robertlove said:

This album made such an impact on me when it was released. I was already in love with Control, but RN was it! Bought every cdsingle, the remixes were great too. The 12" of RN was slamming, Black Cat 3 snaps remix, Miss you much (slamming R&B remix) long version from Alright. Alright still is one of my favourite songs.

She had a really strong voice on this album, she has a soft voice but she showcased something different here.

Everything worked, the videos, the interludes (get the point...good....let's dance ), the hard beats but best of it, they were just really well written songs.

Time for some remixes!!!

Yes! Now this is what I'm talking about!

mjscarousal said:

I remember watching this DVD EVERDAY after middle school working on my moves in the living room

I rented this vhs in the VR era and dubbed it for myself, counting down the days to my first janet concert, fun times! I would also play it on repeat at home and if I went to my relatives I'd bring it with me I thought the ending part was so touching when janet spoke about the two girls going back to school, and went crazy about the knowledge instrumental, eventually buying the album shortly after

SEANMAN said:

Oh, I'm sure you DO give a fuck.

I really dont because I havent done anything.

And they can indeed read these threads for themselves and see just what a whacked-out psycho you are. Your second-hand anger about something that went down between me and alphastreet in another thread really shows just how crazy you are. Seek and get some GOOD help.

I havent bashed anybody in her or Janet. I said you were fuckin nuts but thats because you are I have talked about the album this entire time and just commented on what another poster had said.... THEN once this turned into a MJ bashing fest I did respond to what was made but I have not talked about him this entire time.

And yes I do think its obnoxious how you feel you dont have to apologize for cussing out someone after being corrected. I would suggest you watch yourself because you probably have already been notified already.

And, as for me "disliking" MJ, well, that is just absurd. I've been a fan of Michael Jackson longer than you've even been on this Earth, and it remains the same to this day.

I find that VERY hard to believe not that care but you bash him relentless and his children in almost every single thread that is NON related to him

I created this thread to talk about Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814, and have continued to do such until you, as USUSAL, brought your dramatic antics in.

People were talking about the album and then once one commented was made it turned into bashing MJ. I have not been dramatic but I will not stand by and allow artists to be bashed or discredited for no reason. You even insisted the album was on the same level as Marvin Gaye

Good-fucking-bye.

Good riddons and hopefully you can leave me alone so I can finish talking about the album.

alphastreet said:

mjscarousal said:

I remember watching this DVD EVERDAY after middle school working on my moves in the living room

I rented this vhs in the VR era and dubbed it for myself, counting down the days to my first janet concert, fun times! I would also play it on repeat at home and if I went to my relatives I'd bring it with me I thought the ending part was so touching when janet spoke about the two girls going back to school, and went crazy about the knowledge instrumental, eventually buying the album shortly after

I got into this era more before getting into VR. The ending part was very touching.... The girl was crying to hard she could barely read her letter to Janet. Very touching.

mjscarousal said:

alphastreet said:

I rented this vhs in the VR era and dubbed it for myself, counting down the days to my first janet concert, fun times! I would also play it on repeat at home and if I went to my relatives I'd bring it with me I thought the ending part was so touching when janet spoke about the two girls going back to school, and went crazy about the knowledge instrumental, eventually buying the album shortly after

I got into this era more before getting into VR. The ending part was very touching.... The girl was crying to hard she could barely read her letter to Janet. Very touching.

yeah she was very inspirational, I was already familiar with RN era cause I had design of a decade since the era, and a lot of janet's music videos, but when getting this tape, I think I appreciated it even more...I thought about buying the DVD but already have the videos on the doad dvd though love will never do without you is half in colour and not full black and white like here and try to only buy things I don't have though I already have a huge collection to begin with

Someone needs to mean what they say when they say "It's time for me to bounce." Once a bluffer, always a bluffer, I guess.

And again, I say MOVING ON...

Miss You Much LIVE

Janet performing for the Queen of England in 1990

Didn't she have a malfunction (a quick one) when performing for the queen? If so, that's pretty funny cause I didn't even notice until some fan said so.

alphastreet said:

mjscarousal said:

I got into this era more before getting into VR. The ending part was very touching.... The girl was crying to hard she could barely read her letter to Janet. Very touching.

yeah she was very inspirational, I was already familiar with RN era cause I had design of a decade since the era, and a lot of janet's music videos, but when getting this tape, I think I appreciated it even more...I thought about buying the DVD but already have the videos on the doad dvd though love will never do without you is half in colour and not full black and white like here and try to only buy things I don't have though I already have a huge collection to begin with

The Control cassette was one of the first albums I ever listened to growing up and then I immediately listened to All 4 U just because I can remember that era at 8/9 and then Janet... I remember Throb being my favorite from the album and Oops Now and then I got into RN and then finally VR.... I listened to the rest they didnt do much for me... My all time favorites are Control, Janet, RN and VR. I would love to see RN nation get a anniversary treatment with a DVD set and maybe even a special about the album and music videos.

mjscarousal said:

alphastreet said:

yeah she was very inspirational, I was already familiar with RN era cause I had design of a decade since the era, and a lot of janet's music videos, but when getting this tape, I think I appreciated it even more...I thought about buying the DVD but already have the videos on the doad dvd though love will never do without you is half in colour and not full black and white like here and try to only buy things I don't have though I already have a huge collection to begin with

The Control cassette was one of the first albums I ever listened to growing up and then I immediately listened to All 4 U just because I can remember that era at 8/9 and then Janet... I remember Throb being my favorite from the album and Oops Now and then I got into RN and then finally VR.... I listened to the rest they didnt do much for me... My all time favorites are Control, Janet, RN and VR. I would love to see RN nation get a anniversary treatment with a DVD set and maybe even a special about the album and music videos.

that would have been cool though 20 years have passed...i would have thought control would have gotten something, and during 20 YO janet kept saying something about a tribute to control in the era, but I really did not hear it at all, not in the music, nor in the image....and I didn't buy it with the album title either.

My first janet cd's were design of a decade shortly followed by the janet album which I really loved, the next thing I knew vr era arrived, I bought that on the first day and then bought some singles and kept going.

[Edited 9/23/12 13:52pm]

The MYM Mama Mix, one of my fave remixes of the song

Some RN album megamixes

alphastreet said:

looove the state of the world remixes too and own them on LP, one side being for that song, the other for someting non janet though can't recall what

I thought this remix was okay Ive heard better

Here are some of my favorite remixes from the album

Janet is a weak vocalist but her BEST singing was on this album.

alphastreet said:

mjscarousal said:

The Control cassette was one of the first albums I ever listened to growing up and then I immediately listened to All 4 U just because I can remember that era at 8/9 and then Janet... I remember Throb being my favorite from the album and Oops Now and then I got into RN and then finally VR.... I listened to the rest they didnt do much for me... My all time favorites are Control, Janet, RN and VR. I would love to see RN nation get a anniversary treatment with a DVD set and maybe even a special about the album and music videos.

that would have been cool though 20 years have passed...i would have thought control would have gotten something, and during 20 YO janet kept saying something about a tribute to control in the era, but I really did not hear it at all, not in the music, nor in the image....and I didn't buy it with the album title either.

My first janet cd's were design of a decade shortly followed by the janet album which I really loved, the next thing I knew vr era arrived, I bought that on the first day and then bought some singles and kept going.

[Edited 9/23/12 13:52pm]

I didnt buy it either and felt she did a half ass job in her own tribute to her career. She could have revamped herself and maybe did another political album to tribute Rhythm Nation. She didnt have to do what Mary J did when she made a My Life Part II but she could have made a similiar album that tackled political themes OR just came out with a Rhythm Nation collectors box set or special unreleases. Thats what I think Janet should really work on doing now since she appears to not be interested in making new music.

Oh I did LOVE Twenty Foreplay and some remixes to it Still mad she didnt play Dorthy

that's the mix I was looking for, united nations! I'd forgotten the name, but that was my favourite

I also agree she used her voice really well on this album though when it's soft and soothing, it works well on those songs, though I love her loud voice too! Love when she got it out in scream, what about and so on.

mjscarousal said:

alphastreet said:

that would have been cool though 20 years have passed...i would have thought control would have gotten something, and during 20 YO janet kept saying something about a tribute to control in the era, but I really did not hear it at all, not in the music, nor in the image....and I didn't buy it with the album title either.

My first janet cd's were design of a decade shortly followed by the janet album which I really loved, the next thing I knew vr era arrived, I bought that on the first day and then bought some singles and kept going.

[Edited 9/23/12 13:52pm]

I didnt buy it either and felt she did a half ass job in her own tribute to her career. She could have revamped herself and maybe did another political album to tribute Rhythm Nation. She didnt have to do what Mary J did when she made a My Life Part II but she could have made a similiar album that tackled political themes OR just came out with a Rhythm Nation collectors box set or special unreleases. Thats what I think Janet should really work on doing now since she appears to not be interested in making new music.

Oh I did LOVE Twenty Foreplay and some remixes to it Still mad she didnt play Dorthy

there were a lot of unkept promises around that time, but janet was probably struggling with her record label at the time and could have had a hard time with getting clearance for anniversaries, she was almost done with Virgin...it came from the horse's mouth she wanted Trust a Try as a single and wanted to make a Brazillian jazz album as well as one about racism & anger, but she was not the free agent she is now, and tbh I would prefer her doing this type of music rather than dance music when she has been through hell for the past few years, even if I didn't agree with some of her actions recently. I like raw and real janet but also believe she doesn't care for the industry/music anymore, and who can blame her? This is why I keep saying she should go back to acting for awhile while she's still young

[Edited 9/23/12 14:07pm]

alphastreet said:

that's the mix I was looking for, united nations! I'd forgotten the name, but that was my favourite

I also agree she used her voice really well on this album though when it's soft and soothing, it works well on those songs, though I love her loud voice too! Love when she got it out in scream, what about and so on.

Anytime Any Place, Take Care, 70s Love Groove, Twenty Foreplay, Anything, Where Are You Know, etc... I think on slower songs her voices compliments the production/music the best..

My favorite for her loud voice is Black Cat

mjscarousal said:

alphastreet said:

that's the mix I was looking for, united nations! I'd forgotten the name, but that was my favourite

I also agree she used her voice really well on this album though when it's soft and soothing, it works well on those songs, though I love her loud voice too! Love when she got it out in scream, what about and so on.

Anytime Any Place, Take Care, 70s Love Groove, Twenty Foreplay, Anything, Where Are You Know, etc... I think on slower songs her voices compliments the production/music the best..

My favorite for her loud voice is Black Cat

omggg love those, add one more chance, spending time with you and enjoy to the list

it's criminal how black cat doesn't get airplay here the way it should, she broke chart records with that, but aside from that it's a brilliant song and she wrote it

Performing a bit of the iconic chair routine on Arsenio

alphastreet said:

mjscarousal said:

I didnt buy it either and felt she did a half ass job in her own tribute to her career. She could have revamped herself and maybe did another political album to tribute Rhythm Nation. She didnt have to do what Mary J did when she made a My Life Part II but she could have made a similiar album that tackled political themes OR just came out with a Rhythm Nation collectors box set or special unreleases. Thats what I think Janet should really work on doing now since she appears to not be interested in making new music.

Oh I did LOVE Twenty Foreplay and some remixes to it Still mad she didnt play Dorthy

there were a lot of unkept promises around that time, but janet was probably struggling with her record label at the time and could have had a hard time with getting clearance for anniversaries, she was almost done with Virgin...it came from the horse's mouth she wanted Trust a Try as a single and wanted to make a Brazillian jazz album as well as one about racism & anger, but she was not the free agent she is now, and tbh I would prefer her doing this type of music rather than dance music when she has been through hell for the past few years, even if I didn't agree with some of her actions recently. I like raw and real janet but also believe she doesn't care for the industry/music anymore, and who can blame her? This is why I keep saying she should go back to acting for awhile while she's still young

[Edited 9/23/12 14:07pm]

Thats the Janet I miss the most and grew up on. Even during 20 Y0, Discipline etc Janet didnt really seem all that into it. To me, her heart doesnt seem to be into doing music anymore and to be honest I rather her not if her heart is not going to be into it fully because its one thing to say something and its another to put it to action.

She can do music again but she just has to try pushing herself creatively. I would suggest going after the Adult/R&b market instead of POP she has a much better chance at winning success and besides I rather her do that than make immature music anyway like she has been doing this entire decade

alphastreet said:

mjscarousal said:

Anytime Any Place, Take Care, 70s Love Groove, Twenty Foreplay, Anything, Where Are You Know, etc... I think on slower songs her voices compliments the production/music the best..

My favorite for her loud voice is Black Cat

omggg love those, add one more chance, spending time with you and enjoy to the list

it's criminal how black cat doesn't get airplay here the way it should, she broke chart records with that, but aside from that it's a brilliant song and she wrote it

Wish she could had have grown more as a songwriter but very well written pop/rock song indeed

[Edited 9/23/12 14:20pm]

1990 French TV interview

SO glad that, aside from producing a new documentary, she is talking about getting back into the studio again. With some of our iconic pop stars dead and gone, at least some are still around to make more great music.

SLANT magazine 5-star review of RN:

Prejudice? No! Ignorance? No! Bigotry? No! Illiteracy? A tad. Okay, the last thing Janet Jackson should be expected to do is live down the socio-political stances at which she arrived after watching marathon sessions of CNN as an impressionable 22-year-old. So it's mordantly lucky for her that she's never had to, and that, in fact, the best thing she ever did for her career was pay lip service to weighty concepts her thin voice and naked Minneapolis sound could only barely support. So even as Janet's four most recent albums have all fallen against at least one or two of the aforementioned vices she railed against in "The Knowledge" (one extra if you ascribe to the bigotry of soft expectations), somehow her gutsy argument that gunning down children in a school playground is, you know, bad news manages to resonate as a rich, complex truism thanks to the fresh ebullience of its delivery. Call it the nature of the genre, or simply credit Miss-Jackson-If-You're-Nasty, producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and MTV for all hitting their stride at precisely the same moment, but the perfect storm that is her 1989 masterpiece, Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 (celebrating its 20th anniversary this fall), proves that, in the youth-oriented world of pop, it's both more enduring and more endearing for a kid to play older than their years than for the middle-aged to act like they're still 20 Y.O.

When Control ruled the radio, new jack swing was still in its infancy; of that album's singles, only "Nasty" really helped draw up the new jack blueprint. By the time Rhythm Nation dropped, the genre was unavoidable. Jam and Lewis responded by subtly refining their signature, Grammy-anointed sound. They filled out their bottom end, swapping the popping funk basslines of "Nasty" and "What Have You Done for Me Lately" with neo-One Nation Under a Groove thwomp-and-wiggle maneuvers on "Rhythm Nation" and "Miss You Much." They loosened their rigid backbeats in acquiescence with new jack's standard three-on-one swing, most notably on "State of the World" and "Alright." They added actual weapons to their already volatile artillery, hardening the percussive textures with gunshots and breaking glass. They bought samples, most notably injecting Larry Graham into the foundation of the title track and looping Lyn Collins all over "Alright."

And in a move that truly turned their production for Janet into a genre unto itself, they souped up the synth-assisted, New Edition-style background vocal harmonizing. They essentially turned Janet into a one-woman boy band. (Her opening "five, four, three, two, one" is nothing if not an assisted pubescent plunge.) Jam and Lewis's work on Rhythm Nation expanded Janet's range in every conceivable direction. She was more credibly feminine, more crucially masculine, more viably adult, more believably childlike. This was, of course, critical to a project in which Janet assumed the role of mouthpiece for a nationless, multicultural utopia. Jam and Lewis helped sell Janet's notion of a consciousness raised.

And did we ever buy it. Rhythm Nation's brawniness was greeted with similarly strapping sales, uniting product and commerce in that best-of-both-worlds way only pop can. Including the radio-only release "State of the World," no less than eight of the album's 12 songs were turned into singles; only one of the remaining four tracks was uptempo ("The Knowledge"), and the remaining castoffs were predictably ballads. All of the charting singles went at least Top 5, and most hit the bull's-eye outright. "Love Will Never Do (Without You)," the album's record-setting seventh single to land in the Top 5, managed to top the charts as a single nearly a year and a half after the album was initially released. The Control-eclipsing success of Rhythm Nation paved the way for Janet's blockbuster multi-album deal with Virgin, which resulted in the understandably plush and lusty follow-up, janet., the orgasmic nature of which led to both Janet's best-ever sales and, not coincidentally, a sharp and steady post-coital decline ever since.

Which is not to say sex was absent from either Control or Rhythm Nation. Perhaps she just couched it better early on. Like every other significant album she ever made, Rhythm Nation closes by stretching what seems to be baby-making longueurs across multiple songs. Certainly I remember myself 20 years ago perpetually losing all interest in the album once it reached "Black Cat" (not being much for rock stomps, I will say Janet did the electric guitar much more favor when she applied it liberally to the bridge of 1993's "If"). It was shocking to return to the album in my lovelorn 20s and 30s and come upon "Lonely," much ado about steamy, and perhaps the second sexiest song about not getting any—or, at any rate, not getting any outside of pity sex—I've ever heard, the first being Juicy's "Sugar Free," from which Jam and Lewis obviously ripped the template for "Lonely." "Come Back to Me" smartly obscures Janet's nondescript pillow-talk delivery within luscious folds upon folds of gut-wrenching chord changes, topping the tragic, plunging bridge with a soaring, cinematic outro that leaves Janet speechless, admitting, "I don't know what else to say." It's the quintessential song in the key of heartbreak, but its despair leaves listeners properly stripped and ready to receive the pornography of "Someday Is Tonight," which I'm still not sure I'm old enough to listen to.

If sex stops the album in its tracks, it's appropriate that the rest of the album dances without any overt eroticism (especially apparent in the music video clips for the militant "Rhythm Nation" and the playfully chaste "Escapade"). Still awaiting the breakthrough orally fixated choreography of "If," Janet's Rhythm Nation project saw dance as a movement in both senses of the word: an athletic extension of ones own socio-political force of will and a great uniter…no, make that obliterator of races, genders, creeds, even—as when she dances with Cyd Charisse in the video for "Alright"—eras. The first half of the album's side one keeps the BPM at an aerobic pace without even once cracking a smile or putting four on the floor. Uptight begets upright, and there ain't no acid in this house. Ain't even no house in this house. "Get the point? Good" isn't exactly a punchline, but the drollness with which Janet punctuates her three-song State of the Nation address is almost unknowingly irreverent. How could it not seem so in comparison to the title track's completely stone-faced intentions? Janet's dance nation is a hard, angular, geometric battle plan, and as the title track's stunning, monochromatic video clip confirms, the schematic first calls for an almost Zen-like transcendence of self.

Pretty out there for a pop divette, but having said her piece, she quickly snatches back her control, her name, her still flowering iconography, and her perceptibly hardening abs in time enough to fill out the remarkably tight midsection of her album with the most winningly good times of her recording career. "Miss You Much," the album's kickoff single, is the appropriately sweet-and-sour bridge from efficacy to escapadery. Speaking of which, the Minneapolis-citing "Escapade" is as much a worthy successor to the almost cloyingly cute "When I Think of You" as "Love Will Never Do" is a monumental forerunner to Janet's impending tease epics "That's the Way Love Goes" and "Go Deep."

And then there's "Alright," a warm, relentless surge of synthesized ecstasy that brings those nine-foot stacks of background vocals front and center. Having only managed to scrape its way to fourth place on the Hot 100, "Alright" may have been the record's comparative flop single, but comes as close as anything Jam and Lewis ever had a hand in (outside of the Time) to defining their pop-softened brand of the Minneapolis sound. It's also the sunny antithesis to the bleakness of the album's opening misery suite and the definition of pre-sexual bliss that resonates even as the album inexorably winds up giving it up in the final stretch. Given that Janet's pop narrative achieved true Cinderella dimensions with the coronation of Rhythm Nation, it stands to reason that clock chimes open and close the album. But Janet's journey from political outrage to blossoming womanhood to pop nostalgia to shivering post-coital withdrawal is no fairy tale. If she begins the album reveling in the triumph of her will, she ends it in complete darkness, considering the notion that the world would be better if everyone were blind. Sounds like maturity to me.

Time for another slammin' RN-era outtake. This one is called "You Need Me".

It's definitely time for JJ/JJ/TL to rule the airwaves again.

Documentary making-of the RN mini-movie

I'm sure she will make more good music, but still doesn't make up for the fact other artists, more than a few in fact, aren't around. They are who they are, and she is who she is, period.

alphastreet said:

I'm sure she will make more good music, but still doesn't make up for the fact other artists, more than a few in fact, aren't around. They are who they are, and she is who she is, period.

Come on Alpha girl... why are you even entertaining that obviously baited ignorant statement.

If Janet continues to release generic mainstream garbage like she has this decade she can kiss her music career good bye. I dont care if someone is alive or not if the music isnt good, it isnt good period.

mjscarousal said:

alphastreet said:

I'm sure she will make more good music, but still doesn't make up for the fact other artists, more than a few in fact, aren't around. They are who they are, and she is who she is, period.

Come on Alpha girl... why are you even entertaining that obviously baited ignorant statement.

If Janet continues to release generic mainstream garbage like she has this decade she can kiss her music career good bye. I dont care if someone is alive or not if the music isnt good, it isnt good period.

I would like to see her act more, though not sure about more Tyler Perry.

I think she should have a role where she appears more like she did in Poetic Justice instead of supporting ones.

[Edited 9/23/12 16:13pm]

i've tried 2 listen 2 this album more than a dozen times...I jut can't get through. Maybe if I had listened 2 it as the era was going on it'd be different. But I was 10-11 when she released it and she was not popular in south america..well, not in Brazil 4 sure (I didn't even know she did that show in Sao Paulo...but that was a wacky number of concert goers for an international act...Madonna, for instance sold 120.000 tickets for a concert in Rio and another 90.000 for Sao Paulo in 1993). I never listened 2 any of her songs on the radio until "Together Again". The first album of hers I bought was "janet." right after it was released and it is still my favorite. Fact is I'm tryin' 2 listen RN again right now...half way through and it still doesn't do much 4 me

"Our friends think we're opposites

Fallin' in and out of love

They all said we'd never last

Still we manage to stay together..."

The iconic video for the final single from RN, "Love Will Never Do (Without You)" showcased Janet in a light she'd never been seen in before. Sexy, newly svelte, and wearing a blonde upswept wig, half top and jeans, she sauntered confidently around a California desert, surrounded by a bevy of beautiful men that included model/actors Antonio Sabato, Jr. and Djimon Hounsou. She initially wanted to wear a dress for the video, but photographer/director Herb Ritts wanted her in nothing more than ripped jeans and a tank top. It worked. The video won Best Female Video at the 1991 MTV Movie Awards, and has placed on several Best Videos countdowns. It also inspired several music videos by various high-profile artists that follwed it.

The song itself reached the summit of Billboard's Hot 100 in early 1991, making Rhythm Nation 1814 not only the only album to produce #1s in three separate calendar years, but also the only album in history to achieve 7 top 5 Hot 100 hits (her brother's Thriller and Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA would be the only other albums to have similar chart successes, but those two albums' singles went top 10 instead of all of them going top 5). Producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis had toyed with the idea of having a man sing co-lead on the song with Janet--namely Prince. Eventually, they asked her to sing the first verse in her lower register. Janet once said that they said to her, "Sing it low like some guy would sing it." The result was a sweeping mid-tempo groove that boasted famed trumpeter Herb Alpert on brass, and Janet singing like she was having the time of her life.

[Edited 9/23/12 16:36pm]

RN flashmob