Brittany Luce

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For anyone like me who wasn't around to witness peak Michael Jackson hysteria, the Brace Yourself video is a perfect entry point for understanding just how massive he was.

It's about three and a half minutes of really effective montage set to a version of Oh Fortuna from Carl Orff's cantata Carmina Burana.

Most of the clips capture Jackson being mobbed by throngs of fans attempting to break past security as his motorcade passes through cities.

all around the world.

Other scenes show concert moments from his historic Bad World tour, performing for manic audience members who scream, sob, or even pass out.

Many of them are soaked in sweat from all the excitement and body heat and don't even really seem to care.

It all builds up to that familiar O Fortuna climax, when the choir swells while the instrumentals crash and explode underneath like thunderclaps.

And then there's this rapid-fire series of images summarizing Jackson's career,

as it syncs up with this musical climax.

Album and magazine covers, music videos, TV performances, archival concert footage.

Brace Yourself worked on me when I watched it as a kid countless times.

It was on my VHS copy of Michael Jackson video greatest hits.

It made me think, I'm a believer.

This is the greatest artist of all time.

The whole thing is dramatique, a pure adrenaline shot of emotion.

There's no real friction there because it's not meant to be deep.

It's meant to seduce.

This frictionless version of Michael Jackson is the way he wanted to be remembered.

To some extent, this is the version that persists on the internet all these years later.