52 min listen
Hit Parade: State of the World Edition
FromSlate Culture
ratings:
Length:
76 minutes
Released:
Sep 27, 2019
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
In the mid-1980s, Janet Jackson broke away from her world-famous, hit-making family and, with her Control album, rebooted both her career and pop style in the New Jack Swing era. The challenge was following it up—and Jackson and her producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, didn’t make it easy on themselves.
In 1989, they produced an ambitious album with a portentous title: Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814. But what could have been Control, Part 2 instead was a visionary LP that reinvented the socially conscious album from the era of Marvin Gaye for the ’90s, and envisioned what pop would eventually sound like in the 21st century. Rhythm Nation was a smash, generating more hits—and bigger hits—than any album in history. In fact, if Jackson and her label hadn’t pulled their punches with one final radio single, she could have set an all-time Billboard chart record that would have overshadowed any of the Jackson family’s historic achievements.
Podcast production by Chris Berube.
HostChris Molanphy
Follow @cmolanphy on Twitter / https://www.twitter.com/cmolanphy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In 1989, they produced an ambitious album with a portentous title: Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814. But what could have been Control, Part 2 instead was a visionary LP that reinvented the socially conscious album from the era of Marvin Gaye for the ’90s, and envisioned what pop would eventually sound like in the 21st century. Rhythm Nation was a smash, generating more hits—and bigger hits—than any album in history. In fact, if Jackson and her label hadn’t pulled their punches with one final radio single, she could have set an all-time Billboard chart record that would have overshadowed any of the Jackson family’s historic achievements.
Podcast production by Chris Berube.
HostChris Molanphy
Follow @cmolanphy on Twitter / https://www.twitter.com/cmolanphy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Released:
Sep 27, 2019
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
The Culture Gabfest: My Little Dictaphone Edition: Slate critics Stephen Metcalf, Julia Turner, and Dana Stevens discuss Errol Morris' study of Donald Rumsfeld in his latest documentary "The Unknown Known," HBO's tech industry send up "Silicon Valley," and why faster isn't necessarily better when it... by Slate Culture