Janet, my Janet
Feb. 14th, 2004 03:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
likethebeerI like this. I might even soup 'er up to submit to Salon.
I had one of those moments while listening to the car radio today. Having ditched the local NPR station and their thrice yearly pledge drive, I snapped on Madison's-Clear Channel-top 40 station, and heard an infectious pop tune. And while the voice wasn't totally what I expected, I knew from the fact that I sort of liked it immediately, who the singer must be: Janet Jackson.
I have been a fan of Janet's for about a decade. While I admit that her lyrics are almost never brilliant, there is something about the combination of music, lyrics, and her voice that almost always makes me happy. As an essayist for Salon.com once wrote, along these lines, "the thing with her music is that whenever she has a new single out, it's almost guaranteed to be the one pop song that you really can't get enough of." Or, to put it this way: her music has a good beat, and you can dance to it.
I discovered her music while in grad school, having tired of listening to the other collection of dance tunes within easy distance, Madonna's _The Immaculate Collection_, and having easy access at the time to MTV. I needed dance tunes during this period of my life. I needed to be able to listen to something that helped me not to think. To be thoughtless. To have a bodily, instead of mental, reaction to something. It slowly began to dawn on me as I would watch Janet's videos that, "damn, I think I'm really beginning to like her." Then, "damn, I think I will go out and buy one of her recordings." I purchased _Rhythm Nation: 1814_ on tape and began listening to it on my 40 minute walks to and from class, and it became a staple of that routine. Months later, I purchased the _Janet_ CD. Liking this as well, I ventured into _Control_. Not a favorite, but I have to admire the girl at 20 for doing this, and it did once kick major ass. About 1 1/2 years after my first Janet purchase, I knew enough to confess to myself that, indeed, I was a fan and would likely buy anything else that came out from her.
But, of course, Janet has recently become embroiled in what has become known as "Boob-gate." Was it planned, was it a mishap--a "wardrobe malfunction"--was it Janet's attempt to shed the spotlight away from her creepy brother, was it a secret pact between CBS, MTV and the current Bush Administration to push away the controversy over CBS's decision not to air the commercial by Moveon.org on national television?
Unfortunately, as those of you who know me realize by now, I did not see the boob incident on the Super Bowl halftime half-hour of family fun. And this is ironic, because while I have no interest in football, absolutely none, I had gone back and forth on the days leading up to the Super Bowl on whether I should watch the halftime show specifically for Janet Jackson. I debated, and then realized that (a) I would end up buying her latest CD anyway, (b) I, too, wanted to protest CBS's decision not to air the Moveon.org commercial in my own way, and not having cable (so that I could see it air on CNN at the time of the halftime show), not tuning in at all was as good as anything else, (c) I needed to practice the flute, and (d) my favorite Sunday activity, listening to Old Time Radio Drama from 8-11, could not be quenched and plus, they were airing an episode from _The Whistler_.
However, I almost wish that I did see "the Janet incident" because my friends could have more opportunity to ask me, the one Janet Jackson fan that any of them knows, my initial reaction. I have offered up what analysis I have, when it has been solicited, and it partially consists of the following thoughts.
On the shock of Janet with a pierced nipple: having purchased _The Velvet Rope_, which has been called her darkest recording, I know that the woman sports at least two tattoos. I sport three, that doesn't mean that my nipple is pierced. However, I don't put body piercings out of the realm of possibility in people who are willing to submit parts of their body to 4-5 needles piercing them in such a way during the tattoo process that it feels like, as Matt Groening once wrote in one of his cartoons, "1,000 fish hooks being ripped over your body."
On the shock of sexual content. Well, this is the one that I was the least surprised about. Not even surprised. Completely non-plussed. In fact it was almost silly to me. "So, Janet and Justin were grinding along, he said something about getting her naked, or seeing her naked, he pulls back her outfit to reveal this? Dudes! I have seen the woman in concert!" No, her concerts aren't porn shows. But I've seen her twice, the last two tours. On both tours, she picks a guy out of the audience and... does stuff. No lap dancing, but sort of lap dancing in simulacra. Lap dancing in the brain. The first time I saw this, she strapped a guy to a chair and did pole dances around with a big pink feather boa (and clothes on, of course). Frankly, I was disturbed by it. Disquieted, actually. And I was really worried about the guy. There was this enormous 20 x 40 foot screen behind Janet, and all I could think for him was, "What if this guy gets a hard-on? When he leaves his boner's going to be projected on a screen 20 x 40 feet high!"
Well, the next tour, she solved the problem of walking guys off the stage with boners by having a table ascend from the stage floor, strapping the guy to it, doing... stuff (including climbing all over him, sticking her crotch in, or near, his face), then descending with him through the hole in the stage (huh-you said, "hole"). My thought during that routine split in two ways. First, I thought, "Janet, I love you, but I have no interest in taking part in your sexual fantasies," and secondly, I began to think that her reason for doing this was really because she wants to be closer to her audience. In this case, inches away-closer. And on that, I thought that maybe she should drop the twenty dancers and nine costume changes, and just do something with a four or five piece outfit, and maybe check out a few small venues. For that, I would pay $100 and drive 10 hours to see.
But here's the other thing about Janet and sexual content. Every time she's comes out with a new recording (every time since the _Janet_ CD, anyway), people always have to comment on it, and they always act like they are completely surprised by this. "Janet's discovered her sensual side.... Janet's discovered her sexy side.... Singapore's threatening to ban Janet's latest CD because it suggests masturbation.... Janet sings a song written from a man to a woman and doesn't change the pronouns.... Janet's using the F-word." Maybe her last CD should have had a warning label on it, but I still have to roll my eyes when people get all red in the face over the sexual content. First of all, dudes, none of the really sexy songs (which, frankly, I'm never crazy about) come out as singles. And by really sexy songs, I mean the ones where she's used the F-word, or made vocalizations that sound like she's coming. But there is this line, from the _Janet_ CD, from "The Way Love Goes", a song that I think hit number 1: "oh baby, baby don't stop/ go deeper, baby, deeper/ you feel so good I'm gonna cry." That, no one has a problem with. Saying "fuck", people are all over that.
That's about all of the original thought I have about this subject. I've heard others say and write more articulate about the other attendant disturbances regarding this fracas. That people are appalled by a 1.3 second shot of a woman's nipple during the halftime show of a violent game played by men who, when taken as a whole over professional and college sports teams, have at least a 30% higher rate of committing acts of violence outside of the arena. That it seems to be a case of blaming the woman because Justin Timberlake participated in this incident, and was allowed to go on the Grammy's and just apologize, while Janet, who by all accounts seemed genuinely embarrassed by her boob flash when it happened, was banned from the awards show. You'd think the woman had just said, "Just so you know, I'm embarrassed that the president of the United States is from Texas." Or the simple fact that a woman's nipple, a thing that all of us have seen, and most of us have sucked on at one time or another, could cause such a ridiculous-oh-shit-here-we-are-being-dumbass-Puritan-Americans-once-again reaction.
I had one of those moments while listening to the car radio today. Having ditched the local NPR station and their thrice yearly pledge drive, I snapped on Madison's-Clear Channel-top 40 station, and heard an infectious pop tune. And while the voice wasn't totally what I expected, I knew from the fact that I sort of liked it immediately, who the singer must be: Janet Jackson.
I have been a fan of Janet's for about a decade. While I admit that her lyrics are almost never brilliant, there is something about the combination of music, lyrics, and her voice that almost always makes me happy. As an essayist for Salon.com once wrote, along these lines, "the thing with her music is that whenever she has a new single out, it's almost guaranteed to be the one pop song that you really can't get enough of." Or, to put it this way: her music has a good beat, and you can dance to it.
I discovered her music while in grad school, having tired of listening to the other collection of dance tunes within easy distance, Madonna's _The Immaculate Collection_, and having easy access at the time to MTV. I needed dance tunes during this period of my life. I needed to be able to listen to something that helped me not to think. To be thoughtless. To have a bodily, instead of mental, reaction to something. It slowly began to dawn on me as I would watch Janet's videos that, "damn, I think I'm really beginning to like her." Then, "damn, I think I will go out and buy one of her recordings." I purchased _Rhythm Nation: 1814_ on tape and began listening to it on my 40 minute walks to and from class, and it became a staple of that routine. Months later, I purchased the _Janet_ CD. Liking this as well, I ventured into _Control_. Not a favorite, but I have to admire the girl at 20 for doing this, and it did once kick major ass. About 1 1/2 years after my first Janet purchase, I knew enough to confess to myself that, indeed, I was a fan and would likely buy anything else that came out from her.
But, of course, Janet has recently become embroiled in what has become known as "Boob-gate." Was it planned, was it a mishap--a "wardrobe malfunction"--was it Janet's attempt to shed the spotlight away from her creepy brother, was it a secret pact between CBS, MTV and the current Bush Administration to push away the controversy over CBS's decision not to air the commercial by Moveon.org on national television?
Unfortunately, as those of you who know me realize by now, I did not see the boob incident on the Super Bowl halftime half-hour of family fun. And this is ironic, because while I have no interest in football, absolutely none, I had gone back and forth on the days leading up to the Super Bowl on whether I should watch the halftime show specifically for Janet Jackson. I debated, and then realized that (a) I would end up buying her latest CD anyway, (b) I, too, wanted to protest CBS's decision not to air the Moveon.org commercial in my own way, and not having cable (so that I could see it air on CNN at the time of the halftime show), not tuning in at all was as good as anything else, (c) I needed to practice the flute, and (d) my favorite Sunday activity, listening to Old Time Radio Drama from 8-11, could not be quenched and plus, they were airing an episode from _The Whistler_.
However, I almost wish that I did see "the Janet incident" because my friends could have more opportunity to ask me, the one Janet Jackson fan that any of them knows, my initial reaction. I have offered up what analysis I have, when it has been solicited, and it partially consists of the following thoughts.
On the shock of Janet with a pierced nipple: having purchased _The Velvet Rope_, which has been called her darkest recording, I know that the woman sports at least two tattoos. I sport three, that doesn't mean that my nipple is pierced. However, I don't put body piercings out of the realm of possibility in people who are willing to submit parts of their body to 4-5 needles piercing them in such a way during the tattoo process that it feels like, as Matt Groening once wrote in one of his cartoons, "1,000 fish hooks being ripped over your body."
On the shock of sexual content. Well, this is the one that I was the least surprised about. Not even surprised. Completely non-plussed. In fact it was almost silly to me. "So, Janet and Justin were grinding along, he said something about getting her naked, or seeing her naked, he pulls back her outfit to reveal this? Dudes! I have seen the woman in concert!" No, her concerts aren't porn shows. But I've seen her twice, the last two tours. On both tours, she picks a guy out of the audience and... does stuff. No lap dancing, but sort of lap dancing in simulacra. Lap dancing in the brain. The first time I saw this, she strapped a guy to a chair and did pole dances around with a big pink feather boa (and clothes on, of course). Frankly, I was disturbed by it. Disquieted, actually. And I was really worried about the guy. There was this enormous 20 x 40 foot screen behind Janet, and all I could think for him was, "What if this guy gets a hard-on? When he leaves his boner's going to be projected on a screen 20 x 40 feet high!"
Well, the next tour, she solved the problem of walking guys off the stage with boners by having a table ascend from the stage floor, strapping the guy to it, doing... stuff (including climbing all over him, sticking her crotch in, or near, his face), then descending with him through the hole in the stage (huh-you said, "hole"). My thought during that routine split in two ways. First, I thought, "Janet, I love you, but I have no interest in taking part in your sexual fantasies," and secondly, I began to think that her reason for doing this was really because she wants to be closer to her audience. In this case, inches away-closer. And on that, I thought that maybe she should drop the twenty dancers and nine costume changes, and just do something with a four or five piece outfit, and maybe check out a few small venues. For that, I would pay $100 and drive 10 hours to see.
But here's the other thing about Janet and sexual content. Every time she's comes out with a new recording (every time since the _Janet_ CD, anyway), people always have to comment on it, and they always act like they are completely surprised by this. "Janet's discovered her sensual side.... Janet's discovered her sexy side.... Singapore's threatening to ban Janet's latest CD because it suggests masturbation.... Janet sings a song written from a man to a woman and doesn't change the pronouns.... Janet's using the F-word." Maybe her last CD should have had a warning label on it, but I still have to roll my eyes when people get all red in the face over the sexual content. First of all, dudes, none of the really sexy songs (which, frankly, I'm never crazy about) come out as singles. And by really sexy songs, I mean the ones where she's used the F-word, or made vocalizations that sound like she's coming. But there is this line, from the _Janet_ CD, from "The Way Love Goes", a song that I think hit number 1: "oh baby, baby don't stop/ go deeper, baby, deeper/ you feel so good I'm gonna cry." That, no one has a problem with. Saying "fuck", people are all over that.
That's about all of the original thought I have about this subject. I've heard others say and write more articulate about the other attendant disturbances regarding this fracas. That people are appalled by a 1.3 second shot of a woman's nipple during the halftime show of a violent game played by men who, when taken as a whole over professional and college sports teams, have at least a 30% higher rate of committing acts of violence outside of the arena. That it seems to be a case of blaming the woman because Justin Timberlake participated in this incident, and was allowed to go on the Grammy's and just apologize, while Janet, who by all accounts seemed genuinely embarrassed by her boob flash when it happened, was banned from the awards show. You'd think the woman had just said, "Just so you know, I'm embarrassed that the president of the United States is from Texas." Or the simple fact that a woman's nipple, a thing that all of us have seen, and most of us have sucked on at one time or another, could cause such a ridiculous-oh-shit-here-we-are-being-dumbass-Puritan-Americans-once-again reaction.
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Date: 2004-02-15 02:04 am (UTC)I'm glad to see your writing really working up a head of steam!