MTV initially refused to play Michael Jackson's Billie Jean music video in 1983 because the network executives claimed their format was strictly geared toward a white rock-and-roll audience.

A closer look

MTV initially refused to play Michael Jackson's Billie Jean music video in 1983 because the network executives claimed their format was strictly geared toward a white rock-and-roll audience. It took the president of CBS Records threatening to publicly expose their blatant racism and pull all other artists from the network to force their hand. Once it aired, the video single-handedly transformed MTV from a failing cable experiment into a global cultural juggernaut, completely saving the network from its own bigoted stupidity. Watching corporate suits desperately try to take credit for a pop culture revolution they actively tried to prevent is a tale as old as time in the music industry. They literally had to be blackmailed into broadcasting the most iconic entertainer of the twentieth century, which tells you absolutely everything you need to know about the visionary genius of eighties television executives