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Would Billie Jean performance's at Motown 25 have been sufficient to promote the song ?

1nn5

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I always found that the performance at Motown 25 was sufficient to promote the single released in January 1983. With this performance showed the world, for the first time, the Moonwalk.

The music video (I think it was broadcasted before Motown 25), didn't has the Moonwalk and wasn't very attractive compared to Beat it music video, and later Thriller.

I don't know how was the fans' reaction on Billie Jean when the music video was broadcasted, but I don't think they were very " woow " compared to what they had seen in Motown 25.

I wonder if MJ decided to perform the song in Motown 25 because he saw that the music video (it was the first as promo for the album) wasn't enough to boost the sales.
 
Michael Jackson did not decide to perform 'Billie Jean' at the 'Motown 25' Ceremony because he saw that the music video was not enough to boost sales.

As a matter of fact, Michael Jackson wanted to perform that song on stage (at the 'Motown 25' Ceremony) only for the people in the Pasadena Civic Auditorium (i.e., he did not want his 'Billie Jean' performance to be taped for TV broadcast):

"A letter came to me from [Michael] Jackson's attorney during rehearsals saying we were forbidden to tape the 'Billie Jean' part, because Michael wanted to do it for the people in the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, but he didn't want it broadcast" (Suzanne de Passe)
 
Umm Billie Jean was the first music video by a black artist featured in heavy rotation on MTV.

It had the special effects of the lighting up pavement.

Also Motown 25 would have had a hard job promoting a single in January 1983 when it didn't air until March.
 
Meh. Nobody outside of the USA had Motown 25, so it's a moot point. The video wins by default.

Although truth be told, in most countries, MTV either didn't exist, or wasn't actually that common. I never knew anybody with MTV until at least the late 90s. It's not a big deal as people try to make out.

It's the radio that made Billie Jean popular.
 
The Girl Is Mine was a big hit and it had no music video or any performances on American Bandstand, Soul Train, Solid Gold, Dance Fever, etc. Unless you count the audio that the dancers danced to on these shows. There was only radio airplay. I used to watch early MTV and there were a lot of videos of songs and/or acts that I never heard on the radio, not even once. Same for Video Soul on BET. There were even some music videos for album tracks that were not released as singles. At the time the album tracks could not chart on the singles charts because of the criteria Billboard had back then.
 
‘billie jean’ was very advanced for its time. it had a narrative, split screen and Midas touch effects, michael’s image & dancing..

mtv was the only place that didn’t show the video. every other tv program that showed music videos did.

‘billie jean’ continues to impress the public. they made it his most viewed video on youtube. the first of his to cross the billion views threshold.
 
as we can see, at least here in the uk 🇬🇧, michael was already making a major impact with his videos & album without mtv. this panel discusses him being the biggest black music star since stevie wonder. this was before the ‘thriller’ film. the clip from the ‘billie jean’ video was used for reference.
also, motown 25 was released on vhs cassette in the uk 🇬🇧 (rated u). it was also shown in cinemas for music critics to review. michael’s performance made the headlines on tv.

once again certain people are trying to minimise his impact during this time 😔
 
mj_frenzy said:
"A letter came to me from [Michael] Jackson's attorney during rehearsals saying we were forbidden to tape the 'Billie Jean' part, because Michael wanted to do it for the people in the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, but he didn't want it broadcast"
Click to expand...
Forbidden to tape the performance ? So how the people saw it then that time.. I don't recall MJ mentioning this in his auto bio.
 
Thatkliqkid said:
It had the special effects of the lighting up pavement.
Click to expand...
I think the impact of the moonwalk was more attractive than the effect on the music video.

As an opposite example, where a song didn't need a broadcasted live performance to be promoted.. Smooth Criminal. Although, MJ had the opportunity to perform it at the Grammy awards 1988, but he waited the music video to be released.
 
‘billie jean’ had already reached number one on both sides of the atlantic before motown 25. michael didn’t need to promote it. radio, along with the video, already did that. rather, he just wanted to share a new concept for a performance that he had.

michael was afraid of overexposure at the time. which is why he was initially against appearing on the show, and having his portion of the performance broadcast. as already stated in the previous posts.
 
not to mention the freeze frames and moving split screens. people take a lot of that for granted nowadays.

michael originally wanted the mannequins in the shop windows to come to life, and dance with him. it was the record company that decided against that due to the high budget.
 
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