From Ticketmaster DISCOVER:
There is no genre of music unaffected by the impact of Black artists. There is no music history without them. Western music owes a huge debt to the Black musicians who pioneered, reinvented and trailblazed – often without due credit, often despite systems designed to hold them back. Cataloguing the entire history of Black music would take years, but in honour of Black History Month, we’ve compiled a record of just 30 key moments when Black artists changed the future of music. They’re 30 of many.
1983: The ‘Billie Jean’ music video airs on MTV
Whilst music fans could see videos by many of their favourite artists on MTV in the early 80s, Black artists were noticeably absent from the channel. MTV execs justified that Black music largely did not fit the requirements to appear on the rock-focused channel, but Michael Jackson was not so easily dismissible. His 1982 album Thriller had solidified him as pop force to be reckoned with.
After Walter Yetnikoff, president of CBS Records Group, threatened to pull all other CBS videos from MTV, the network agreed to air the music video for ‘Billie Jean’. It became the first video by a Black artist to receive heavy rotation on the network, opening the door for other Black artists such as Prince and Whitney Houston. Later, in 1988, Jackson became the first artist to receive the Video Vanguard award, two years before his sister Janet also received the special honour. When Britney Spears was presented the award in 2011, it had been renamed the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award in honour of the artist.
More here. (Note: In honor of Black History Month, at least one post will be devoted to its 2024 theme of “African Americans and the Arts” throughout the month of February)