Beat It vs. Bad

I have always found these two videos remarkably similar in themes and mood. Which do you prefer?

Well, I guess I'd have to go with Beat It. I mean, at least there Michael is cautioning a young man away from violence, rather than suggesting he himself is badass after changing his look to something vaguely elfish and completely unthreatening.

I prefer 'Beat It', because Michael looks less like a mutant. Also there's a Van Halen.

Well, Beat It came first. It's a better song, and the video has that very-early 80s rawness that is so appealing. It's more iconic (see Micheal in the red jacket) and the face off / dance off between the two gang leaders is well choreographed and sexy.

So yeah, Beat It.

Bad, it had the better Weird Al parody.

I think Beat It has the more iconic look and, yeah, he was looking like an attractive young black man instead of one of the Aryan reptoids, but as far as choreography goes I always felt the dance was a bit better in Bad. A little too good--it kind of looks robotic it's been practiced so much, which is something MJ did more and more as the years went on, sucking all the life out of his performance even as it got slicker and slicker--but I really did enjoy the big group jerk-off dance move or whatever the hell you'd call that.

Beat It, but only because it came first and hence has at least a sparkle of originality.

Beat It has authentic street gangs members in it, Bad has Wesley Snipes.

Beat It wins.

For many of the negative reasons listed above, I prefer Bad over Beat it!

Forgive the threadshit, but both of those songs are awful to me. Michael Jackson's best selling material has simply not aged well, even compared to other chart-topping music of the same era, and the tough-guy posturing coming from a guy built like an Olsen twin is even more laughable today than it was then.