Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
When Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall album (yep, it was an album back then, 1979) came out, I bought it the first week it was out. I was in college. MTV was just starting. Off the Wall’s first hit was Don’t Stop Until you get Enough. This was a hit. A huge hit. This begins Michael’s best time as a creative performer. He does the voice track for ET. He wins a Grammy for that.
In 1983, Michael releases Thriller. MTV was getting big. Billie Jean was released. As I recall, the song was just doing okay. Nothing big. Nothing huge. Then MTV played the video. No Black artist that I know of was on MTV before Michael. The video was slick. It was more than some guy with hair from here until next Tuesday stick his touch out at the camera for 3 minutes. Was the video nuclear physics? NO. It was a huge breakthrough. There was just a hint of BET at this time. Most houses couldn’t get BET. There was no satellite. Cable was still really young. WGN and TNT were the main channels on cable. HBO and Showtime were the only movie channels that I can remember at that time.
So, it is May of 1983. Motown is going to have their 25th anniversary show. I’m running around with graduation from college duties. I miss the special. Everyone who saw it was amazed at Michael’s performance. I saw it later. This performance, if I’m not mistaken, wins Michael an Emmy. The combination of the video and the live performance caused Michael Jackson to blow up. He was HUGE.
Michael and Quincy Jones, the producer who really was responsible for the sound, cleaned up at the Grammy’s. They won 8.
Just a few words about this performance. There are 2 new moves that Michael breaks out for this performance that floors the crowd and become legendary Michael Jackson moves. He does the moonwalk for the first time. He also does the thing where he is up on his toes. I have no idea what that’s called. But he was so fluid, and moved so well the audience just stares at one point.
No one was as big as Michael Jackson, in my opinion. No performer. Not The Beatles? Maybe. Not The Stones? Maybe. Elvis? Nope. Here’s why I say this. Michael Jackson was popular all over the world. With TV and truly world tours, he had the ability to be worldwide like no other performer. Thriller which was the zenith of his popularity sold over 104 million copies.
