Music Monday #8: The Velvet Rope by Janet Jackson

I've realised that the original purpose of this series of posts was to cover a topic that was light-hearted and not as serious as some of the other posts on this blog, and yet so far we've already discussed Religion, Satanism, Terrorism, War, and this post isn't going to shift the tone much in the other direction in fact it might even reinforce the downward spiral but I guess that's reflective of the fact that most music means something to me, lyrics speak to me, music moves me, and I turn to it when I need to process what I am feeling so it's inevitable that it will be filled with emotion.  This next album is no different, in that it too touches on some deep rooted emotions, or lack thereof.

Janet Jackson released 'The Velvet Rope' in 1997, an album that I and many others regard as the best album she ever produced.  That's not to discount her other works, let me be clear I revere Janet, she is a visionary, an artist in every sense, a genius, and although Michael still holds the title as the better dancer in my opinion she was always the better singer, there was never even a contest in my mind.  Janet is without a doubt an artist that isn't afraid of experimenting and that shows in the music she creates.  The Velvet Rope holds a special place in my heart because I have gone through episodes of depression several times in my life, something I have grown more confident discussing.  In those darkest moments though when I can't feel much if anything at all the title track of this album still manages to touch me, the haunting violin solo in itself never fails to ensnare my senses and take hold of my spirit and move it around at will.  This track and 'To Love You More' by Celine Dion remain two works of art that take the violin and use it in a way that is truly entrancing to me.

As a young closeted gay man, 'Free Xone' spoke to me as an expression of love without limits, with the lyric "One rule, No rules, One love, Free Xone" particularly striking a chord with me, Janet Jackson was someone I saw as empowered, with a voice, with respect, and with the admiration and adoration of many, to hear her speak freely of love that was without limits you can't understand how much it means to know someone like that is on your side, this remains one of the reasons why I think advocacy and allies are important, to be accepting and to be visible in that acceptance lets people like me know it's ok, people who grew up in a sheltered environment with little exposure to the wider world; I was 9 years old at the time and had grown up with conservative viewpoints dominating the politics we saw on TV something that also changed in 1997 thankfully. 

It's important to understand the environment that existed during this time.  In 1988 the year I was born an act was introduced which had a clause in it called Section 28 which prohibited the "promotion of homosexuality" this in effect meant that Teachers and anyone who was part of the Civil Service and its extended bodies weren't allowed to do or say anything that would be construed as normalising being gay, this in practice meant that gay people had zero support from all the conventional sources of authority beyond their parents that they would turn to, efforts were made to repeal the law in the year 2000 but they failed predominantly because of opposition in the House of Lords led by a peer named Baroness Young, indeed it wasn't until after she died in 2002 when efforts to repeal Section 28 were reintroduced and ultimately passed in 2003 succeeding in the repeal of the legislation when I was 15 years old. 

This act was explicitly directed at England and Wales which for those who are unaware of the composition of the UK are two of the constituent countries that make up the UK.  From 1972 to 1998 Northern Ireland was governed by 'Direct Rule' this meant a minister in Westminster was appointed to make decisions affecting Northern Ireland with no democratic representation at all.

Education was not devolved to the Northern Ireland until the Northern Ireland Assembly was reinstated through the Good Friday Agreement which was signed in 1998 when I was 10 years old.  However, even beyond this date the legislation continued to have an impact.  Whilst devolution in theory allows constituent countries to diverge on many matters, in practice is doesn't always work that way.  Owing to the continued influence of the central Westminster departments, manipulation of funding, dictation of national curricula, and other subversive means namely the control and conditional access to national resources as a means to manipulate local resources, it is often the case that devolved matters are still effectively controlled by Westminster or to put it another way devolution in these matters effectively says "you are free to do whatever you want as long as we agree with it" which was the case with Section 28 and can be seen most recently as being alive and well and still practised through the Brexit process that completely disregarded the fact Scotland and Northern Ireland both voted to remain but England voted to leave so England got its way as it always does by virtue of the fact it has an absolute majority of the seats our national Parliament and cannot be overruled by any other constituent country, to give an analogy this would be as if Texas in the USA got to decide every major decision even if every single state voted against that decision and Texas voted for it then Texas would get its way.

This institutional Homophobia that was state sponsored drowned out any potential sources of hope and voices of reason for people like me.  It was because of people like Janet Jackson being vocal about their support for the LGBT community that gave me hope that there were people out there that would accept me for who I was and wouldn't think I was a freak.

This in itself created an emotional affinity for Janet and her work but her music in itself still touches me, 'Together Again' and 'Every Time' in particular make me feel happy and hopeful respectively.  The Velvet Rope remains the best Janet Jackson album in my mind but truth be told I would include every single one of her albums on this list, but instead I have opted for two, this one and another that will feature in its own post.