Billie Jean Video Initially Not Allowed on MTV

[JRNYMAN]

I watched a rock-doc earlier this week titled Music Videos That Shaped the 80's in which Michael Jackson's video for Billie Jean was discussed. Some interesting stories/facts about the song were noted including the fact that Quincy Jones hated the song, it had to be mixed 91 times and more. But, of all the info about this song/video there is one thing that was pretty shocking: MTV initially wouldn't allow the video to be aired citing their policy of not including the material of black artists. At first I was like, "WTF?!?! That can't be true..." so I did some research and sure enough, they answered a letter of inquiry by CBS Records pres. Walter Yetnikoff by stating "... they are giving Middle America" what they want and that doesn't include music by Black artists." Mr. Yetnikoff threatened to pull every artist whose music was then being handled by CBS as well as promising he would take the issue to the Supreme Court if MTV didn't immediately change their stance, which they eventually did 2 weeks later.

I had never heard ANYTHING about this situation, somehow and was completely shocked!

Here are a couple of links to info about the entire event.

http://www.drfunkenberry.com/2013/01/05 ... ars-later/

Recent video which includes Yetnikoff discussing the situation on CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/0 ... nnSTCVideo