 Walter <unk> , the president of Jackson 's record label CBS , approached MTV to play the " Billie Jean " video . He became enraged when MTV refused to play the video , and threatened to go public with MTV 's stance on black musicians . " I said to MTV , ' I 'm pulling everything we have off the air , all our product . I 'm not going to give you any more videos . And I 'm going to go public and fucking tell them about the fact you don 't want to play music by a black guy . ' " MTV relented and played the " Billie Jean " video in heavy rotation along with Prince 's " Little Red Corvette " . After the video was aired , Thriller went on to sell an additional 10 million copies . The short film was inducted into the Music Video Producers Hall of Fame in 1992 . In a 2005 poll of 31 pop stars , video directors , agents and journalists conducted by telecommunications company 3 , the music video was ranked fifth in their " Top 20 Music Videos Ever " . The video was also ranked as the 35th greatest music video in a list compiled by MTV and TV Guide at the millennium . 
