Hearing What You Need To Hear
On March 10, 1983, MTV played the video for Michael Jackson's "Bille Jean" for the first time. Up until that time, MTV executives refused to play the video because they claimed the fledgling music video channel was dedicated to "rock-n-roll." They only agreed to air the video after the president of CBS Records to pull all of his artists from the channel if they didn't do it. Before it aired "Billie Jean," MTV was on its way to bankruptcy. It had lost $50 million and was projected to lose even more. Michael Jackson's next three videos off of his Thriller album saved the channel and helped it turn a profit just a year later. The problem was, MTV execs had surrounded themselves with people who had the same tastes in music as they did---a move that created an echo chamber where they were only hearing from people who agreed with them. Far too many Christians today seem to be doing the very same thing as t...