Music | 31 March 1983

Michael Jackson, Michael DeLorenzo, Tony Fields

Michael Jackson persuades gang members to stop fighting. Both the film and song act as a protest to end gang violence. The short film/music video for "Beat It" helped to establish Jackson as an international pop icon as he entered the realm of Rock music and broke the racial barrier that, up until that point, black artists generally couldn't be successful in both Pop and Rock genres. It cost him $150,000 to produce when CBS refused to finance it. The video was filmed on Los Angeles' Skid Row, mainly in locations on East 5th Street, and shot on 35mm film. It's his third effort at a narrative short film and music video combination, but this time with a much larger cast. The song "Beat It" became Jackson's fifth U.S. Hot 100 number 1 as a solo artist and it was the third consecutive single from Thriller to become a U.S. Hot 100 Top 10. In 2022, the 4K version of Beat It was released on YouTube, along with the 4K version of Michael Jackson's Thriller, which was also shot on 35mm film.