Jackson wrote or co-wrote 12 of the album's 14 songs, discussing topics like racism, poverty, romance, self-improvement, multiculturalism and the welfare of children and the world.

Dangerous is considered an artistic change for Jackson, with his music focusing on more socially conscious material, and including a broader range of sounds and styles.

Jackson began working on new tracks in 1989 with a handful of members from the B-team of Bad, including Matt Forger and Bill Bottrell.

[6] In June 1990, he collapsed while dancing in his home studio due to a possible panic attack, with symptoms of chest pains, dehydration and inflammation of the ribs.

[13] Bottrell introduced Jackson to classically trained keyboardist Brad Buxer, who was originally hired as a technician for his expertise in electronic equipment.

[18] Though Loren's material was strong, it was not up to Jackson's standards, and he was searching for a sound as compelling and successful as Rhythm Nation (1989) by his sister Janet.

Jackson discovered new jack swing, featuring a more aggressive and urban sound, after reaching out to producers Antonio "L.A." Reid and Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds.

[33][34] Dangerous is a new jack swing, R&B and pop album, which incorporates elements of several other genres, including industrial, funk, hip hop, electronic,[35] gospel, classical and rock.

The album is considered by Joe Vogel in PopMatters to be an artistic change for Jackson, because of its focus on socially conscious material, and a broader range of sounds and styles.

Jackson hummed melodies and grooves before leaving the studio, while Bottrell developed on these ideas with drum machines and samplers, including an Akai S1000.

[48] In "Why You Wanna Trip on Me", Jackson juxtaposed social ills to his own alleged eccentricities that were covered in the press at the time, asking critics and the tabloid media why they were focusing on the cult of celebrity rather than the multitude of serious problems in the world.

[51] According to Fraser McAlpine of BBC Music, Ryden depicted Jackson as "a guarded circus artist who has seen glory and the machinery involved in making it happen".

Sales increased 40% in the following week due to the historic ratings of the Halftime Super Bowl performance and the album jumped again from 88 to 41 on the Billboard 200 selling over 21,000.

[67]On the week of February 27, 1993, album sales increased again because of the strong ratings due to the Michael Jackson Talks ... to Oprah TV special, selling close to 60,000 units and jumping from 26 to 12.

[83] In September 1991, Jackson netted a deal to have his videos air on FOX alongside regular music-video channels MTV, BET and VH1.

[86] Jackson performed "Black or White" with Slash, and the debut of "Will You Be There" at MTV's 10th anniversary special that aired on ABC two days after the release of Dangerous.

[94][95][96] In August 1993, as the third leg of the Dangerous World Tour began, the first allegations of child sexual abuse against Jackson became public and received worldwide media attention.

[99][100] "Black or White" reached number one in 20 countries, including the US, the UK, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Turkey, Zimbabwe, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the Eurochart Hot 100.

[115] The song peaked at number two in New Zealand and reaching the top ten in Belgium, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

He believed Jackson sounded anxious and out of place with Riley's electronic beats while panning the "dogmatically ordinary" lyrics of the love songs, writing that "they seem based on demographic research rather than experience or imagination".

[127] On the contrary, Robert Christgau of The Village Voice was praiseful, deeming it Jackson's "most consistent album since Off the Wall, a step up from Bad even if its hook craft is invariably secondary and its vocal mannerisms occasionally annoying."

[130] Alan Light for the Rolling Stone was also of praise as he notes that Jackson was "a man, no longer a man-child, confronting his well-publicized demons and achieving transcendence through performance", on an album that rose to "the impossible challenge set by Thriller during moments when Riley's production dance rhythms "prove a perfect match for Jackson's clipped, breathy uptempo voice".

[135] According to Pareles of The New York Times, while Eric Clapton won the major awards, he was upstaged by Jackson, who set sales records with Dangerous that could not be competed against by any other entertainer.

[139] In 2007, the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM), in conjunction with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, ranked Dangerous at number 115 on its list of the Definitive 200 Albums of All Time.

[147] Contemporary reviews on Dangerous have shown greater critical appraisal than it initially received upon release; some have considered it as Jackson's artistic peak.

"[149] Writing for The Guardian, Ben Beaumont-Thomas deemed Dangerous as Jackson's career-high album, "the very peak of his powers, with his widest ever emotional range set to production that makes new jack swing seem much more than just lame dance moves and fluorescent man-made fibers.

He added "Dangerous is gaining admirers as more people move beyond the extraneous nonsense that was so prominent in contemporaneous reviews and pay attention to its content: its prescient themes, its vast inventory of sounds, its panoramic survey of musical styles...His R&B-rap fusions set the blueprint for years to come, while his industrial soundscapes and metallic beats were later popularized by artists as disparate as Nine Inch Nails and Lady Gaga".

[154][36] Also writing for The Guardian in 2018, Vogel said, "Returning to [Dangerous] now, without the hype or biases that accompanied its release in the early 90s, one gets a clearer sense of its significance [...] it surveyed the cultural scene—and the internal anguish of its creator—in compelling ways [...].

[48] Speaking for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Janet Macoska applauded the modernity of Dangerous: "a sleek, contemporary-sounding update of Jackson's music" which featured the "ambitious, heartfelt anthems "Heal The World" and "Will You Be There.

[156] Williams also considered the album as a significant record of the 90s; it asserted Jackson as a formidable force in popular music amid the rise of grunge and gangsta rap.