Dangerous

After Bad, Jackson wanted more independence and parted from Quincy Jones, co-producing with Bill Bottrell, Teddy Riley and Bruce Swedien. Recording began in June 1989 and ran for more than two years, mainly at Record One in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles. Riley moved to Larrabee Sound Studios after a few weeks. Jackson spent $10 million and recorded roughly 60 to 70 songs. Riley's new jack swing shaped tracks such as Jam, Remember the Time and In the Closet, while Bottrell worked with Jackson on Black or White and Give In to Me. Heavy D and Wreckx-n-Effect appear on the record, Slash plays on Give In to Me, and Princess Stephanie of Monaco is the female voice on In the Closet. Bottrell wrote and performed the rap on Black or White under the name L.T.B. Bernie Grundman mastered it on Halloween 1991, and the cover was painted by Mark Ryden.

It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and stayed there four weeks. It was the best-selling album worldwide in 1992 and has sold 32 million copies. Black or White spent seven weeks at number one on the Hot 100, and Remember the Time, In the Closet and Will You Be There also reached the top ten. The video for Black or White premiered on 14 November 1991 in 27 countries. The album won the Grammy for best engineered album, non-classical, which went to Riley and Swedien. Reviews were split. Mat Snow of Q called it Jackson's most mature, most musically adventurous album yet, while Jon Pareles of The New York Times called it his least confident. Jeff Weiss of Pitchfork later called it Jackson's final classic album and the best full-length of the new jack swing era.