This is why KK and I are IRL friends. Great thread. Also let's just make it a rule that you have to post a YouTube link with your song title.
And Only In Dreams is the correct answer. And yes, you were mixing up key change with octave change. At least in reference to Man In The Mirror. I like to call it the "crowbar modulation" because of how those songs typically just jack their key up either a half step or a whole step about 2/3rds or 3/4ths of the way through the song. It's kinda hackey and played at this point but it always works. For those of you who aren't
about music theory but are curious, you can hear it here:
This is a song with an incredible climax:
. Of course it occurs during the line, "While everyone's lost, the battle is won...with all these things that I've done."
You know what I find fascinating about this song and what I think makes it so successful? They avoid playing a V (dominant) chord for the ENTIRE THING until the very climax. And then when it lands during the aforementioned lyric, it is absolutely HUGE and held out and so apparent. The songwriting involved here is just crafty as eff. You ever try to write a song that avoids the V chord almost entirely and is still interesting? It's difficult.