"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
How To Play Bass To Bad