With so much being written about him , I cant help being reminded about MJ, i loved him wen i was in school :)Well, his bessssssstest song has to be Billie Jean. Atleast its MY favourite. Sigh..Theres something about those hiccups! Maybe I live in a cave, but I discovered only today that the moonwalk started with"Billie Jean". Can you believe this song was almost removed (OMG!) from the album cause producer Quincy Jones dint like it. And it was mixed 91 times before it was finalized! If Jones had his way, there wouldnt have been no Billie Jean or moonwalk.
Heres some trivia:
On March 25 1983, "Billie Jean" and Jackson reached an even larger audience when he debuted the song before a live audience during taping of the tribute special Motown 25 concert at Pasadena, California.It was during this electrifying performance that Jackson also debuted a dance move he had discovered from black inner-city youths and tweaked to distinction. Credited to former Solid Gold dancer Cooley Jackson, "The Back Slide" was given a new name by the media following Jackson's interpretation: The "Moonwalk". The step has since gone on to become Jackson's signature dance move, and is synonymous with the song.
You can watch that performance here:
MTV owes its success to Micheal!
Jackson and Epic had planned to present the music video for "Billie Jean" to the executives of newly-formed cable network MTV, which was at the time not playing videos by black performers or even dance artists. Since its inception, the network's playlist was predominantly white and mainly featured videos by the top rock artists of the day such as Duran Duran, Peter Gabriel, The Clash, Blondie, Journey, Pat Benatar, Genesis, and Billy Idol. In 1983 Jackson and CBS Records President Walter Yetnikoff informed MTV's president that if the cable channel didn't play Jackson's video, CBS would literally not allow them to play all of their white artists who were getting exposure on the network, most notably Billy Joel. With that ultimatum, MTV finally bowed to pressure and premiered Jackson's "Billie Jean" video on March 10 1983.
Soon enough, MTV was airing the video in heavy rotation, thus making Jackson the first black performer to find stardom on the network. Producer Jones has said of the early relationship between Jackson and MTV: "...[they] rode each other to glory". Other black artists to soon after have videos on MTV included Prince, The Pointer Sisters, Rick James, Lionel Richie and Eddy Grant.
Heres some trivia:
On March 25 1983, "Billie Jean" and Jackson reached an even larger audience when he debuted the song before a live audience during taping of the tribute special Motown 25 concert at Pasadena, California.It was during this electrifying performance that Jackson also debuted a dance move he had discovered from black inner-city youths and tweaked to distinction. Credited to former Solid Gold dancer Cooley Jackson, "The Back Slide" was given a new name by the media following Jackson's interpretation: The "Moonwalk". The step has since gone on to become Jackson's signature dance move, and is synonymous with the song.
You can watch that performance here:
MTV owes its success to Micheal!
Jackson and Epic had planned to present the music video for "Billie Jean" to the executives of newly-formed cable network MTV, which was at the time not playing videos by black performers or even dance artists. Since its inception, the network's playlist was predominantly white and mainly featured videos by the top rock artists of the day such as Duran Duran, Peter Gabriel, The Clash, Blondie, Journey, Pat Benatar, Genesis, and Billy Idol. In 1983 Jackson and CBS Records President Walter Yetnikoff informed MTV's president that if the cable channel didn't play Jackson's video, CBS would literally not allow them to play all of their white artists who were getting exposure on the network, most notably Billy Joel. With that ultimatum, MTV finally bowed to pressure and premiered Jackson's "Billie Jean" video on March 10 1983.
Soon enough, MTV was airing the video in heavy rotation, thus making Jackson the first black performer to find stardom on the network. Producer Jones has said of the early relationship between Jackson and MTV: "...[they] rode each other to glory". Other black artists to soon after have videos on MTV included Prince, The Pointer Sisters, Rick James, Lionel Richie and Eddy Grant.
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