The song and video are a response to the backlash Jackson received from the media in 1993
- “Scream” was choreographed by Michael Jackson and Tina Landon,
- Scream was co-written, composed and produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis
- Directed by Mark Romanek
- Production designed by Tom Foden
- Typography designed by P. Scott Makela
- In 1995, Scream gained 11 MTV Video Music Award Nominations—more than any other music video—and won “Best Dance Video”, “Best Choreography”, and “Best Art Direction”
- It was also given a Billboard Music Award for best Pop/Rock video
- A year later, it won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form
- Guinness World Records listed it as the most expensive music video ever made at a cost of $7 million
- In 2001, VH1 placed “Scream” at number nine on their list of the 100 greatest music videos.
“Scream”/”Childhood” is the lead single from Michael Jackson’s HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I album—where “Scream” is track one and “Childhood” is track ten. “Scream” is the A-side release and “Childhood” is the corresponding B-side. The former is a duet with his younger sister Janet Jackson, whereas the latter is a solo piece.
The video has influences of Japanese sci-fi Anime, and the editing sometimes intensified the imagery in the dance routines.
Production of the music video’s 13-piece set were restricted to a one-month period and is produced by Foden art directors Richard Berg, Jeff Hall, and Martin Mervel.
Foden describes the assignment as a “military operation” explaining, “The idea was to give each of the art directors three sets: a complicated one, a not-so-complicated one, and one of the smaller, easier vignettes.”Jackson was happy to work with his sister again, explaining that as they still had a passion for dancing it reminded him of “old times.”
Janet Jackson wanted to be involved with the project as a show of sibling support. It was the first time they had worked together since 1982, when Janet provided backing vocals on “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)”. Janet said that it was “very fun” working with her brother again and that seeing her brother’s work was “interesting”.
“Scream/Childhood” was a worldwide hit. In the U.S. it was the first song in the 37 year history of Billboard to debut at number five—where it peaked. By the end of August 1995 it was certified Gold and Platinum by the RIAA for shipments of a million copies in the U.S. It reached number one in Italy and New Zealand, number two in Australia and Norway and number three in the UK. It became a top five hit in every major music market. A remix of “Scream” was also issued in the UK which charted at number 43.
Scream by Janet & Michael jackson
REMOVE THAT SCARF! YOUR HANDSOME!
Awww…
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