Songfacts®:

• A duet with his sister Janet, this song was a response to the frustrations Michael and Janet Jackson were feeling. Michael was dealing with the fallout from his child molestation trial, which he settled out of court, as well as media coverage of his marriage to Lisa Marie Presley. Janet didn't face nearly as much scrutiny, although she did approach her brother's notoriety in 2004 when her breast was revealed during a performance at halftime of the Super Bowl. >>>

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• Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who worked on many of Janet's hits, produced this track and wrote it with Janet and Michael.
• At the time, the video was the most expensive ever made, costing $7 million. Directed Mark Romanek, it won a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video. Romanek also directed the Johnny Cash video for "Hurt."
• The space-themed video was inspired by Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Jean Cocteau's 1929 novel Les Enfants Terribles, about two troubled siblings. Romanek wasn't short on cash for the clip, but he was short on time. "We couldn't go to the 'spaceship location'… so we had to build one," said Romanek. "We were only given two weeks to design and construct a dozen pretty large-scale sets. The only way to get it done was to throw manpower and lumber and money at the problem."
  
  To Romanek's surprise, the easiest part of making the video was working with the sibling superstars. He told Rolling Stone: "[Michael and Janet] obviously had a deep affection and love for one another and were very excited to finally dance together on camera for the first time. There was some very healthy and good-natured sibling rivalry going on there in that scene.
  
  I was surprised by how normal, likable, and approachable he was. I spent a good deal of time with him in his trailer and between takes just talking about hobbies and movies and various random topics. He was very charming, in that he seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say and my opinions about things.
  
  It was the experience of being that close to him when he moved that's stuck with me the most. It seemed like a magic trick, like your eyes were deceiving you."
• Speaking to The Guardian in 2001, Jimmy "Jam" Harris recalled that Michael Jackson's funky performance was "the most impactful moment we've ever had in the studio."
  After her brother totally killed his take, Janet Jackson was supposed to do hers straight afterwards. According to Harris, "She just leans in and says: 'I'll do my vocal in Minneapolis.' She wanted no part of following Michael – that's how crazy it was."
• During Janet Jackson's 2023-24 Together Again tour, she performed "Scream" alongside footage of Michael singing the same song.
  
  "Mike and I wrote that song in New York, in his apartment," Janet recalled to the BBC. "So (I relive) that whole journey, listening to him sing it (and remembering) what he was going through at that time."
  
  "And just me being his little sister, always by his side, and being that support system," she added. "That's always been my role."
• The 1996 slasher film Scream was initially named Scary Movie throughout its production. Harvey Weinstein, the co-chairman of Miramax Films, changed the title to Scream after hearing this song on the radio. He liked the title and thought it was more fitting for the horror motion picture.
  
  Interestingly, Scary Movie was later used as the title for a successful parody film series that poked fun at horror films, including Scream.