It’s my birthday today and when I needed some life, I found it in abundance thanks to this video (and @queeneulalia for putting me onto it). Back in 1986, Janet Jackson’s Control was released, the album that really set her off on her amazing musical career (no offence to her first few albums). Long time collaborators Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis created a fusion of pop, funk, R&B, soul and R&B turned it into the first “new jack swing” album. The album was a major success, debuting at #5 on the Billboard Hot 200, spending two weeks at #1 and winning eight Billboard Music Awards. That also included a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year and winning Producer of the Year, Non-Classical for Jam and Lewis in 1987, being listed by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 200 Definitive Albums of All Time and platinum certification byt he RIAA with sales of over fourteen million copies worldwide. Not too shabby.
She would later carry this method into her second album Rhythm Nation 1814 and, a year later, her brother Michael tried his hand at the genre and gave us Dangerous, which went on to sell over 30m copies worldwide (you know how he do!). But anyway, back to 1986 and her live performance on Soul Train. Pay special attention from about three minutes in to get your daily allowance of life from the dude in white. Ah, to be dancing with Janet Jackson in 1986 right now…