Remembering Michael Jackson: 10 Greatest Music Videos
From ''Rock With You'' to ''Thriller'' to ''Scream,'' Michael Jackson set the standard and changed the music video world. Here's how we think his 10 best videos stack up.

10. ''Man in the Mirror'' (1988)
Jackson abandons his habitually slick video style — in fact, he barely even appears here — to reflect the song's message. Footage of revered cultural figures like Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Desmond Tutu, and JFK is shown alongside devastating images of Chernobyl survivors, starving children in Africa, homeless breadlines, and civil rights protests. By far his least glossy outing, it is also by far one of his most affecting.

9. ''Black or White'' (1991)
Actually several videos in one: a suburban goof starring Macaulay Culkin, a multiethnic round-the-world trip, a kiddie-rap breakdown, and an astonishing showcase of then-revolutionary face-morphing technology, followed by a controversial coda in which a part-panther Jackson smashes car windows, repeatedly grabs his crotch, and yells a lot. (In most airings, the video was shown without those final minutes.)

8. ''Scream'' (1995)
The astronomical $7 million price tag has earned this stunning video its own kind of infamy, but the Mark Romanek-directed black-and-white clip seems to earn every penny of it: Michael costars with sister Janet in a dystopian space-age fantasia, packed with elaborate images of modish alienation — as well as a surprisingly sweet glimpse into the siblings' relationship.

7. ''Remember the Time'' (1992)
This glossy, star-packed epic set in ancient Egypt (look for Eddie Murphy and Iman as an imperious pharaoh and his wife) combines elements of Liz Taylor's Cleopatra and Vegas-style, high-camp entertainment with Jackson's trademark dance moves.

6. ''Bad'' (1987)
Michael plays a street-fighting man once again, this time with the help of director Martin Scorsese, who ratchets up the tension in a Warriors-esque subway-station face-off, replete with dance moves that would be instantly imitated in schoolyards and living rooms everywhere. (Bonus: Keep an eye out for Wesley Snipes in the 16-minute long-form clip.)

5. ''Smooth Criminal'' (1989)
All film-noir night shots and dapper, Dick Tracy-style costumes (spats, fedoras, black armbands), Jackson's dark, foreboding clip also gave us one of his coolest (if not strictly self-supported) moves: the antigravity lean.

4. ''Billie Jean'' (1983)
In the first clip by a black artist to be heavily aired on MTV, even the sidewalks acknowledge his growing superstardom: Every concrete object Jackson touches glows on contact — and so, by proxy, did his audience.

3. ''Rock with You'' (1979)
Long before the many high-concept, big-budget extravaganzas to follow, all the 20-year-old Michael needed was a green strobe light, an elaborately sequined jumpsuit (booties included!), and his brilliant smile.

2. ''Beat It'' (1983)
Less a music video than a grand West Side Story narrative of competing street gangs in a gritty urban landscape. Except these gang members solve their differences in a spectacularly choreographed dance-off. And there is, alas, no Maria.

1. ''Thriller'' (1983)
Every aspect of the 14-minute horror musical, directed with creepy-comical zest by John Landis, is beyond iconic, from Michael's red leather ensemble to the immortal (no pun) herky-jerky zombie dance and bwah-ha-ha Vincent Price narration.