*There is a reason that years after his death, Michael Jackson’s G.O.A.T. status remains untouched. The voice and vocal style. The endless fountain of classic material.
The iconic dance moves, the awards, the glove. And of course, the music videos. Name a singer whose music, style or clips haven’t been influenced by Jackson and it will be a short list.
The former Pepsi pitchman was in a league of his own with the world in his palm, turning simple visuals for hit singles into must-see TV, with movie-level anticipation from fans and casual music lovers alike.
John Landis directing “Thriller,” a pre-“New York Undercover” Michael DeLorenzo dancing alongside the zipper-jacketed Michael in gang-like setting for “Beat It” and Wesley Snipes getting his Nino Brown prep in for “Bad,” not to mention Eddie Murphy as Egyptian royalty in “Remember the Time” and Macaulay Culkin lip-synching the rap on “Black or White” with other kids. Yes, they were music videos.
But the movie star clout with each one was worth the popcorn fixed to enjoy at home (with extra butter, of course).
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While the videos were art on many levels, it was Jackson himself that funded his complete vision of what fans saw.
Comparing MJ’s visuals to today’s music videos, ScreenRant touched on the level of artistry that went into the singer’s videos. Jackson financing his work was something no current day entertainer could level up to, financially or otherwise. The budge just isn’t there anymore.
“What some listeners overlook is that it isn’t simply that artists don’t want to make music videos like Michael Jackson’s anymore, but that they simply can’t today. The reason is that music videos simply don’t have the budgets that videos had back then. Then again, even the average music video from yesteryear didn’t have a considerable budget, nor, technically, did Michael Jackson’s,” the site noted.
And that is yet another reason to add to why there will never ever be another Michael Jackson on planet Earth. There’s level to this sh-t, yes, but Jackson surpassed all of them to sit on his own cloud. Creativity isn’t the issue in this day and age. It’s the bill that comes with aiming that high.
Need proof? Most of Jackson’s video were not only eye-catching and momentous, they rank among the most expensive ever made.
Among the price-busting clips that came out of Jackson pocket for (adjusted for inflation) were the following:
“Scream” featuring Janet Jackson $14,444,857
“Black or White” $9,234,302
“Bad” $6,088,987
“You Rock My World” $7,103,176
“Remember the Time” $4,481,385
“Thriller” Reportedly $1,578,517
Overall, ScreenRant attributes Jackson’s history making, finically extravagant work on the video front to time and money, two things many artists simply don’t have enough in present day
“With time, we live in a snappier society where things need to be done and produced quickly to catch up with the speed of social media. With money, the King of Pop was, at one point, the most popular artist on the planet, and with fame comes money. He had more money than most of his contemporaries, and he used it to fund his artistic vision for music videos,” the outlet mentioned.
“Michael Jackson came out of pocket for a lot of his music videos, hence why they were so expensive, and because so much money was invested into them, they ended up being classics. Music videos today aren’t as noteworthy because artists aren’t putting the kind of money into music videos like MJ used to. They don’t because they can’t. It’s not a creativity problem today, it’s a financial problem…”
For more on Michael Jackson and his self-funded music videos, click here.
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