[Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug][/Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug]When 1986 began, most fans didn’t know Janet Jackson primarily as a singer.
Her 1982 self-titled solo LP gained minor notice, but her 1984 pop follow-up Dream Street was an umitigated flop. Instead, she was known as the sassy little sister from The Jackson’s appearances on variety shows (including their own) who had blossomed into a talented TV actress on shows like Good Times and Diff’rent Strokes.
I have to think that Control’s lead single “What Have You Done For Me Lately” hit radio like a bomb blast – especially in a Jackson void with Michael deep into a between-records lull.
Control was the perfect breakout album for 20-year-old Jackson – not mature so much as aware and outspoken with songs like “Control” and “Nasty.”
Also, the video for “What Have You Done For Me Lately” was Jackson’s first choreographed by Paula Abdul (who had choreographed Janet’s brothers on their Victory Tour), although I must emphasize that this is an early work.
Yes, the video is cheesy to the max – peak 80s with the slick cool of the 90s not yet in sight. Yet, it confirms Janet’s star power from her TV experience and presages her subsequent years of absolute video dominance. Her execution of Abdul’s choreography is tight and full of attitude.
And then there’s the sound.
This song introduced Janet’s collaboration with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, a sound dominated by layered, multi-octave vocals to make her voice sound bigger than it actually was. It’s driven by a two-note bass riff and relentless every-beat assault by drum machine snare and cowbell. The sparse, staccato keyboard chords barely register as anything but countermelody.
The chorus of “What Have You Done For Me Lately” is one of the most deadly earworms in pop music. It’s so simple. It pounds the 5th on “what have you do”, climbs to the minor 7ths “done for”, tickles the root on “me”, and descends. What solidifies the worminess is the “oo, yeah” – it ascends from a 6th to the major 7th instead. So, while neither line is as discordant with its surroundings as “always on my mind” in the verse, they combine to create a little mental dissonance for you as you repeat them back and forth.
Those aspects are so monolithic that I often forget the little touches of this song. Have you forgotten the hopelessly optimistic major-key bridge, so reminiscent of sunny 60s pop with its chiming synth bell rings, only to be deflated by the subsequent talk-rap? What about the later refrain of atonal jazz piano?
Then there is the control of it. While the lyrics are lightweight and almost a little silly, the delivery is anything but. This isn’t a young woman begging for attention. She’s demanding it.
Altogether, “What Have You Done For Me Lately” is a blueprint hat’s still followed today for a child star’s perfect pivot from a squeaky-clean, bubble-gum pop image into audaciousness supported by a hip, current sound. Compare Janet Jackson’s breakout here to subsequent moves by Christian Aguilera, or even Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande – all bigger voices but each with the same problem as Janet.
A lot of other stars might have copied Jackson’s strategy, but none of them have come close to topping this as their breakout single.”
I gave it a cursory page through and didn’t quite get it. EV didn’t seem to love it, either. I took away that EV wasn’t excited about wordless picture books.
– Try them!
I could add so many more details to that plot summary, but none of them are verifiably true and that’s the best part of Journey. The story told by the series of gorgeous illustrations is never proscriptive, but it includes many hints to act as hooks for your imagination. The colorful chalk creations pop off the watercolor backgrounds.
Stormwatch wasn’t immune to the widespread Image delays, but it had them more managed – its initial three-issue sprint was effectively a bi-monthly comic.
Ron Marz’s story of a parallel dimension akin to He-Man’s Eternia would have been better suited across multiple issues. It’s difficult to understand Battalion’s actions as they occur over just a day, making it seem as though he was hypnotized or possessed by a sudden love interest. If that was Marz’s intent, I’d say the issue was great, but it’s unclear if we’re supposed to believe the relationship was on the up-and-up.
Whatever the reason, I’m always giddy and than the steady gallop of the bass brings me back to earth as Chris Hughes tells me, “Welcome to your life…”
Then there is the simplistic melody of the chorus, sketching little wedges across the stave on the minor lines as it leaps over and steps down across the tonic, b/ e \b \a, only treating us to a walk across the D on the single major line.
He did not even consider himself a man, necessarily. He had boyish looks that refused to mature into something more credibly grown up and a boyish enthusiasm for everything – even utterly unexciting drudgery at the office. At least, that’s what he was told. He was slimmer than average, but not taller, and given the opportunity he would live his entire life in blue jeans and t-shirts. Even at twenty-seven years old with a corporate job and his own apartment he felt like he was still not quite an adult.