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more #1s for Dangerous?

Hot_Street

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Off the Wall and Thriller both had two #1s in the US, Bad had five #1s
Dangerous had only one #1
Was there a way to get more #1s out of this album?
What about releasing singles like Keep the Faith?
 
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Remember the Time did hit number 1 on alot of charts, but not hitting it on the Hot 100 kinda blows. I honestly think when the 1st set of allegations came out, it killed any momentum the album had.
 
Prince Of Pop said:
Remember the Time did hit number 1 on alot of charts, but not hitting it on the Hot 100 kinda blows. I honestly think when the 1st set of allegations came out, it killed any momentum the album had.
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News of the allegations though hit the media 1 year and 8 months after the album was released, 8 singles had already been released, all except for Gone Too Soon, I doubt it would have had significantly more sales
 
mack77 said:
News of the allegations though hit the media 1 year and 8 months after the album was released, 8 singles had already been released, all except for Gone Too Soon, I doubt it would have had significantly more sales
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Imagine DYKWYCA as a b-side on GTS.
GTS would've have had very much attention.
 
Hot_Street said:
Imagine DYKWYCA as a b-side on GTS.
GTS would've have had very much attention.
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Or perhaps an amazing music video for Dangerous might have propelled it. Has it ever been confirmed if MJ was ever going to do a music video /Single for Dangerous?
 
mack77 said:
Or perhaps an amazing music video for Dangerous might have propelled it. Has it ever been confirmed if MJ was ever going to do a music video /Single for Dangerous?
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He wanted to and the concept is what ended up becoming the video for You Rock My World.
 
Friend&Flower said:
He wanted to and the concept is what ended up becoming the video for You Rock My World.
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The concept for the dance routine, not the whole video.

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As for more number ones for Dangerous, it's weird but the album certainly warranted it. Black or White was an absolute smash hit (his biggest since Beat It) but I am just not sure he followed it with a song that cut through quite that hard. I think Jam should have been but when you're making a more hip hop type of song, you're segmenting your audience moreso, especially for someone with the appeal Michael had. I think Jam, Remember the Time and frankly Who Is It should have topped the charts. But it pays to remember that the Dangerous album sold a shit tonne and still doesn't get its roses.
 
Dangerous had more than one number 1 hit, but sadly only one in the USA.

It was always going to be hard for post 80s albums to match the success of Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad in his home country as Michael stopped touring in the US after the 1980s, and touring is a big part of promoting an album or a single.

But in spite of that, I do believe that Dangerous could have had at least two number 1 hits in America, had Black or White not being released as a lead single. Given the message of the song, and the ā€œcontroversyā€ surrounding the music video, BOW was likely going to be number 1, even if it was the second or third single.

I personally would have released Remember The Time as the lead single, and the hype surrounding a new Michael Jackson release would have ensured that RTT reaches number 1. RTT peaked at number 3 as the second single from Dangerous. Make it the lead single and it is going to number 1.

Michael also missed a trick by performing Dangerous at the American music awards in January 1993. Awards show performances are a great way of promoting a new single, and as much as I love the 1993 AMA performance of Dangerous, it was a non single and thus had no bearing on the single charts. Michael either would have been better off performing a recently released single from Dangerous at AMA 1993, or he should have released Dangerous as the single right after or before the AMA 1993. That was a missed opportunity, in my opinion.
 
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Hot_Street said:
Was there a way to get more #1s out of this album?
What about releasing singles like Keep the Faith?
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I always disliked how the Jam video had nothing to do with the lyric (it wasn't about sports), but it's not the first time Michael did this. Keep The Faith is one of my favourites, but I doubt it would do much sales-wise.

My strategy would be to release Give In To Me as the second single.
I don't think Rembember The Time is a strong enough track, so its performance doesn't surprise me.
 
Black or White as first single was an excellent choice, then I would have gone for Give in to me. These types of rock ballads did particularly well in the 90s. It performed very well as the 7th single which pretty much means it had a big shot at going nr 1 had it been released earlier.

What happens next is unclear to me but I would not have released any of the NJS tracks.
 
filmandmusic said:
What happens next is unclear to me but I would not have released any of the NJS tracks.
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But NJS had been hot for several years in the USA. Around that time of Dangerous album, TLC was big and their first album was New Jack. In 1990 Bell Biv DeVoe's Poison album sold 4 million, which is more than any of New Edition's (the group BBD came from) albums. Poison (the song) is still popular today. Another New Edition member Bobby Brown has the highest selling New Jack Swing album Don't Be Cruel. Bobby was so popular that songs he appeared on became hits like She Ain't Worth It by Glenn Medeiros.

It wouldn't have made any sense for Mike to hire Teddy Riley and just have the songs be album tracks. He could have just stuck with Quincy Jones, if Mike was going to do that. Mike pretty much always went with what sound was popular at the time. Neo-soul was popular around the late 1990s & early 2000s, so there's a few neo-soul songs on Invincible. That's how Butterflies was a big R&B radio hit. Neo-soul didn't have a lot of crossover though, but there was some.

With Give In To Me, it probably wasn't a good idea to make a "hair metal" music video when alternative rock & grunge (Soundgarden, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers) began to blow up on MTV.
 
Heal the world would have been a number one hit here in the UK if not for Whitney and I will always love you
 
@DuranDuran

Not disputing what you said but I ā€œfeelā€ the NJS on Dangerous is a bit too hard edged and not ā€poppyā€ enough for big chart success. The exception is RTT which is not like the other NJS songs on Dangerous.
But you are right it wouldnā€™t make much sense to have a new sound and then not have them released as singles.
 
filmandmusic said:
@DuranDuran

Not disputing what you said but I ā€œfeelā€ the NJS on Dangerous is a bit too hard edged and not ā€poppyā€ enough for big chart success. The exception is RTT which is not like the other NJS songs on Dangerous.
But you are right it wouldnā€™t make much sense to have a new sound and then not have them released as singles.
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I just explained that NJS in general was all over the radio and on Top 40 too. Even people like Sheena Easton & Boy George released New Jack Swing songs and/or albums. The NJS songs on Dangerous are not hard edged at all compared to the gangsta rap that was also popular in the USA at the time. MTV had the show Yo! MTV Raps which showed videos by acts such as Geto Boys, N.W.A., Ice-T, & X-Clan. Dr. Dre's Chronic album was big and introduced Snoop Doggy Dogg. Hip hop was on Top 40 pop radio. Jump by Kris Kross was #1 on the Hot 100 for 7 or 8 weeks in a row. I would say Jump is not really "poppy" at all. Mike even had Kris Kross open up for him. Grunge music was definitely not "poppy" and that was popular for a 2 or 3 years.

Maybe the songs are not "poppy" enough for people in European countries or something.
 
DuranDuran said:
I just explained that NJS in general was all over the radio and on Top 40 too.
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sorry teacher
DuranDuran said:
Maybe the songs are not "poppy" enough for people in European countries or something.
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You have to be in Europe to believe it, almost none of the acts you mentioned were popular in Europe. The difference in musical taste couldnā€™t be wider. At least back then, now everybody likes the same music.
Grunge was very popular here. My techno clubbing sister bought Nevermind back in 92 šŸ¤£
 
filmandmusic said:
sorry teacher

You have to be in Europe to believe it, almost none of the acts you mentioned were popular in Europe. The difference in musical taste couldnā€™t be wider. At least back then, now everybody likes the same music.
Grunge was very popular here. My techno clubbing sister bought Nevermind back in 92 šŸ¤£
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Well, Garth Brooks has 9 diamond (10 million sold) albums in the USA. He's the only artist in the entire history of recorded music who has that. The 1990s is when country music really hit the mainstream audience. At one point in the early 1990s, Garth had 3 albums in the Top 15 at the same time, and 2 of them were in the Top 10. Others like Shania Twain & The Dixie Chicks were very popular too,
 
xam said:
I always disliked how the Jam video had nothing to do with the lyric (it wasn't about sports), but it's not the first time Michael did this.
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Athough I was obsessed with Michael Jordan at the time I felt the same when the video was released. There was some sort of message in the video (the Earth ball) but I think it could have been an anthem with a more serious video
 
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Although I don't really care for the album version of the song 'Dangerous', knowing the demo I think a different version of it could have been a hit too!
 
I think Jam should have been the second single. Remember the Time was nice and everything but I feel like it's too R and B for mainstream chart success.
 
I think Dangerous was Mike's first truly adult album in a sense, he seemed try to be more artistic and free himself from writing just hit songs. Clearly it worked on Dangerous

Also the thing people forget when they look at Mike's amount of number 1 singles, is a lot of people who would have bought the singles had already bought the album and that is far more valuable
 
xam said:
I always disliked how the Jam video had nothing to do with the lyric (it wasn't about sports), but it's not the first time Michael did this.
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It might have to do with "jam" being slang for a slam dunk. Michael Jordan was later in the movie Space Jam. But a lot of music videos don't have anything to do with the song. One of the top of my head is Loverboy by Billy Ocean. I think Take On Me by A-ha doesn't really follow the lyrics either, nothing in it about fighting with race car drivers, lol.
 
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