Everything about Black Or White totally explained
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"
Black or White" was the first single taken from
Michael Jackson's album
Dangerous, released in
October 1991. "Black or White" is a mix of hard rock, dance and rap.
Written, composed, and arranged by Jackson with the rap lyrics by
Bill Bottrell, it's a song that promotes racial unity. The song's introduction and main riff is performed by guitarist
Slash.
The song peaked at number one on the US
Billboard Hot 100 and the
UK Singles Chart, as well as in 18 other countries.
Music video
Synopsis
The
music video for "Black or White" was first broadcast on
MTV,
BET,
VH1, and
FOX (after the
episode of
The Simpsons) on
November 14 1991. Along with Jackson, it featured
Macaulay Culkin,
Peggy Lipton, and
George Wendt. It helped usher in
morphing as an important technology in music videos. The video was directed by
John Landis, the same director as
Thriller.
The first few minutes of the video featured an extended version of the song's intro, in which a young kid (
Macaulay Culkin) is playing loud music in his bedroom at night, and is yelled at by his enraged father (
George Wendt), who demands he stops playing the music and go to bed. Culkin decides to forego his father's request to go to sleep by setting up large speaker cabinets behind his father's reclining chair, donning leather gloves and sunglasses, and playing an extremely loud
power chord on an electric guitar. The sound shatters the house's windows and sends his father (seated in his chair) halfway around the world, where the actual song starts. Culkin's mother declares that his father will be "very upset" upon his return. The song from the CD doesn't use Culkin's nor Wendt's voice; they're replaced by voice actors performing a similar intro. Wendt winds up in Africa, and Michael Jackson begins to sing "Black or White", surrounded by various different cultures scene-by-scene.
This intro is reminiscent of the video for
Twisted Sister's song
"We're Not Gonna Take It", which also features a father-son conflict over rock music.
Supermodel Tyra Banks is seen dancing to the song in the ending of the video.
Controversy
Controversy was generated concerning the last four minutes of the original music video. Jackson walks out of the studio as a black panther and then morphs into himself. Then he walks outside to dance in a similar way to "
Billie Jean". This part contained sexually suggestive scenes when Jackson starts to grab his crotch, and then zips his pants up. In the original version, Jackson is seen smashing windows and destroying a car and causing an inn to explode. This destructive behaviour, however, was intended to imply a message of anti-racism and a later version had racist graffiti being destroyed to make the violence more understandable. Jackson later apologized saying that the violent and suggestive behaviour was an interpretation of the animal instinct of a black panther, and MTV and other music video networks removed the last four minutes from subsequent broadcasts.
To date, the uncut version has generally been seen in the
United States on
MTV2 only between the hours of 01:00 and 04:00, as part of their special uncensored airing of the "Most Controversial Music Videos" of all time. The extended version is also available on Jackson's DVDs. The original version (without graffiti) is available only on the VHS cassette
HIStory - The Video Greatest Hits. The DVD with the same name contains only the "graffiti version". The video was parodied by the sketch comedy TV show
In Living Color, and by the band
Genesis in their video for "
I Can't Dance" in which
Phil Collins imitates Michael's 'panther' fit in front of a stark white background. It was still shown in its entirety for some years in
Europe. Indeed, it was seen on
VH1 in the UK as recently as 2004, though most recent airings have omitted the last portion of the video, which also included a brief cameo by
Bart and
Homer Simpson before the "prejudice is ignorance" image. The version available in the
iTunes Music Store contains neither the panther scene nor
the Simpsons cameo, and is cut after the morphing sequence.
Starting in 1992, Nocturne Video Productions began playing the "Panther Segment" of the video as an interlude during Michael's Dangerous and HIStory World tours. The clip is 20 seconds shorter than the original with all the violence and the sexually suggestive scenes removed. However, the part where he re-zipped his pants was kept in.
The video today
The video proper, still shown regularly today, featured a montage of sequences in which Jackson is choreographed engaging in dances among people of different cultures of the world (
African,
South-East Asian (most likely Thailand),
Native American,
Culture of India,
Russian). Jackson walks through visual collages of fire (defiantly declaring "I ain't scared of no sheets; I ain't scared of nobody"), referring to
KKK torch ceremonies before a mock rap scene shared with Culkin and other children. The group collectively states, "I'm not gonna spend my life being a color." At the end of the song, different people (including
Tyra Banks) dance as they morph into one another (shown as "talking heads"), which is reminiscent of the earlier music video for the
Godley & Creme song "
Cry". This technique, known as morphing, had been previously used only in films such as
Willow and . The morphing visual effects were created by
Pacific Data Images.
The short, censored version continues to air periodically to this day.
Clivillés & Cole Remixes
"
Black or White (The Clivillés & Cole (C&C) Remixes)" (commonly titled "
Black or White (Remix)") was the
1992 European hit sequel of Michael Jackson's smash single "Black or White".
The single was released in
November 1991 in several
European countries, charting in the
UK, where it reached #14, and in
Ireland, peaking at #11. The single also surprisingly peaked at #18 in
Australia. The original version of the song was included in the multi-platinum mega-successful album
Dangerous. Despite the favourable European response to this remix, it was never included on a Michael Jackson album or compilation.
Trivia
- MJ got the idea of wearing skateboarding knee pads in the video when he saw the assistant choreographer wearing them during rehearsal and thought they looked cool.
The Indian dance segment alone took 5 days to rehearse.
The video took six weeks to shoot and cost $4 million dollars.
In Fall Out Boy's video for Beat It, the lead singer, Patrick Stump wears the same costume as Jackson in the video.
Parodies
A version of the music video has aired on Al TV (hosted by "Weird Al" Yankovic), with footage from the music video of Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" spliced into the opening segment to make it look as though Mark Metcalf's character from the latter video is yelling at Macaulay Culkin's character. Michael Jackson's voice has been altered to sound like a high pitched version of Weird Al's voice, while Culkin's voice in his rap number has deepened. Finally, the people in the morphing sequence at the end are given individual voices.
The sketch comedy television series, In Living Color recreated the postscript scene which ended with a police officer coming on to the scene. Michael Jackson (performed by Tommy Davidson) asks him, "Am I black or am I white?" When the officer responds, "You're under arrest," and handcuffs Michael, the rock star notes, "I guess I'm black."
Track listing
Original release
"Black or White" – 3:22
"Black or White" (Instrumental) – 3:22
"Smooth Criminal" – 4:10
Black or White: The Remixes
The Clivillés & Cole House/Club Mix
The Clivillés & Cole House/Dub Mix
The Underground Club Mix
House With Guitar Radio Mix
Tribal Beats
Visionary single
CD side
"Black or White" (Single version) – 3:22
"Black or White" (Clivillés & Cole House Guitar Radio Mix) – 3:50
DVD side
"Black or White" (Music video)
Mixes
Album version – 4:17
Single version – 3:22
Instrumental – 3:22
Clivillés & Cole House/Club Mix
Clivillés & Cole Radio Mix – 3:33
Clivillés & Cole House w/Guitar Radio Mix – 3:50
Underground Club Mix
Charts
Credits
Written and composed by Michael Jackson
Rap lyrics by Bill Bottrell
Produced by Michael Jackson and Bill Bottrell
Recorded and mixed by Bill Bottrell
Solo and background vocals: Michael Jackson
Drums: Bryan Loren
Percussion: Brad Buxer and Bill Bottrell
Bass: Bryan Loren (moog) and Terry Jackson (bass guitar)
Keyboards: Brad Buxer, John Barnes and Jason Martz
Guitar: Bill Bottrell
Heavy metal guitar: Tim Pierce
Speed sequencer: Michael Boddicker and Kevin Gilbert
Morphing Sound Effect: Scott Frankfurt
Rap performed by L.T.B.
"Intro":
- Special guitar performance by Slash
- Directed by Michael Jackson
- Composed by Bill Bottrell
- Engineering and sound design: Matt Forger
- Son played by Andres McKenzie
- Father played by L.T.B.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Black Or White'.
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