The Top 100 Music Videos: #12, Michael Jackson's "Beat It"

"Thriller" might have made Michael Jackson the biggest star in the world, but "Beat It" (directed by Bob Giraldi) remains in many minds the most important video he's ever done. Adapting West Side Story for the emerging videocentric nation, Jackson walks us through the genesis of a gang fight, showing gang members crawling from under manholes and strutting out of dingy, truck-stop diners to join an incipient battle. The crews finally get down to business in an abandoned garage, tying their leaders together by the wrist and arming themselves with switchblades, awaiting death. Then Jackson steps through the crowd, puts a hand on one leader's shoulder and wordlessly persuades him to stop fighting and follow him in a tightly choreographed group dance.

"'Beat It' was a terribly influential video," says director John Landis, who has done several other Jackson videos. "It was the first time that a rock video received notice unto itself. It was a tiny musical as opposed to an overt commercial." But at the time, it appeared that the most influential part of the video was that it was played on MTV: "Beat It" and "Billie Jean" made Jackson the Jackie Robinson of MTV.