"You know, dance is my thing. I love dance, I love dance music," Jackson said from a recent tour stop in Los Angeles. "I know with [Discipline], there are certain people [at her former record label Island Def Jam] that did not like the direction that I took ... as far as making this album. They wanted me to take another route - a much calmer kind of Sade-ish route, and I think that's fine. ... [But] there will come a time when I'll decide, 'You know what? I want to do something like this.' I'm still a girl who loves to dance - so dance music for me."


yeah that worked out real well for ya...

Fury said:

Someone needs to suggest that to Mariah also.

Oh well fuck record companies. Madonna's latest songs ain't exactly that deep. It's about dancing and having fun too right? Alot.
[Edited 10/12/08 11:18am]

NMusiqNSoul said:

the ability to still sell out your tour (instead of cancelling dates) does wonders for your decision making abilities

Fury said:

Others have stated that Madonna's tour isn't selling the way she's use to either. Then again, maybe these are all just "rumors." The Janet show I went to was packed.

Well I liked Discipline so.....

Fury said:

So dance music is immature and slow faux jazz like Sade is somehow mature by default? NO.

Dance music is her forte and it's what she needs to keep doing. This is about GENRE, not maturity. Please reread the quote. The strongest stuff on Discipline is the uptempo material, so she was definitely right.
[Edited 10/12/08 12:59pm]

shesoffthewall said:

The economy is bad, people are losing jobs and houses left and right, and these heffas (especially Madonna) decide to charge a ridiculous amount for tix then got the nerve to wonder why sales are down? It's not rocket science.

SCNDLS said:

Tina Turner's prices look better than Madonna's. Even Janet's was better prices, lol.

Timmy84 said:

Shiiiiit, that's not saying much for Tina cuz her tix for her Dallas show are at $200 for 2nd tier.

VoicesCarry said:

artistic integrity is great if your fan base follows you. most of her fan base is in their 30's-40's now...she needs to grow up with them. her dance moves are too stale to support her music in videos. today's pop princess's use janet moves to warm up for their own stuff.

I wonder if Madonna fans are wanting her to get away from the dance music and grow up I mean she is 50! If Janet is old and tired with the genre what does that make Madonna is even older than her?

Fury said:

Sorry, what? Artistic integrity has nothing to do with commercial success. It's great if your fan base follows, but it's also great if it doesn't.



Janet is trying to appeal to the wrong market. Growing up does not mean abandoning her genre. Today's pop princesses aspire to dance and perform like Janet, but it won't be happening any time soon.
[Edited 10/12/08 13:22pm]

shesoffthewall said:

I agree with that sexy.

Fury said:

Oh, jesus! That doesn't make sense for so many reasons. First off, she did nothing on the album. If it were a full on dance album, that would have been fine but it is weigh down by weird awful ballads ("The Greatest X") and mind numbing midtempo numbers ("What's Ur Name?"). It was not a dance album like promised! It was front loaded with dance songs then took a bland uturn, sort of like "20 YO". Only overall it was better.

shesoffthewall said:

i'm glad prince and queen latifah grew up musically

Fury said:

And both got fucking boring as hell in the process! I'm sensing a trend. May Janet and Madonna never "grow up".

bboy87 said:

Me too.

VoicesCarry said:

I was itchin to type something that sounded the same but I'm glad you said it first.

VoicesCarry said:

hey if it's working for her great. but when your tour is based on exciting dance moves but you aren't healthy enough to pull it off anymore...guess what...this might be your last tour

"Velvet Rope" was probably the most 'grown up' Janet album I've ever heard and even it had dance tracks on it ( "What About?" ). Janet and Madonna are not Celine Dion and Barbara Streisand...now those are some over-priced tickets right there; at least Janet and Madonna put actual movement and interesting stage designs and costuming elements into their shows, so I can see where my money is going. I ain't paying you to sit on a bar stool and sing...I can go to the bar on Karaoke night and buy a few rounds and be more entertained for less money.

I recently sent my Janet tickets back because she postponed my show in Fort Lauderdale and unfortunately, I took my vacation time off for the show. I have no more vacation time this year, so no Janet for me and I really hope she gets better. When I went to work to get my check, one of the girls I work with said, "She's pregnant." Anyway, record labels shouldn't be telling their artists what they need to sound like because they keep putting shit on the radio. Nothing new or original is being played non-stop on any of the radio stations I listened to recently. Gotta listen to the oldies station to avoid jabbing a pencil into my ear canal. Maybe when record companies start employing more music majors to fill their higher positions instead of mostly law and business school grads, maybe the music will get better. Just my

But Janet does need to take her own quote (in my siggy) just a tad bit more seriously.
[Edited 10/12/08 13:41pm]

I loved 6 tracks from Discipline at the least, which is more than most albums out now. Most albums out now I hardly like two tracks. Planet Earth I only really liked two tracks the rest is soso at best. Madonna, I haven't liked a song in a long time, since it's not my style. Of course people are free to like it is all good.

shesoffthewall said:

only one european show didn't sell out.

most American shows are either sold out or close too. the ones having problems are the stadium shows but than again there are a larger number of seats to move. i don't see many artists doing stadiums let alone stadiums at 195-300 a pop.

I'm glad she didn't do the Sade route. I don't mind her doing the dance stuff but I don't know why Discipline didn't take off for her. I always wanted her to fully commit to dance music, doing a whole album of true dance, not a pop blend for hopeful radio play but that may not go over well. As I've said before, I just think Janet is in a unique position and therefore the remedy is not necessarily what others have done.

SCNDLS said:

Money post.

How did Prince get into this discussion? hes a fucking musician, im so sick of seeing Prince compared to people that he HAS NOTHING IN COMMON WITH. People there is a huge difference between PRINCE and michael and janet and madonna. There are NOT musicians he is, he is on another path that they arent, their doing their thing and hes doing his NO FUCKING COMPARISONS. Im sick to death of this tired ass argument about whos better whos this whos that who sells who cancels more shows, its just fucking tired bullshit already.

Heres simple solutions for all this bitching. These artists are OLD now, not their sound, just their age. This is the AGE-NERATION, Janet is 40+ and shes marketing to 18 year olds, NOT GOING TO WORK plain and simple, and dont say "well mariah does it" Mariahs new album bombed, she sold less overseas than she EVER HAS, which means its all caught up with her, shes nearing 40 and needs to accept it. Madonna sells to her base worldwide for the most part, she aint getting no 16 year olds bumping her tracks, the people that bought her new record are the ones that have always bought them.

I still dont really understand why people give a shit how a record does, who the fuck cares really, did U enjoy it? then thats what matters. I mean who cares where the shit lands, i mean this industry is about a year or so from collapsing and then billboard magazine will be something to wipe your ass with.

JackieBlue said:

It seemed like "Damita Jo" could have been that but it was weighed down by a bunch of boring R&B (thank you, Kayne West....not exactly his most inspired work) and shit ass sex ballads (just two but one of them, "Warmth", was awful!).

Is this only an issue with women or are there male singers who are being criticized as well? If the music is good is this really a problem? Of course it depends what some consider 'good'.

You have to give Janet Jackson credit for doggedly sticking to her pleasure principle after all these years. No matter how mind-numbingly banal her sexually explicit lyrics have become, no matter how tired her clothes-optional promotional campaigns have gotten, Miss Jackson-If-You're-Nasty refuses to change the musical formula she apparently believes still works for her. But recent sagging album sales may show that fans feel differently.

She's not the only aging pop maverick caught in a vortex of cheesy sexed-up music and images (hello, Madonna and Mariah Carey). But Jackson, whose Rock Witchu World Tour stops at Washington's Verizon Center on Wednesday night, has unfairly caught much of the mainstream media's scorn for adhering to one of modern pop's saddest tenets: Female performers must somehow defy age and gravity to remain the objects of teen boys' fantasies.

Forever.

Her stubbornness hasn't helped her, though. Instead of folding a refreshing sense of humor, irony and sophistication into her dance-pop approach, the Grammy-winning performer seemingly wants to compete with her spawn. The Ciaras, Rihannas, Britneys, Beyonces and a host of '90s boy bands owe a huge debt to Jackson for the dance and musical templates she set more than 20 years ago.

But ever since 1993's janet, perhaps her last great album, Jackson has been more or less recycling the same college-freshmenlike sexual exploits in song. Her CDs after the infamous "wardrobe malfunction" - Damita Jo (2004), 20 Y.O. (2006) and especially this year's Discipline - have been eye-rolling, lackluster efforts teeming with inane, oversexed lyrics and overly processed beats and vocals.

"You know, dance is my thing. I love dance, I love dance music," Jackson said from a recent tour stop in Los Angeles. "I know with [Discipline], there are certain people [at her former record label Island Def Jam] that did not like the direction that I took ... as far as making this album. They wanted me to take another route - a much calmer kind of Sade-ish route, and I think that's fine. ... [But] there will come a time when I'll decide, 'You know what? I want to do something like this.' I'm still a girl who loves to dance - so dance music for me."

Wrong, Janet. You're a 42-year-old woman whose juvenile obsessions with your sexuality have become embarrassingly passe.

[Edited 10/12/08 18:52pm]

Well, damn!

Its very simple, all these artists with longevity HAVE TO ACCEPT a time when they are not going to be sellers, or the big name in town, and they have to adjust to that, not necessarily changing sound or direction but not to try to be like the acts of the day, its that simple.