Thus, when Unbreakable was announced in the middle of 2015, marking Jackson’s eleventh overall album and first in seven years, not many people were sure what to expect.
Since then, she lambasted Island for the poor promotion that Discipline received, coped with the death of brother Michael, inexplicably received flak for marrying a Qatari billionaire in 2012, and watched as the sounds and styles she used in ruling the pop landscape got supplanted by the likes of Gaga, Katy, Rihanna, and Taylor, thriving in a world where even mentioning the name Britney Spears feels passé. That streak was broken by Damita Jo, and by the time she moved to Island Records for 2008’s solid-but-not-spectacular Discipline, she even her ditched longtime collaborators and musical muses Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis in favor of a smorgasbord of hot-at-the-moment beatmakers, who, despite giving it their all, failed to introduce Jackson to a new audience, resulting in her lowest-selling record since her “non-canon” LPs that predated 1986’s Control. Her ever-devout fans did their best to muster up their enthusiasm, but all of the goodwill that Jackson had garnered over the years evaporated at a fast pace, and to put that into perspective, consider this: without exception, every single charting song Janet released between 19 made its way into the US Top 40, an astonishing feat for any artist.
Following the astonishing success of 2001’s effervescent All For You, Jackson’s next two efforts, 2004’s Damita Jo and the career nadir that was 2006’s 20 Y.O., tried their best to recreate All For You‘s playful vibes but ended up feeling hollow, crass, and painfully uninspired. Jon Cohen, EVP of Recorded Music at BMG US regarding comeback single “No Sleeep”, Billboard (23 July 2015)Īt this point in her life, Janet Jackson owes us nothing.Īfter spending the first 15 years of her career topping charts, selling out stadiums, and becoming one of the most reliable hitmakers and prominent icons in all of pop music, Jackson spent most of the 2000s doing something we didn’t even think was possible: she got boring. With Janet, if she doesn’t put out a cross-format smash right out of the box, people think it isn’t a success, but that’s not it. “I think there’s a desperation to a lot of the older divas.
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