Ms. Jackson, if you still care...

By Will “Deshair” Foskey, as seen in the January issue of XPOZ magazine

It’s almost hard to believe that it has been 20 years since Ms. Jackson took “Control” over her career, but it has been that long. Born to Joseph and Katherine Jackson, Janet Damita Jo, is the youngest of nine children with enough energy and attitude to share evenly with her siblings. The youngest descendant of musical royalty with the Jackson 5 as in-house motivation, who would have thought that Janet’s earliest aspirations, would have been to become a horse jockey? In the end, it was a stern father with a twist of calculated destiny that has given Janet the opportunity to entertain millions and to usher in a new generation of strong, confident women into the ‘90s.

Janet has sold more than 80 million albums worldwide, not including the many records she broke on the Billboard charts through her equally impressive singles. Some of those record setting feats have only been eclipsed by artists the caliber of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston in their prime.
Ms. Jackson is a World Tour giant as well. She is one of the few artists that no matter what the price of a ticket to her show costs she’ll make your purchase worth it by showcasing an overall stage performance that will excite you in more ways than one.

With a musical resume that is unmatched by any other artist in her genre, you would think that people wouldn’t count Janet out so quickly. Her ninth album “20 Y.O.” entered the Billboard 200 charts at #2, selling 289,000 units in its first week, but since then, Janet’s 20th anniversary party is all but over – or so they say. Since its release, 20 Y.O. sold over 440,000 copies. Her first week sales for “All For You” surpassed that number in one week. Some industry insiders would say that times have changed since Ms. Jackson’s hey day. Her current boyfriend and former President of Urban Music at Virgin, Jermaine Dupri has allegedly left his post due to the lack of promotion for his sweetheart’s latest project. Some of her diehard fans just wanted the old Janet with her signature sound and bright aura back.

So why isn’t Janet on top of the globe?

Contrary to popular demand, Janet’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction” during her Halftime Super Bowl performance has nothing to do with her drop in sales. Yes, she received a healthy portion of negative press and spurred the FCC back into action, but people weren’t going to stop buying her music because of it. I mean really, there weren’t many people out there who were totally appalled by the act. They may have been stunned, but not appalled. The truth is, most of the people who complained about the act, didn’t even see it until the day after.

Complaints about the promotion of 20 Y.O. seems to be a bit far fetched since Janet was on the cover of every magazine imaginable and also appeared on every major network to get the word out. Oprah Winfrey’s couch was promotion enough. And with a rabid fan base still backing Ms. Jackson, the World Wide Web dazzled with Janet trinkets. Now you can never have enough promotion. It’s just that Janet signed an $80 million dollar deal with Virgin, and with 20 Y.O. being the last album requirement of the deal, you would think that her promotions would be up to par. Or maybe for that same reason it wasn’t.
JD, you need to get in contact with me so that we can set the record straight for Janet fans everywhere.

I do know one thing though. It has been 20 years since Janet began her ascension after stepping out from her older brother, Michael’s shadow, to beginning her reign at the top of the Pop world. But in 2006, Janet, standing at the completely gorgeous age of 40, has found herself in competition with the female Pop/R&B world that she trail-blazed. She is an icon through and through, but she isn’t 21 anymore. Ok, so why did I just make this discussion about her age? I’m about to give you the real reason why Janet has fizzled over the past 5 years.

Ms. Jackson, or her advisors, have made a detrimental mistake in rerouting her musical direction. Janet is known for her popular sound; music that makes you feel good; music that makes you want to dance like her and with her. The formula that Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis helped Janet to create on the Control album ultimately paved a new lane in music. Janet was never pure R&B. Her music reached beyond the boundaries of any one particular genre. So why is Janet singing R&B music now? Why is she conforming to today’s generation of sound? Why isn’t she staying in her personal lane where she might have competitors coming at her, but when the smoke clears, they will only be compared to her? If popular music is what got you to where you are, you modify that music, you don’t just change it altogether – especially after 15 years of success.

You don’t see a group with the legacy of Bon Jovi, trying to sound like the All-American Rejects. And this is why after 20 years and over 100 million records sold; their fan base is as strong as ever. Bon Jovi is still doing what they have done the best, and that is being Bon Jovi. This is where I believe that Janet has lost her way, and by doing so, Janet’s career foundation is rotting from the inside out. A lot of her American fans have moved on. They just might come back around when her 20 Y.O. tour begins in March 2007, but they will stay for the show up until the “All For You” set is completed. Once she starts to sing music from the “Damita Jo” and “20 Y.O.” albums, many of those fans will begin to file out of the stadium.

Now I do understand that Janet has kept up an arduous pace over her illustrious career, putting in 8 hours a day in the gym, 6 days a week to prepare herself for appearances and live performances. And with each year that passes for Ms. Jackson, the work ethic that she made a paramount in this industry will become even more difficult to maintain. Will anyone want to see her perform ‘Pleasure Principal’ when she’s 51 years old? Will Janet even want to perform at that age? She is the ultimate entertainer, but even her brother Michael, one of the greatest entertainers of all-time can’t keep up the pace of battling his 20-something “Thriller” ghost.

At the 2006 World Music Awards, Michael called on R&B star, Chris Brown to perform ‘Thriller’ on his behalf. Let’s just say that Michael’s fans weren’t too receptive of the move. You tell me, when was the last time you ever heard of Michael Jackson being “booed off the stage” during a performance? The Jackson’s, as in Janet and Michael, were the first to take the new age of Popular music this far into their lives. They’ve had entertainers who’ve inspired them, but none of their inspirations worked at the pace that both Janet and Michael had to work. And I believe that even if there was a blueprint in place for them, they would have ignored it, because they thrive on performing at the highest level for their fans. I would just hope that artists like Usher, Ciara, Justin Timberlake, Chris Brown and other livewire entertainers will not only continue to look at the Jackson’s as their inspirations, but also as examples of where their careers can take them if they keep up the grueling high impact pace their fans expect from them.

In closing, these are just my thoughts on why I feel that Janet Jackson has fallen from grace. And this is my message to Ms. Jackson:

We still care about you dearly. You’ve set positive examples for many, and have inspired an entire culture to be a part of your nation. I would be selfish as a fan to ask for the old Janet back. But it was you that has spoiled us with your sexy expressions, your incredible hips and unearthly abs glistening onstage. It was you who dazzled us with your performances of ‘Rhythm Nation’, ‘If’ and twirled your perfections to a boiling blaze with ‘I Get Lonely’. It was you who sang the songs that made us feel unbelievably good, made some of us cry, made some of us make babies (Anytime, Anyplace) and we will love you forever for it. It’s just that you’ve set too high a bar of standards for yourself to just casually walk under it for the past couple of years. Janet, we want to see you high jump over your previously set bar of standards, even if it’s for the last time. You’ve told us a few years back that it was, “All for you, if you really want it.” We really want it Janet.

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