Michael Jackson’s Most Radical Video Epic | The ‘Black Or White’ Controversy
Michael Jackson had ambitions to create the greatest show on Earth, and a spectacle is what the album caused, as so perfectly illustrated in the launch campaign of its lead single, ‘Black or White’.
A title Michael Jackson engineered knowing it would give the media much to talk about, given the longstanding controversies over his unexplained and progressively lightened appearance in recent years. It’s hard to comprehend how big the worldwide debut of ‘Black or White’ was, with its star-studded music video grand premiere taking place on the night of November 14th, 1991. The broadcast was screened simultaneously across multiple networks — MTV, BET, VH1, and Fox — as well as 27 other countries to a record-shattering 500 million viewers.
Michael’s ambitious video spectacle was marked by the return of ‘Thriller’ director John Landis who, in his own words, got brought onto the ambitious project after several other directors failed. “This is Michael’s piece, an extravaganza, sort of the abstract rock video mould” said the movie director. Landis recounted how Michael’s disorganised and outlandish visual ideas for the video caused tension during the project. “My job was to make it coherent adding the pulsating rock-dance-rap tune is a story about racial inequality. Admittedly, some of it is truly insane”, said the director. “With some of his ideas I say, ‘Michael, I hate that’. With some of my ideas he’ll say, ‘John Landis, I hate that’.” The multi-million-dollar shoot was ambitious from the outset considering the videos assortment of lavish sets, live locations and groundbreaking special effects. But Michael’s notorious flakiness also added delays and extra costs to the 6-week production, causing the video to go way over budget costing as much as $4 million as a result.
The short film begins with a scene featuring Macaulay Culkin and George Wendt that appears to be inspired by Twisted Sister’s ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ video. Wendt tells Culkin to turn his music down, before Culkin blasts his guitar at a spinal tap-level of absurd noise, causing Wendt in his Barcalounger to burst out the roof of the house eventually landing in Jackson’s fantasy world. The artist then begins to perform the track, turning up in various locations around the world dancing and interacting with its native people whilst incorporating his own dancing style with that of the different cultures he meets. Michael is seen on the plains of Africa, the Vasquez Rocks in California, and outside traditional Russian architecture, singing and dancing with African tribesmen, Thai women, Native Americans, an Odissi dancer from India and a troupe of Hopak dancers.
At the song’s bridge, Michael triumphantly walks through fiery images of war and injustice before the mid-song rap by L.T.B. is lip-synched by Culkin. Michael sings the final chorus from the Statue of Liberty’s torch while other world landmarks loom in the background. The song closes with a lip-synched performance by people of various races, one face morphing into another seamlessly using computer-controlled special effects called “feature-based morphing.” This scene marked the first use of this technology outside of a major motion-picture and a young Tyra Banks is featured, just on the cusp of achieving supermodel status.
Aside from the video, the music itself was produced by Michael Jackson and Bill Bottrell. The catchy upbeat tune is a fusion of pop rock, dance and hip hop. Its message was simple, that “it don’t matter if you’re black or white”. Calling for global unity, inclusion and a protest against racial violence. Released less than six months after the savage beating of Rodney King was captured on video, and seven months after 15-year-old Latasha Harlins was shot in the back of the head by a South Korean store owner in Los Angeles, racial tensions were at an all-time high. Jackson used the strongest weapon in his arsenal to create a lasting reminder of his desire for a utopia unhindered by race. Positioning himself as part of the solution against a plight that simply comes as part of the black experience, no doubt a purposeful move on his part to actively attempt to reconnect with his black audience.
Indicative of a more assertive tone in Jackson’s image, songs and subject matter during the 1990s, the statement, “I aint scared of no sheets, I aint scared of nobody” is an unmistakable one-line lyrical middle finger against the terrorists in white robes who lack the courage to give their bigotry a face and yet boldly rode around, burning churches and inciting violence. For the first time, Jackson is singing about an America in which people of colour could be tried and found guilty for unjust reasons. He was attempting to encourage racial unity by singing of a love that was pure irrespective of race, and also cognizant of the flaws in a society that desperately needed to be healed.
A bold and commendable move to make at the height of his fame and pop powers, knowing full well his statement was destined to be broadcast into the living rooms of millions in white middle America and beyond. If the main video didn’t achieve it, then the last segment would guarantee to make Jackson a target on dartboards of news pundits and social conservatives, as he shape-shifts into a black panther, symbolically showing public support for a black political group labelled fascist and a threat to white American civil liberties.
Morphing back into himself, for the next four minutes, he dances furiously in the street, destroys a glass beer bottle, a building window, and a parked car. He tears off his shirt and screams with grand drama as the hotel neon sign falls. After his damage and rampage, he re-emerges into a panther. The final scene involves Homer and Bart Simpson, resulting in Homer angrily turning off the TV. The static then cuts to a close-up of Jackson with the tagline “prejudice is ignorance”.
Coined the “Panther Dance” scene, an immediate media backlash ensued. Many were outraged by Michael Jackson’s careless portrayal of street vandalism and violent aggression, while conservatives complained about the more sexual material — the grabbing of his crotch and zipping up his pants. Bizarrely, Siskel and Ebert — America’s most valued movie critics — locked horns on the video, a format they never usually reviewed. “Overall, the whole experience for me was of Michael Jackson, so caught up in his own fantasies, that he really has no idea how his images of sex and urban vandalism play to an ordinary American audience. He doesn’t see any connection between this video and real life.”.
It may seem like small potatoes, especially when compared to other artists like Prince and Madonna’s output at the time. But the difference is that Prince and Madonna had carved themselves out as provocative performers. Michael Jackson was as family friendly and non-threatening as they came. So, what else was to be expected?
Michael Jackson intended to channel the panther’s animalistic nature through his dance moves, but due to public backlash, he reluctantly cut the entire section out. “I’ve always tried to be a good role model” Jackson said in announcing that the video’s offending four minutes would be cut from the 11-minute production. Jackson also issued an apology for “any pain or hurt that the final segment of ‘Black or White’ has caused children, their parents or any other viewers”, the artist continued, “It upsets me to think that ‘Black or White’ could influence any child or adult to destructive behaviour, either sexual or violent”.
However, the controversy didn’t stop the album’s lead track from becoming a bonified smash hit upon its release in November 1991. Reaching the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart just three weeks after it was released, staying there for seven weeks. It was the fastest chart-topper since The Beatles’ ‘Get Back’ in 1969 and was also the best-selling single worldwide of 1992. ‘Black or White’ topped the charts in over 20 countries, making him the first artist to have #1 hits in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
Truth be told, in a world that nicknamed Michael Jackson ‘Wacko Jacko’, it was in fact the world who was wacko for Jacko. A notion his record label would capitalize on during the campaign that ensued as part of the roll out of the ‘Dangerous’ album.