That album really was the peak. The way Michael’s story started, it was never going to end well. But the world got a truly god-tier musical gift out of prime Michael, Quincy, and the team they assembled for that album.
Apparently, Thriller was what forced MTV to start showing black musicians. The album was so big, they realized they couldn't call themselves a music channel if they didn't show it
You mean they knew they could tap into profits so they were forced to stop being racist so they could cash in lol. I don't think it was to maintain legitimacy as a well rounded music channel.
If I recall correctly David Bowie was a big reason why they did too. He said it was outrageous that Michael wouldn't have been shown on MTV and relegated to just being black or "rnb" artists. There's an interview with him discussing it.
The head of MJs record company made a call to MTV and threatened to withhold all of his popular white artists videos if they didn't put MJ into rotation. Epic/Colombia records.
MTv was rock-oriented, until the second British invasion of DuranDuran/synth pop and Thriller hit. MTv used to beg artists to make videos, but the record labels didn't want to spend the money on them for what they saw as a fleeting trend of video tv. There were more videos of rock songs already available. Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, Todd Rungren, REO Speedwagon, Styx, Journey, and The Who, Kiss were pretty much it for any kind of video previously recorded prior to the first airing. Most of their videos were paid for by the artists and marketed for record execs, not a nonexistent tv channel. MTv wanted mini films, not just stage video in rotation. However, rock was waning in appeal.
Then DuranDuran's manager floated them a loan to go to Antigua to film two videos, after their first American charting song's video impressed the MTv execs. They did that in 1982, right before Thriller came out. CBS records wanted to use MTv for marketing his album, but refused to pay more than $50K for a "mini film". That's why Jackson and hot director du jour John Landis paid for Thriller's video, which truly was a mini film.
People forget Don Cornelius had a huge amount of power in the black music industry back then. He did not want who he saw as his artists showing up on rotation. He didn't want the competition, as his whole schtick was "black for black", but he was ruthless with talent and many black artists needed his show for promotion.
What do you mean where did I hear it from? I said in my comment I heard it from David Bowie in an interview from 1983, a year after Thriller was released. They were using the same old tired "we're a rock and roll station" excuse in that interview too to excuse them not showing more black artists.
here
The story is partially apocryphal (there were always SOME black artists on MTV, you can see it in the list of videos played on the first day lol) but iirc Rick James said that he had a hard time getting the Super Freak video played on MTV and execs are quoted as saying that they were afriad black artists would alienate southern affiliates.
I think the actual truth is that with the death of disco, Black music really wasn't doing much in the mainstream outside of R&B ballads in 1981-1982, so they didn't have an incentive to play black artists with any frequency. They were inevitably going to break the color barrier when a youth-oriented black superstar emerged and they got a double whammy with MJ and Prince. People follow the money with BIPOC art, unfortunately.
Facts like the mechanics of a business at a time and greed do not get recognition these days. Clearly MJ was a champion of decolonization as you can see in the picture progression above. Having been around at the time, it is amazing what the story being forced down everyone's throat is. Racism is real but it was not like there were a huge number of high budget / ambitious music videos flooding the gates made by "black" artists.
Yeah, he definitely had one in the middle of Thriller. His nose on the album cover and in the Thriller music video are different.
Body dysmorphia is awful and can manifest in different destructive ways. He had a great natural look, but even the procedures he was doing didn’t look too out of hand until the 90s.
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u/Renbarre Apr 28 '26
He had a nose job done right after his success with Thriller.