Programme notes
Michael Jackson - Remember the Time (Official Video - Upscaled)
Summary
The second single from Michael Jackson's 1991 album Dangerous, and a new jack swing record rather than a pop-rock one: the production leans on Teddy Riley's swung, hard-edged drum programming. The video is a short film set in ancient Egypt, directed by John Singleton and featuring Eddie Murphy, Iman and Magic Johnson.
Why it matters
It sits at the point where Jackson moved toward the sound Teddy Riley was building, and the video is one of the more ambitious examples of the era's treatment of music videos as short films with feature directors and casts. Its Egyptian setting, staged with a Black cast, was also a deliberate piece of imagery rather than incidental set dressing.