The creator of Michael Jackson dangerous album cover was the artist Mark Ryden. It took him six months to finish Michael Jackson dangerous artwork. Much of the life of Michael Jackson is reflected in it both in pictures as symbols. Mark Ryden was born on 20 January 1963 in Medford, Oregon, California. In 1987 he received the School of Design in Pasadena. Among his clients were Stephen King, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro. Michael Jackson hired Mark Ryden because he was a fan of circus posters from the early last century, and had the mentality to interpret the images they wanted Jackson on the cover. The account cartoonist asked Michael very specific things, and he also drew his own analogies to make room for these symbols. Michael told Mark that the design should be mysterious and that people will interpret it in their own way.
Michael Jackson Dangerous Artwork
Let’s analyze this cover design, step by step.
1 – The name “Michael Jackson” on his eyes gave way to a huge theatrical mask that seems to want to cover everything. From that center dominates the scene perfectly. Eyes and perfect eyebrows with a small lock of hair falling from his forehead and brown skin, make the perfect ornament for domination.
2 – On a fairy appears the head of a monkey about to be crowned. It is his chimp Bubbles who was rescued from a cancer research facility back in 1985. It’s noteworthy that all of the work environment is practically covered by animals.
3 – Right in the center are grouped various animals: a peacock, accurate representations of glamor and gorgeous as is usually the entertainment world, an elephant with a number 9 on the front (as that number next to 7, the most prominent in numerology), a rhinoceros, a walrus, and so on.
4 – On either side of Michael’s eyes are two faces of clowns with bonnets. Both represent the circus but also the theater and who are in the classical view of theatrical performance, one crying and one laughing.
5 – Two musical cherubs appear on both sides of a star of good fortune, announcing the sound and music.
6 – A prehistoric man, perhaps a warrior tribe (seniority is an obsession for Michael Jackson). In his hands accompanies this great concert with two dishes.
7 – More angels appear in the left of the image, this time an angel and smaller child in a few fish in the style of living carrousels or uncles.
8 – An entry to a kind of “ghost train” or “labyrinth of terror.” Onboard the cars are again the monkey “Bubbles”, a rat can be “Ben”, a antipolo and an elephant. This entrance is flanked by a classic pirate symbol denoting evil but turn the adventure, so present in these passages.
9 – On the left is a half-open hand, which is Michael Jackson because on three fingertips are the classic “bandaids”. Standing on your palm is a black child holding the skull of the elephant man, whose remains wanted to buy but could not. On that Palm appears drawn a world map depicting the presence of Michael Jackson as a worldwide star. On the wrist is the number 7, as I had said next to 9 are special numbers in numerology.
10 – In the bottom center of the scene is a kind of galactic belt surrounding a world upside down, you have on your floor a lot of symbols that represent hazards as caravels and pistols, technological advances such as rockets and mysteries of science as atoms and chains of particles.
11 – Here is the image of Barnum, creator of the world’s most famous circuses, is an explicit homage to this cover very “circus”. The bust is in the jacket lapel a pin with the number “1998” and if we add 1 +9 +9 +8 the result is 27 (the seven positive number in numerology) and adding 2 +7 gives 9 (the other number positive).
12 – The output of this “corridor” or “ghost train” since the end of the story everything has changed. Bubbles disappeared and instead sits with Michael but his image of child star, behind him the skeleton of the elephant man (whom we spoke) behind his friend happy Macaulay Culkin and closing the antipolo row ends up being another skeleton.
13 – An eye Greek appears on the upper facade of the exit of the maze. It is a symbol of protecting God who sees everything.
14 – Michael gr an admirer of the masters of world painting has added two dinner s classic is one inside a crystal ball and the other on one of the pillars of the Afghan king dog described below.
15 – In the middle of the table on the right is the image of an Afghan dog on his throne. The image is inspired by a painting “Napoleon on his Throne” painted by artist Jean-Auguste Ingres in 1806. The painting is housed in Paris in the Museum of the army which also surveys the work of Napoleon ba tum.
16 – There are two other figures that are part of the Dangerous cover that is included in the luxury three-three-dimensional version is a two-legged dog and a girl with the entire body in his arms holding a large green beetle e. Undoubtedly the cover of “Dangerous” by the cover design of “Sergeant Pepper” by The Beatles is the most performed two covers in music history.
17 – At the bottom of the cover, you can see the image of Aleister Crowley, an influential English occultist, astrologer, a mystic, and ceremonial magician. Read more about him here.
Account Mark Ryden, artist of the cover of “Dangerous” that had previously worked with the Art Director for Sony, Nancy Donald in many other projects, and when the project was commissioned by Michael Jackson she thought of him.
Michael Jackson showed him a book about their jobs and liked it a lot. Ryden was thus that he met with the King of Pop in his study where he could hear some of his new music and talked about the idea.
He then had a week to create some strokes, doing 5 pencil drawings. Only one was elected, the current draft of the lid.
The other four sketches were not accepted by Michael Jackson but had the same general style that the cover of “Dangerous”. One was a circus poster with a skeleton jumping from the innards of a clown, another was focused on a girl in her hand she held a skull, another idea was very similar to the final cover, but the scene was set outdoors and the Michael Jackson’s eyes were mixed with clouds over the chimp Bubbles which was standing on a pile of animals.
Mark Ryden also notes that the first sketches of the cover of “Dangerous” drew heavily on the video for the song “Leave Me Alone” found in the feature film “Moonwalker”, saying that “it was the image, design and the items were great. ”
The cover of “Dangerous” was the biggest project Mark Ryden asked what date he demanded six months’ hard work. Although the original painting is very large, the great challenge of the artist was that by reducing the size of a cover of a compact disc detail and the concept did not disappear.
One of its inspirations to the many details was listening to the tracks on the album as Michael Jackson was finishing his recording and song titles also served to introduce certain concepts. And so the album title and the song “Dangerous” provided a starting point for the base of the drawing.
Mark Ryden said that despite the great advances in digital technology, the drawing is not supported by computers and nothing is done the old way, only brush with acrylics on a panel, which still remains in its original study, without I was asked by Michael Jackson or the art division of Sony Music, as the latter only bought the reproduction rights. Ensures the artist that anyone else could buy your original drawing.
As for the freedom to create his work, Ryden had the opportunity to draw without pressure, except for some very specific added that Michael Jackson asked himself near the end of the work. For example, he wanted the actor Macaulay Culkin to be in one of the cars that pull out of the tunnel on the right and placed the pin “1998” on the lapel of P. Barnum.
Michael Jackson Dangerous Album Songs
1. Jam
2. Why You Wanna Trip On Me
3. In The Closet
4. She Drives Me Wild
5. Remember The Time
6. Can´t Let Her Get Away
7. Heal The World
8. Black Or White
9. Who Is It
10. Give In To Me
11. Will You Be There
12. Keep The Faith
13. Gone Too Soon
14. Dangerous
Dangerous was the first of these albums in which Michael Jackson talked openly of racism, which was the main topic with the hit song, “Black or White”. Other social-commentary topics that Jackson had never touched as a solo artist including poverty and inner-city life were discussed in the song “Why You Wanna Trip on Me”, in which he compared social ills to his own alleged publicized eccentricities that were covered in the press at the time asking critics and tabloid media why were they focusing on him when other more social problems were going on. He addressed similar issues in the album’s opening track, “Jam”, which included rapping from Heavy D. “In the Closet” had originally been set as a duet between Jackson and Madonna though this recording never happened and focused on two lovers carrying on a discreet affair without being open about the affair. The album also included songs of other personal nature especially songs such as “She Drives Me Wild”, “Remember the Time”, “Can’t Let Her Get Away”, “Who Is It” and “Give In to Me”. The social commentary “Heal the World” was in the middle of the number of personal songs. “Gone Too Soon”, written by Larry Grossman and Buz Kohan, was written and recorded for Ryan White following White’s death from AIDS in 1990. The title track’s lyrics were compared to that of “Dirty Diana” with the song focusing on a seductress.
Key Information on Michael Jackson Dangerous Album
- Dangerous is the eighth studio album by Michael Jackson, released on November 26, 1991 by Epic Records.
- Jackson wrote twelve of the fourteen songs on the album. Lyrical themes expressed on the album included racism, poverty, romance, the welfare of children and the world and self-improvement, topics Jackson had covered before.
- Dangerous received several Grammy nominations, winning only one for Best Engineered Album (Non Classical) by Bruce Swedien and Riley. The album also received three nominations at the American Music Awards of 1993 ultimately winning two awards, mainly: Favorite Soul/R&B Single for the single “Remember the Time” and Favorite Pop/Rock Album for the album itself.
- Dangerous has sold 32 million copies worldwide, 7 million albums were shipped in the United States alone, and has been cited as one of the best-selling albums of all time.
- The album produced four top ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including the number-one hit “Black or White”.
- Recording sessions for Dangerous took place at Ocean Way/Record One’s Studio 2 in Los Angeles, starting on June 25, 1990, and ended at both Larrabee North and Ocean Way Studios on October 29, 1991, making it, at sixteen months, the most extensive recording of Jackson’s career at the time.
- With Riley, Jackson recorded under the new jack swing genre, a genre Riley has been often credited with inventing. It was also the first album in which Jackson began rapping. The new jack swing were designed to give Jackson a new younger urban audience.
Michael Jackson Dangerous Album – Professional Ratings
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36 responses
OMG~~u’ve done a really really good job, i am a huge MJ fan, this is also my favorite cover of all,
thanks for all the efforts
Michael Jackson was very creative & a lot of people r now speculating that the Dangerous cover is a sign of the illuminati but this article explains everythimg down 2 the “T” Thanks 4 the insite 4 whoever did this research! i give u 2 thumbs up! 🙂
“Eyes and perfect eyebrows with a small lock of hair falling from her forehead and a brown skin”
What the hell do you mean by falling from “her” forehead???
Michael Jackson is a male! So you must change it to “his”!
good observation! thanks for your feedback…..its changed now!
Sony Music is got to be the leader in the music industry, they got PSP, music records and movie productions ::
I have one of these framed original posters signed by Michael Jackson. What would be the value of it?
It’s priceless! Wondering if you could send me a screenshot of that, Berry!
First of all I want to introduce myself with the name “Someone” .
Im located in Central Europe in a country called Austria .
Fate and circumstances enable me to call myself to be a very privileged person and fan of Michael Jackson as I have found myself to be on the illustrious Dangerous Album cover….. Brace yourself and pls follow me now on my discovery journey.
Take a look at the bottom right corner where you see Michael as a boy sitting in a Gondola coming down a chute .
Behind him and the animal skeleton is another boy with blonde hair and black T – Shirt with the white letter “M” on it . That´s me. Pls observe the over all symmetrical – like depiction of the figures and items and imagine now this “M” to be broken in the middle into 2 halves. When you turn the left half of the “M” then accordingly you will get the number 1 ….so we have two nr. 1 here out of this letter as the right half is quite obvious nr.1 as well ….right next to the boy you will find the nr. 2 with a horse head on it at the bottom of this greenish pillar.
Then pls turn your adjusted sharp eyes to the big grey elephant standing right next to the peacock .
On his forehead you will see the nr. 9 …..out of that figure you will get also the nr. 6 by viewing the cover from upside down .
Swoop down now to the bottom of the cover and check out carefully the wrist of the grey hand with the 3 white coverings (Bandages) on its finger tips.
There is a number 7. Right next to this hand across the “dangerous” road with pistols, skulls, factories, rockets etc. is a old man with grey hair, wearing a white shirt ,
black tie and a black suit . On his head stands a man wearing a blue hat with another number 7 clearly visible .
All these figures now have to be lined up into the following order : 2161977
That implies to my ( little blonde boy on the cover ) birth date on the 21 st of june 1977 !
….now ….let´s go back to the old man´s black suit …if you look closely you will find an arrow with 3 circles underneath and 1998 written above it.
This simply means that all this knowledge of the “Dangerous” album cover I got inspired in that special year …. I passed
that information to 2 friends and Michael Jackson fans all before that year ended .
To sum it up …myself and this 2 people make in total 3 …..and that now explains the 3 circles underneath the arrow….
It can be seen as a prophecy or providence.
Sometimes this symbol can be found also with the arrow, year number 1998 and a triangle ( same symbolic meaning as the 3 circles ) or with a single circle and triangle refered at first to myself and us 3 people in total …and to be even more precise this symbol was found also with the nr. 4 at one of MJ´s signatures …which makes this foreseeing more accurate
as when I remember back I told this secret actually to 3 more people in total …the third one of them is no MJ fan though …this is just a better more complete update !
….the real deeper meaning of all that is not the understanding of just this numbers …it is that the cover itself represents the mask Michael is wearing at times and to realize the reason behind it….I made it to be understood to the 3 people mentioned above and as course of nature is on the progress will be understood by you and others in due time !
I have this great privilege now being inspired by this same mind power ….that´s why the song ” Will You Be There ?” is in reference to me …that little blonde boy . Im spiritually connected to Michael Jackson.
Pls listen to the song (WYBT) carefully starting with the prelude of Beethoven´s Symphony Nr. 9 in D Minor , Opus 125 on that link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBAqBkoT5-4
….between minutes 1:50 and 2:50 is the section which you can hear on the WYBT prelude performed by a different orchestra though ….
Lyrics from this symphony derive from a poem written by Friedrich Schiller named ” Ode To Joy ” refering to spark of divinity
http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/l/ludwig_van_beethoven/ode_to_joy.html
my email:
someone2161977@yahoo.com
are you insane?
i love this. very much as I loved michael jackson
thanks
This is a very great article, but I can’t understand it that well because the English is not 100%, but other than that it’s one of the best articles on the Dangerous album. Susanta can you please tell me if MJ had part in the format and design of the Dangerous album cover? I know MJ chose what he wanted in the painting, but I want to know if he had part in designing the painting and the format of it besides wanting Macaulay Culkin and the 1998 imprinted? Please respond, thanks.
Hey Patricia,
Sorry for the late reply! The whole painting was approved by MJ before it was used as the Dangerous album Cover. So, it’s fair to assume all individual parts in the cover must have been drawn (and are the idea of) taking MJ’s opinion into account. I hope this helps. Thanks,
Please! Please! Please! Let MJ rest in PEACE!
Love you Michael!
bubbles isnt dead and neither is Michael
Bubbles is still alive ……
How do I know what to believe from this interpertation of Michael’s album. They said Bubbles died in 1989??? Bubbles is alive today. I didn’t want to read anymore after that.
Hello Patricia,
We apologize the factual error about Bubbles and edited the same. I regret the error and sorry to have hurt your feelings!
come on guys,it was all about masonic symbols,mj was trying to reveal some freemason secrets
ILLUMINATI SYMBOLS AND WARNINGS……..
the old man at the bottom of the album cover is aleister crowley, i cannot believe this was not even mentioned
Pretty impressive. Must have required very keen observation. Loved the post.
Yes, I wrote this post just last year….but had been observing the picture since 2006 when I first saw the album cover…Thanks!
nice trying troll,michael was showing the word that is curropted by the satanist of America goverment and izrael ,you also a dog of them? a lot of people know the truth so stop trolling
Are you mentally handicapped, lizard?
nice trying troll,michael was showing the word that is currupted by the satanist of America goverment and izrael ,you also a dog of them? a lot of people know the truth so stop trolling
you idiots, that album was designed by my mom and dad, both graphic artists,working at an agency owned by my uncle called the opus group out of ridgewood nj…no hidden meanings whatsoever, infact im one of the faces in pasted in the crowd on the inside of the cover.
what bullshit, idiots… he hated aliester crowley and the others illuminati cunts..that’s not god’s eye idiots, that’s the eye of lucifer (horus)…this is not the real translation of his symbolism..it’s another masonic mambo jumbo to denaturate him as always…those fucked-up brain damaged one-eyed brain-washed satanic worshipers jewish-lizards called the illuminati
Morons, it’s P. T. Barnum not Alaistair Crowley
I do not appreciate your ruse… I believe you are wrong about nearly everything. Remains of the elephant man? Really? Take a better look at that skull. Elephant man?? Are you blind?
This is the wrong interpretation of MJ’s ‘Dangerous’ album. His album is clearly about the illuminati. Period.
Just sharing… I wonder how I didn’t realize it until just now, but those birds and that weird looking bubble thing with the man and woman inside of it in picture #3 are actually copied from one of my favourite paintings, that is The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jheronimus_Bosch_023.jpg
MJ seems to have appreciated his paintings very much because he obviously wanted the album cover to be in the same complex, almost chaotic style. Bosch’s paintings are very religious, but MJ’s homage to him seems more like a satirical/political/pop culture/circus version of those somewhat cryptic medieval paintings. Obviously, it took 6 months to finish that cover art so there are TONS of different meanings to it, but my overall feeling about it is that MJ wanted to express something about the dangerous nature of the entertainment business circus he was participating in and the somewhat absurd state of the world we’re living in in general through it.
Why is MJ wearing a monkey mask? Notice the mask surrounding his eyes are shaped like monkey eyes, plus a monkey is being crowned on top of his head as representation of the ‘King of Pop’ being crowned. Did MJ consider himself a s a monkey?
Don’t know how many other things you got wrong, but the man you claim is Aleister Crowley is actually P.T. Barnum and the referrence is to the circus not occult. I grew up not far from the Barnum Museum in Conncecticut.
I have a very hard time understanding the article because the grammar is so bad 🙁
Oh you poor thing : (