"Blood on the Dancefloor" singer Michael Jackson wearing a glove

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The Creepy Coincidence Behind Michael Jackson’s ‘Blood on the Dance Floor’

Michael Jackson’s “Blood on the Dance Floor” is one of his most underrated songs. While the song’s funky instrumental is fascinatingly dark, the song’s backstory is even darker.

by Matthew Trzcinski

Published on April 25, 2024

2 min read

The connection between Michael Jackson’s ‘Blood on the Dance Floor’ and a shooting

In the 1990s, the “Man in the Mirror” star started experimenting with the R&B subgenre known as new jack swing. Who better to help him than Teddy Riley, the lead singer of the band Blackstreet? Riley worked with Jackson on the final three studio albums the King of Pop released in his lifetime — Dangerous, HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I, and Invincible — as well as the remix album Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix.

During a 2012 interview with The Atlantic, Riley said he skipped a party where someone was shot. That might, be began working on the instrumental for a new song. Afterward, he showed Jackson an instrumental he created. Jackson floated the title “Blood on the Dance Floor.” Riley was amazed. The King of Pop had no idea Riley conceived of the song the night of a shooting. He felt Jackson was prophetic.

‘Blood on the Dance Floor’ is darker than ‘Thriller’

The resultant song, “Blood on the Dance Floor, takes the menace of “Thriller” to a whole new level. Rather than relying on campy Vincent Price-style horror, “Blood on the Dance Floor” is a song about realistic violence. It’s about a femme fatale named Susie who might have stabbed someone.

Jackson knew how to take oddball topics and turn them into pop gold. From the unwanted paternity of “Billie Jean” to the Christlike aphorisms of “Man in the Mirror” to the angry pacifism of “Beat It,” he stretched the limits of what a hit song could be. “Blood on the Dance Floor” is another example of its incredible range.

What Michael Jackson thought of Teddy Riley

During a 2017 interview with Red Bull Music Academy, Riley discussed what Jackson thought of him as a musician. “I started working on ‘Drive Me Wild’ and ‘I Can’t Let Her Get Away,’ and all of these tracks, I just started making some tracks, and he was like, peeping in, until I made this record that really blew him away, which was ‘She Drives Me Wild,’ because he started hearing car sounds and he’s [makes horn noises], fire trucks, and I made this song out of car sounds, vehicle sounds, no real drums, and all he heard was [beatboxes],” Riley recalled. “And he couldn’t help to come in that room and say, ‘What is this?’ And that’s how I got more songs on the album, because I kept working, I just kept working, I did ‘Ghosts,’ I did ‘Blood on the Dance Floor,’ I worked on all those records and he was like, ‘That’s a keeper, that’s a keeper, that’s a keeper too.”

Riley’s association with Jackson extended beyond the King of Pop’s death. In 2010, Jackson’s estate released a posthumous album called Michael, featuring recordings from the King of Pop’s vault. Riley served as a producer on the record. Even now, Jackson will always be associated with Riley.

“Blood on the Dance Floor” is a great song even if its backstory is unnerving.