Michael Jackson. Two words synonymous with both legend and controversy. Two words that are currently at the heart of the news, thanks to a worldwide successful biopic. Words that have marked the history of music like no other and shaped the record industry as we know it today. Did Michael Jackson invent music videos and YouTube? Let’s see!
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
Key takeaways
- Michael Jackson did not invent music videos, but the videos for Thriller, Billie Jean, and Beat It transformed them into major cultural and marketing events, setting new creative and commercial standards for the music industry.
- The Thriller music video pioneered blockbuster production values, cinematic storytelling, celebrity directors, and behind-the-scenes content, influencing decades of music video creation and artist branding.
- Michael Jackson helped establish MTV as a dominant force by proving that music videos could be the primary driver of album promotion, dramatically boosting Thriller’s success and changing how artists marketed their music.
- While Michael Jackson did not create YouTube, the article argues that his role in elevating music videos and visual music culture indirectly helped shape the ecosystem that later enabled YouTube and YouTube Music to become central to music consumption.
AI-generated summary
Thriller: the big bang
After Thriller hit the shelves in 1982, nothing would ever be the same again. The best-selling album of all time, it’s also a cultural and generational marker. With Quincy Jones and a host of musicians by his side, Michael Jackson drew from several musical genres to create a perfect album, an ideal balance between artistic virtuosity and timeless hits.
Soul, Funk, Disco, Pop, Rock, sprinkled with a multitude of other influences: Thriller exploded onto the scene and established itself as a record unanimously celebrated as one of the most successful in history. Entire books have been devoted to it, documentaries, and even that isn’t enough to fully describe the seismic impact the album had upon its release. You had to be there to experience it, undoubtedly. And today, it’s hard to imagine that a new Thriller could ever be released.
The album is incredibly ambitious, at a time when streaming wasn’t even a concept, social media didn’t exist, music videos were still, for the most part, obscure, and the media landscape, while fertile, wasn’t yet fully exploited.
What Michael Jackson achieved with Thriller wasn’t just an artistic tour de force. It was also a cultural and business shift. The advent of a larger-than-life album, which would have repercussions for decades, indirectly gave birth to the music industry as we know it today.
How? By releasing the most ambitious music videos ever produced, which would likely give rise, years later, to YouTube. And propel MTV to the forefront for many years to come.
“Beat It,” “Billie Jean,” and “Thriller”: a trio of videos forever etched in legend.
Did Michael Jackson invent music videos and YouTube? The revolution.
Before Michael Jackson, there had of course been other music videos. Those of David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Kate Bush, and others. Some were successful, no doubt about it. But there’s no doubt, and even the aforementioned artists could have admitted it at the time: they paled in comparison to “Beat It,” “Billie Jean,” and “Thriller”.
Michael Jackson hired director John Landis to work with him on the “Thriller” video. John Landis was the perfect vehicle for Michael Jackson’s ideas: a horror film fan, he knew how to bring Michael’s macabre vision to life.
And the King of Pop didn’t hold back: he invested his own money to finance part of the video’s budget, which is estimated today at over $1.5 million, adjusted for inflation. The most expensive music video ever made, and more than thirty times the budget of the majority of music videos at the time. And a major risk if it didn’t have the desired impact.
But the team found a way: selling a behind-the-scenes look at the video, something never before done for a video, to television networks to recoup some of their investment. Behind-the-scenes footage of music videos will be legion in the decades to come.
Years later, this video, actually a short film, has amassed hundreds of millions of views on YouTube and is approaching a billion views across all platforms. In addition, it was included in the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry in 2009 for its cultural significance. “Thriller” was the first music video to receive this honor.
From music videos to movies
This was the first time Jackson had worked with a renowned director, the first time a music video had a well-established film director, but not the last time it would happen. Michael would later work with Martin Scorsese on the short film “Bad,” John Singleton on “Remember the Time,” David Fincher on “Who Is It” and Spike Lee on “They Don’t Care About Us.” Eddie Murphy, Wesley Snipes, Magic Johnson, Yasmin Le Bon, and others: actors agreed to play roles in music videos that have become legendary.
These videos would inspire filmmakers like Spike Jonze to create their own works. They also continue to push directors to be as creative as possible today, to stand out from the crowd.
In “Thriller,” Michael also showcased the technique of morphing, an effect that transforms objects or bodies before our very eyes. Michael cultivated his image more than ever, changing the way musical artists presented themselves to the world. Music alone is no longer enough. It needs to be accompanied by something else to captivate everybody: a public image, a visual identity that transcends mere sound.
Singers thus become more prominent, all the more visible. They distinguish themselves through their style, their attitude, and, therefore, now, through their videos. Or their dance moves. Michael Jackson’s dance moves in “Thriller,” the so-called zombie dance, continue to be repeated, reinterpreted, and used endlessly in 2026.
Michael’s music videos bring together the worlds of music and cinema. They are treated as works of art in their own right, complementing his songs and offering new levels of interpretation. They are not simply illustrations but rather extensions of them.
A lengthy Billboard article about Thriller‘s impact and the way the album was made, confirms it:
From the start, Jackson’s vision for “Thriller” was to “take it to the next giant level. […] It was about how we were going to marry the album with the visual extension.”
Did Michel Jackson invent music videos and YouTube? The aftermath.
MTV initially didn’t want to air Michael Jackson’s music videos. Or rather, they were reluctant. It’s important to remember that in 1982, few Black artists received the same level of national airplay as white stars.
But the head of Michael’s record label pressured MTV, promising to remove all of his artists’ catalogs from the network if it didn’t air “Thriller” and Michael’s other videos. Unlike many others, Michael believed that his music videos, not promotional campaigns or interviews, would be his best calling card. With them, he was certain he would reach a massive audience. No one had ever thought this way before. No one had ever considered music videos as the primary tool for promoting an album.
The result? Michael Jackson became the first Black artist to be played on MTV. You can imagine the cultural impact of that event. And while sales of Thriller weren’t as high as hoped during the first weeks after it was released, the airplay of “Beat It,” “Billie Jean” and “Thriller” propelled the album to the top of the charts to unexpected heights. Once again, MJ had been right.
The tidal wave was immediate. Unanimously celebrated as works of art comparable to big-budget films, with revolutionary art direction, the music videos for the Thriller album became cult classics within weeks. People snapped up VHS tapes so they could watch them whenever they wanted. The fascination was total, and it was already clear that nothing would ever be the same again. Not music, not music videos, not the cultural industry.
Because the Thriller videos aren’t just creative masterpieces. They also demonstrate that videos can be promotional tools like no other. They allow for a fresh perspective on songs, extend their themes, and serve as a showcase.
Did Michael Jackson invent music videos and YouTube? The source of everything
From then on, music videos became essential steps in the strategy for creating and promoting an album. Now, the focus was not only on the music, but also on the visual aspect. Enormous budgets were invested, directors were hired to shoot videos, and MTV, still relatively young at the time, became indispensable within a few months. It’s not that Michael Jackson single-handedly created MTV, but he undoubtedly brought a new light to the channel and established its prestige.
He also demonstrated how it could be a career accelerator. In the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s, having your video regularly played on MTV was almost a guarantee of success. Artists and labels worldwide redoubled their efforts to be featured there.
Its omnipotence would later be diminished by the arrival of YouTube, the new El Dorado for music video distribution. And there’s no doubt YouTube wouldn’t exist without MTV’s immense power. And, consequently, without Michael Jackson’s intervention.
Did Michael Jackson invent music videos and YouTube? It would obviously be a historical oversimplification and would only tell a small part of the story of its emergence. But it’s impossible to deny that MJ is partly responsible for YouTube’s crucial importance in the music industry. It’s on YouTube that music videos are now distributed, and on YouTube Music that countless people stream music.
And without Michael and his videos, there’s no doubt that the red platform wouldn’t have been so appealing! Could Michael thus have unwittingly helped shape the world of music streaming as we know it today? It’s difficult to say for sure, but there’s no doubt that it propelled the music industry and the cultural world as a whole to unprecedented heights. It generated millions and millions of dollars, which, years later, benefited streaming platforms.
They capitalized on a favorable economic environment, on artists who became superstars, and on albums and songs in demand by millions. Is Thriller, therefore, the beginning of it all?
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