Scream (Official video)

valeryjackson

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[video=youtube;0P4A1K4lXDo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P4A1K4lXDo[/video]
Music video by Michael Jackson performing Scream. © 1995 MJJ Productions Inc.


Facts:
It was the first time Michael and Janet had worked together since 1982, when Janet provided backing vocals on "P.Y.T."

Scream" was written, composed and produced by the Jackson siblings, with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis

It was Michael Jackson's first song that contained the word "****ing" in the lyrics "Stop pressuring me/Stop pressuring me/Stop ****ing with me"—which was thought of as an unusual choice for Jackson, considering his appeal with the younger audience

At a cost of $7 million, it was listed in the Guinness World Records as the most expensive music video ever made; however, director Mark Romanek has refuted the claim, saying that there were two other music videos from the same era which cost "millions more" than the video for "Scream"

Lyrics:

[Michael:]
Tired of injustice
Tired of the schemes
The lies are disgusting
So what does it mean?
Damn it

Kicking me down
I got to get up
As jacked as it sounds
The whole system sucks
Damn it

[Janet:]
Peek in the shadow
Come into the light
You tell me I'm wrong
Then you better prove you're right
You're sellin' out souls,
But I care about mine
I've got to get stronger
And I won't give up the fight

[Michael:]
With such confusions don't it make you wanna scream?

[Janet:]
Make you wanna scream

[Michael:]
Your bash abusin' victimize within the scheme

[Janet:]
You try to cope with every lie they scrutinize

[Both:]
Somebody, please have mercy
'Cause I just can't take it

Stop pressurin' me
Just stop pressurin' me
Stop pressurin' me
Make me wanna scream
Stop pressurin' me
Just stop pressurin' me
Stop pressurin' me
Make you just wanna scream

[Michael:]
Tired of you tellin'
The story your way
It's causin' confusion
You think it's OK
Damn it

[Janet:]
You keep changin' the rules
While I keep playin' the game
I can't take it much longer
I think I might go insane

[Michael:]
With such confusion don't it make you wanna scream?

[Janet:]
Make you wanna scream

[Michael:]
Your bash abusin' victimize within the scheme

[Janet:]
You find your pleasure scandalizin' every lie

[Both:]
Oh, Father, please have mercy
'Cause I just can't take it

Stop pressurin' me
Just stop pressurin' me
Stop pressurin' me
Make me wanna scream
Stop pressurin' me
Just stop pressurin' me
Stop ****ing with me
Make me wanna scream

[Janet:]
"Oh, my God, can't believe what I saw as I turned on the TV this evening
I was disgusted by all the injustice, all the injustice"

[Michael:]
"All the injustice"

[News Man:]
"A man has been brutally beaten to death by police after being wrongly identified as a robbery suspect. The man was an 18 year old black male..."

[Michael:]
With such collusions don't it make you wanna scream?

[Janet:]
Make you wanna scream

[Michael:]
Your bash abusin' victimize within the scheme

[Janet:]
You try to cope with every lie they scrutinize

[Both:]
Oh, brother, please have mercy
'Cause I just can't take it

Stop pressurin' me
Just stop pressurin' me
Stop pressurin' me
Make me wanna scream
Stop pressurin' me
Just stop pressurin' me
Stop pressurin' me
Make me wanna scream

Stop pressurin' me
Just stop pressurin' me
Stop pressurin' me
Make me wanna scream
Stop pressurin' me
Just stop pressurin' me
Stop pressurin' me
Make me wanna scream
 
From "Making Michael by Mike" Smallcombe

As Michael continued to come up with new ideas, super producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were also asked to contribute a track, as Michael wanted to record a first ever duet with his sister Janet. Jam and Lewis had been working with Janet since 1985, and by 1994 they had produced her last three solo albums – including Rhythm Nation 1814, which Michael loved.

Jam and Lewis first met Michael in Minneapolis in 1988, when he played a show there during the Bad Tour. “We actually recommended the hotel in which he was staying and he loved his suite,” Jam said. “He invited us to the show, which was great, and then for dinner after at the hotel. It was just surreal to be in his presence.” Fast forward to 1994, and the pair were contacted by Janet. “Janet called us and said, ‘My brother wants to do a duet’,” Jam recalls. “So we asked her how she felt about it, because obviously we were very loyal to her and didn’t want to create a conflict of interest. But she was fine with it and said Michael wanted us to produce the song. Because Janet was fine with it, we were fine with it.”

After accepting Michael’s invitation, the pair began to create some tracks at their Flyte Tyme studio in Minneapolis ahead of flying to Manhattan. “Michael didn’t really give us any direction,” Jam said. “He just said, ‘Come up with a bunch of tracks and I’ll listen to what you come up with’. So over a period of three or four days we began creating about five different tracks at our studio in Minneapolis. We had Janet come over because we wanted her here for inspiration; we felt it was important for the tracks to have a Janet vibe. So Janet listened to the tracks and for one of them, she said, ‘This is the one he will like’. So Terry and I were like, ‘How do you know?’ And Janet just said, ‘I know my brother’. And then after listening to another one of the tracks, she said, ‘I hope he doesn’t like this one, because I want it’!”

In October 1994, Jam and Lewis flew to New York and met Michael at the studio. Jam says that when they joined the project, the two-disc album was to contain 23 greatest hits and seven new tracks. “Now the Hit Factory studio had great speakers, but Michael brought in his own speakers, which were even bigger, he had an entire wall of speakers,” Jam recalls. “It was literally the loudest thing I have ever heard. Ever. So Michael greeted us… Janet was there and we began listening to the tracks, which we had narrowed down from about eight to six. They were all just music, no lyrics. I thought Michael would listen to each track for about a minute, but I was surprised because he listened to each song the whole way through. He really liked what he heard, he was like, ‘Wow I like them all, you guys really listened to me’.” Michael chose his favourite track, and sure enough, it was the one his sister said he would like. “Michael said, ‘This is the one I want, it’s angry, aggressive, that’s what I wanted’,” Jam said. “Janet just started laughing and said, ‘Told you so’. She was just glad he didn’t like the track she wanted for herself, which actually ended up being ‘Runaway’ from her album Design of a Decade, and she recorded it about a year later. I actually thought that would be a great choice for them to sing together. But Michael had other ideas, and the track he chose was perfect for what he wanted to do.”

Having picked his favourite track, Michael met Janet, Jam and Lewis the next day at his apartment in Trump Tower to begin writing. “So Michael said, ‘I have an idea’, and began coming up with a melody and rhythm for the track, but no words,” Jam said. “Then he started singing the melody, but we realised it was too low for Janet. It was more to his strengths than hers and we needed to make sure Janet fared well, but she just said, ‘It’s his album, his song and his feeling, and I’m just the guest’. She had no expectation beyond helping her brother.” In the meantime, Michael and Janet worked on the lyrics separately. Michael wanted to write about how angry he had been feeling over the past eighteen months, which would continue the lyrical theme of the album so far. “Michael came up with most of the actual lyrics, he knew exactly what he wanted lyrically, something aggressive,” Jam said. “Because he knew what he wanted, he wrote everything very quickly. He was very fast, very intense.” Although Michael came up with most of the lyrics, Janet created the title, ‘Scream’, and also wrote the lyrics to the bridge.

When they entered the studio to record the vocals, the plan was to record Michael’s first, and Janet’s immediately after. “So we were sat there, Terry, Janet and myself, and Michael is wearing these hard shoes and some kind of jewellery, which you’re not really supposed to in case it interferes with the vocal,” Jam said. “Everything is fine…Michael said his headphones are OK, and his voice is smooth after he drank his usual hot water with Ricola cough drops. So he says, ‘Let’s give it a go’. The music comes on, and for about ten seconds, Michael just starts dancing around, stomping…snapping his fingers…clapping, which is really unusual. And suddenly, he just started singing.” Jam says they were simply blown away. “I had never seen or heard anything like it in my entire life. We had to almost hold onto our chairs due to the sheer energy and force of his singing. And when it was over, Terry and I were speechless. So Michael’s like, ‘How was it?’ And we’re like, ‘Yeah…great’, and Michael then asks us if we want him to do another vocal, and we’re like, ‘Sure!’ And he nailed it in about four or five takes. Then Janet turns to us and says, ‘I think I’ll do my vocals in Minneapolis!’ I mean, how do you follow that?! When Janet was leaving, Michael said to her, ‘Are you not doing your vocals now?’ And Janet says, ‘No, I’m doing them in Minneapolis’.”

What was supposed to be a three-day session had now stretched to a week and a half. Jam and Lewis returned to Minneapolis where they recorded Janet’s vocal, before sending Michael a rough mix. Happy with the mix and Janet’s vocals, Michael then told Jam and Lewis that he wanted to re-record his lead vocal over in Minneapolis, as he thought he could make improvements. “It really showed his competitiveness and his perfectionism,” Jam said. “Of course we told Michael that he was welcome to come to Minneapolis.” The pair did record their background vocals together. “The two of them singing together was amazing,” Rob Hoffman recalls. “Super tight, no bad notes, one part after another. When they took a break they sang the show tunes they used to sing as kids. Again, perfect harmony. Michael refused to sing the ‘stop ****in’ with me’ part [of ‘Scream’] because he would not curse!”
 
Scream is probably my most favorite music video. I loved that as a kid. It is so futuristic. Michael and Janet looked amazing there.
 
Love this song. I always thought the scene of Michael smashing the guitar was so cool.
 
How come the song was released originally without the official video in the UK?
It should have been held back until it was ready.... shambles of a decision.
 
How come the song was released originally without the official video in the UK?
It should have been held back until it was ready.... shambles of a decision.

That was worldwide. Airplay of Scream startet on 20. May 1995.
Single CD was released 31. May, and the video was premiered 14. June. (At least in Germany.)

Might have been a calculated stretch to have another slightly delayed boost to keep the single at higher positions in the charts.
Or the video simply wasn't ready in time.
 
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