}}, but a second disc full of unreleased tracks that were supposed to come with it was axed for unknown reasons. Unsurprisingly, the lack of bonus material hurt the reissue's sales. Then again it was re-released in 2009 and in 2013 as part of two box sets. None of its reissues contained unreleased material compared to the previous three albums' updated re-releases. While ''Thriller'' and ''Bad'' have received 25th-anniversary editions (with ''Thriller'' even getting a 40th-anniversary release), and ''Off the Wall'' was packed with a documentary directed by Spike Lee in 2016, when this album reached its 25th anniversary, no new editions were released.

** "Black or White" features a rap segment by L.T.B. and an opening guitar solo by [[Music/GunsNRoses Slash]], who also solos on "Give in to Me". The video has Creator/MacaulayCulkin, George Wendt (best known as Norm from ''Series/{{Cheers}}''), Tess Harper and [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Bart and Homer Simpson]] at the end. In the morphing segment at the end, fashion model Tyra Banks can be recognized.

* UpdatedRerelease: Averted; ''Dangerous'' was reissued in 2001 as a [[InNameOnly "Special Edition"]] to promote {{Music/Invincible}}, but a second disc full of unreleased tracks that were supposed to come with it was axed for unknown reasons. Unsurprisingly, the lack of bonus material hurt the reissue's sales. Then again it was re-released in 2009 and in 2013 as part of two box sets. None of its reissues contained unreleased material compared to the previous three albums' updated re-releases. While ''Thriller'' and ''Bad'' have received 25th-anniversary editions, and ''Off the Wall'' was packed with a documentary directed by Spike Lee in 2016, when this album reached its 25th anniversary, no new editions were released.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: The video for "Black Or White" would originally feature a four minute scene of Michael morphing from a black panther and causing damage to an abandoned alleyway, capped off with a cameo from Homer and Bart Simpson, mirroring the beginning with Macaulay Culkin and George Wendt's bit. For later later airings of the video, it ends just after the morphing scene, cutting out the alleyway destruction due to public outrage over the use or racial slurs and Jackson's suggestive dance moves (though a version exists that simply removes them via post-production editing). The Simpsons cameo was also removed for the shortened version for unexplained reasons, as whether it was due to its ties with the destruction scene (it transitions to the Simpsons' living room after it completes), issues regarding copyright for the characters' use or even both remains unclear to this day. The full version has since seen a release, albeit the version with the slurs removed, on YouTube.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: The video for "Black Or White" would originally feature a four minute scene of Michael morphing from a black panther and causing damage to an abandoned alleyway, capped off with a cameo from Homer and Bart Simpson, mirroring the beginning with Macaulay Culkin and George Wendt's bit. For later later airings of the video, it ends just after the morphing scene, cutting out the alleyway destruction due to public outrage over the use or racial slurs and Jackson's suggestive dance moves (though a version exists that simply removes them via post-production editing). The Simpsons cameo was also removed for the shortened version for unexplained reasons, as whether it was due to its ties with the destruction scene (it transitions to the Simpsons' living room after it completes) or issues regarding copyright for the characters' use remains unclear to this day.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: The video for "Black Or White" would originally feature a four minute scene of Michael morphing from a black panther and causing damage to an abandoned alleyway, capped off with a cameo from Homer and Bart Simpson, mirroring the beginning with Macaulay Culkin and George Wendt's bit. For later later airings of the video, it ends just after the morphing scene, cutting out the alleyway destruction due to public outrage over the use or racial slurs and Jackson's suggestive dance moves (though a version exists that simply removes them via post-production editing). The Simpsons cameo was also removed for the shortened version for unexplained reasons.

* {{Sampling}}:
** The background music in ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles''[='=] "Carnival Night" zone blatantly sampled the glass-breaking sound effects from "In The Closet" and the downward horn riff heard in the bridge of "Jam", complete with a distorted voice clip of Music/HeavyD going "Jam!" at the end of it. Justified, however, as the Carnival Night song was also composed by Jackson (though the sampling, among other things, [[http://www.sonicretro.org/2015/02/regarding-sonic-3-guest-post-by-stealth/ led to a lawsuit]] from Jackson's sound team, who also worked on the game).
** "Can't Let Her Get Away" sampled the well-known horn stab from Music/JamesBrown's "Get Up Offa That Thang".

* UpdatedRerelease: Averted; ''Dangerous'' was reissued in 2001 as a [[InNameOnly "Special Edition"]] to promote {{Music/Invincible}}, but a second disc full of unreleased tracks that was supposed to come with it was axed for unknown reasons. Unsurprisingly, the lack of bonus material hurt the reissue's sales. Then again it was re-released in 2009 and in 2013 as part of two box sets. None of its reissues contained unreleased material compared to the previous three albums' updated re-releases.