CONTROL
1986
The commercial breakthrough
“This is a story about control – my control.
Control of what I say and control of what I
do,” so begins Janet Jackson’s breakthrough
1986 album.
After two albums on which she literally
went through the motions, a string of
unfulfi lling acting roles and a divorce from
singer James DeBarge, Janet broke away
from the constraints of the Jackson dynasty,
fi red her father as her manager and moved
to Minneapolis to work with Prince protégés,
up-and-coming songwriters and producers
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis on the album
which would be her ultimate statement
of independence.
With independence, self-respect and
assertiveness the prevalent themes of
Control, the record proved to be a sign of the
times and mirrored what was going on with
women in general, propelling Janet to role
model status. What Have You Done For Me
Lately and Nasty demanded respect, while
Let’s Wait Awhile was lauded for its pro-
abstinence message. As well as those three
songs, the title track, The Pleasure Principle
and When I Think Of You were all massive
hits, confi rming Janet’s arrival as a pop icon.JANET JACKSON’S
RHYTHM NATION 1814
1989
A State of the World address
The power that Janet earned with Control
served her well when it came to recording her
next album.
With A&M wanting more songs about
relationships, Janet held fi rm in her desire to
record a socially conscious record, addressing
issues such as gang warfare, drugs, poverty,
illiteracy and racism.
Once again teaming with Jam & Lewis,
Janet’s modern day take on Marvin Gaye’s
What’s Going On drew on the infl uence of hip-
hop culture, then the most vocal medium for
speaking out about the world’s problems.
As well as lyrically, the inspiration was
apparent in the aggressive production and
use of sampling.
Janet’s message was loud and clear with
the title track, The Knowledge and State Of
The World, while Miss You Much, Escapade and
Alright catered for the fans of the Control era.
The stunning Love Will Never Do (Without You)
was a tantalising teaser of where Janet would
head next, while the biggest surprise of the
record was the ease with which Janet could pull
off rock on the scorching Black Cat.
It is her fi rst true masterpiece.JANET.
1993
It’s getting hot in here...
In the four years since Janet Jackson’s
Rhythm Nation 1814, Janet had undergone
many changes, both professional and
personal. She had signed a $40 million deal
with Virgin Records, making her the highest
paid artist in the world at that time, and
her experience shooting John Singleton’s
Poetic Justice, her fi rst fi lm, had instilled a
newfound confi dence and openness in Janet
which translated into her work.
A complete U-turn from its cold, industrial
predecessor, 1993’s janet. was warm and
intimate and saw the singer discussing love
and sex with a frankness that we hadn’t
heard before from her.
The laidback sensuality of That’s The Way
Love Goes sets the template for tracks such
as The Body That Loves You and Where Are
You Now while the amped-up sexuality for
upbeat dance tracks If, Throb and You Want
This is a complete triumph. She scored an
Oscar nomination for the tender ballad Again
and Any Time, Any Place, a ballad about
voyeurism boasted one of her sexiest lyrics
to date. Only New Agenda, which features
Public Enemy’s Chuck D, touches on the
socio-politics of her previous offering.THE VELVET ROPE
1997
Let’s get up close and personal
A move of tremendous bravery, The Velvet
Rope was Janet’s most personal work to date,
and indeed since, a brutally honest study
of self-examination on which she dealt with
the unresolved mental issues that led to her
having a breakdown in 1995.
Allowing her fans to see beyond the
metaphorical velvet rope to reveal her true
self, Janet talks about her experiences with
depression (You), domestic abuse (What
About), sexual identity (Tonight’s The Night
and Free Xone) and resolving childhood
traumas (Special). The theme of loss is
prevalent and is the subject of the fi rst three
singles Got ’Til It’s Gone, Together Again and
I Get Lonely. Musically, the album switches
between R&B, dance, hip-hop, jazz and
trip-hop, revealing a daring experimentalism
that suggests Janet’s focus was musical
catharsis rather than chasing hits.
Although it didn’t match the sales of
janet., The Velvet Rope sold 14 million copies,
gave Janet her biggest ever hit in Together
Again and was a complete triumph, revealing
the singer to be a bold and fearless artist
whose willingness to take a risk paid off and
resulted in another masterpiece.THE MUST-HAVE ALBUMS
33JANET JACKSON THE LOWDOWNAND THE REST...
All For You
2001
Newly-divorced from
husband Rene Elizondo
Jr, and having artistically exorcised her
demons on The Velvet Rope, on 2001’s
All For You, Janet wanted to release an
upbeat, dance-infl uenced record refl ecting
her positive attitude towards single life.
This is seen on songs such as the title
track, Come On Get Up, Someone To
Call My Lover and Doesn’t Really Matter
(from Nutty Professor II: The Klumps
soundtrack), while her apparent anger at
her ex brings out the best in Janet on You
Ain’t Right and Son Of A Gun...
While a string of sub-standard ballads
(When We Oooo, Love Scene (Ooh Baby)
seriously hinder the album, producer
Rockwilder (the fi rst-time Janet had
worked with anyone other than Jam &
Lewis since Control) brings a fresh energy
to the album, particularly on the genre-
opping, mini-popera Trust A Try.Damita Jo
2004
Janet’s most explicit album
to date, Damita Jo is also
her most underrated due to the fallout
from the 2004 Super Bowl, which saw her
blacklisted across various media platforms.
Janet worked with a variety of writers and
producers, including Kanye West, Cathy
Dennis, Jay-Z and Babyface over the
course of an 18-month period as well
as Jam & Lewis.
Baffl ingly, one of its weakest tracks,
Just A Little While was the lead single while
the album is overall much stronger than All
For You. The gloriously tropical Island Life
and Spending Time With You are highlights
as are the retro I Want You and hip-hop
leaning title track, Sexhibition and My
Baby while R&B Junkie is a fun nod to the
early-80s. The best song on the album,
however, is the sexy dance track All Nite
(Don’t Stop), a sequel to Janet’s dancefl oor
opus Throb.20 Y.O.
2006
Whenever an artist
compares their latest work
to something regarded as a classic, they
are almost always setting themselves up
for disappointment when it fails to match
the success of its predecessor.
Billed as “a celebration of the joyful
liberation and history-making musical
style of Control”, 20 Y.O. fails to live up to
such grand promise and lacks the spark of
previous Janet albums, however it is a fi ne
pop/R&B album.
As with Damita Jo, one of the weakest
songs was the fi rst single. Call On Me,
a duet with rapper Nelly, is a lazy
re-tread of his hit Dilemma and pales into
insignifi cance alongside the clubby dance
tracks such as second single So Excited,
Do It 2 Me, Get It Out Me, Show Me
and Daybreak. Elsewhere, Enjoy is a
blissful groove and With U is one of her
strongest ballads.Unbreakable
2015
Following a lengthy absence
from the music scene, Janet
returned with Unbreakable in 2015, her
fi rst album in seven years. In that time,
Janet had suffered the loss of Michael,
focused on acting and married her third
husband Wissim Al Mana. With so much
material for inspiration, she went back in
the studio with Jam & Lewis.
The result, Unbreakable, was a true
return to form after the disappointing
Discipline album. A concise album,
Unbreakable manages to cover a variety
of styles while maintaining a cohesion that
makes it sound like a body of work rather
than a collection of songs.
From the dreamy R&B of No Sleeep
and the slick electropop of The Great
Forever to the euphoric dance-pop of Night
and arena-sized anthem Well Traveled,
Unbreakable was a timely reminder of one
of pop’s true superstars.CP30.TheLowdown_JJ.print.indd 33 07/06/2017 17:34