Before saying goodbye to the 80's, Janet Jackson decided to punch everyone in the fact with the massive uppercut that was Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814. Would you believe that even after selling twelve million units, the album isn't her biggest seller to date? Yeah, she's sold a lot of records worldwide.
Though her label wanted a repeat of music styles from her 1986 Control album, Jackson instead opted for a concept album, heavily focused on social issues Turns out that her direction was right, as the singer would be praised for her commentary, and be labeled a youth role model for her socially conscious lyrics, which touched om poverty, racism, substance abuse, and romance.
Further, Rhythm Nation remains the only album to date to have seven commercial singles peak within the top five positions. A sidebar that many people also don't seem to know, but which I found out while reading the Billboard chart sheets for these posts, is that Janet single handed kept the 80's alive on the charts in the early 90's, with songs from this album continuing to linger.
While the new decade saw a trickle of artists from 1989 stay through mid 1990, it was Janet and Phil Collins (for hits from ...But Seriously) who would be the final two holdouts. Collins would fall off in late 1990, with Janet being the "last man standing" through early 1991.
For example, she says in between State of the World, and The Knowledge, "We are in a race for education..." to which I can only respond, "Well, better to be in a race for education than a race for the toilet."
I have to take a step back, disagreeing still with the critics who state that this album garnered her a level of cross-cultural appeal unmatched by industry peers. Sorry, but if boundaries were broken, that was done in 1982 by her brother Michael, who to date has sold an estimated seventy million copies of Thriller. This happened again in 1984, when Prince too broke boundaries with Purple Rain, which to date has sold an estimated twenty-five million copies. While Janet's twelve million sold is no short accomplishment to be scoffed at, it's nowhere close to the impact of those two.
With that said, the tracks I do like off the album are hard hitters. I could easily play the title track, Miss You Much, Love Will Never Do (probably my favorite), Escapade, and Black Cat every day of the week, and be happy. Overall, again, I just don't find the album as a whole to be perfect from start to finish. While there are some stragglers, such as Alright, and Come Back To Me, which are decent, it's just not the powerhouse the critics want you so desperately to believe it is. I mean, it's good, okay even. Just not flawless.
That, of course, is just one persons opinion, and not one that impacted Janet in any way, shape, or form. Her follow up, 1993's Janet, would sell fourteen million copies, and though to date, her sales would decline, we're talking about eight million (1997's The Velvet Rope) to five million (2001's All For You), to three million (2004's Damita Jo), to one point five million (2006's 20 Y.O.). Yes, that's a steady decline, and things only got worse with Discipline (2008), and Unbreakable (2015), which didn't crack a million.
While she's announced new music is coming, Unbreakable has been her last album to date. Personally, I'd like to see her form a new iteration of The Jacksons with her brothers, and headline that bad boy into the future. She could absolutely pull off the vocals for brother Michael's hits all the way back to the era of Jackson 5. I mean, I get it, it would just be her carrying the others to success, much like Michael did. I suppose at the end of the day, why sing the songs of someone else when you can sing your own. Wouldn't that be something though?
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS May 9, 1981 |
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS May 9, 1987 |
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