At time of posting, it is February 3rd, 2019. The day of Super Bowl LIII. Which means it's Janet Jackson appreciation day. Something I'd much rather celebrate than a bunch of men throwing a football around. Janet Jackson appreciation day should be more than just one day a year. It should be peppered throughout the year. Because as much as Janet has accomplished over the course of her career, I still don't feel that she hasn't ever really gotten her flowers. And that fateful day when she gave the Super Bowl a titty it didn't even deserve went some way towards scuppering that.
Much like her older brother Michael, Janet became an inspiration for many pop stars and continually redefined what it meant to be a pop star, primarily through the power of the music video. So I'll be running down through Janet Jackson's most iconic and influential music videos throughout her career, from 1986 right through to 2000.
Directed by Julien Temple
The chords. The Hollywood musical feels of the video. The charm. The faux single take. The walk at 1:49. The way Janet hits that choreo. The way this put me in my feelings for Janet.
Despite this coming effectively at the (kinda) start of her career, "When I think of you" featured elements that would become mainstays in Janet's videos for 20 years. The choreography. The carefree attitude and the lighthearted vibe of the whole production. I remember my hair line receding the first time I heard this song and saw the video. Even now, "When I think of you" still remains as one of my favourites from Janet.
Directed by Dominic Sena
The everything. Just everything about this video.
"The pleasure principle" would go on to be one of Janet's most iconic videos. Janet and Michael both shared an ability to take a song and give it a whole new life and take visually. But whilst Michael always seemed as though he wasn't quite real in his videos, Janet on the other hand always felt like familiar and like somebody that you actually knew. Whilst Michael was turning paving slabs into gold with his footsteps, Janet was just a girl kicking it in a warehouse. "The pleasure principle" was a remarkable video from a normal looking girl. There were no sparkly socks or a glove covered in rhinestones. Just Janet in a black T-shirt, high-waisted skinny jeans and a pair of kicks you could buy from anywhere. This is what made "The pleasure principle" such a source of inspiration for many girls and guys. Because if a regular ass looking girl like Janet could do this, then any one of us could too.
Directed by Dominic Sena
The large scale set. The aesthetic. The synchronised choreo. The impact this would have on your faves.
I may as copy and paste the sentence 'bitches in pop reference this', because it's going to feature in literally every paragraph of this post. The military inspired choreo for "Rhythm nation" has been borrowed by many an artist. From Beyoncé during her MTV VMA 2006 performance of "Ring the alarm" to Perfume's 2010 performance of "Perfume no okite". And it was Janet herself who took this concept from Michael after seeing rehearsals of him doing it. "Rhythm nation" is a masterpiece. Not just because it's a great video to watch, but because there's a lot that Janet does here which set a precedent for pop stars that would go on to be trends years after. The message of togetherness and breaking boundaries would be the foundation on which Lady Gaga would build her entire career. And whilst Madonna decided to pimp Voguing for her 1990 hit song, the "Rhythm nation" choreo featured very clear nods to old way Vogue a whole year before. It wasn't spotlit or singled out. It was just woven in as part of the choreography. It wasn't a thing to really highlight, because it was just a part of black queer culture, something that Janet was always an advocate for, even back then. One of many instances of Janet doing something and not getting the recognition for it in the same way that her peers would get.
Directed by Dominic Sena
The Prince vibes. The impact the video had on pop. The iconic chair routine which is foolishly absent from the official YouTube upload of this video.
This industrial almost post apocalyptic setting of the video would be one that we'd see well into the late 90s and early 00s. Shit. K-Pop still be using it now. And the chair routine would see itself re-imagined and paid homage to for decades to come. Britney, Ciara, Jennifer Lopez, Destiny's Child; all these bitches have done some type of routine with a chair at some point and "Miss you much" is the reason why.
Directed by Julien Temple
The bounce. The 1950s musical throwback video. The production values. The way Janet had me pressed that the video mix featured a breakdown that the album mix didn't have. The guest feature from Cyd Charisse. The way your fave wishes.
"Alright" was a unique video on the whole. Kinda meta before meta was a thing. "Alright" paid homepage to a very specific point in musical and cinematic history. But Janet Jackson's music videos up until this point all featured references and elements plucked from the very era that "Alright" paid homage too. From the faux one take spectacle of "When I think of you", to the prop based choreography of "Miss you much". Visually "Alright" stuck out from all of the videos from Rhythm nation 1814, but the theme of togetherness and inclusiveness kept it very much in the same wheel house.
Directed by Herb Ritts
The first sighting of sexy Janet. The objectification of the male body. The booking of Herb Ritts. The moment that Janet snatched the last few gays that she'd missed up until this point.
"Love will never do (Without you)" was a major turning point for Janet and would set the foundations on which she would build her self-titled follow up album on, and there-in the rest of her career. Janet emerged as a woman who embraced her sensuality, her body, and showed that she could captivate just as much by walking around a beach looking carefree and beautiful, as she could dancing 3 straight minutes of intricate choreography. Just when we thought we knew all that Janet had to offer, she gave us this.
Directed by Dominic Sena
The setting. The choreography. The complete shift in tone. The budget. The Asian people.
"If" is quite possibly one of Janet's most iconic music videos for two reasons. Firstly, it was a form of declaration from Janet of who she was at this point in time and how she wanted the world to see her. She was not a girl anymore. She wasn't Michael's sister. She was Janet. Second of all, it was a defining moment in pop history, because once again Janet had given us a music video that would go on to be a mood board staple for every chick in pop who could hold a dance routine. We have all seen numerous music videos over the years with similar vibes to "If".
Directed by Mark Romanek
The vibes. Janet's fresh ass barely beat face looking gorgeous. Q-Tip. The beautiful blickitty blackness of the video. The aesthetic. Janet giving us "Don't touch my hair" back in 1997 at the 2:45 mark.
Janet is one of those artists of whom you don't really recognise their impact and forward thinking, until you see another artist do something, get praised for it and then look back retrospectively and realise Janet had already done it. Long before everybody got woke within pop and wanted everybody to know it, Janet was on that shit very quietly back in 1997; with a music video so damn beautifully black that you can smell the shea better through the screen as you watch it.
Directed by Seb Janiak
The setting. The respecting of cultures. The choreography. The high key innovative and seamless use of CGI.
By the time we got "Together again", it was clear there was a formula for a Janet Jackson music video, after the hard left deviation of it for "Got 'til its gone". The twist here was the use of computer generated imagery. Janet's videos had always been shot practically, but this was her first to feature CGI. As with "Got til' its gone" the whole vibe of this video was centred on framing a culture in a way that didn't exploit, appropriate, demean or seek to make any other statement other than to show it simply exists. Then of course there's Janet's dancing a routine which showed a level of finesse, athleticism and effortless execution.
Directed by Paul Hunter
The sexiness. The sultriness. The titties. The red hair.
Once again Janet came along with a music video which provided a turning point in how we saw her. From this point on Janet's titties would re-appear numerous times in music videos and photo-shoots, before titty-right would make its debut at the Super Bowl. Janet completely owns her sexuality in this video and its powerful. I've watched this video so many times and I still gasp every time she busses open that shirt. The velvet rope was a very different album for Janet, and each of its music videos served a purpose to show a different side of her and facet of the music on it. For me, "I get lonely" feels like the one video that encapsulated most of The velvet rope as a whole. The sense of love, loss, pain, sexuality, uncertainty, ownership and adulthood. Also, it showed that black girls can do red hair. Rihanna didn't do it first for Loud ya'll. Janet did it before a bitch even had a record deal.
Directed by Joseph Khan
The key change. The smoothness of Janet's background vocals. The Dreamcast games playing on the screens. The CGI which looks no better in Joseph Khan's current videos, despite this shit being 18 years old.
People would probably have things to say about this video and its stereotypical depiction of what we're led to believe is a futuristic Tokyo. A slight misstep given how respectful Janet was of locals and cultures in her past videos. But that's Joseph Khan for you. It's quite shocking that the CGI in Joseph Khan's videos look no better than they did in this.
Once again Janet was ahead of her time before anybody even knew what time it was, delivering a video shot in portrait mode. A bitch stays ahead. Always.
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Janet didn't just deliver videos which were fun to watch, but she set a standard that many females in pop would seek to achieve or at least hope to come close to. Janet wasn't overtly political in her music videos as some other artists and even her brother. But there were still messages in her music videos which touched on real life matters. There was always something meaningful to take out of her videos if you scratched the surface and looked a little deeper.
Whilst history (white history) would peg Madonna as the one female that has done the most for pop and females within it, it wasn't a single handed crusade that she fought. Janet has had a measurable impact on pop music in parallel, especially where visuals are concerned. Whilst Britney will cite Madonna as her first inspiration; her image, style and music videos shared far more in common with Janet than Madonna. And with every female pop or pop leaning act that came along in the early 00s who could dance a bit, they were more often than not based on Janet Jackson in some form. If Madonna was the artist that everybody wanted the worldwide commercial impact of, then Janet was the artist that every female who could dance wanted to actually be. And with music videos like what we've been getting from her since the 80s, it's not hard to get why.
Janet. You a bad bitch. And your videos are far too significant to not all feature on your official YouTube channel in HD.
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