Black or White

"Black or White"
Song

"Black or White" was the first single taken from American pop phenomenon Michael Jackson's album Dangerous, released in November 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 is a song promoting interracial romance, i.e. the lyrics "if you're thinking 'bout being my baby, it don't matter if you're black or white." The song's introduction and main riff is performed by guitarist Slash and is extremely similar to the start of John Lennon's Woman.

The song peaked at number one on charts in more than twenty countries.

Music video

Synopsis

The music video for "Black or White" generated controversy. The video was first broadcast on MTV, BET, VH1, and FOX (after an 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 does not use Culkin's nor Wendt's voice, but uses unknown voice actors (with similar voices) and a different intro. Wendt winds up in Africa, and Michael Jackson begins to sing Black or White, surrounded by various different cultures scene-by-scene.

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, Native American, East Indian, 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 had only been previously used in films such as Willow and Terminator 2.

To date, uncut version has generally only been seen in the United States on MTV2 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. It has to be mentioned that after the first airings and the controversy the video was edited and racist graffitis were put in to make the violence more understandable. The original version (without graffiti) is only available 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 sexual-like crotch grabbing removed. However, the part where he re-zipped his fly (which was probably the key cause of the controversy of the music video) was kept in.

The short, censored version, however, 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.

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 asks him, "I am black or am I white?" When the officer responds, "You're under arrest." and handcuffs Michael, the pop star notes, "I guess I'm black."

Track listing

Original release

1. "Black or White" – 3:22
2. "Black or White" (Instrumental) – 3:22
3. "Smooth Criminal" – 4:10

Black or White: The Remixes

1. The Clivillés & Cole House/Club Mix
2. The Clivillés & Cole House/Dub Mix
3. The Underground Club Mix
4. House With Guitar Radio Mix
5. Tribal Beats

Visionary single

CD side

1. "Black or White" (Single version) – 3:22
2. "Black or White" (Clivillés & Cole House Guitar Radio Mix) – 3:50

DVD side

1. "Black or White" (Music video)

Mixes

1. Album version – 4:17
2. Single version – 3:22
3. Instrumental – 3:22
4. Clivillés & Cole House/Club Mix
5. Clivillés & Cole Radio Mix – 3:33
6. Clivillés & Cole House w/Guitar Radio Mix – 3:50
7. Underground Club Mix

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
• 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.