Michael Jackson Album: “HIStory, Vol. 1”

This is an excellent DVD. The sound and picture quality is brilliant and the songs and music videos are some of the best around. The King Of Pop is great!

Brace Yourself - A good intro to the DVD showing clips of Michael performing live in front of many fans. "Brace Yourself"...

Billie Jean - This is one of the best Michael Jackson videos ever released. A highlight.

The Way You Make Me Feel - This nine and a half minute version is great and also rarely seen!

Black Or White - My all-time favourite Michael video. It made me laugh at the beginning and the rest of it was brilliant!

Rock With You - Not keen on the song but I love the video!

Bad - The full-length 18-minute version is a must-have! It shows Michael as a young school boy at the beginning.

Thriller - Possibly the most popular Michael video. It needed to make this collection!

Beat It - A great video and a great song. Another highlight.

Remember The Time - I just love this video! Not only is the song good, but it includes a great egyptian-style video!

Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough - Not one of my favourites, but not bad either.

Heal The World - This song and video end the DVD nicely!

Overall, this may not be as good as History On Film: Volume 2 or Dangerous: The Short Films, but it's still worth the money.

Ok, I love Michael Jackson like the next fan. Having that established, my review is not like some of the others who use this as an opportunity to say how great he is. Let's talk about this DVD as a product. It's horrible. The quality is so grainy and you see digital blips at a distracting rate (Especially in The Way You Make Me Feel). Sure we have longer versions and other videos that are rarely seen - good keepers for our children and our children's children (yes, I'm mocking that line in Heal the World), but we also bought the DVD hoping to see DVD quality. Watching some of these videos on regular TV would be more clear than watching it on the DVD. I was very disappointed. One time I wondered if I was viewing the result of a video camera taping a movie screen. History part II on DVD is incredible (MTV music awards performance being the best I have ever seen and seen and re-seen!) So I was expecting at least the same level of picture and sound quality like its later release. Also, there is no surround sound (5.1) on History Part I like there is on History Part II. On a few songs, it sounds like they added the voice track over the regular sound track to give it a sense of "surround." Horrible sound production. I'm not being picky here, it sounds like you're in a cave with so much echo (For those of you who have it, listen to Black or White in 5.1 mode, for example). And why do we need Thriller on History part I and II? Why not include that "Making of Thriller" documentary that we all remember on MTV and HBO in the 80s? Nothing. Just the Thriller video that is redundant with the Part II DVD.

I'd seriously consider NOT buying this one if I were you. Try to rent it or borrow it first so you know what you're going to get. Don't get me wrong, he's the KING OF POP, blah blah, blah, but I do have technical standards now that DVDs are the norm.

Easily the most signifigant home music DVD release ever, this one has got all the major hit videos for the fans. Michael Jackson (with Madonna) is the most prominant artist making music videos (he will be back, watch out!) and this DVD collection only proves that fact over and over again.

What more can I say? This DVD is slammin'. Right from beginning to end.

Thriller

Beat It

Billie Jean

Bad

Black Or White

The Way You Make Me Feel

Remember The Time

Rock With You

Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough

and other cool videos and clips.

This things got it all for the small Michael Jackson fan and for the major Michael Jackson fan.

In fact, I'm so sure you'll enjoy this DVD, I'll pay you to buy it!!! :)

Five out of Five

Honestly, I love Michael Jackson's music and have purchased History 2 on VHS (the gold box) and Dangerous: The Short Films before I got this. I was excited because I thought I would see some things different on this DVD, but it's all the same! You're better off purchasing Dangerous: The Short Films or History 2 because most of the same material on this video is on the others, and the others have some new added footage.

I've been a big fan of Michael Jackson ever since I heard the "BAD" album for the first time in the early '90s. I've heard his music before hand of course, but never really paid much attention. When I bought my first video from Michael called "Moonwalker", I was hooked. This video was amazing and I was highly impressed with his dancing especially with "Smooth Criminal". I love to dance today, because of Michael Jackson's music videos like "Billie Jean : Motown 25 Performance", "Thriller", and "Smooth Criminal". After I purchased "Moonwalker", I bought all of Michael's solo albums on tapes at first then on CDs, than I bought Jackson 5 (Motown) / Jacksons (Epic) albums on CDs and tapes, than I ventured on to buy as many music videos of him as I can find. At the time I was a fanatic, I couldn't find his best music videos on film in one collection, so when the "Michael Jackson: Video Greatest Hits - HIStory" came out on VHS, I was highly excited and bought it the first day it was released on VHS in 1995. I was very happy with this video, but a little disappointed that the "BAD" music video was shortened. Now in 2001, I bought the DVD version and I'm happy to say that "BAD" video is in it's entirety, with Wesley Snipes and all the drama.

The DVD features:

- Brace Yourself

* In it's entirety, unlike the VHS version

If you have the VHS version, getting the DVD would still be highly worthwhile just for "BAD" and "The Way You Make Me Feel" short films. I can't wait for the next Michael Jackson music video to come out, it's probably going to have "You Rock My World" music video, I know it's going to be phenomenal.