Bad Michael Jackson

The downside to a success like Thriller is that it's nearly impossible to follow, but Michael Jackson approached Bad much the same way he approached Thriller – take the basic formula of the predecessor, expand it slightly, and move it outward. This meant that he moved deeper into hard rock, deeper into schmaltzy adult contemporary, deeper into hard dance – essentially taking each portion of Thriller to an extreme, while increasing the quotient of immaculate studiocraft. He wound up with a sleeker, slicker Thriller, which isn't a bad thing, but it's not a rousing success, either…

Bad is the seventh studio album by American singer Michael Jackson. It was released on August 31, 1987 by Epic Records, nearly five years after Jackson's previous album, Thriller. Bad was written and recorded in nearly a year, and was the final collaboration between Jackson and producer Quincy Jones. Jackson co-produced it and composed all but two tracks. The album features appearances from Siedah Garrett and Stevie Wonder. Incorporating pop, rock, funk, R&B, dance, soul and hard rock, Jackson experimented with modern technology, including digital synthesizers and drum machines, resulting in a sleeker and more aggressive sound on Bad. The lyrical themes include media bias, paranoia, racial profiling, romance, self-improvement, and world peace.

"The Bad Mixes" was a limited release CD given out to promote Monster-Cable (hardware cabling that had been used extensively in the making of the "Bad" album to provide crystal-clear studio recordings). The album was never available for sale publicly. Two versions of the album were created - a 9-track version, and a numbered 13-track version (rarer).

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter and dancer. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he was one of the most popular entertainers in the world, and was the best-selling music artist at the time of his death. Jackson's contributions to music, dance, and fashion along with his publicized personal life made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades…