It was not until after Thriller became the soundtrack for a global decade that Jackson set out on the road to his more strenuous physical transformations. His Jheri curl was replaced by a silken hair weave that framed and softened a face eventually so much altered by the surgeon's scalpel that it began to seem as if the singer sought not some unattainable ideal of beauty but the limits of medical technology.

What effect did this have on fans? It is unlikely that legions of music lovers rushed to have their anatomies altered after seeing the video of Billie Jean. But Jackson created the space for them to do so. And he remained unapologetic in asserting that his image—in all its curious and repellent, beautiful and alluring, sexy and asexual, masculine and feminine manifestations—was his alone own to devise.