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Michael Jackson · S6 E5
Black or White
The most-watched television premiere of 1991
November 14, 1991. An estimated 500 million people across 27 countries tune in simultaneously to watch the premiere of a music video, making it the most-watched broadcast in television history.
Black or White, Michael Jackson (1991). Directed by John Landis, the man who made the Thriller short film. Features Macaulay Culkin, a face-morphing sequence that stunned the world, and a controversial four-minute ending that was cut from all subsequent broadcasts.
Black or White, Michael Jackson (1991)
Produced by Michael and Bill Bottrell, "Black or White" opens with a hard rock guitar riff that deliberately crosses genre lines. The production pivots through pop, funk, and hip-hop within a single track, refusing to sit in any one box. The song's message is as blunt as its title: race should not matter. It hit number one in over 20 countries and stayed atop the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks.
Sources
Dangerous album credits, Epic Records, 1991
Billboard Hot 100 chart history, 1991-1992
The Premiere
FOX broadcast the video simultaneously with MTV, BET, and VH1 on November 14, 1991. An estimated 500 million people watched, the largest audience for a music video premiere in history. The first seven minutes were exactly what the world expected: dancing, spectacle, a message about unity. Then the last four minutes happened.
Sources
Michael Jackson, Inc., Zack O'Malley Greenburg, 2014
Entertainment Weekly coverage, November 1991
TAP TO REVEAL: What happened in the last four minutes?
FOX Broadcasting Company, Los Angeles
The network that broadcast the 'Black or White' premiere to 500 million viewers on November 14, 1991, alongside MTV, BET, and VH1.
Black or White by the Numbers
The Morph
The morphing sequence became one of the most talked-about pieces of visual media in 1991. The technology that made faces blend seamlessly into one another was still relatively new, and Michael used it to make a point about race that no speech could match. The image of human faces flowing into each other, regardless of ethnicity, became the song's lasting visual legacy.
Sources
Untouchable: The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson, Randall Sullivan, 2012
She Drives Me Wild, Michael Jackson (1991)
One of the most inventive productions on Dangerous. Teddy Riley builds the beat from sampled car sounds: door slams, engines revving, and tire screeches woven into the drum pattern. The result is a rhythm track that sounds like no other song in Michael's catalog, an experiment in using the real world as percussion. Aqil Davidson's rap verse adds another layer of urban texture.
She Drives Me Wild, Michael Jackson (1991)
The lyrics describe a woman who overwhelms every sense, delivered with a breathless energy that matches the chaotic production. Teddy Riley's use of environmental sounds as rhythm elements was years ahead of its time. The track sits between 'In the Closet' and 'Remember the Time' on the album, a wild card that keeps the sequencing unpredictable.
Who directed the 'Black or White' music video?
'Black or White' proves Michael can still command the entire planet's attention. His next video transports him to ancient Egypt with Eddie Murphy and Iman, and it might be the most visually ambitious thing he has ever made.
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