Bad (album)

Bad is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson. It was released on August 31, 1987, by Epic Records. Jackson adopted a more assertive sound on the album, moving away from his trademark groove-based style and falsetto. Primarily a pop, dance, and R&B album with elements of funk, soul, jazz, and rock, Bad embraced new recording technology, including digital synthesizers. With guest appearances from Siedah Garrett and Stevie Wonder, Jackson co-produced the album and wrote all but two tracks. Its lyrical themes comprise self-improvement, romance, world peace, media bias, paranoia, and racial profiling.

Written and recorded between 1985 and 1987, Bad was Jackson's third and final collaboration with producer Quincy Jones. Released nearly five years after his sixth album, Thriller (1982), Bad was highly anticipated. In the lead-up to its release, Jackson underwent a public image reinvention that drew significant media attention. The film Moonwalker (1988), featuring several of the album's music videos, helped promote the project. Jackson embarked on his first solo world tour, performing 123 shows across 15 countries for over 4.4 million fans. The Bad tour grossed $125 million (equivalent to $317 million in 2024), making it the second-highest-grossing tour of the 1980s decade.

Bad sold over 2.25 million copies in its first week in the U.S., debuting at number one on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart. It became the first album in history to produce five U.S. number-one singles: "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror", and "Dirty Diana", as well as the top-10 song "Smooth Criminal". The album topped charts in 24 other countries and was the world's best-selling album of both 1987 and 1988. Critics praised its sophisticated production and Jackson's vocal performances. Retrospectively, it has been acclaimed as a staple of 1980s popular music, solidifying Jackson's status as a global superstar and extending his influence on contemporary music.

Bad is one of the best-selling albums in history, with over 35 million copies sold globally and an 11× platinum certification in the U.S. It has frequently appeared on lists of the greatest albums ever, with some critics praising its songwriting and pop sentiments as Jackson's finest. The album earned six Grammy Award nominations, including Album of the Year, and won for Best Engineered Recording – Non-Classical and Best Music Video for "Leave Me Alone". The album was reissued as Bad 25 (2012), accompanied by a documentary film of the same name to celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary.

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