Videodrone #9: Torture

Videodrone is a weekly feature looking at music videos from the last half century. 

Torture (1984)

As MTV became a huge force in the marketing of music in the early '80s, artists began to change the way they thought about music videos. Straight performance videos weren't going to cut it anymore. Artists and labels began to think big and by 1984, music videos were considered mini-movies and had the big budgets to prove it.

While many hard rock and metal videos began to embrace apocalyptic or sci-fi themes (see Dio's "The Last in Line," The Scorpions' "Rock You Like a Hurricane," Deep Purple's "Knocking at Your Back Door" and Iron Maiden's "2 Minutes to Midnight"), other genres mined that territory as well. Rick Springfield's "Bop 'Til You Drop" found him performing among enslaved humanoids on an alien planet, Scandal's video for their hit "The Warrior" has Patty Smyth singing while some kind of Cats-esque dancing and fighting goes on, and Billy Ocean's "Loverboy" has the R&B hitmaker trapped in space while a bunch of aliens groove to his music in a bar that was totally not supposed to be the Star Wars cantina. Oh yes, the cash and the cocaine flowed freely in the '80s, my friends.

But when it came to high-concept videos, the bar had been set in December 1983 by Michael Jackson's "Thriller," a 14-minute short film directed by John Landis that was a huge hit and gave a a boost to sales of the album of the same name, which had already been out for more than a year. After Michael reunited with his brothers in '83, it set the stage for the former Jackson 5 (now called the Jacksons because youngest brother Randy had joined) to record an album. With Michael's popularity at its peak, the Jacksons reunion album was a cinch to be a monster hit. 

However, when they got in the studio, tensions were high among the brothers and they rarely worked together on songs. The album, Victory, was mainly solo songs that they were working on at that time. The first single was "State of Shock," a funk duet that Michael originally recorded with Freddie Mercury. When they were unable to complete the version, a new one was recorded with Mick Jagger. The song was a hit, reaching #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The second single was "Torture," which was written by Jackie Jackson and songwriter Kathy Wakefield. It was originally supposed to be sung by Jackie and Michael, but when Jermaine Jackson became available at the last minute, he took over co-lead vocals with Michael. However, when it came time to shoot the video, Michael and Jermaine refused to appear in it, so director Jeff Stein rented a wax figure of Michael from Madame Tussaud's museum in Nashville; it appears in three scenes in the video. 

The song was about the end of a relationship and how it felt like torture, but the video concept went in the other direction and had the other members of the Jacksons being subjected to various types of torture in some space cavern or something. The torture is doled by aliens in sparkly gimp masks, while dancers gyrate around. Oh, and there are dancing skeletons because why not? In addition to whippings, the brothers are caught in giant spider webs, get goo on their hands that cause eyeballs to grow out of them and get trapped in a giant condom-esque bubble.

Speaking of the dancers, one of them was a young Paula Abdul, who was dating Jackie at the time. Original choreographer Perri Lister was let go and replaced by Abdul, who was a dancer for the LA Lakers then (a few years later, she would famously serve as Janet Jackson's choreographer for the Control album and videos, appearing in "Nasty," and a few years after that, become a pop star in her own right). Abdul also became the choreographer for the Jacksons' Victory tour.

The video shoot went over schedule and over budget, and the Jacksons themselves stopped showing up by the end of shooting. Picture Music International, the video's production company, reportedly went bankrupt because of the "Torture" shoot and its exorbitant costs, although Stein denies that the video was the cause for the company's demise.

The song itself was moderately successful, reaching #17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #9 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart, but it was pretty generic and forgettable. 

But the "Torture" video wasn't the biggest disaster revolving around the Jacksons that year. That was reserved for the Victory Tour, which took place in North American from July to December 1984. There were 55 shows, all but two held at stadiums, and most of the music performed was from Michael's albums Thriller and Off the Wall. Indeed, none of the songs from the Victory album were performed on the tour, although I doubt anybody in the audiences cared. 

Don King promoted the tour, but the primary promoter was Chuck Sullivan, son of Billy Sullivan, then-owner of the New England Patriots. He overextended himself and offered the Jacksons 83% of the tour's income, guaranteeing them $36.6 million. He put the Patriots' stadium, then known as Sullivan Stadium, down as $12.5 million collateral. Sullivan initially estimated he would earn $13 million from the tour, later downgraded that to $3 million and then $500,000. Eventually, Sullivan's losses were estimated to be $22 million. After his divorce left him near bankrupt, he was forced to sell the Patriots and Sullivan Stadium in 1988. 

Part of the problem was the massive stage designed by Michael, which at 365 tons and 19,200 square feet long had to be transported by over 30 tractor trailers. In some venues, the stage was so large it required the use of some of the seating area. 

And then were the ticket sales. Prospective concertgoers were required to send a money order (remember those?) for $120 and a lottery form to buy four tickets at $30 each. During the six to eight weeks for the lottery to go through, the $120 was placed into a money market account earning 7% annual interest until it was time to return the money to unsuccessful purchasers. Since only 1 in 10 people would win the ticket lottery, there would be more money in the bank than tickets to sell during that time period, allowing the Jacksons and team to earn $10 million to $12 million in interest. Michael was against the plan, believing it would be a PR disaster, and he was right. The high ticket price ($30 in 1984 was more than most concerts charged) meant many of Michael's fans would not be able to afford tickets. Some of those fans spoke out publicly against the tour's expensiveness and the Jacksons were forced to backtrack.

Meanwhile, the tensions between the Jackson brothers grew even more pronounced during the tour and at the last show, Michael announced it was the last time Jacksons would ever perform together. This was a surprise to King and the other Jacksons, who were already planning European and Australian legs of the tour; those plans were canceled. Michael went back to his very successful solo career, which would run into some serious problems in the '90s. The other Jackson brothers appeared at Michael's 30th anniversary concert in 2001 to perform a medley, but that was the last time all six Jacksons performed together on stage.