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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, 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 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 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, 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, 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 Jackson
wound up moving back into her parents' home and having the marriage
annulled.
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 Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, whom she'd seen perform as
members of the Minneapolis funk outfit the Time. 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
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. 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.
For the hotly anticipated follow-up, John McClain wanted to push 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
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. 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, 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?!"; 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, 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 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. |
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"You don't have to hold onto
the pain to hold onto the memory"
"We all have the need to feel special"
"In complete darkness, it is only knowledge and wisdom that
separates us"
"I will never forget that. I was really young, about 6 or 7, and as
a kid, that was very hurtful to me. I went through a lot, from age
15 to about 19 years. I was very young. I used to hurt so badly that
I'd ask God why, what have I done to deserve this?" - on recalling
the day her father told her to stop calling him Dad.
"We're all driven to premieres or nightclubs and seen the rope
separating those who can enter and those who can't. Well, there's
also a velvet rope we have inside of us, keeping others from knowing
our feelings. In this album I'm trying to expose and explore thsoe
feelings. I'm inviting you inside my barrier. During my life I've
been on both sides of the rope. At times, especially during my
childhood, I felt left out and alone. At times I felt
misunderstood....But no human heard those feelings expressed. They
stayed buried in the past. But now the truth has to come out, and
for me, the truth takes the form of a song." - on her 1997 recording
"The Velvet Rope".
"It made me so happy. On my song "Whoops Now,' I even used the
lyrics, 'I'm out in the sun having fun with my friends' [from that
song]. There's also the Turtles' 'Happy Together' and the
Association's 'Windy' and Simon and Garfunkel's 'Feelin' Groovy.'
Those songs are all precious moments to me. They're about just plain
feeling good." - In a Rolling Stone '93 interview.
"I was very independent growing up, but there were things that were
bothering me that I never told anybody. I would talk to our animals
at home. We had fawns that Michael and I raised until we weaned them
and we'd feed them every morning. And I would talk to them....I felt
they understood me. We had four dogs, and I would climb in the
bushes and sit down and speak with them....And that's how I dealt
with my life in the very, very beginning, when I was a kid."
"I was never pushed into the religion by my mother or anyone else. I
made up my own mind when I was old enough. I am not a religious
person, but I am spiritual. But I don't believe in things like
guilt. I believe in a higher power. I believe in inspiration."
"I've been very fortunate to have found someone who have been so
incredibly caring....I don't think anybody else would have stuck
around because I had some really difficult times.... And I know he
probably would wake up and say, "Okay, who is she today?" I think
anyone else would have said, 'You know what? I am out of here
because I cannot take this.' But he was there, right by my side the
entire way." - on Rene Elizondo, Jr.
"I set out to please myself, hopefully in the end, the listeners
will enjoy what I've created."
"If I wasn't singing, I'd probably be, probably an accountant."
"Dreams can become a reality when we possess a vision that is
characterized by the willingness to work hard, a desire for
excellence, and a belief in our right and our responsiblity to be
equal members of society."
"You know that it's something different when you're whole family
falls in love with him, when your brothers and sisters love him. And
with me having eight brothers and sisters, there are some major eyes
on him. And they all adore him. So that's really good." - on
Jermaine Dupri
"People need to stay out of other people's business. Honestly, how
can they say what is a good match for me and what is a good match
for him? They really don't know us. That's for us to decide. They
need to stay out of other's people's business and deal with their
own issues." - on people disapproving of Jermaine Dupri
"Getting back to that child and giving the child what the child may
have missed - the reassurance of a nourishing and accepting love, a
love that says you are special - is hard work. It can be scary, but
like the song says, we have to deal with the past to live completely
-and freely - in the present."
"Life is a journey, and I'm still walking it. And, like everyone,
I'm going to have some days that are better than others, some days
that are tougher than others. But I'm in a much happier place, the
happiest place I've ever been in my life, and that's why it feels so
good to me, finally being able to say I do like who I am."
"We are a nation with no geographic boundaries, bound together
through our beliefs, we are like minded individuals sharing a common
vision, pushing toward a world rid of color lines."
"To a world sick with racism, get well soon."
"We had the kind of night were morning comes to soon....we used the
light from a flickering candle across the room to make the kind of
shadows that only one thing could make....love."
"Pain like water it dry away so love come in without pain how can
love think about."
"I kinda see everyone as competition. I'm a very competitive person.
But I think that's good. Competition is great. And as long as it's
friendly and not a malicious thing, then I think it's cool."
"I also experienced serious rejection. I auditioned for dozens of
commercials, for example, but was never chosen. That might have
devastated other children, but somehow my attitude was 'well if I
don't get this one, I'll get the next'. Looking back, I see I had a
built-in toughness."
"There was also loneliness. I had few friends. Work consumed me. in
some ways, it still does."
"I was sheltered by my parents, work and school. I walked out into
the world and saw things I'd only read about. I learned the hard
way. It was scary, but I saw I had two choices - sink or swim. I
swam. And discovered I could actually make it to the shore, all on
my own. Not that I wasn't frightened or didn't experience moments of
panic. I did."
"Being from a famous family is a blessing. I'm challenged to live up
to the expectations. I'm happy, grateful for what I've inherited and
excited about what I want to contribute."
"The pain is necessary. Sometimes pain is the teacher we require, a
hidden gift of healing and hope."
"After my disillusionment, I felt hollow inside, as though someone
had scooped out my soul. It took a while, but deep within I
discovered a core of determination I never knew existed. That's when
I got serious about myself and my career. I saw what I needed to do,
and I did it."
"All kids rebel. My way was to dye my hair half pink and half blue.
It was a mess."
"Freedom means choices."
"My dad taught us that there's no greater distance than that between
first and second place".
"Self-expression is my goal, I want to be real with my feelings.
Singing and dancing-and all the joy that goes with performing- come
from my heart. If I can't feel it, I won't do it."
A lot of times I felt so alone. But I also thought there has to be
other people that have experienced either what I have, or close to
it.
Another side to me is this very sexual being. When I look back on my
life, it's always been there. It's been there since I was 10 years
old, having the imagination that I had.
I am the baby in the family, and I always will be. I am actually
very happy to have that position. But I still get teased. I don't
mind that.
I love working with organizations. I love giving. I want to do more
of that. You got to give back. I love helping people, especially
children.
People do see me as sweet and innocent. Not to say that I am not
those things. But I have other sides to me. |
