"Black or White" was written and recorded over 18 months starting in early 1989.
Michael Jackson hired producer
Bill Bottrell to help him craft a new sound, one that would shift his style away from his earlier work with
Quincy Jones. Bottrell had already worked with Jackson on
Victory (1984) and
Bad (1987), the latter collaboration performed at
Hayvenhurst, Jackson's estate in
Encino, California. Jackson invited Bottrell to join him in producing and composing songs at
Ocean Way Studios in Los Angeles in late 1988, but none of the material from several weeks of sessions there made it to the album. In early 1989, the project was moved to
Westlake Audio in West Hollywood, and one of the first things Jackson did was to hum the main riff of "Black or White" to Bottrell, who interpreted the tune on guitar, using a
Kramer American Series electric guitar plugged into a
Mesa Boogie amplifier, miked with a
Beyerdynamic M 160. Jackson also suggested the song's rhythm with his voice, and Bottrell programmed this rhythm into an
E-mu Systems drum machine. Bottrell augmented the pattern with samples from an
Emulator III. His
Atari computer ran a
MIDI editing program by Hybrid Arts; Bottrell and
Brad Buxer used the program to tweak the percussion timings to give more of a
swing feel. Jackson recorded his main and backing vocals into a
Neumann U47 microphone. Bottrell said that throughout the next 18 months of changes to the song, Jackson's initial
scratch vocal was left in place, and it appears on the final version. After two days of work, the song had vocals, drum sounds, and electric guitar. Bottrell added an acoustic guitar part using a
Gibson LG-2 built in the 1940s, a robust model with a big
country sound reminiscent of
Gene Vincent's classic
rockabilly style. Jackson became busy working on other projects, and "Black or White" languished for a few months. The song was picked up again when Bottrell's part of the album project moved to
Record One in Sherman Oaks. Bottrell and Jackson felt that the song had two big gaps in the middle, and they determined to fill them. Jackson wanted a
heavy metal guitar to fill one of the gaps, so he sang the part he wanted, including chord arpeggiations, to session player
Tim Pierce who performed it on a
Les Paul plugged into a
Marshall stack.
Michael Boddicker added the sound of a high-speed guitar by using a
Roland sequencer, assisted by
Kevin Gilbert. Bottrell blended two different bass sounds, primarily
Bryan Loren playing a
Moog keyboard bass, augmented by Terry Jackson playing an electric
bass guitar. (Terry Jackson was unrelated to Michael Jackson. Terry was discovered by
Thomas Dolby, and played bass in 1988 on
Aliens Ate My Buick, co-produced by Bottrell.) Bottrell replaced some of the E-mu default rhythm samples with live drum samples taken from an
Akai machine. For most of the recording process, Jackson left Bottrell alone to work on various ideas. Bottrell wanted a section of
rapping to fill the remaining gap, and he suggested
LL Cool J or
Heavy D, but these proposals did not work out. Bottrell said he had been trying to get someone to write a rap verse for eight months when he was suddenly inspired to write it himself. He recorded Loren performing the rap, but Loren was not at ease in the role. Bottrell recorded it himself several times, editing one of these takes to use as a demonstration for Jackson. Upon hearing the take, Jackson wanted it for the final version. Bottrell pleaded again that they should get a "real rapper", but Jackson insisted on Bottrell's take. The final polishing of the song involved Bottrell filling a keyboard with various sampled electric guitar notes, and bringing his friend
Jasun Martz to play it, taking advantage of Martz's fresh ears and rock sensibility. For the final mix, Bottrell was frustrated by the
Solid State Logic (SSL) mixer at
Larrabee Sound Studios, which sounded good on the heavy metal guitar, but made the classic guitars seem "too cold and clinical". He ended up using the
Neve mixer at Record One to mix the majority of the song, and the SSL for the rap and heavy metal sections. Original tracks were recorded on two
Studer 24-track 2-inch analog tape machines, and a compilation of these was laid down on a
Mitsubishi ProDigi 32-track
digital audio tape deck. ==Composition==