 Few celebrity siblings can emerge from the shadows of their already famous
relations to become superstars in their own right and with their own distinct
personalities. That's exactly what
Janet Jackson did in becoming one of the biggest female pop and R&B stars of the
'80s and '90s. Since her breakthrough in 1986 with the album Control,
Janet Jackson's career as a hitmaker has been a model of consistency, rivaling
Madonna and
Whitney Houston in terms of pop-chart success over the long haul. A big part
of the reason was that
Janet Jackson kept her level of quality control very high; her singles were always
expertly crafted, with indelible pop hooks and state-of-the-art production that
kept up with contemporary trends in urban R&B. Once established, her broad-based
appeal never really dipped all that much; she was able to avoid significant
career missteps, musical and otherwise, and successfully shifted her image from
a strong, independent young woman to a sexy, mature adult. With a string of
multi-platinum albums under her belt, she showed no signs of slowing down in the
new millennium.
Janet Damita Jo Jackson was born May 16, 1966, in Gary, IN. She was the
youngest of nine children in the
Janet Jackson family, and her older brothers had already begun performing together
as
the Jackson 5 by the time she was born. Bitten by the performing bug at a
young age, she first appeared on-stage with
the Jackson 5 at age seven, and began a sitcom acting career at the age of
ten in 1977, when producer Norman Lear selected her to join the cast of Good
Times. She remained there until 1979, and subsequently appeared on Diff'rent
Strokes (1981-1982) and A New Kind of Family. In 1982, pushed by her father into
trying a singing career, Janet Jackson released her self-titled first album on A&M; a couple of singles
scraped the lower reaches of the charts, but on the whole, it made very little
noise. She was cast in the musical series Fame in 1983; the following year, she
issued her second album, Dream Street, which sold even more poorly than its
predecessor. Upon turning 18,
Janet Jackson rebelled against her parents' close supervision, eloping with a
member of another musical family, singer
James DeBarge. However, the relationship quickly hit the rocks and
Janet Jackson wound up moving back into her parents' home and having the marriage
annulled.
Janet Jackson took some time to rethink her musical career and her father hired
her a new manager, John McClain, who isolated his young charge to train her as a
dancer (and make her lose weight). McClain hooked
Janet Jackson up with producers/writers
Jimmy Jam and
Terry Lewis, whom she'd seen perform as members of the Minneapolis funk
outfit
the Time.
Janet Jackson collaborated with
Jam and
Lewis on most of the tracks for her next album, Control, which presented her
as a confident, tough-minded young woman (with a soft side and a sense of humor)
taking charge of her life for the first time. In support of
Janet Jackson's new persona,
Jam and
Lewis crafted a set of polished, computerized backing tracks with slamming
beats that owed more to hard, hip-hop-tinged funk and urban R&B than
Janet's older brother
Michael's music. Control became an out-of-the-box hit, and eventually spun
off six singles, the first five of which -- "What Have You Done for Me Lately,"
the catch phrase-inspiring "Nasty," the number one "When I Think of You," the
title track, and the ballad "Let's Wait Awhile" -- hit the Top Five on the pop
charts.
Janet Jackson was hailed as a role model for young women and Control eventually
sold over five million copies, establishing
Janet Jackson as not just a star, but her own woman. It also made
Jam and
Lewis a monstrously in-demand production team.
For the hotly anticipated follow-up, John McClain wanted to push
Janet Jackson toward more overtly sexual territory, to which she objected
strenuously. Instead, she began collaborating with
Jam and
Lewis on more socially conscious material, which formed the backbone of
1989's Rhythm Nation 1814 (the "1814" purportedly stood for either the letters
"R" and "N" or the year "The Star-Spangled Banner" was written). Actually, save
for the title track, most of the record's singles were bright and romantically
themed; four of them -- "Miss You Much," "Escapade," "Black Cat," and "Love Will
Never Do (Without You)" -- hit number one, and three more -- "Rhythm Nation,"
"Alright," and "Come Back to Me" -- reached the Top Five, making
Janet Jackson the first artist ever to produce seven Top Five hits off of one
album (something not even her brother
Michael had accomplished). Aside from a greater use of outside samples,
Rhythm Nation's sound largely resembled that of Control, but was just as
well-crafted, and listeners embraced it enthusiastically, buying over six
million copies.
Janet Jackson undertook her first real tour (she'd appeared at high schools around
the country in 1982) in support of the album and it was predictably a smashing
success. In 1991,
Janet Jackson capitalized on her success by jumping from A&M to Virgin for a
reported $32 million, and also secretly married choreographer and longtime
boyfriend René Elizondo.
Once on Virgin,
Janet Jackson set about revamping her sound and image. Her 1992 duet with
Luther Vandross from the Mo' Money soundtrack, "The Best Things in Life Are
Free," was a major R&B hit, also reaching the pop Top Ten. The following year,
she also resumed her acting career, co-starring in acclaimed director (and
former junior high classmate) John Singleton's Poetic Justice, along with rapper
Tupac Shakur. But neither really hinted at the sexy, seductive, fully adult
persona she unveiled with 1993's janet., her Virgin debut. Janet Jackson trumpeted her new image with a notorious Rolling Stone cover photo,
in which her topless form was covered by a pair of hands belonging to an unseen
"friend." Musically,
Jam and
Lewis set aside the synthesized funk of their first two albums with
Janet Jackson in favor of warm, inviting, gently undulating grooves. The album's
lead single, the slinky "That's the Way Love Goes," became
Janet Jackson's biggest hit ever, spending eight weeks at number one. It was
followed by a predictably long parade of Top Ten hits -- "If," the number one
ballad "Again," "Because of You," "Any Time, Any Place," "You Want This."
janet.'s debut showing at number one made it her third straight chart-topping
album, and it went on to sell nearly seven million copies.
In 1995,
Janet and
Michael teamed up for the single "Scream," which was supported by an
elaborate, award-winning, space-age video that, upon completion, ranked as the
most expensive music video ever made. The single debuted at number five on the
pop charts, but gradually slid down from there. In 1996, A&M issued a
retrospective of her years at the label, Design of a Decade 1986-1996; it
featured the Virgin hit "That's the Way Love Goes" and a few new tracks, one of
which, "Runaway," became a Top Five hit.
Janet Jackson also signed a new contract with Virgin for a reported $80 million.
Yet while working on her next album,
Janet Jackson reportedly suffered an emotional breakdown, or at least a severe
bout with depression; she later raised eyebrows when she talked in several
interviews about the cleansing value of coffee enemas as part of her treatment.
Her next album, The Velvet Rope, appeared in 1997, and was touted as her most
personal and intimate work to date. The Velvet Rope sought to combine the
sensuality of janet. with the more socially conscious parts of Rhythm Nation,
mixing songs about issues like domestic abuse, AIDS, and homophobia with her
most sexually explicit songs ever. Critical opinion on the album was divided;
some applauded her ambition, while others found the record too bloated. The lead
American single "Together Again," an elegy for AIDS victims, was a number one
hit; also popular on the radio was "Got 'Til It's Gone," which featured rapper
Q-Tip and a sample of
Joni Mitchell over a reggae beat. "I Get Lonely," featuring
Blackstreet, was another big hit; but on the whole, The Velvet Rope didn't
prove to be the blockbuster singles bonanza that its predecessors were, which
was probably why its sales stalled at around three million copies.
Janet Jackson toured the world again, and stayed on the charts in 1999 with the
Top Five
Busta Rhymes duet "What's It Gonna Be?!"; her appearance in the video remade
her as a glitzy, artificially costumed, single-name diva. In 2000, she appeared
in the
Eddie Murphy comedy Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, and her soundtrack
contribution, "Doesn't Really Matter," became a number one single.
Unfortunately, Janet Jackson's marriage to Elizondo had become strained and the couple divorced
in 2000, sparking a court battle over her musical income. Janet Jackson returned with a new album, All for You, in 2001, which largely
continued the sensual tone of janet. and The Velvet Rope; it debuted at number
one, selling over 600,000 copies in its first week alone. The title track was
issued as the album's first single and quickly topped the charts, followed by
another sizable hit in "Someone to Call My Lover."
While Jackson spent much of 2001 and 02 on the road supporting All For You,
she also found time for some guest appearances, most notably with Beenie Man on
his Tropical Storm LP and Justin Timberlake on Justified, his solo debut. By
2003 she was back in the studio, working once again with
Jam and
Lewis on tracks for a new album; additional producers included Dallas Austin
and Kayne West. Later that year, it was revealed Jackson would take part in an
MTV-produced extravaganza during halftime at the Super Bowl. 2004 began with an
Internet leak of the upbeat Austin production "Just a Little While". The
singer's camp rolled with the punches, offering the track to radio as an
authorized digital download, but the buzz this business caused was minuscule in
comparison to the nightmare union of free exposure and bad publicity that
Jackson's next adventure caused. Appearing at halftime of Super Bowl XXXVIII as
scheduled, Jackson performed "All For You" and "Rhythm Nation" before bringing
out surprise guest Timberlake for a duet on his hit "Rock Your Body". But the
real surprise came at song's end, when a gesture from Timberlake caused
Jackson's costume to tear, exposing her right, pierced breast on live television
to hundreds of millions of viewers. The incident caused furious backpedaling and
apologizing from Timberlake, Jackson, the NFL, CBS, and MTV, which swore no
previous knowledge of the so-called "wardrobe malfunction", and led to
speculation over how Damita Jo - Jackson's upcoming album and her first in three
years - would be received. But while the controversy gave Jackson both grief and
a bit of free advertising, it was also the impetus for a national debate on
public indecency. A federal commission was set up to investigate prurience, the
FCC enacted tougher crackdowns on TV and radio programs broadcasting
questionable content, and suddenly everyone from pundits to politicians to the
man in the street had an opinion on Janet Jackson's chest. Later that March, the
singer quietly started making the talk show rounds. She was still apologizing
for the incident, but she was also promoting Damita Jo, which Virgin issued at
the end of the month. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
Contact Grabow for more information or to book Janet Jackson
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