JanetJackson

Janet
Jackson

    Janet Damita Jo Jackson was born on May 16, 1966 in Gary, Indiana. She's the youngest of 9 children born to Joe and Katherine Jackson. Since the Jackson 5 were already on their way to becoming stars by the time Janet was born, it may never have occurred to her that it was possible to fail in show business.
     As she grew older, her interests branched out into several directions, dancing, acting and singing. She appeared on stage in her brothers' live show in 1973, when she was only seven years old. In 1977, Norman Lear offered her the role of "Penny" (Willona's adopted daughter) on "Good Times" (CBS.) After that, she began appearing on other TV shows such as "Diff'rent Strokes" and "A New Kind Of Family."
     By 1982 Janet was ready to join the family ranks as a recording artist. Her self-titled A&M records release boasted two 12" singles that started her long affair with the club set. "Young Love" languished in the lower reaches of the charts while "Say You Do" soared up the dance charts, neither made much of an impact on radio or the general public. "Janet Jackson" demonstrates no distinctive musical style of it's own, which isn't surprising considering that Janet was only 16 at the time.
     In 1983, Janet landed a role on the TV show "Fame." During her time on the show, she remained in the protective clutches of her parents who were often on the set. During one of her tours, in an effort to ignite her recording career, she met Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (from The Time) two men who would ultimately change her life forever.
     By 1984, Janet eloped with singer James DeBarge. But the following spring, she moved back into her parents home and had the marriage annulled. Also in 1984, Janet released her second album, "Dreamstreet," and although it was a little more personal, it was not well received by fans or critics. The album spawned the major club and R&B radio hit "Don't Stand Another Chance" and the lesser received 12" of "Fast Girls." The former was a family affair, produced by brother Marlon Jackson with vocal ad-libs by Michael Jackson.
     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 Jackson up with producers/writers Jam and Lewis, whom Janet had met on an earlier tour. 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 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 12" 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 hip-hop classic "The Pleasure Principle" and the title track (in 2 versions), hit the top five on the club charts while the ballad "Let's Wait Awhile" — also hit the Top Five on the pop charts. Jackson was hailed as a role model for young women and "Control" eventually sold over five million copies, establishing Jackson as not just a star, but her own woman. It also made Jam and Lewis a monstrously in-demand production team. Janet spent the following two years supporting the album and remixing the songs into dance versions.
     By 1989, Janet released her next album, "Rhythm Nation 1814," and although the album was great in and of itself, it was her music videos that made her unstoppable. And the tour that followed soon afterwards was huge, expensive and theatrical. The socially conscious material, which formed the backbone of "Rhythm Nation 1814" (the "1814" purportedly stood for either the letters "R" and "N" or the year "The Star-Spangled Banner" was written) was once again new ground for Janet to cover. The album produced six 12" singles: "Miss You Much," "Escapade," "Black Cat," "Love Will Never Do (Without You)," "Rhythm Nation" and "Alright." A seventh single, "Come Back To Me," reached the Top Five, making Jackson the first artist ever to produce seven Top Five hits off of one album (something not even her brother Michael had accomplished).
     In 1991, 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, 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.
     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 Jackson in favor of warm, inviting, gently undulating grooves. The album's lead single, the slinky "That's The Way Love Goes," became 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. Jackson also signed a new contract with Virgin for a reported $80 million. Yet while working on her next album, 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.
     Jackson toured the world again, and stayed on the charts in 1999 with the Top Five Busta Rhymes duet "What's It Gonna Be?!." 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, Jackson's marriage to Elizondo had become strained and the couple divorced in 2000, sparking a court battle over her musical income. Jackson returned with a new album, "All For You," in 2001, which largely continued the sensual tone set by her previous releases, 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."
     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. The album has fallen short of her usual sales goals, perhaps to due the backlash of her breast-baring incident? The album, her most overt sexually release yet, does contain the usual amount of slow jam grooves and perky dance cuts but at this point the whole sound is becoming rather overdone. Still we honor Janet for producing a steady stream of classic dance tracks that still sound as good today as when they were released.