Janet Jackson really doesn’t have to prove anything anymore. Since she already have secured herself as one of the most triumphant divas in the pop music industry a long time ago, long before lollipop popsters emerged. She still confesses though that growing up as a little sister of Michael Jackson was extra challenging.
Being the youngest in the brood of nine, Janet was barely learning to talk and walk when her five grown-up brothers started recording their smash hits as The Jackson 5. Giving Janet’s career at that time, extra complexity when she made her debut album in 1982.
“I was still coming out of their shadow, or at least felt I was when I did ‘Rhythm Nation’,” in 1989, she told in a recent interview.
Only in 1993 when the album “Janet” sold 20 million copies worldwide did she only felt at par with the older siblings.
“Finally when I did ‘Janet’ I felt, ok I’ve arrived. I finally made it all by myself to this spot, no coattail hanging, none of that. I felt good about it at that point,” she said.
Not everything has its downside especially living in the shadow of The Jackson 5. It gave Janet an affluent musical education from a young age, she says, adding together the familiarity with the craft helps elucidate the assortment of music and styles in her albums.
“I was exposed to so many different styles of music and that stemmed from having so many brothers and sisters. Everybody was listening to something different and it all rubbed off on the youngest one for sure,” she says.
Fast forward to 2008, after more than 20 years following the release of her first-ever platinum-selling record, Janet Jackson is keeping her fingers crossed that her 10th studio album “Discipline” due out next month, be able to score a return to her glorious structure after her two most recent albums saw lukewarm response from the public
Being packaged as classic Janet the album “Discipline” seems to glide smoothly from house to pop and more soulful slow tracks, mixing dance beats, pop and slow tempo tracks. It is expected to be released in the United States on February 26,
“My music’s always been mixed like that. The only thing that I didn’t do this time around, which I’ll probably do on the next album, is to do a rock record,” she said.
“There’s nothing new that I haven’t already done. I know where my lane is. I’m not trying to veer too far off the beaten path,” she added.
Coincidentally, the entertainment industry is by now speculating that the album may very well overturn a sliding drift in Jackson’s career that happened in line with the “wardrobe malfunction” that exposed her breast being on a live television during the 2004 Super Bowl.
Janet Jackson, however, discards any thoughts that the album is actually a long-awaited career riposte, as implied by some critics in the industry. She stated that:
“I never went anywhere. I think a comeback is when you’ve been gone and you actually come back.”
Even though her preceding two studio albums “20 Y.O.” in 2006 and “Damita Jo” in 2004 unsuccessfully matched the massive success of “Rhythm Nation 1814″ from 1989 and “Janet” in 1993, the aforementioned albums still were able to sell more than one million copies worldwide.
“The music business isn’t quite doing what it used to. There are certain people that are doing pretty good numbers but still not the kind of numbers we used to do back then,” Jackson said.
“If this is the album that takes everything back to the way it used to be that would be great and I’d be excited that it’s mine.”
Now wiser and honed with experience, Janet Jackson, who is now 41, disclosed that just a decade ago she was suffering from self esteem issues, depression up to the point that she doubted herself, which thankfully, she professes was a thing of the past.
“I’m in a much, a much better space. I still have my moments when I go back into my little hole but it’s never for long. It’s never the way that it was and I think we all have days like that.”
She added sincerely that. “It really starts with myself, first and foremost,”.
“I had to see myself in a different light for one, to start to like myself, when I didn’t before, to learn to love myself, to stop letting myself get into situations in relationships that weren’t very healthy for me.”
From her 1986 album “Control“, the title track started off with a strong pronouncement stating that “it’s all about control … control of what I say, control of what I do,” but Janet admits that over the years she seemed to be slipping from her grip.
“I guess being older I’ve realized that we’re not really the ones that are in control. It’s truly coming from God. He’s the main one that’s in control of it all,” she says, adding that independence is more important for her.â€
Her strong sense of personal sexuality remained a constant theme in all her albums and is present in the latest record.
“I think the last album was very sexual too. It just turns out like that. I don’t set out to say ‘I’m going to make a sexual album.’ It just happens that way really.”
The singer admits that she is frequently approached by the public who claimed that their children were conceived to one of her songs, in aid of the commonly listened tracks like “Velvet Rope,” “Would You Mind,” and probably very fittingly “Any Time, Any Place.”
“It makes me feel great because that’s what it’s all about. It’s creating music that moves people and puts them in a certain mood and that’s the correct mood that you want them to be in,” she said.
She aspires that “Discipline,” the title track of the new album which is a breathy, funky and soulful number is in trail with that tradition
Janet divulges that the burden of a celebrity A-list can get too much sometimes, especially with the media’s fascination with public personalities
“It’s definitely worse now than it has been in the past, but I think also a lot of celebrities want it that way,” she said.
“I think there are those that really do shy away from it and then there are others that love the attention, so any chance they can get they’re not going to try and avoid it. You can avoid it a lot of times,” she added.
“But you have moments when you just want to have your down time and kind of be alone and kind of blend in with the rest of the crowd and then somewhere out of nowhere (the paparazzi) come along.â€
“When you come to a red light, they jump out the car and surround your car and then jump back in their car once the light turns green. It becomes too much at times,” she admitted.
“I think there should be certain guidelines, where it can get too dangerous and that’s where it has to stop.”
