Published on Jan 2, 2001
Janet Jackson sells through the power of myth. Each of her
albums have a central theme where the songs and videos are built
around, using images, soundscapes and lyrics to invoke certain
territories within the collective unconscious. It all comes
together to create a great towering musical colossus of “Janet”.
This is no accident; this is marketing at the micro-levels.
But in the end, it’s a myth and not everyone will be swept in
the sentimental awe of it all.
Rhythm Nation 1814 was the first myth-creating Jackson
album, and it does not show the subtlety she and her Flyte Time
producers will come to with the following
janet. or
The Velvet Rope. Yet it is the album that showed her new
“funky” image was probably going to last, and the success of the
honest
Control was not an accident.
The album is divided into “socially conscious” tracks and pop
tracks (I love you you love me let’s do it etc.) and the socially
conscious part gets old quickly. Jackson is no Marvin Gaye… her
naive sentiments (“things are getting worse / we have to make them
better / it’s time to give a damn / let’s work together”) give that
feeling of second-hand political fervor you feel in certain college
campuses.
Subtlety is genuine; flat-out forced anthems such as “Rythym
Nation” and “The Knowledge” don’t hit the same note. Not that she
seems to be deliberately phony; like the aforementioned second-hand
activists her heart is in the right place, but political change is
not just about coming together or fighting for a common cause.
Political change is tedious, involves a lot of calm dialogue,
patience and
lack of angry motivation. It is clear that the Jackson camp
is unwittingly exploiting the spirit of revolution, not the
substance of it, only the symbols (the industrial strength beats,
the militaristic costumes in the “Rythym Nation” video) and not the
real thing. Her revolution is empty; let’s dance!
The pop tracks are much better. “Love Will Never Do Without You”
is a joyful dance song up there with Madonna’s “Express Yourself”,
and “Escapade” is along the same vein of perfectly produced
funk-pop dance tracks Flyte Time is known for. The amazingly vital
rocker “Black Cat” (written by Jackson herself) is guarenteed to
raise the roof live. The beautifully crafted ballad “Come Back To
Me” is as perfect as perfect comes, and while “Someday Is Tonight”
has better incarnations in Jackson’s subsequent albums, it does a
good job of sinking the fervor of the album in a soft, sensuous
way. The incredibly lush sound of all these tracks makes for an
audio-myth that this reviewer can finally lose himself into.
The entire album sounds good, but the quasi-political myth
probably won’t work for those who don’t share Jackson’s rather
austere vision. But it’s got a great, great beat.