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Where Did "Can You Feel It" premiere

The MJJ Library

7even's HIStory Corner
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I just found out that Can You Feel It was a "never seen before" Michael music video according to the description on the back of the Making Of Thriller VHS. So where did it first premiere and when?
 
Things didn't have a "premiere" back then.

They were just shown at a random time and that was it...
 
I 1st saw it on a TV show, either American Bandstand or Soul Train. That was when the single was new, so before the Thriller album existed. I don't know about any special premiere for it. That was something that MTV later did "World Premiere Video".
 

Where Did "Can You Feel It" premiere​

not on a sony homepage thats for sure
 
Come to think of it, the documentaries are always shouting that "there was never a black video on TV before Billie Jean!", so I conclude the answer is never.
 
R1chard said:
Come to think of it, the documentaries are always shouting that "there was never a black video on TV before Billie Jean!", so I conclude the answer is never.
Click to expand...
It was early MTV that had very few videos by Black artists and those were not in regular rotation. David Bowie even commented on it when he was interviewed on the channel. Had nothing to do with TV in general. Video Soul on the Black Entertainment Television network began in 1981, which is before Billie Jean came out. Casey Kasem had a TV show on regular TV called America's Top 10 and it had videos by Black artists, although the show mostly showed short clips of videos, not usually the entire video because it was a 30 minute program.

But music videos have existed since the 1920s. They had various names over the decades like "soundies" & "Scopitones". Many of them were by Black jazz artists such as Duke Ellington. Louis Armstrong was even in a Betty Boop music cartoon. Technically those old movie musicals are like a series of videos.
 
The MJJ Library said:
I just found out that Can You Feel It was a "never seen before" Michael music video according to the description on the back of the Making Of Thriller VHS. So where did it first premiere and when?
Click to expand...
Maybe they meant never seen on home video?
Or never broadcast in long form? (in the U.S.?) But I find it hard to believe.
 
R1chard said:
Come to think of it, the documentaries are always shouting that "there was never a black video on TV before Billie Jean!", so I conclude the answer is never.
Click to expand...
It was broadcast on American bandstand.

And Billie Jean wasn't the first video shown on MTV by a black artist - that was Pass the dutchie by Musical Youth. Billie Jean was the first in heavy rotation.
 
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