In response to her departure from Def Jam, Janet Jackson was recently quoted as saying "there were some people who didn't like the direction I took with this album (Discipline). They wanted me to sound more like Sade, but I'm not ready for that just yet. I love doing dance songs and I think my fans expect that of me."
What really surprised me about this quote is the fact that Janet Jackson used to release somewhat soulful music... If you don't choose to call it soulful, you can definitely say that it was real R&B, something that we hardly ever here from the pop queen nowadays. In this token, the first focus of our Throwback Tuesdays section is a LIVE performance of Janet Jackson's "I Get Lonely" from her critically acclaimed album - "The Velvet Rope"
One of the MOST impressive aspects of this album is Janet'sintrospection.
During the two year period between the end of the janet tour in 1995 and the release of Jackson's sixth studio album The Velvet Rope in 1997, the entertainer had been battling a long-term case of depression. Jackson revealed in an interview on the Oprah show that "[t]here were times when I cried all day". The concept behind The Velvet Rope was in introspective look into Jackson's bout with depression. Michael Saunders of The Boston Globe described the album as a "critical self-examination and an audio journal of a woman's road to self-discovery".
Selling upwards of THREE MILLION copies, "The Velvet Rope" received both commercial and critical success. "The Velvet Rope" was ranked as #256 on the Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, earned 3.5 out of 5 stars from Rolling Stone, and received an A from Entertainment Weekly. Also, Janet's vocal range is actually on point on this album. This is the probably the last time that we heard Janet actually sing, and not just whisper over a track. Not only does she sound great, but she also sings with conviction, and even live upon occasions (as in the video above)...WillyTee for KiddUNot.com
Posts
|