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Thread started 03/29/06 8:46pm

JANFAN4L

THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE (1987) | Control :: the 20th anniversary

CONTROL :: THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY

2006 marks the 20th anniversary of Janet's groundbreaking project "Control." The following threads are in celebration of the milestones reached by Janet with this album and its videos and singles. This is the album that made her a musical superstar in her own right and kicked off an impressive twenty years of successes, which led her to becoming the icon and music legend she is today. Legendary is a word reserved for a select few in the music industry, many seek it, though few earn it. If called upon a title to signal the destiny of one young talent, her path to such lofty heights can be summed up with three choice words: The Pleasure Principle.

The Pleasure Principle (1987)

With "Let's Wait Awhile" manning the hole on the singles front, Janet made good on her "promise" in the late spring of that same year. A full season had passed since she had released her last single. For months, she would be sequestered in various studios putting the finishing touches on Control's greatest show-stopper, "The Pleasure Principle." Unleashed in May of 1987, it was the sixth and final offering, in most territories, and made swift ascension up the U.S. charts, becoming her fifth R&B Number 1 (and Top 20 pop hit) in less than two years. With the tune, she became the first solo artist, male or female, to push five Number 1 R&B singles from one album -- adding yet another feather to her illustrious cap.

The legend of "The Pleasure Principle" is one that is triptych in its narration: bellied by a hard-hitting dance-funk single, anchored by its mammoth video and inimitable legacy.

Writer/producer, and fellow Time expatriate, Monte Moir collaborated with Janet on the single and, coincidentally, was the last to know of its release: "I found out through Billboard," he says. "It was a year and a half after the album had been out. I had been working with Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam by then and we had parted ways. I didn't realize it was going to be coming out as a single at all, although I had known it was getting a lot of airplay and the clubs had been playing it a lot." The track was laid down long before Janet and Jam & Lewis had determined the direction of the project; Moir had submitted several songs, and "The Pleasure Principle" ultimately fit best, as its somewhat cryptic lyrics about getting out of a bad situation appealed to Janet.

Its title is in fact an allusion to Sigmund Freud's "Pleasure Principle," a psychoanalytic theory which postulates the human desire to seek pleasure and avoid pain.

The recording process was a quick and somewhat rushed venture due to time constraints at Jam & Lewis' newly built -- and fully booked -- Flyte Tyme headquarters in Minneapolis. Given the situation, Moir was impressed by the preparedness of Janet: "She came in and knew the song pretty much inside out," he says. "A lot of singers will come in and they don't study too much or do their homework or really get to know the song, and they'll be reading everything off the sheet."

Its video is set in a cavernous, multi-windowed warehouse. In it, the viewer bares witness to an impassioned Janet Jackson -- who is both confident and brooding. The film captures her as a 'go-for-broke' vigilante with a meditative spirit. What is remarkable about the clip is her tightly assembled dance repertoire -- co-conceived with Barry Lather -- and the series of acrobatic feats with which she executes. In one scene, Janet is high atop a platform, dwarfing the area beneath, performing to an imaginary audience when suddenly she launches into a high-aired backflip -- which, surprisingly, was not performed by a stunt double, but by Janet herself.

The video marks a distinct stylistic shift in the portrayal of a transforming solo artist on film; and captures how the medium could define a singular star. Its noted director was none other than Dominic Sena (Swordfish, Gone In 60 Seconds), who Janet built a worthy working relationship. He saddles up his cameras to capture the kinetic one-woman showdown.

The pathos of it all leaves one agog. The sheer voracity of her performance in the piece is at turns gallant and possessed. "She was really, really going for it," recalls Columnist/Disc Jockey Trevor Nelson. "She was somebody who was utilizing 99 percent of her talent, you could tell."

Part heroic, part deft-defying: it was as if Janet were attacking her invisible minions and countering the off-putting pundits of an earnest past; in turn, shattering the mirror of her former self and sizing up her own destiny in the pieces that lay before. Its blaring soundtrack became her sonic adrenaline as she writhed her bandaged palms and padded joints amidst the dust.

It is one of the premier videos of the visual music medium itself and remains one of the best solo artist performances ever captured on short film -- inspiring a generation of progeny [see "Legacy" addition below]. It was nominated for three MTV Video Music Awards in 1987-'88 and took home two: one for Best Choreography and a second for Best Cinematography.

As she snatches up her jacket and makes one final grip of strength in her wake, we can almost visualize the young entertainer walking out of the era that was Control into the figurative zone which would later house her illustrious and legendary twenty-plus year career. The line in which she sings, "I've got so many things I want to do before I'm through" could not have been much more of a glimmering flash of verisimilitude.

If any song ever greatly served to cement Janet's status as a pop megastar it was this one. The deal had been sealed. Miss Jackson was a masterful talent who could stand on her own two. And, who now had her peers following in her footsteps. Twenty years later it seems the thing of legend, but, at the time, just an exercise in preparation of the obvious.

- JANFAN4L

[...to be continued - Next "The Conclusion"]

Chart Activity - Peak Positions
The Billboard Hot 100: #14 (debuted 5/23/87 - 18 weeks on chart)
Hot 100 Airplay: #13
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks: #1 (1 week) (debuted 5/23/87 - 17 weeks on chart)
Hot Dance Music/Club Play: #1 (2 weeks) (debuted 5/9/87 - 10 weeks on chart)
Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales: #8
ARC Top 40: #10
UK: #24 (debuted 6/13/87 - 5 weeks on chart)
Belgium: #15
Holland: #15
South Africa (sales chart): #8

[ all chart info courtesy of http://www.cravingjanet.com ]

:::
song: written by monte moir
video: directed by dominic sena

Previous thread in series: Let's Wait Awhile

MikeMatronik	That ass It's the ninth wonder of the world imo!
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WeTdReaMCOusin	I always wondered what her shirt said.... I think this video is her "Thriller" ...he goes into the bathroom to re-apply his eyeliner and a familiar face comes from the stall."Nikki.." he says. She says "I left my number on the stairs, you never called.." He throws some Watchtowers at her and says "Here you go..masterbate with these.
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CinisterCee	What a thread!
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PleasurePrinci ple	I LOVE THIS SONG!!!!!
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