10 Music Videos That Changed Music Forever

Michael Jackson was the true perfecter of the music video format back in the early 80's. No matter how groundbreaking you think your video idea is, you haven't touched on anything that Jackson hasn't already attempted before. While Jackson's start with "Don't Stop til You Get Enough" and "Rock With You" were great progenitors of his style, "Thriller" was where we got the complete package of what kind of artist we were dealing with.

Though the actual song is around 6 minutes, the video itself clocks in about 13, with most of it revolving around a storyline featuring Jackson and his girlfriend out at the movies. As they leave, various zombies start to follow in their path before Jackson turns into one of them himself. The visuals are certainly horrific, but the actual dance moves radiating off Jackson makes the song impossible not to dance to. The perfect touch comes at the ending, with horror movie icon Vincent Price providing a perfect spoken-word interlude throughout each musical passage.

Once "Thriller" was unleashed on the world, music videos would never be the same again. This was no longer just musical promotional material; these were cinematic events that could shape the very culture of music as we knew it.