Dangerous

33⅓ Main Series #100

by Susan Fast

Dangerous is Michael Jackson's coming of age album. Granted, that’s a bold claim to make given that many think his best work lay behind him by the time this record was made. It offers Jackson on a threshold, at long last embracing adulthood—politically questioning, sexually charged—yet unable to convince a skeptical public who had, by this time, been wholly indoctrinated by a vicious media. Even though the record sold well, few understood or were willing to accept the depth and breadth of Jackson’s vision; and then before it could be fully grasped, it was eclipsed by a shifting pop music landscape and personal scandal—the latter perhaps linked to his assertive new politics. This book tries to cut through the din of dominant narratives about Jackson, taking up the mature, nuanced artistic statement he offered on Dangerous in all its complexity. It is read here as a concept album, one that offers a compelling narrative arc of postmodern angst, love, lust, seduction, betrayal, damnation, and above all else racial politics, in ways heretofore unseen in his music. This record offered a Michael Jackson that was mystifying for a world that had accepted him as a child and as childlike and, hence, as safe; this Michael Jackson was, indeed, dangerous.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

168 pages, Paperback

First published October 30, 2012

Reviews

[Shahine Ardeshir · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why did I pick up this book, again? I found myself asking a few chapters in (which is never a good sign). Ah, yes. Because I'm a die-hard Michael Jackson fan. Because, contrary to most critical opinion, I genuinely believe that Dangerous was his best album. (Sure, maybe some of that is sentiment, I did sort of grow up on it - Bad and Thriller were long-released by the time I started listening to music.) And lo and behold, here was a book written on Dangerous, talking about exactly that: Why it was his greatest work. That's why I picked it up.

Bad idea.

Whether you love him or despise him, you have to admit that it takes a lot to make Michael Jackson or any of his work boring. And yet, regrettably Susan Fast does just that.

Through sheer over-intellectualisation, page by page, she stripped Jackson and his music of anything of interest, and ends up going on about themes, subtext and meaning that after a point, I struggled to relate to or even understand. Here I was expecting a fantastic critique of seminal music, and instead, I got long sentences and intellectual masturbation - in other words, a complete waste of my (and your) time.

In conclusion, I have one last thing to say: If you think I've exaggerated so far, here's an excerpt from the chapter about Jam & Why You Wanna Trip On Me:

"The world of individualism and self-importance on which Jackson focuses in these two songs recalls the fragmented surface self that characterises postmodernity, with which neoliberalism holds a great deal in common. The equation of trying to understand "me" or "shiny celebrity" with serious issues in "Tripping" and the schizophrenic dabbling in, for example, various spiritualities - the "confusions that contradict the self" (a nice turn of phrase), the constantly changing world that "rearranges" thoughts and minds in "Jam" are symptomatic of the instability and collapse of categories that characterise postmodernity."

I rest my case.

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really great sustained piece of writing about one of the nearly-overlooked Michael Jackson albums; the book is also to be commended for the way it focuses on the music rather than the scandal.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great, now I want to write my master's thesis about Michael Jackson. 🙄

[NON · Rating 5 out of 5]

Artistic performance is extremely powerful, can be life-changing for those who view or listen to it, can create a world that folks can dream about or act upon, can awaken ideas about love, romance and sex that we hadn't thought possible before. Jackson created a sexualized presence on stage that is as real as it gets in that moment---he knew exactly how to conjure up a powerfully erotic body, just like so many performers do; and just as those other performers elicit “real” emotional responses from their fans, so did Jackson. In fact, what sets Jackson apart is that he positively wrung feeling out of his performances; both his voice and body dripped with passion, pulling us into a world of sensuality so vibrant, so intense, impossible for most of the rest of us to express, or maybe even feel. He modeled it for us and to show us that it was possible to burn this brightly. How couldn't you be memorized? How couldn't some feel threatened? Critics also suppose that this performance must be carried over into everyday life, otherwise it's being faked, and that you can’t be both soft-spoken and shy in one context and radiate “sexual dynamism” in another. Regardless of what we know about his private sexual life, he radiate, even when he was being so soft-spoken: all that sexual energy didn't just dissipate when he left the stage. And I'd say it's precisely the combination of “softness” with erotic “dynamism” that leads fans to think he was the “most sexy man ever;” this combination is a dream come true, people, an elusive but highly sought after blend of characteristics fantasized about by, at least, straight girls all over the world. -Susan Fast

Dangerous is my favorite album by Michael Jackson because it was the first album that got me fall in love with Michael's music when I was only 4 years old. Although a book like Joe Vogel's Man in the Music: The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson and Armond White's Keep Moving: The Michael Jackson Chronicles have analyzed the Dangerous album superbly but to write a full book focusing solely on my favorite album is a remarkable experience. What's so great about this pure academic book is that it makes the reader experience the album (and it short films) in a whole new level with an enlightened perspective. Each track and its short film are analyzed in depth and brilliantly. It's almost impossible to read this book without feeling the nagging urge to watch the short films or play each track (repeatedly).

It is a short read but feels more like a long essay. I liked how she called out Michael's critics who refused to look at Michael's artistry beyond the Thriller album. It would be fantastic to have more books like this on his other albums.

One of the strongest point on this book is how Susan Fast was not reluctant to speak about Michael Jackson's sexiness and blackness. His sexuality/adulthood and his blackness are (purposely) ignored topics. Ms. Fast doesn't shy away from even mentioning which videos to watch in proving her point. A bonus experiment: go to Google and write the following in the search bar: The most beautiful smile in the world, and see for yourself who will appear to you.

However, one complaint about this book is that the language isn't gripping, something was lacking that at times when I closed the book, I wasn't compelled to pick it up again.

Overall, extremely informative and detailed. A great companion to the album serves its genius very well. Any student or real fan of Michael Jackson must read.

[Muneer Uddin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dangerous is a tough book to read. It was written before Finding Neverland was released. Even so, we all had an idea that all wasn’t right with Michael Jackson’s personal life. He’s been accused of improprieties in his personal life since before this album was even released. So the first question you have to ask yourself is whether it’s possible to separate a deeply flawed artist from the art he created. How you answer this question will inform whether or not you’ll even pick up this book in the first place.

I’ve been listening to Michael Jackson since I can remember. As a kid in Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom had some curious rules about MJ’s music. You could possess a Michael Jackson tape, but no store in the country was allowed to sell his music. This led to a weird, speakeasy vibe at music stores where the proprietor would size you up and decide whether it was safe to offer you the illicit goods behind the counter. I must have looked like quite a shady character, because I was always offered a chance to buy bootleg copies of Thriller or Off The Wall. We moved to America in 1990, and when Dangerous came out the following year, it was a different experience for me. I could go into any Sam Goody or Musicland and buy the tape openly. But, just like the change in my life moving from the Middle East to the US, Michael Jackson had changed too.

As Susan Fast states in the book, Dangerous was a maturing point in Jackson’s music. The music is more overtly political, and less happy go lucky. There’s an extensive exploration of the expanding of Jackson’s emotional palette, which is explored extensively in each chapter of the book. There’s some allusion to Jackson’s strange relationships to kids, but they’re framed as MJ creating his own family to substitute for the family life he wasn’t able to have as a kid. This is a bit of a cop out, but the book is by a fan so we can’t expect a totally objective look into the less savory aspects of MJ’s life.

If you can separate Michael Jackson’s art from the man, then I recommend this book.

[Peppi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Susan Fast’s Dangerous explores Michael Jackson’s artistry and the cultural landscape he navigated, suggesting that the provocative, politically conscious art he was creating from Dangerous era onwards, along with the increasingly complex image he presented to the world, may have been perceived as too threatening to tolerate. Fast writes: “It seems to have taken his death to begin, slowly, to remove the veil, to silence—or at least curtail—the tabloid noise, and take another listen.”

The book is an intriguing blend of academic analysis and personal essay. One of its key strengths is its treatment of Dangerous as a concept album, with the author structuring the discussion around various thematic lenses. The purpose of Fast is to highlight how Jackson tackles adult themes on the album, contrasting this to the common perception of Jackson as perpetually childlike. As a fan of Jackson, I appreciate the need for a serious analysis of his work, especially given the relative lack of scholarship in this area. The book attempts to address this gap, succeeding in shedding new light on his artistry.

While I understand the author’s admiration for Jackson, which I share to some extent, her emphasis on his sexual appeal—whether explicitly or implicitly conveyed—at times feels disproportionate. For example, in the chapter titled “Desire,” Fast explores Jackson’s sexual allure and recounts her own late-night search for “Michael Jackson Sexy” on YouTube, admitting, “One link led to another.” This personal anecdote feels somewhat out of place. Moreover, in this chapter, the decision to partly rely on fans’ voices to support her argument comes across as less of a balanced academic approach and more of a way to validate her own views through fans’ opinions.

Despite these issues, the book’s thematic structure and commitment to engaging with Jackson’s work seriously make it a valuable contribution to the study of his legacy. Overall, the book succeeds in deepening the conversation about Jackson’s impact, encouraging a more nuanced appreciation of his artistry.

[Kerry Hennigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

DANGEROUS 33-1/3 by Susan Fast - some reflections on the book, the album and the artist.

Review by Kerry Hennigan

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 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' in which she 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 'dangerous' animal: a true performance artist who dared to step beyond the confines of the industry's - and the public's - expectations for 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 connect with your audience.

Many commentators attacked Michael for daring to be, well, daring (i.e. 'dangerous' - that word again) 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 have 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 publicly accredited to be God-given gifts.

Remember that Michael felt compelled by forces beyond himself to explore his art in aid of the betterment of humanity and the planet. 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 spell to inspire us to 'Heal the World'.

And I like to think that it's making his spirit very happy.

Kerry Hennigan
19 September 2014 - updated 18 October 2014
(but it's a work in progress!)

[Henry · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting in places; good (though hard) to focus on the music rather than the celebrity. but sometimes Fast is so defensive it's like she protests too much.
I had written off MJ by 91 as commercial and past it. and Dangerous passed me by. I really had no idea that MJ was still any good - remember watching him on the Oprah special and 'I had a very very very sad childhood' became an injoke.
History came out - my young cousins played it and Scream blew me away!
So I only actually listened to Dangerous a few months ago - brilliant (obviously apart from the crappy ballads and Heal the World.
you should always separate Art from Artist (e.g. Clint is a Republican; Salvador swung Big Cats by their tails; Bowie - during his best work - was a coke addled fascist; I could go on) but I felt there was a great paedo shaped elephant in the room; especially when discussing MJs sexuality.
Also no serious scholar can have no criticism. seriously? no criticism of Heal the World? its just a bland bland song. so bland.

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. An interesting thesis--Dangerous as MJ's putting away childish songs/albums to be adult in how he addresses love, sex, racism, and more--but not much else is learned. This album was MJ taking some risks rather than just churning out the hits. (Heck, even the singles here have anti-single elements about them, often feature a lengthy intro and/or outro apart from the actual song.) This album isn't as lauded as Bad, Thriller, or even Off the Wall...but it isn't as forgotten as the albums that would follow it. It lives in a between place, signaling the very shift the author proposes. But this maturation of the biggest, most publicized, and most scrutinized pop artist of the time wasn't taken for what it was, being instead viewed through the lens of what fans and critics already viewed MJ to be.

[Åsmund Ådnøy · Rating 2 out of 5]

At musikk først og fremst skal være gøy og glede, glemmer jeg ofte når jeg leser bøkene i denne serien. Her teoretiseres og analyseres det i ca. 150 sider om ett og ett album.

Boka om Michael Jacksons Dangerous-plate går i dybden på kjønn, rase, rollelek, hip hop og dans, men fikk jeg lyst til å høre Dangerous igjen? Nei. Forfatter Susan Fast framstår mer som en forsvarer i rettssalen, og det blir litt ensformig i lengden.

[Nigel Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best of the 33 1/3 books I've read so far. Susan goes into such depth of the lyrics and videos of the album. Some of the writing could be toned back a bit with the vocabulary - some pieces needed to be read two or three times to understand what was trying to be said when a simple sentence would have done. Great book and an example of why these books should only be written by people who deeply connect with the lyrical, musical and visual elements of an album.

[Mike Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thoughtful review of the album. I learned a lot!

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/10

[Spencer Abrams · Rating 1 out of 5]

A truly strange look into the cranium of a delusional white Canadian music professor who really really wants to fuck Michael Jackson.

[Jonny Brick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even before he was cancelled, Jackson was not on this planet. This chronicle of his fourth-best album looks at the pop megastar from all angles.

[Wade · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books that I have read in the 33 1/3 series. There’s moments where I was thinking, “Yeah, right, it’s not like Michael Jackson was thinking THAT when he wrote that song,” because the author, Susan Fast, would be putting forth some intricate proposition that reeks of academia and a PhD thesis and you’re just thinking “Come on!” (or, “Shamone”) but then she’d get to the end of the argument and I’d be like, “Yeah, I honestly DO think that was the point Michael was trying to make with that song and that video (or, “short film,” as Fast is insistent on calling the music videos). I don’t think Michael would have used the highbrow, academic-sounding language that Fast consistently uses throughout the book to explain Jackson’s music (even though, as Fast points out, Jackson always avoided explaining his music in order to leave interpretation to the realm of “magic”) but I do think she is very accurate in attempting to explain what Jackson was conveying, even if she does it in language that Jackson may not have used. Fast views the album as a concept album about politics, racism, sexuality, and spirituality (among other things). She also views Dangerous as Jackson’s best album. An argument that becomes increasingly convincing as the book goes on, but (for me) at the end of the day “Human Nature” is on Thriller and therefore Thriller wins. (Nothing in Michael Jackson’s career will ever top the “shah shah shah shah…” line at the end of “Human Nature”.) All of that said, when I saw that the 33 1/3 series was releasing a book on a Michael Jackson album I was confused as to why it was Dangerous and not Thriller or Bad or even Off the Wall for that matter, but I now see that this was definitely the right Jackson album for a book in the series. The book is very well written and makes for a really interesting story to follow. One of the strengths of the book is that Fast makes an intentional point of discussing Jackson’s art as opposed to centering her discussion on Jackson himself. When most people talk about Michael Jackson’s music and career the vast majority of what they say is really just about Jackson, his life, and his lifestyle, while the music is kind of just in the background of the discussion. Obviously, there are a lot of fair reasons for this considering Michael Jackson’s life and lifestyle, but Fast made it a point to focus on Jackson’s art (centering on the music first, but drawing a lot of the meaning of the music from the short films as well as how Jackson intentionally presented each of the songs in his live performances). Because she centers the book on Jackson’s music and art, this turns out to be a really interesting and enjoyable book in the 33 1/3 series.

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I probably haven't thought about Michael Jackson in some time, except for maybe as a song passes my way on a night out on the town. While this book did get a little slow, I though that the discussion by and large looked at the thoughtfulness of Jackson during Dangerous and its album cycle, all the way into the production of videos. It showed the artists in a different light, which in turn makes me want to go through and listen to the album...and usually that bodes well for a book in this series.

[Lisa Bentley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review

Having never read any of the 33/3rd series before I was both curious and apprehensive over what I was about to get myself into. My trepidation came from the poor experience I had reading the last book about music which to be quite honest was just self indulgent and at times boring (you can read the review for that here) but also because ever since I was a little girl I have loved the music of Michael Jackson.

I know that in this media saturated society in which we live it is hard to discuss anything to do with celebrities without looking at things from a gossipy angle. And with a life filled with controversy such as the one Michael Jackson led, I was convinced that I was about to read something which was more about the man than the music.

I was both wrong and also a little bit right. Let me explain.

Fast’s book focuses on the Dangerous album which was released in 1991. Admittedly, it is not my favourite album by Jackson and when listening to it I will often skip ahead to my favourite tracks. However, I have never before taken the album to be a social artefact. It is an album of its time looking at such large themes – isolation, loneliness, race, gender – themes you would find in the works of great literature, not what you would expect from an album released in the 90s.

Yet it is all there. There are songs that are an expression of anger over events that have taken place and songs that almost scream at you for making snap and often wrong judgements. It is more than just an album.

I can honestly say that after reading Michael Jackson’s Dangerous by Susan Fast I will never listen to the album in the same way ever again. This is a truly fascinating book for fans of Michael Jackson and social historians.

Michael Jackson’s Dangerous by Susan Fast is available now.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love how thoroughly Fast dissects MJ's great transitional/underloved album, but there's a lot of swinging and missing.
I'm by no means an MJ scholar but when I can spot the glaring factual inaccuracies without google assistance, there's a problem. (Pages are spent discussing Michael's 1991 performance on the MTV Video Music Awards, when, you know, he didn't appear at the 1991 VMAs.) Fast also has a cringe-y academic tendency to fall down a semantic rabbit hole; her riff on the word "jam" is pretty egregious. (It also ends on another embarrassing factual blunder: "Influential DJs incorporated the term into their monikers, including Run DMC's Jam Master Jay and Jimmy Jam [whom Jackson worked on the DANGEROUS album]." Except, you know, Jimmy Jam isn't a DJ and didn't work on DANGEROUS.)
Fast also has an irritating tendency to undercut her subjective opinions by desperately clinging to others to bolster the argument; Repeatedly citing fan-made YouTube compilations and Armond White essays tend to raise red flags rather than strengthen the point.

[Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

A personal analysis of probably the epitome of Michael Jackson's musical legacy, the Dangerous album. I liked the author's take on this album, which reminded me somewhat of Willa Stillwater's M Poetica. She even quotes her within the book, and that's just one of the many references she uses to support her analysis. I also enjoyed how she calls out the many critics who refused to look at Jackson's artistry with integrity. It's a short read and feels more like a long essay. While what was written here was good and thought provoking, I'm positive she could have gone into even more depth as well. It would be great to see more books like this on his other albums. Jackson's albums beyond Thriller are certainly underrated and it's worth it to take another look at them.

[Pewterbreath · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think Susan Fast is a very intelligent scholar, but I think she's reading way too much into a rather mediocre album. Dangerous was Micheal Jackson's very forced attempt to remain relevant, and while the album sold very well, it didn't have the cultural splash of Thriller or even Bad. While I think looking over Micheal Jackson's work might be interesting, it doesn't work when you're retrofitting significance on forgettable material.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Generally most books about Michael Jackson portray him as some sort of monster, while forgetting that he does have a consistent back catalogue. Susan Fast focuses on Dangerous and throughout the next 133 she tells us why it's his best album.

Insightful, interesting and uncliched this is the definitive book on Dangerous.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Jackson is so much more complicated than I thought. Fast helped me understand how "Dangerous" is just some revolutionary music that deserves to be revisited. His R&B/Hip-hop compositions are so forward-thinking, and Fast lays out a (not quite convincing) case that the schmaltzier stuff is also worth listening to.

[Eleanore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely excellent. Worth the price alone purely for the much-needed closer look at the Panther Dance. Finally, some great critical writing on MJ that can stand up alongside Joe Vogel's works.

[Kat Sommers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating. Overdue reappraisal of my favourite album. I wrote a longer review of this on my blog http://www.katsommers.com/2014/11/16/...

[Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

RIP, Jacko.

[Mixter Mank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informed and passionate, if a little on the academic side.

[Mark Hanner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book absolutely captures the beauty and chaos that is this album.

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this album; this book explains the musical and political makeup and inspirations of the record.