Les Garland, MTV’s co founder, is one of the hero of the day, year, era in this story. The other is a man named Buzz Brindle, MTV’s early director of music programming who reported to Garland.

MTV was designed as a rock music channel. And there were few African American artists who fit the criteria that leaned toward that genre.

Everything changed in 1983 when Michael Jackson submitted his video, Billie Jean. That video broke the formula and changed how the network viewed videos.

“There was never any hesitation. No fret,” says Garland, dispelling the “myth” that Jackson’s record label threatened to pull all of its videos if Billie Jean was not shown. “I called Bob (Pittman, MTV co-founder) to tell him, “I just saw the greatest video I’ve ever seen in my life. It is off the dial it’s so good.” We added it that day. How (the myth) turned into a story literally blew our minds.”

“Beat It” followed “Billie Jean.” And then came “Thriller.” A fourteen minute short film, “Thriller” again broke all the rules.

“For the first time in the history of MTV, we spotted big time ratings spikes,” says Garland. “We were averaging back in those days like a 24 hour rating of 1.2, but every time we would play Thriller, we’d jump up to an 8 or 10. We learned a lot about programming.”

Michael Jackson not only broke the color barrier, he broke video covention.

“Fortunately, Michael Jackson helped us to redefine the musical parameters of MTV, “says Brindle, “and to help its audience become accepting of a more diverse group of artists and genres”.

Without the shot in the arm Michael Jackson provided for the entire music industry, the industry might have suffered a severe draught. Davey D, host of San Francisco’s KPFA 94.1 Hard Knock Radio and hip hop/political columnist for the San Jose Mercury News says “At that time the music industry was suffering,” Davey D says. “He came along and pretty much saved it and took the level of video production to a whole other height and changed the game. So MTV owes a lot to Black artists and the type of attention that they drew to the channel”.

Source: Jet Magazine, MJFC

Category: General