Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson is an influential American singer, songwriter, and actress, born on May 16, 1966, in Gary, Indiana. As the youngest sibling in a family of nine, she was immersed in music from an early age, with her brothers achieving fame as the Jackson Five. Jackson's own career took off when she began performing onstage with her family and starred in several television shows during the 1970s. By the age of sixteen, she signed with A&M Records and released her debut album, which set the stage for a series of successful records throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
Her 1986 album, "Control," marked a turning point in her career, showcasing her artistic independence and introducing a new sound that blended various genres. Jackson became the first artist to produce seven Top 5 hits from a single album with "Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814." In addition to her musical accomplishments, she has acted in films and collaborated with notable artists, including her brother Michael Jackson. Over the years, Jackson has faced personal and public controversies, including the infamous Super Bowl incident in 2004, but she has continued to evolve as an artist. Her contributions to music and entertainment have solidified her status as a cultural icon.
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Subject Terms
Janet Jackson
Singer
- Born: May 16, 1966
- Birthplace: Gary, Indiana
Singer, actor, entertainer, and pop icon Jackson, the baby of a famous musical family, carved out her own place in the music industry. Her third album, Control(1986), created an influential new sound and topped the Billboard charts. She went on to become equally famous as an actor in films such as For Colored Girls (2010).
Early Life
Janet Damita Jo Jackson was born May 16, 1966, in Gary, Indiana, to Katherine and Joseph Jackson. Jackson is the youngest of nine children in a musical family that included superstar Michael Jackson. Because of the success of her brothers’ singing group, the Jackson Five, the family moved to California in 1969. At the age of seven, Jackson appeared onstage with her family in Las Vegas; this appearance was the start of her career as a performer. By 1976, her brothers had a variety show on CBS on which Jackson and her sisters were regulars. The exposure led her to roles on the sitcoms Good Times (1977-1979), A New Kind of Family (1979-1980), and Diff’rent Strokes (1981-1982).
Jackson’s father, who also served as her manager, encouraged her to sing. By age sixteen, Jackson had signed a contract with A&M Records and released her debut album, Janet Jackson (1982), which peaked at number six on Billboard’s Top R&B/Black Albums chart. In 1983, Jackson appeared on the hit television series Fame during its fourth season. Her sophomore album, Dream Street, was released in 1984. That year, at the age of eighteen, Jackson eloped with boyfriend James DeBarge of the singing group DeBarge. The marriage was annulled the following year.
Life’s Work
In 1986, Jackson released her third album, Control. Her father was no longer her manager, and A&M Records executive John McClain, her new manager, hired music producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis to work with Jackson on the album. Control marked the point when Jackson started to gain control of her life and career. The album also unveiled a new sound, a combination of rhythm and blues (R&B), funk, disco, rap, and pop. The album earned four American Music Awards in 1987 and was certified five times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.
In 1989, Jackson released her fourth album, Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814. It was the first album to spawn number-one hits on Billboard’s Hot 100 in three separate calendar years: “Rhythm Nation” (1989), “Miss You Much” (1989), “Escapade” (1990), “Black Cat” (1990), and “Love Will Never Do (Without You)” (1991). Jackson also received her first Grammy Award for best long form music video for “Rhythm Nation.” She became the first artist ever to produce seven Top 5 hits from one album.
Between 1991 and 1993, Jackson signed a new thirty-two-million-dollar recording contract with Virgin Records; secretly married choreographer, songwriter, and director Rene Elizondo, Jr.; and released her fifth album, Janet (1993). Also in 1993, Jackson made her film debut in Poetic Justice alongside Regina King and Tupac Shakur.
Jackson collaborated with her brother Michael on the song “Scream” from his album HIStory (1995), winning another Grammy Award for best short form music video. In 1997, Jackson released her sixth album, The Velvet Rope. At the end of the twentieth century, Billboard magazine ranked her the second-most successful artist of the decade. In 2000, Jackson starred in her second film, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, and in 2001, she released her seventh album, All for You. She and Elizondo divorced in 2000, an event that revealed their marriage to the public.
Controversy erupted in 2004 when Jackson sang alongside Justin Timberlake in the Super Bowl halftime show. Their performance ended with an infamous “wardrobe malfunction” in which Jackson’s breast was momentarily bared, an accident that prompted an apology from Jackson and investigations of CBS, MTV, and the National Football League by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Jackson released her eighth album, Damita Jo, in 2004 and her ninth, 20 Y.O., in 2006.
In 2007, Forbes magazine ranked Jackson the seventh richest woman in the entertainment business, listing her worth at more than $150 million. That year, Jackson starred in Tyler Perry’s film Why Did I Get Married? The film role earned Jackson an Image Award for outstanding supporting actress in a motion picture from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In July of 2007, Jackson signed a new recording contract with Island Records. Discipline, her tenth album, was released in February of 2008. While on tour, Jackson ended her recording contract with Island Records, reportedly because of a dispute over marketing.
In June of 2009, Jackson was in Atlanta filming the sequel Why Did I Get Married Too? (2010). While on the set, she learned of her brother Michael’s death. In September, she performed the dance sequence from the music video Scream at the MTV Video Music Awards. She performed in front of a screen showing Michael’s dance routine, making it appear she was once again dancing with her brother. In 2010, to honor her brother’s legacy while supporting the people of Haiti after the country’s devastating earthquake, Jackson recorded the song “We Are the World Twenty-five for Haiti,” a remake of the classic 1985 charity song “We Are the World.”
Later that year Jackson appeared in the film adaptation of Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, also directed by Tyler Perry. The movie received mixed reviews, but critical response to Jackson's performance was largely positive, and her role as a woman whose tolerance for her husband's philandering is wearing thin earned her Black Reel Award nominations for outstanding supporting actress and outstanding ensemble. In 2011, Jackson embarked on her largest world tour yet, with performances in thirty-five cities.
Jackson married her third husband, Qatari business magnate Wissam al Mana, in 2012, and spent several years out of the public eye, reportedly spending most of her time in the Middle East. In 2015 she revealed plans for a new album, Unbreakable, and another world tour. The album's lead single, "No Sleeep," reached number one on the Billboard Adult R&B Songs chart, a position it held for twelve nonconsecutive weeks, and peaked at number sixty-three on the Billboard Hot 100. It was Jackson's first single in seven years. The album, meanwhile, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, the seventh of Jackson's albums to top that chart. In 2016, Billboard placed her seventh on its list of Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists.
The Unbreakable Tour was postponed in 2015 due to a surgery and again in 2016 due to Jackson's pregnancy. She gave birth to a son, Eissa al Mana, in January 2017. In May of that year, she announced in a video posted to Twitter both that she would be resuming the tour in 2017, now known as the State of the World Tour, and that she was divorcing Wissam al Mana. In 2018 Jackson collaborated with Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee on a single called "Made for Now." The following year she began performing a residency called Metamorphosis at the Park MGM resort in Las Vegas. In addition to those shows, she held a number of concerts in support of the thirtieth anniversary of her iconic album Rhythm Nation.
Significance
Jackson mixed dance, pop, rap, rock, and rhythm and blues to produce an iconic sound. She released numerous hit singles and albums and her fame was fueled by her award-winning music videos. Jackson also made a name for herself as an actor in television and film roles. In a career spanning several decades, she emerged from the shadow of her famous family to carve out her own place in history.
Bibliography
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Garber, Megan. "The Return of Janet Jackson." Atlantic. Atlantic Monthly, 22 June 2015. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.
Johnson, Robert E. “Janet Jackson: A New Love, a New Nation, and a New Black Pride.” Ebony 45.4 (1990): 50-54. Print.
Mintzer, Rich. Hip-Hop Hitmakers: The Story of So So Def Recordings. Broomall: Mason Crest, 2013. Print.
Morris, Wesley. "Sorry, Ms. Jackson: You're Underrated. 'Control' at 30." Review of Control, by Janet Jackson. The New York Times, 8 Aug. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/08/09/arts/music/janet-jackson-control-anniversary.html. Accessed 3 May 2017.
Nathan, David. “Whitney, Janet, and Toni: The Young Divas.” Soulful Divas: Personal Portraits of Over a Dozen Divine Divas, from Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, and Diana Ross to Patti LaBelle, Whitney Houston, and Janet Jackson. New York: Billboard, 1999. Print.
Pareles, Jon. "Janet Jackson, on Unbreakable Tour, Shows Off Her Demure Side." New York Times. New York Times, 1 Sept. 2015. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.
Respers France, Lisa. "Janet Jackson Says She Will Resume World Tour, Addresses Split from Husband." CNN, 2 May 2017, www.cnn.com/2017/05/02/entertainment/janet-jackson-tour-marriage. Accessed 3 May 2017.
Tannenbaum, Rob. "Janet Jackson Shows Off Her Resilience on 'Unbreakable.'" Review of Unbreakable, by Janet Jackson. Billboard, 6 Oct. 2015, http://www.billboard.com/articles/review/6715541/janet-jackson-unbreakable-album-review. Accessed 3 May 2017.