History Music / HistoryPastPresentAndFutureBookI

* AlternateMusicVideo: "They Don't Care About Us" has three different versions, all filmed by Creator/SpikeLee: The well-known version that was filmed in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, and a version set inside a prison that was rarely shown on television, but was later included on the compilation ''Michael Jackson's Vision''. The prison version was the first time in Jackson's career that he had filmed two music videos for the same song. In the summer of 2020, in light of the Black Lives Matter protests happening around the world, Lee released a supercut combining both versions of the video, with new footage of the BLM protests that were happening.

* AlbumFiller: The entire first disc is a greatest-hits compilation, drawn from Jackson's previous four albums.

** In the music video for "Jam" from ''Music/{{Dangerous}}'' a window is smashed in by a basketball. In the music video for "Stranger In Moscow" on this album, a window is broken by a baseball.

* NewJackSwing: Both ''[=HIStory=]'' and ''Blood on the Dance Floor'' still contain elements of this subgenre, despite being rather ''passé'' by the mid-90's. This is largely because both albums contain leftover tracks from ''Music/{{Dangerous}}''.

* UpdatedRerelease: Alongside ''Music/OffTheWall'', ''{{Music/Thriller}}'', ''{{Music/Bad}}'', and ''{{Music/Dangerous}}'', the first disc was remastered and released as ''Greatest Hits: [=HIStory=] Vol. 1'' in 2001 to help promote Jackson's final album ''Invincible''. Interestingly, outside of the remix album, the second disc had never been released by itself in any format until 2013's ''The Indispensable Collection'', which was released exclusively in iTunes and contains only the second disc.

* TheArtifact: The first disc. It's the result of two different aborted "greatest hits" albums Jackson worked on in 1989 and 1994, but were abandoned because Jackson ended up recording enough new material to make an actual album; the end results being ''Music/{{Dangerous}}'' and this album.

# [[Music/{{Dangerous}} "Remember The Time"]] (4:00)

In the interim between ''Music/{{Dangerous}}'' and this album, Jackson was first accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy, which resulted in him negotiating a multi-million dollar out-of-court settlement with the accuser's family. This would lead to his public image taking a hit, and his widely publicized 1994 marriage to Lisa Marie Presley (daughter of Music/ElvisPresley) just months after the settlement arguably made matters more complicated. Like ''Dangerous'', ''[=HIStory=]'' was originally conceived as a standard "greatest hits" package with bonus tracks, but Jackson ended up recording more than enough new material to make a full album. These scandals provided much grist for the mill of the new songs on Disc Two of this album, resulting in a substantially DarkerAndEdgier work for Jackson. Sales and reviews of ''[=HIStory=]: Past, Present And Future, Book I'' were greatly [[OvershadowedByControversy overshadowed by the controversy about Jackson's private life]], with most audiences failing to notice and appreciate the merits of the music itself. However, it remains one of the best-selling multi-disc albums of all time.

In 1997, eight of the 15 tracks from the second disc were remixed and compiled into ''[[UpdatedRerelease Blood on the Dance Floor: [=HIStory=] in the Mix]]'', a remix album which also contained four [[CutSong cut songs]] from the ''Music/{{Dangerous}}'' sessions ([[Film/MichaelJacksonsGhosts "Ghosts"]], "Superfly Sister", "Is It Scary", and the title track), and a brand new composition, "Morphine". It's recognized as the world's best-selling remix album of all time with six million copies sold, though it remains the lowest selling album Jackson released on Epic Records, due in part to the poor USA promotion by the label. Its title song would also be Jackson's final number one single during his lifetime. [[note]]It was his last #1 song internationally, while ''You Are Not Alone'' became this in the United States.[[/note]]

# [[Music/{{Dangerous}} "Black Or White"]] (4:16)

# [[Music/{{Dangerous}} "Heal The World"]] (6:24)

** David Forester ("Earth Song," "Childhood")

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Listen to any radio edit of "This Time Around", and you'll notice that Jackson's curses are edited out, but Biggie's [[NWordPrivileges N-bombs]] are left intact. You would never hear anyone, rapper or otherwise, get away with that on mainstream radio today.

** "2 Bad" namedrops Jackson's songs "Bad" and "Scream."
--> ''Too bad too bad about it''\\

* StealthInsult: Though he openly attacked Thomas Sneddon on "D.S.", MJ had to resort to subliminal disses for Evan Chandler on the tracks "Money", "2 Bad", and "This Time Around" because of a non-disclosure agreement as a result of the child molestation settlement. Chandler attempted to sue him again anyway in for breaching it, but the case was thrown out.

** "2 Bad" namedrops Music/TheJacksonFive songs "Bad" and "Scream."

** "2 Bad" namedrops the Jackson songs "Bad" and "Scream."

-->--'''"Scream"'''

In the interim between ''Music/{{Dangerous}}'' and this album, Jackson was first accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy, which resulted in him negotiating a multi-million dollar out-of-court settlement with the accuser's family. This would lead to his public image taking a hit, and his widely publicized 1994 marriage to Lisa Marie Presley (daughter of Music/ElvisPresley) just months after the settlement arguably made matters more complicated. Like ''Dangerous'', ''[=HIStory=]'' was originally conceived as a standard "greatest hits" package with bonus tracks, but Jackson ended up recording more than enough new material to make a full album. These scandals provided much grist for the mill of the new songs on Disc Two of this album, resulting in a substantially DarkerAndEdgier work for Jackson. Sales and reviews of ''[=HIStory=]: Past, Present And Future, Book I'' were greatly [[OvershadowedByControversy overshadowed by the controversy about Jackson's private life]], with most audiences failing to notice and appreciate the merits of the music itself. Though it remains one of the best-selling multi-disc albums of all time.

* SpiritualSuccessor: "2 Bad" is one to Jackson's 1987 hit "Bad," even going as far as to reuse certain lyrics in the beginning of the song.

In the interim between ''Music/{{Dangerous}}'' and this album, Jackson was first accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy, which resulted in him negotiating a multi-million dollar out-of-court settlement with the accuser's family. This would lead to his public image taking a hit, and his widely publicized 1994 marriage to Lisa Marie Presley (daughter of Music/ElvisPresley) just months after the settlement arguably made matters more complicated. Like ''Dangerous'', ''[=HIStory=]'' was originally conceived as a standard "greatest hits" package with bonus tracks, but Jackson ended up recording more than enough new material to make a full album. These scandals provided much grist for the mill of the new songs on Disc Two of this album, resulting in a substantially DarkerAndEdgier work for Jackson. Sales and reviews of ''[=HIStory=]: Past, Present And Future, Book I'' were greatly [[OvershadowedByControversy overshadowed by the controversy about Jackson's private life]], with most audiences failing to notice and appreciate the merits of the music itself.

* AngryBlackMan: Played straight as an arrow. This was Jackson's angriest album by a ''mile.''

A DistinctDoubleAlbum, the first CD is a GreatestHitsAlbum covering his solo career on Creator/EpicRecords, while the second CD contains all-new material. It yielded several worldwide Top 10 hits ("Scream", "They Don't Care About Us", "Earth Song", "You Are Not Alone", "[=HIStory=]" and "Stranger In Moscow") and ambitious music videos [[note]] "Scream" remains the most expensive music video of all time at $7 million [[/note]] and is the highest-selling double album of all time, with over 33 million copies sold worldwide. The first disc would later be re-released on its own in 2001 as ''Greatest Hits: [=HIStory=], Volume I'', though the second remains exclusive to the double-CD package. The music videos associated with both the previous hits included on disc one and the new material included on disc two would also be collected on the 1998 compilation ''[=HIStory=] on Film, Volume II''.

''If you just smile''\\

* SelfPlagiarism: To a degree. in 1993, Michael and his sound team were tapped to help compose the music for VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog3. However, they were abruptly dropped from the project for unclear reasons (their removal happened to coincide with the child molestation accusations, though others who also worked on the game said Michael didn't like the sound quality of the music and voluntarily quit), though their music was kept in the game. Not wanting the music to go to total waste, Michael took the ending theme he composed for the game, slowed it down, and turned it into "Stranger in Moscow." It would be ''ten years'' before Sonic fans started putting two and two together.

* WhatHaveIDone: "Earth Song," about pollution, war and animal extinction caused by humans.
--> ''What have we've done to the world?''\\
''Look what we've done''