This assertion I make because Janet Jackson is by every definition an artist. Her albums are not simply a collection of music tracks that share a theme and musical styling but the albums as a whole are also pieces of art. I glossed over this in my previous post because I wanted to really dive into this at depth here instead as I had already gushed about how much Janet means to be as an artist and as an icon.
If you have never listened to a Janet Jackson album from start to finish then you are missing out. 'All For You' was released in 2001 and in researching this album I found a quote she gave to Essence Magazine in which she explained:
"I call my latest release All for You. The 'You' is my fans who've stayed with me and watched me grow; the 'You' is the mysterious force of love that's the source of creativity; and the 'You' is also me"
- Janet Jackson, Essence Magazine September Edition 2001
I couldn't let this post pass by without mentioning this quote, I had no idea she said this but it mirrors the narrative I have been creating throughout these posts, the trinity of love she's forming reflects my belief that 'you' in love songs can be a love interest or as she puts it a source of love, it can be self love, and it can be the love that is all around us. This genuinely made me smile while writing this post so I had to include it.
Janet Jackson has a particular love of creating concept albums that take a theme and create a narrative surrounding it, her songs are separated by interlude tracks or skits that last around a minute, sometimes they establish the premise for the next song, sometimes they reference the song that just played, and sometimes they are akin to fourth wall breaks which if you have read some of my regular posts on this blog you will know I love, I even wrote a book that centred around the narrative trope of breaking the fourth wall.
'Trust A Try' is perhaps my favourite track on this entire album and its lyrics open with "Trust - not an easy thing, you say, Never thought the game of love, This way you'd play, By the things you do, Never thought these things, I would go through with you" this track more than any other on this album speaks to me because of the experiences I have had in life. I have alluded to the childhood trauma I experienced which I don't want to go into in detail here as it isn't relevant, but what is relevant is to know that I had, and still have trust issues. I have a strange duality when it comes to trust, on the one hand I find it very hard to trust people with my life and my experiences and with anything of meaning or merit, I don't give people that power over me willingly. Despite the openness and the candidness I employ on this blog to speak about various topics, I do so in a largely abstract manner because this environment for me is safe. You don't know me personally - well very few of you will at least, so there's no sense of trust required to tell you anything, that and most of my posts are sans specifics about my actual real world life to the extent that you could connect any comments I made to individuals. On the other side of this duality is the idea that I inherently trust everyone I meet and everyone I engage with until they give me a reason not to, but once that trust is lost it is nigh on impossible to regain.
'Trust A Try' the first verse of the song after the intro in its entirety reads, "She brought love, She brought joy, She brought what she brought, You thought you'd never see again, She cheats and lied, Made you cry, said goodbye, Body's numb, think you're never gonna feel again, Then what you do now? You take it slow, Here comes Jo, things go smooth, But drama just around the bend, Don't blame me for jealousies or insecurities, Please see 'cause I wouldn't do that to you" this verse is about someone who was in love, was hurt, lost the trust they had in their lover and parted ways, heartbroken and burned by that loss of trust they meet Jo* but find it hard to trust her because of past experiences. This speaks volumes to me because it articulates the thoughts that I don't get to hear inside the heads of people who have to deal with my trust issues, it serves as a reminder that people don't want you to project the toxic behaviours of people they never even met who did you wrong in your past onto them because it's not fair on them. This is something that it took me many years to be able to process and even now I still have to remind myself that the myriad of thoughts and feelings that go through my head aren't obvious to other people unless I articulate them, this to me underlines the importance of communication in every relationship both romantic and platonic.
* Jo is Janet if that wasn't clear, she has had many nicknames and in the interlude 'Country' on her 'Damita Jo' album she discusses them.
'Son Of A Gun' saw Janet collaborate with the legendary Carly Simon to create a reinterpretation and reimagination of Carly's 1972 hit 'You're So Vain' - I love this track, both this version and Carly Simon's original, the only lyrics that are preserved between the two versions is the chorus line "I betcha think this song is about you, Don't you, don't you, don't you?" beyond this they both share the beat, and the underlying structure but the remainder of the lyrics diverge. I love this song so much for what it epitomises and that is the mistaken belief that people think about you all the time - the reality is that other people spend less time thinking about us than we like to thing, they spend more time thinking about themselves because that's what the ego does and it's own ego that leads us to believe they are thinking about us because everything revolves around it. The irony of this song is that it is in fact about that one person in particular but without ever naming them and giving them validation you sow doubt. 'You're So Vain' by Carly Simon in many ways is a diss track although it's never really acknowledged to be one it shares pretty much all of the hallmarks.
The last two tracks I want to specifically mention are 'Someone To Call My Lover' and 'Doesn't Really Matter' both of which represent my search for love and the acknowledgement that the things in life that I want are things to aspire to, things to work towards, but things that it doesn't really matter in the end if I manage to achieve them, in the case of 'Doesn't Really Matter' the lyrics for me I interpret as self love, with 'you' in this case being myself, the chorus in particular "Doesn't really matter what the eye is seeing, 'Cause I'm in love with the inner being, Doesn't really matter what they believe, What matters to me is you're in love with me" to me is about self acceptance, learning to love yourself and who you are, not worrying about what others see and the judgements they pass because it doesn't really matter in the end what other people think of you, all that matters is your relationship with yourself which I know sounds narcissistic but there is truth in that tired cliché and when you accept that truth you start to see why things never work out for some people, it's just hard to turn that back on ourselves and analyse ourselves the way we analyse others, to see in our own lives that which we can see in others with such clarity.
It is for these reasons and so much more that Janet Jackson to me is an artist, a visionary, a creative genius, and an icon.
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