HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY JANET JACKSON!!!
Today marks a milestone in the life of my favorite entertainer of all time. It’s her 50th birthday! Now…she and I may have had our differences over the past month due to the handling of her return and this tour…but nevertheless…she is and forever will always be my fav. Why not her big brother the late, great Michael Jackson you might ask? Well…I’ve never seen him perform live, but I know he’s undisputedly the greatest to ever do it. However, his baby sister is my favorite. I always call her “who your fav wants to be but never will!” The reason that I say that is because look at how many times and by how many people she has been copied and imitated by so many artist. Yes…even the ones thought to be original (no shade). Like the saying goes…imitation is the biggest form of flattery. I want to take the time to look back on her remarkable career that has spanned over 40 years….
Janet Jackson was born into the greatest musical family of all time. A big ass family which all of them were talented. Started by her 5 oldest brothers in the mid 1960’s, the Jackson 5 broke records and became legends themselves at such a young age; it was only right for Janet to eventually join the family business and show her talent and what she could bring. It all started on the Jackson’s variety show where Janet Jackson along with brother Randy would imitate Sonny & Cher as well as Mae West & Groucho Marx. Not long after that she was singing and performing her own songs. A few years later Janet would join the cast of the hit show Good Times as Penny an abused child who gets rescued by the Evans family and goes to live with adoptive mother Willona Woods. From then on Janet continued acting with roles on TV shows; Different Strokes and Fame. It was on Fame where she was able to show off her singing and dancing ability. What people don’t realize is that by her starting in acting, it made her stand out from the rest of the family and be noticed in a different way. It was an extremely smart move for her to get into acting first. However, coming form a musical family there was no way that Janet wasn’t going to eventually start her own music career.
Music Career- At first, their father, Joseph Jackson wanted to have his three daughters (Rebbie, LaToya and Janet) become a trio. However, there were some complications. Not only was there was an age difference, but Rebbie who was already married had started a family. Janet at this point was still a teenager and was ready to get her music career going. Her first two albums; Janet Jackson and Dream Street were cute for the time, but didn’t have those big singles that she needed to propel her career to the next level. Let’s keep it real. She had huge shoes to fill following after not only The Jackson 5, later known as The Jacksons, but Michael had started his solo career with his two biggest albums and two of the biggest albums of all time: Off the Wall and Thriller. Janet then got together with former Prince protegé’s and The Time group members turned mega producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. History was made…her album Control was released! Enough said! Control was the first album in history to generate six number one singles on the Billboard top 200 charts. So how do you follow that up??? You COMPLETELY changethe game and releasing Rhythm Nation 1814. That album had SEVEN number one hits, won numerous awards, one of the biggest debut tours of all-time for a musician and has gone 14 times platinum just to name a few accolades. Then came “janet.” which showed a more sensual and sexy side of Janet which shocked a lot of her fans but we were ALL HERE for it. The Velvet Rope came next which is my favorite Janet album and tour. TVR gave us a closer look into what she was going through. It was a more dark and open Janet. TVR tour has been and still is today the most imitated show to date. The lighting, dancing, pyrotechnics, stage…everything on this tour was perfect. And you can see influences on your favs shows since 1999 after the tour ended…once again…no shade! All For You released in 2001 was her last album with huge commercial success because we know what happened next. The same thing that happens to every black artist when they get on top. The media tries to destroy them. If you don’t believe me…just look at history of top black musicians. We saw it with Beyoncè earlier this year and again with Prince in his death.
The Super Bowl incident was it for her. They tried to destroy my girl. Radios stopped playing her music, she wasn’t invited to award shows…it was a mess. However, unlike these new artist…she was already deemed legendary at this point and an icon in the music business and had established a huge fan base. They couldn’t take that away from her. Her next three albums: 20 Y.O., Damita Jo and Discipline didn’t have huge commercial success but we the fans were here for them. Janet has even stated that she didn’t feel comfortable releasing those albums but was pressured by the record label because they wanted her to get in with the younger crowd. How Sway? Her music and videos still weren’t being played in mainstream media. I always felt she should have stuck with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis instead of Jermaine Dupri’s ass…and did her music, her way! But love makes us do dumb things sometimes. Oh well…what’s done is done! In 2015 Janet released Unbreakable and as great of an album as it is…she obviously released this solely for her fans and not to break any records. No shade! And we won’t get started on the tour because I already went there. Regardless…Janet Jackson is at a place in her career and at an age where she doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone. Just keep doing you Janet. No one will ever be able to take away what you’ve accomplished in your legendary career. They only can hope, pray and dream that their favorite will be able to do the same! (No shade) Enjoy the next phase in your life…motherhood.
