10 Best Music Videos Of The 90s
7. Black Or White - Michael Jackson
Never far from a bit of controversy, Michael Jackson was bound to appear on this list. His video for his 1991 hit Black or White was surrounded in controversy on release and has been censored for most of its appearances on terrestrial television.
The video depicts different nationalities dancing with Jackson, following a short intro featuring Macaulay Culkin. The video was innovative for being one of the first music videos to use the morphing effect that had previously only appeared in motion pictures like Terminator 2. While everything up to this section of the music video are the most well known, it is what then follows that drew up the most controversy.
On closing the morphing scene, Michael exits the studio, transforming into a Black Panther. He exits into an alleyway, where he transforms back into himself, executing some of his most complex choreography. His destroys a car and a building, moving in a sexually suggestive way and then unzipping and re-zipping his trousers. When censors struggled with his, he explained that he was attempting to display the animal nature of the Black Panther.
A second version of this video was then released, inserting racial slurs via CGI graffti on the walls. The scene is followed by a cameo from Bart and Homer Simpson, before a title card bearing 'Prejudice is Ignorance' appears.
Most airings of the video omit the final scene, or shorten it drastically. The panther scene was used, shortened, as an interlude as part of his Dangerous - World Tour. It may have been controversial, yet it was a technical marvel for its time and displayed his skill as a dancer.