“Billie Jean” Victory ➡️ BAD ➡️ Dangerous Tours the mics were on and these cameras caught three different versions of the same man. Michael performing and singing the same song live as he kept finding new ways to make the same five minutes feel like the first time.
MTV hates being reminded of its own history. This introduction before the #VMAs airing tonight is telling. Michael Jackson fundamentally changed what artists were expected to do with a music video. He helped turn the music video from promotion into an art form, a performance, and an extension of the artist’s identity. That legacy is impossible to separate from the VMAs.
mj should also be credited for the concept of artists having an era. he’s quite literally the founding father of rebranding the approach to a body of work