Janet Jackson is back on the scene with a new album and still is showing off an impressive figure for a 40 year old. Her new album is called “20 Y.O.”, a reference the fact that she dropped her amazing “Control” album 20 years ago. That’s an impressive feat for any musical artist, but why is this old lady is still on the in-scene two full decades after her first album?
The old school Janet was cool - Good Times, Diff’rent Strokes, the Control and Rhythm Nation Albums. Even add the movie Poetic Justice in there for good measure. She was soulful and down to earth; her dancing and choreography stood out from all the rest because it was all innovative back then. Her vocals were decent, but her overall music package has something to offer that others couldn’t replicate. But those times are gone, what was cool yesterday is hardly considered to this new generation. In Janet’s case, all we see is a scantily clad middle age woman looking for attention. And all of this three years after her SuperBowl debacle and subsequent apology for a certain “wardrobe malfunction”. This recent cry for my attention and money has got me thinking: Shouldn’t she be somewhere having kids and raising a family right about now?
But I have to give it her, it’s amazing that someone of her age continue to influence a younger generation that is all about being hip and faddish. In fact, there still are a lot of 35 and older icons that are still influencing the music game. Jennifer Lopez is still doing her J.Lo thing, selling an image over some lackluster tracks. Diddy is still in videos and songs talking about cars, women, and club-hopping. Shoot, Madonna is almost 50 and still selling records. Dare I mention that she’s got videos where she’s basically dancing around in her underwear?
I think the fundamental reason why Janet can go out there and still be Janet is that the quality of music nowadays has become so diluted from what it was 20 years ago. Everything nowadays is about marketing, images, and money - so with the shift in how the entertainment is funded and valued, you get a shift in the core quality of the music. You see this on the hip hop side as well. Anyone who thinks 50 cent is a better rapper than Jay-Z is obviously misinformed. Music across all genres has so much money behind it, that a record company as a business is better off selling an image rather than actual talent. When you have the people with talent being skipped over for a more commercial person, that’s where you get deviations in what we used to call music.
There’s always a market for our heroes of yesteryear. Given their iconic personas, the likes of Janet, J.Lo, Jay-Z, Diddy, etc can still compete in the young world of music nowadays, regardless of their age. They just need to get back to what made them stick out in the first place.
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