"Bad" is a song by American songwriter and recording artist Michael Jackson. "Bad" was released by Epic Records in September 1987, as the second single from Jackson's seventh studio album of the same name. The song was written by Jackson and produced by Jackson and Quincy Jones. Jackson stated that the song was influenced by a real life story he'd read about. Musically, the song is a pop song with a dance groove tempo with R&B and funk musical styles. Lyrically, the song is about proving to people that you are tough, with Jackson asking "who's bad?" in a repeating lyric in the song.

"Bad" was generally well received by contemporary music critics, with some critics noting that "Bad" helped Jackson's image become more edgier during the Bad-era. The song peaked at number one on the Hot 100, and remained at the top position of the chart for two weeks, becoming Jackson's Badalbums second number one single, and Jackson's seventh number one entry on the chart. Internationally, the song was also commercially successful, charting within the top ten in eleven countries as well as charting within the top five in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Norwegian, Switzerland and Swedish charts. The song peaked at number one on the Netherlands and European charts.

A music video for "Bad" was directed by Martin Scorsese and released in late 1987. In the video, Jackson and a group of background dancers are shown doing dance routines throughout a subway station. The music videos choreographer stated that the plot and video of the background was strongly influenced by the "Cool scene in West Side Story. The music video received one nominated from for the Video Music Awards in 1988. The music video has also been influential on other artists material, such as Lady GaGa. The song was performed by Jackson on all of his concert tour as a solo artist, as well at awards shows, such as the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards. Jackson had also planned to perform "Bad" during his This Is It Tour from 2009 to 2010, but after his death, footage of his rehearsals of the song were shown in the documentary Michael Jackson's This Is It. "Bad" has been covered and parodied by multiple artists since it's release as well as becoming a frequent song used during tributes to Jackson after his death in June 2009.

"Bad" is a song that was recorded by Michael Jackson in 1987 for his seventh studio album of the same name. The song was written by Jackson and produced by Jackson and Quincy Jones. "Bad" was originally intended to be a duet between Jackson and musician Prince; although the plans were not followed-up on. In Jackson's 1988 autobiography Moonwalk, Jackson discussed the concept of "Bad", elaborating that,

In a 1988 interview with Ebonyand Jetmagazines (which was released on Hulu shortly after his death), Jackson said that he had gotten the idea for "Bad" from a true story that he had read about, stating, "This kid who went to school upstate [New York], in the country, whatever, who is from the ghetto and he tried to make something of his life and he would leave all his friends behind and when he came back, on spring break or whatever, Thanksgiving break, his friends became so envious, jealous of him they killed him. But in the film [Bad's music video] I don't die of course. So it was a true story that was [...] we had taken from Timeor Newsweekmagazine, and he's a black kid like me and [...] it's a sad story."'

"Bad" is credited as being a pop song with R&B and Funk musical styles. "Bad" is performed in an insistent pop groove. The song is written in the key of C Major with a time signature in common time. Jackson's vocal range spans from E4 to C6. "Bad" has a tempo of 120 beats per minute. The song has a basic sequence of D3-B3-F3-G3 as its cord progression. The song opens with Jackson singing the lyrics, "your butt is mine, gonna tell you right." "Bad" was viewed as a rived "Hit the Road, Jack" progression. Davitt Sigerson, a writer for Rolling Stonemagazine, commented on "Bad" 's lyrical content while reviewing Bad, "When Jackson declares that 'the whole world has to answer right now,' he is not boasting but making a statement of fact regarding his extraordinary stardom. If anything, he is scorning the self-coronation of lesser funk royals and inviting his fickle public to spurn him if it dare. Not since the 'Is it good, ya?' of Godfather Brown has a more rhetorical question been posed in funk." Lyrically, "Bad" pertains to proving to people that you are tough boasting, with Jackson asking "who's the best?" and "who's bad?" in a repeating lyric in the songs chorus.

"Bad" was generally well-received by contemporary music critics. Some critics noted that "Bad" helped Jackson's image become more edgier during the Bad-era. Davitt Sigerson, a writer for Rolling Stonemagazine, commented that "Bad" needs no "defense" and he generally praised Jackson's vocal performance in the song. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic listed "Bad", along with two other songs from Bad, as being track picks from the album's eleven tracks. In separate review of the song, Erlewine commented that Jackson's vocals "sounded like [he was] the love child of James Brown and Mavis Staples" and added that "musically speaking, in this case, 'Bad' is very good". He also noted that "Bad" 's "authority and boasting helped to humanize" Jackson and "changed his image", remarking that it was "fun hearing him talking trash and being his own bigger booster". Jennifer Clay of Yahoo Music noted that while Jackson's new edgier image was a "little hard to swallow", the image worked musically on the albums songs "Bad", "Man in the Mirror", and "Dirty Diana".

"Bad" charted within the top ten, at number eight, on the Hot 100 on the chart's issue date of October 10, 1987. After two weeks of charting within the top ten on the chart, the song peaked at number one on October 24, 1987. "Bad" stayed at the top position for two consecutive weeks. "Bad" was Jackson's Badalbum's second number one single on the BillboardHot 100, and Jackson's seventh number one entry on the chart. "Bad" also charted on the BillboardHot R&B Singles and BillboardHot Dance Club Play at number one. "Bad" was commercially successful internationally, generally charting within the top ten, as well as reaching the top position, on music charts. "Bad" debuted within the top five, at number five, on the United Kingdom charts on the charts' issue date of September 26, 1987. The following week, the song charted at its peak position of number three, where it remained for two consecutive weeks. "Bad" remained within the chart's top ten positions for four weeks, and charted within the top 100 for a total of eleven weeks in 1987. "Bad" peaked at number five on Canadian music charts on the charts' issue date of November 7, 1987. "Bad" peaked at number four in Sweden on October 14, 1987. The song spent four weeks within the chart's top ten. On October 3, "Bad" debuted at number nine in France, and after six weeks of charting within the top ten, the song peaked at number four on November 14. "Bad" debuted on New Zealand music charts at number four on October 18, and the following week moved to its peak position of number two. "Bad" charted within the top fifty positions for fifteen weeks in 1987 and 1988.

The song also charted at number two in Norwegian in the thirty-ninth week of 1987, and charted within the top ten positions for eight weeks in 1987. The song was less successful on Australian music charts, peaking within the top thirty at number twenty seven, respectively. "Bad" debuted within the top ten on Austrian charts at number ten on November 1, 1987. The following week the song charted out of the top ten and the next week returned to the top ten at number nine, which was its peak position. "Bad" debuted at number eighty-seven in Dutch on September 9, 1987. The following week, the song moved up to number eleven, which was seventy-three positions higher than its previous week. The following week, the song peaked at number one, and remained at the top position for two consecutive weeks. In 2006, Jackson's music re-entered charts following his music being re-issued for his Visionaryalbum. "Bad" entered Spanish charts for the first time on April 4, 2006; the song debuted at the top position. "Bad" remained within the top twenty positions for nine consecutive weeks. "Bad" debuted at its peak position at number five in Italy on April 6. After Jackson's death in June 2009, his music re-entered charts again worldwide. In July, "Bad" peaked at number eleven in Italy, number twenty in Spain, number twenty-five in Sweden, number thirty-seven in Denmark and number forty in the United Kingdom.

The full music video for "Bad" is an 18-minute short film written by novelist and screenwriter Richard Price and based on the case of Edmund Perry. The video was directed by Martin Scorsese. The video has many references to the 1961 film West Side Story, especially the "Cool" sequence. Not only does it show a street gang dancing in an urban setting, but there are also some parts of the choreography that were influenced by it. The choreographer Jeffrey Daniel confirmed the influence, although they intended to do a more contemporary version of it. Daniel commented, "It's like a train coming across the screen [...] and that's the effect I was looking for and it worked".

Daryl arrives to find his house empty (his mother is played by Roberta Flack, albeit in voiceover), but is greeted by his old friends, led by Mini Max (an emerging Wesley Snipes) and spends an evening with them. At first relations are friendly, if slightly awkward, but the situation deteriorates once the rest of the gang realize how much Daryl has changed, and in particular how uncomfortable he has become with their tendencies towards petty crime. In an attempt to show his friends he is still "bad", Daryl takes the gang to a subway station (The Hoyt Schermerhorn Station in Brooklyn) where he attempts to mug an elderly man but changes his mind at the last minute. Mini Max berates Daryl and tells him that he's no longer bad. After more abuse from Mini Max, the video jumps from black and white to color and Daryl, now dressed head to foot in black leather and joined by a crowd of dancing punks, sings "Bad" and dances his moves. (it is at this point that is the edited video generally begins when played on television). His insistence that Max is headed for a fall are nearly Daryl's undoing, but eventually his friend accepts that, and, after a final handshake, heads off leaving Daryl. The scene shifts back to black and white as Daryl, alone and back in his tracksuit, watches them leave.

The music video received one nomination at the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards Ceremony. The video, alongside Jackson's '"The Way You Make Me Feel" video, was nominated for Best Choreography, but lost to Jackson's younger sister Janet's video "Pleasure Principle". After Jackson's death on June 2009, City Councilwoman Letitia James began trying to convince the agency to rename or co-name the station or to hang a plaque at the station in Jackson's honor, but her request was denied by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York in September 2009. James stated that she plans to organize a petition drive to pressure the agency into reconsidering their decision. James commented, "Having Michael Jackson visit and moonwalk at this station was a huge deal not only for Brooklyn, but all of New York in the '80s [...] And renaming this station in his honor would put it on the map and help ensure that people don't forget." A source from the MTA commented that no subway stations in the MTA system are named or co-named after individuals, mostly because it could confuse riders.

Jackson performed "Bad" on all three of his solo world concert tours. During performances of "Bad", Jackson would often wear military-styled clothes. "Bad" was first performed during both tour legs of Jackson's Bad World Tour, which lasted from from 1987 to 1989. The concerts had 123 concerts, which were attended by over four million people worldwide. Jackson, who received two nominations from the MTV Video Music Awards in 1988, performed "Bad" at the award shows ceremony on September 7, of the same year. "Bad" was also performed during 12 concerts on Jackson's second world tour, entitled the Dangerous Tour, which was attended by an estimated 3.5 million people.

Notable parody versions include "Weird Al" Yankovic, who had previously recorded a parody of Jackson's song "Beat It" (1982), recorded a parody of "Bad", entitling his version "Fat" in 1988 for his album Even Worse. "Fat"s single cover and title also parodied the cover of Jackson's Badalbum and the music video which parodies many elements of the original. Jackson allowed Yankovic to use the same set as that of the video for his own parody of the song, "Badder" (from the Moonwalkerfilm). Pop singer Lady Gaga's music video for her 2009 single "LoveGame" has strong similarities to "Bad" 's music video. Strong similarities between the two videos are that both their main settings are in a subway station and they have similar opening scenes in their videos.

After Jackson's death in June 2009, "Bad" was performed (usually in a medley with other of Jackson's songs) as a tribute to Jackson. At the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards tribute to Jackson, dancers performed dance routines from Jackson's music videos while the music to the song was played in the background. The songs that were chosen were "Bad", "Thriller" (1982) and "Smooth Criminal" (1987). In January 2010, a video of Filipino inmates dancing to a medley of Jackson's songs, such as "Bad" and "They Don't Care About Us" was released. The dance routine was filmed so it could be an extra on the Michael Jackson's This Is ItDVD, but it was not completed in time to appear on the disc, but was instead released to promote the films DVD.

Michael Jackson "Bad" music video at Youtube.com

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