Michael Jackson's Dangerous (33 1/3)

Michael Jackson's career is often reduced to his 80s albums in the mainstream media, but I always felt people who refuse to pay attention to his later work are missing out on some of his best work. Dangerous is one of my favourite albums, so I am very happy about this book. Yes, Thriller is great, yes Off The Wall is amazing, but so is Dangerous!While I always instinctively loved and "felt" this album I was never really analytical about it why, so I was really curious about Susan Fast's take on it. Fast considers Dangerous a concept album. This may come as a surprise, because it's not obvious at first glance. In actuality, when the album was released many critics criticized if for its eclectic styles and (seemingly) eclectic themes, saying it was not coherent. Well, Susan Fast shows that this criticism is very superficial. Yes, there is R&B and there is rock and there is gospel and there is hip-hop on the same album (I always found it fascinating that MJ could do all that and more convincingly), but that does not make it incoherent. In the musical and thematical context of the album and what MJ wanted to express with it it all makes sense.According to Fast Dangerous is MJ's "coming of age" album which may be another surprise considering he was 33-years-old at the time of its release, but I agree with her on it. By this time he left behind his artistic "father", Quincy Jones and he was the sole captain of his ship. As a result both musically and thematically he went to new territories and he explored landscapes he's never been to before. I think this is the album from which he opens up more about himself. His 80s albums are great but I think if you are curious about MJ the person you will learn about him more from his later work. (Well, perhaps with the exception of one hidden gem, the Jackson's 1978 Destiny album, which has some early examples of MJ's soul-baring. Listen to the lyrics there and you will know what I mean but I digress.)At the beginning of the book Fast cites a critic who did not like the fact that thematically and musically similar songs are "clustered together" on the album. Fast counters that by saying that this structure is deliberate and it takes us to a journey through the album's concept in which we explore the themes that engaged Jackson at the time.By the way, it's relatively easy to spot and many people noted that Dangerous is like two albums in one. The first part (track 1-6.) is the New Jack Swing part. (In my view just like Off The Wall took disco on another level so did Dangerous take NJS on another level. Although you can hear the NJS influence on Dangerous - obviously through Teddy Riley's involvement -, but it's a very Jackson-esque version of NJS which to me makes it superior to the generic NJS sound of the era, just like Off The Wall was superior to the typical disco records of the era.) The second part of the album (track 7-13.) is a more classic Jackson sound. The last track Dangerous (track 14.) goes back to New Jack Swing again, putting the album in a frame. Even less analytical listeners could easily realize this structure.Fast however goes deeper than that and explores these so called "clusters" of songs on the album of which she identifies five:Noise: Jam, Why You Wanna Trip On MeDesire: In The Closet, She Drives Me Wild, Remember The Time, Can't Let Her Get AwayUtopia: Heal The World, Black or WhiteSoul: Who Is It, Give In To Me, Will You Be There, Keep The Faith, (Gone Too Soon)Coda: DangerousNosie, Desire, Utopia, Soul and Coda are the titles of the chapters in Fast's book.In "Noise" she discusses the role of non-musical sounds in Jackson's music and in these songs in particular (after all the whole album starts with such a sound - the sound of breaking glass). She also puts it into the cultural context of black music and especially hip-hop and what noises mean in that music and how this influenced Jackson and also what the use of "noise" means in these socially conscious songs, Jam and Why You Wanna Trip On Me.The cluster "Desire" contains the romantic-erotic segment of the album. In The Closet is Jackson's most erotic song ever and the first time he goes this far in song. His earlier love songs were pretty innocent and "vanilla". Not on Dangerous. These love songs are real, steamy, sweaty. But nothing is ever uncomplicated with him, not even romance, so there are a lot of things to discuss about these songs too, starting with why did he give that title (In The Closet) to a song about a clearly heterosexual relationship? Fast discusses musical structures as well, for example she draws attention to the fact that In The Closet's structure is a Middle Eastern structure, not Western, which I found interesting.In "Utopia" we get to the start of the second half of the album where we abandon New Jack Swing. The segment starts with Heal The World which got a lot of flak from critics for being saccharine and overly sentimental, but maybe you will appreciate it more when you read Fast's analysis on it (both musical and thematical) and in the context of Jackson's "utopia". Black or White is also a part of Jackson's utopia and the song is discussed with its famous video in mind.The segment "Soul" in my opinion is the highlight of the album - and Fast shares this view. I always thought that Who Is It was one of the best songs of MJ's entire career. Yes, to me it's up there with Billie Jean, Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', you name it. A very typically Jackson-esque song as well. It's a shame that it remained relatively lesser known. The only thing I did not agree with Fast was that she said David Fincher's video did not do justice to the song. I actually love the video and I think it goes well with the song. Then MJ goes rock with Give In To Me and gospel with Will You Be There and Keep The Faith. This sequence of songs truly is the "Soul" of the album and MJ is baring his soul in front of us. Will You Be There is almost prohpetic too.Then the album goes full circle with the "Coda", Dangerous which musically goes back to NJS again and thematically is one of MJ's femme fatale songs (like Billie Jean, Dirty Diana, Blood on the Dance Floor etc.).Looking at those clusters it also seems to me that socially conscious and personal clusters alternated: Noise - socially conscious, Desire - personal, Utopia - socially conscious, Soul - personal.Although in the song Dangerous it is the protagonist female who is Dangerous, but with this album it's MJ himself who became a lot more dangerous than before: more socially conscious, sexier, more outspoken - so the album title is fitting. Did I just say "sexier"? Yes, MJ was sexy to millions of women (and I guess gay men) and Fast spends some time on lamenting the fact that the media always refused to acknowledge that side of him when it's a fact that it's there. It's like the elephant in the room so why would they not acknowledge it? Was his unconventional masculinity too threatening to mainstream norms?Fast also spends some time analyzing the intriguing cover of the album which is a painting by Mark Ryden (created with MJ's input) with lots of cultural and social references.I enjoyed the book very much and I think it's a worthy analysis of a great album and a great piece of the 33 1/3 series.

Michael Jackson's 'Dangerous' - it's hard to believe we are headed for the quarter century anniversary (in 2016) of this incredible landmark in Michael's career, and one that author Susan Fast correctly (I believe) considers as MJ's 'coming of age' album.Even before I received my copy of Ms. Fast's little book about the 'Dangerous' album - the 100th Volume in the 33-1/3 series from Bloomsbury - I had posted in blogs and social media that, with 'Dangerous', Michael had finally stepped away from the influence of his father figures - Joseph Jackson, Berry Gordy and Quincy Jones (Ms. Fast identifies the same influential individuals from Michael's early career) - and became an artist in control of his medium.In his own excellent book 'The Man in the Music The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson', Joe Vogel has penned insightful and informed commentary on 'Dangerous' - the album and the memorable short films it spawned - so Ms. Fast is not the first or only voice crying in a wilderness of tabloid critics. Since (belatedly) becoming a Michael Jackson fan myself, I have been hoping for due acknowledgement of the genius of Michael's mature work: the music, the short films, live performances and subsequent world tours.I had been awoken to the significance of 'Dangerous' by the first friend I ever made in MJ fandom. Amy and I met by chance at a Climate Change rally in Adelaide, Australia. I was wearing an MJ-t-shirt, and she came up and embraced me! When we subsequently explored our mutual love of Michael Jackson, Amy revealed that 'Dangerous' had been the first of his albums she had acquired as a young girl, and was an album that stood above the rest as 'pure MJ'.Speaking for myself, it wasn't just the music that attracted me to 'Dangerous' and its successors. It was Michael himself; I found him gorgeous in his maturity. Cue Susan Fast's observations in a chapter (appropriately) titled 'Desire' - who writes that 'It's not an uncommon sentiment, along with others that proclaim, "I love looking at this man! So sexy, so beautiful, so amazing." Or: "Sexiest man in the world, undisputed."'This brings us to Michael's short film for 'Black or White'. When the full-length video premiered on network television in November 1991 a storm of controversy erupted. The King of Pop had grown up and become a sensual, political, even wild animal, a true performance artist who dared to step beyond the confines of the industry's - and the public's - expectations of him.Creatively he had been heading that way with the 'Bad' album, for which he wrote most of the tracks. The next logical step was to cut loose from his creative partnership with Quincy Jones and dare to step beyond musical categories, racial, cultural and gender stereotypes and all those other boxes into which artists are expected to fit if they are to continue to please the masses - and the critics.Except, of course the critics will tear you down as quickly as they build you up, possibly because they feel they have helped to 'make you' and have a 'right' to subsequently criticize you mercilessly (and unfairly in most cases) just when you might be thinking you no longer need them to reach your audience.Many commentators attacked Michael for daring to be, well, daring (i.e. 'dangerous') and they did not stop with the music - his appearance, his sexuality, his behaviour etc. were all ridiculed, even though others had broached these boundaries before him. But they had not been the King of Pop and they had mostly not done it with such élan or for an audience so global in scope.This media attitude became well and truly entrenched for the rest of Michael's life. In other words, because he refused to be bound by the expectations of the less talented, he was 'doomed' to be an easy target for all sorts of unfounded claims, misinterpretations, exaggerations and accusations.But for him NOT to have broken the 'parental' ties of Quincy and the others would have required Michael to be a different person entirely. That is, he would not have been Michael Jackson the musical and artistic genius, the man driven to express his feelings about life, the state of the planet and everything with unabashed emotion, and a man with creative ambitions that would not be constrained.Consider if there had been no 'Dangerous', 'HIStory', 'Blood on the Dance Floor' or 'Invincible' albums: if Michael had not spread his creative wings beyond his previous achievements, he would have no doubt ended up doing the sort of nostalgia-based shows his brothers now perform. He may have even been performing with them (I shudder at the thought). But, we should remind ourselves, that, even if he'd taken the easy road and let his career drift in a direction others (not him) might preferred, the critics would have quickly grown tired of him and ended up calling him 'irrelevant' anyway!We must never, ever regret that Michael stepped beyond the safety net of family (and Quincy). An unfulfilled artist is an unhappy artist, and usually a mediocre one. An unfulfilled genius is a waste of what Michael believed and publically accredited to be God-given gifts.Remember that Michael felt compelled by forces beyond himself to explore his art in the aid of the betterment of humanity. It was also part of his quest for immortality - a desire he was not afraid to express. Of course, by the time he did, he'd already achieved it.For all these reasons and so many more, Susan Fast's book deserves to be read, and 'Dangerous' and its successors duly appreciated as the products of a one-of-a-kind genius who would not be bound by the demands or expectations of others.I believe he is still, via his humanitarian example and artistic legacy, shaking us out of our complacency and weaving his magic to 'Heal the World'.I like to think that it's making his spirit very happy.Kerry Hennigan19 September 2014(but it's a work in progress!)

Dangerous is my favourite Michael Jackson album so I jumped at the chance to grab a copy of this. Within a few minutes, I was mesmerised by Susan Fast's analysis, not only from a music theory perspective but also a critical standpoint. Some of the critiques are questionable as you may wonder if Michael really meant for his work to be interpreted in certain ways but that doesn't take anything away from the hard work put into the book. It opens up more questioning and further reading which is the sign of a great analytical book.Fans of Michael Jackson, the album or music in general should definitely buy this. People looking for further literature on his "controversial" life should go elsewhere. Lord knows there's enough of that in book and DVD form.

A in depth look into the Dangerous album and the concepts behind the music,leading to the understanding of the mind set and beliefs of Michael.The author has a great understanding of music composition and does a awesome job in breaking down each song from the album and revealing the complex ideas ,vocal styles,hybrid music styles and the videos linked to the great hit records that came from this album. Black and white and Remember the time two examples of songs fully examined gives a full understanding of Michaels intense music making process and the messages contained ,technical music terms may not be understood by everyone and can make reading this book patchy at times ,but it is still essential reading for any music lover interested in the music of the great Michael Jackson,also very revealing of the artist himself almost biographical.

Delves into this often-overlooked album in an interesting way. Makes quite a few wild statements about the meaning behind the music but is nonetheless an interesting read with some good factoids even the biggest MJ fans may not know.

Excellent book - highly recommended!

Endlich mal wieder ein Buch, das sich auf ernsthafte Weise mit der Kunst von Michael Jackson auseinandersetzt, anstatt sich in Medienskandalen zu verlieren und - darauf basierend - alle Alben nach "Thriller" (oder spätestens "Bad") als Flop abzutun.Susan Fasts Abhandlung rückt das verkannte Album "Dangerous" in sein verdient positives Licht, indem sie akribisch die musikalische Qualität und gesellschaftliche Bedeutung aller 14 Tracks analysiert (in diesem Zusammenhang spricht die enge Kooperation mit Jackson-Experten wie Joe Vogel für sich). Ergebnis ist ein sehr gelungener und würdevoller Kommentar zu Michael Jacksons Meisterwerk.