The Moonwalk at Motown 25: 25 March 1983
1983 · music
On 25 March 1983 a television special was recorded in Pasadena to mark twenty five years of the Motown record label. Michael Jackson had agreed to appear on one condition, that he could perform a song that was not from the Motown catalogue. He sang Billie Jean, alone on a dark stage in a black jacket, a white glove and a fedora. Near the end of the song he moved backwards across the stage while appearing to walk forwards. The audience rose. The moment lasted a few seconds and is still being replayed.
The step is often called the moonwalk, and Jackson never claimed to have invented it. Versions of the illusion had been performed by street dancers and mime artists for decades, and he learned it from dancers including Jeffrey Daniel, then rehearsed it privately until it looked effortless. What he added was the setting, a single spotlight, a hat and a piece of choreography built around one perfect gesture.
The programme was broadcast in May to an audience of around forty seven million in the United States. Thriller had already been released and was selling well. After that night it accelerated into the best selling album ever made, and Jackson became the defining performer of the decade, changing what a music video could be and forcing the young MTV to open its playlist.
The performance is studied as a lesson in restraint. There were no effects, no dancers and no costume changes, only one man, one song and one move on a bare stage. It is remembered as the point at which a former child star from the Jackson 5 became something the industry had not seen before.