Janet Jackson: Taking Control Black Music Legends of the 1980s

-What's your name?

-Janet.

We had no idea that this woman would become Janet Jackson.

She had a very domineering and dictatorial father.

I felt, "I can't be the only young adult in this world

"that is experiencing these feelings."

She was just like, "Enough. I'm going to be who I am

and I'm going to speak loudly for myself."

# I thought it would be easy... #

If you ever want to know anything about Janet,

just listen to her albums, listen to the lyrics.

# I want to make my own decisions Wait a minute... #

I was writing what was going on in my life.

That's the way I've always written.

That's the only way I know how to write.

# Things are getting worse... #

Janet was someone the music industry at large knew they were going to have to respect.

# Anytime... #

With each subsequent record, she gets more provocative,

to the point where you're like, "Janet... You know... Man!"

# With such confusion Don't it make you wanna scream... #

Michael needed Janet much more at the moment that he does Scream

than Janet ever needed Michael.

We have so few examples of pop stars who can continue to build a career

and be able to do it consistently on their own terms.

This is a story about control.

My control.

Fighting for her share of the limelight

was never going to be easy for Janet Damita Jo Jackson -

the little sister of the musical phenomenon

that was the Jackson family.

Janet was born in the rust-belt industrial town

of Gary, Indiana, near Chicago

on May 16th 1966.

The youngest of nine children, all raised as Jehovah's Witnesses.

Their father Joseph,

a crane operator at the local steel mill,

had big plans for his children.

# When I had you to myself

# I didn't want you around

# Those pretty faces always make you

# Stand out in a crowd... #

The Jacksons go from being this small family-knit group from Gary

to all of a sudden becoming this huge nationwide phenomenon.

# A, B, C Easy as one, two, three... #

By the time Janet was five,

her brothers had signed to Motown,

had four number ones on the American Billboard 100,

were touring extensively, and even had their own TV series.

When she first saw us in our cartoon,

she was like, so happy for us to see that, you know?

And she watched it every Saturday morning,

she would get up early in the morning,

eating her cereal, watching the Jackson 5 cartoon.

Janet was like a tomboy.

She was always running around, playing football, climbing trees.

She was something else.

Following their early success, father Joe moved the whole family

from the Midwest to California.

He wanted the brothers

to be right at the heart of the entertainment industry.

When I used to go out to interview the Jacksons,

we didn't really want to be bothered with Janet.

We'd see her around, playing or something like that,

and we had no idea that this woman would become Janet Jackson.

But in the Jackson household, even playtime was show time.

My brother Mike and I,

he was Fred Astaire, I was Ginger Rogers

and we'd learn every routine.

Our mirror was our...

The reflection of the window.

We had this huge sliding door off the pool,

leading to the pool from the house,

and we used to use that as our mirror

and we'd be outside learning routines all day long.

You sing with the group?

In the Jackson 5 family everybody works.

Not surprisingly, Janet was soon roped into the family business.

By the age of ten, she was appearing with her brother Randy

on the Jacksons' very own variety Show.

# And the beat goes on... #

It's not easy to be the only female person in that very male space,

and also to be the youngest of such a famous group.

# And the beat goes on And the beat goes on....

Very early on,

we saw that she had a very clear idea

about doing something different for herself.

# Yes, the beat goes on

# Yeah! #

I was doing the Jacksons' television summer specials

and it just so happens that Norman Lear, who did Sanford and Son,

All In The family, Jeffersons...

I mean so many - Good Times - so many different shows - Maude...

Happened to see me and they needed to cast a young girl.

Janet was auditioned for the role of little Penny

in US sitcom Good Times.

They called me in for an interview

and we did this improv

and he loved the way that it went.

It got very emotional.

I didn't know what I was doing,

I was just going with what I felt, I guess, in my gut.

And as I was walking out of the building, he said,

"If you want to have the part, you can. It's yours."

So that's how... I was just ten years old.

She's pretty much grown up as pop royalty

from the day she was born,

and so I think people don't always understand

how much credit she has to be given

for her real acting jobs at a very young age.

# Now the world don't move

# To the beat of just one drum... #

Her success as Penny

led to a part in the even more popular series Diff'rent Strokes,

which told the story of two adopted African-American Harlem kids -

Arnold and Willis.

It became a big success with black people and white people

because the concept was universal. Cos it really was just about love.

I want you to meet my sister, Kimberley...

Playing Charlene, Willis's girlfriend,

Janet was a big hit with audience and cast alike.

Mm-hm!

No wonder he's willing to risk the best years of his life.

From what I'm hearing, Todd had a crush on me

and that's how I got the job.

When I got her on the show, the plan was for me to start dating her.

That was my plan.

He wanted me to be his girlfriend in the show,

so I was his girlfriend in the show.

Well, we definitely had a natural attraction towards one another.

# Do the hustle... #

I was shocked to see my little sister growing up so fast.

She did a little love scene where she had a little kissing role

and that was hard for me to see that!

Janet was my first love,

and I still love Janet. I always will.

She has a special place in my heart.

Whilst Janet was breaking hearts on the small screen,

brother Michael had established his ground-breaking collaboration

with renowned producer Quincy Jones

and parted ways with his father as his manager.

It was clear that he was losing Michael,

but he did have Janet.

So that was the one that he concentrated on.

A reluctant 16-year-old Janet

was soon recording her first album

under the watchful eye of her father.

# It's your body chemistry Your history, your smile

# I like it, I like your style... #

With no direct artistic input in the writing or production,

Janet looked to be going through the motions.

We can sell the Jackson name to sell records,

but, you know, who really knows if she's really talented, you know?

What does she really have to say?

In contrast to brother Michael's solo albums,

the Janet Jackson album made little impact.

Big name disco producer Giorgio Moroder,

who had scored hits for Donna Summer,

was called in to produce Janet's second album, 1984's Dream Street.

# Dream Street

# Dream Street

# Will it all come true Or will it all just fade away... #

It didn't feel like anything significant

was happening in her early music.

She was one of the Jacksons, she was an actress,

oh, here's a record.

And I don't think that anybody would have anticipated

a particularly important career

for the girl who was singing those records.

In an attempt to raise her profile, Dad and manager Joe

pushed Janet into taking the role of Cleo Hewitt

in the hit TV series Fame.

That particular role made the least impression to me

and I'm not sure why.

She doesn't resonate with me

in the same way that other cast members did.

# Baby, look at me

# And tell me what you see... #

She was adorable and she was very talented as an actress,

but when she came on Fame,

she was very pulled back and shy

and I was surprised,

because it was different than how I had met her as a child.

But I understood it, because she was part of the Jackson clan

and so it meant that fame was upon her already,

whether she wanted it or not.

Her father had plans for his daughter, but Janet had other ideas.

In a fit of teen rebellion,

she eloped with pop heart-throb James DeBarge,

who delivered a series of hits for Motown in the mid-'80s

# Feel the beat of the rhythm of the night

# Oh-oh, the rhythm of the night... #

I knew James DeBarge very well.

I travelled with his family

when I was at Motown during the All This Love album

in February of '83.

And in every city, Janet was calling James.

They were very much in love.

We know now she had a very domineering and dictatorial father

in Joe Jackson,

but that marriage,

she saw as the way out,

as emancipation.

Unfortunately, the reality of marriage

didn't turn out as 18-year-old Janet hoped.

She had obviously impulsively and quickly gone off and eloped

and found herself in a hairy situation

with a husband who was struggling with drugs.

She would have to get called out to pick him, or find him.

What she found herself in with the marriage to James DeBarge

was something very different than she'd signed up for.

-# Remember my name

-Fame!

-#

In an attempt to sort out her life,

Janet left the cast of Fame, quit acting,

and the marriage was annulled after little more than a year.

I think that's the reason

that we see the kind of very strong, willful, self-possessed decisions

that we see for her later.

Like, she really has this process of defining herself

not just as an artist, but as a woman in her own space.

While Janet was struggling to find her way,

her brother Michael's seemingly unstoppable rise had hit an obstacle.

The launch of the 24-hour music television channel MTV in 1981,

had revolutionised the record industry.

Round-the-clock exposure of a song's promotional video

was now key to any record's success.

But MTV was primarily a white rock music channel

and it was uncertain whether they would show the Billie Jean video

from Michael's 1982 album Thriller.

# Billie Jean is not my lover

# She's just a girl... #

Well, after the video of Billie Jean was made,

you know, we gave it to our promotion department,

but they came back, you know,

saying that MTV refused to play it.

That they weren't playing any videos by any black artists.

There was nothing racist about MTV.

Their logic was that the largest format were white rock acts

because on radio, white rock acts and black rock acts

did not mix really well,

according to the audiences who listen to those formats.

That's crazy to me that they wouldn't even play a Billie Jean, or a...

You know, considering how much the music has influenced white music,

you know, or pop music. It's just... It's like, "Really?!"

MUSIC: "Money For Nothing" by Dire Straits

MTV is a product of the very apartheid that we're starting to see

on the radio airwaves in the 1980s.

I don't think they even thought twice about programming black acts.

This was about white kids.

-# I want my MTV

-Get your money for nothing... #

Thank God for Walter Yetnikoff

the chairman of Columbia,

who said to MTV in no uncertain terms,

if you don't play Michael Jackson's videos,

you're not going to have any of our videos,

we're pulling in them all.

# Cos this is thriller

# Thriller night... #

The screening of Michael's landmark video for Thriller

earned MTV the highest viewing figures in the channel's history.

# So let me hold you tight and share a thriller... #

MTV realised that their audience was much bigger

if they were inclusive of a wide variety of kinds of music.

Then all the other acts - Lionel Richie, Prince, Janet Jackson -

that represented the wide spectrum,

not of rock music, but of pop music,

became MTV staple.

# What have you done for me lately... #

In 1986, Janet took full advantage of this opportunity

to showcase the lead single from her new album.

Not only was the music a huge leap forward from her previous work,

she was now writing her own lyrics,

which, like the work of her contemporary, Madonna,

reflected the changing attitudes of female audiences in the '80s.

# Until I thought I'd lose my breath... #

# What have you done for me lately? #

That's crazy. I loved it!

# What have you done for me lately... #

Do you remember the shoulders? Like that.

# Ooh-ooh-ooh, yeah... #

What have you done for me lately?

Demanding something from her guy, and still being cute and sweet,

but with that look in her eye that was like, "Mm-mm. Not having it. Not having it." You know?

# I never asked for more than I deserve... #

Like, "Back up, honey. Back up."

# You seem to think you're God's gift to this Earth... #

Back up and back off.

# You know it's the truth... #

And she was just like, "Enough.

"I'm going to be who I am and I want to speak loudly for myself,"

which was at the same time speaking loudly for women.

So she really became an icon of that whole kind of feminist movement.

With her album Control, Janet came of age.

# What have you done for me lately... #

And in an era when women were fighting for equality,

Janet was fighting for her own independence.

This is a story about control.

My control.

Control of what I say

and control of what I do.

She'd distanced herself from her father,

moving to Minneapolis to work with the relatively unknown,

but cutting-edge Prince proteges Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

Together they started working on a completely new sound for Janet.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

It's all about control.

The first two albums didn't really work.

It was just a bunch of different producers

and everybody was writing songs and putting words in her mouth.

They didn't have the emotional investment in the project.

Are you ready?

I am, cos it's all about control.

It did take control. It wasn't just the gimmick for the album,

it wasn't just a song title, that's what she was going through.

# When I was 17

# I did what people told me... #

Control was her destiny.

I mean, it was the most fitting title for her life at that time.

She was under the control of her father,

she had issues with her marriage.

So there was a lot of drama

and she was depending on other people.

# Control

# Don't have a lot... #

She was in her mid-teens, taking direction from your father.

So her father had primary creative control.

Craving that control herself,

19-year-old Janet sacked her father Joseph.

She made a business decision.

I felt it was a good move at the time.

Sometimes my dad can't understand that.

# By the time I fell in love

# I didn't know what hit me... #

I had gone through so much at that age

when I began working with Jimmy and Terry.

I felt that I can't be the only young adult in this world

that is experiencing these feelings,

having these issues.

So I put them down.

# When I was 17

# I did what people told me

# Did what my father said

# And let my mother mould me

# But that was long ago

# I'm in control... #

I was writing what was going on in my life,

which is...

That's the way I've always written.

That's the only way I know how to write.

These were her moments of absolute self-definition

and not only was she defining who she was as a woman,

she was deciding that she was not only go to be a recording artist,

but she was going to be a star.

The album redefined Janet.

Not only was it a hit on the black R&B chart,

it produced five top-ten hits

on America's mainstream billboard chart,

including her first number one, When I Think Of You.

# Ooh, baby

# Any time my world gets crazy

# All I have to do... #

The record had hit song after hit song after hit song after hit song.

# Cos when I think of you... #

It transcended black and white.

It became universal.

As well as making Janet a star,

the album's innovative production,

the result of her collaboration with Jam and Lewis,

would have a huge impact on the future sound of black music.

# Sitting in the movie show Thinking nasty thoughts... #

If you watch how she sings,

her vocal almost becomes part of the instrumentation

because of the way she attacks the words.

# Oh, you nasty boys

# Nasty, nasty boys

# Don't ever change

She's singing "nasty." It can't be "nasty", It's got to be "NASTY!"

# Nasty! #

As a producer, it made it so great,

because a lot of times if you had a funky track

and you put a singer with it

and the singer couldn't keep up with the funk and the attitude of the track,

it would be like, it didn't work.

She would help propel the track along

because of her little, "Ah, ah, ah."

She would always kind of do that as she was singing

and it would become another funky element.

# Who's jamming to my nasty groove... #

Embraced by producer Teddy Riley,

this slick new sound would form the basis of a whole new genre, New Jack Swing,

a fusion of R&B, rap, funk, disco and synthesised percussion.

Teddy Riley is much more conscious of bringing in hip-hop elements into his mix, right?

But he's doing so firmly aware of the kind of success Jam and Lewis had.

No, my first name ain't baby

It's Janet Miss Jackson if you're nasty

# Nasty, nasty boys It don't mean a thing

# Oh, you nasty boys... #

Nasty was probably the first kind of swing-beat song that was popular,

and I think the effect the album had was it got people thinking

outside the box a little bit as to what R&B is.

The release of Control in 1986 not only created a blueprint for the future direction of R&B,

it firmly established Janet as an independent and assertive artist in her own right.

Control could have been a fluke.

It was so personal that maybe that was all she had in her.

Maybe that was the big statement and then it was sort of going to be copying that the rest of the way.

# Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

# Yeah, yeah, yeah

# Bass, bass... #

For her next album, record company A&M wanted Janet

to deliver more love songs, but Janet had other priorities.

I was more...interested in what was going on in our world.

I started seeing all these stories and drugs, racism, homelessness.

It really concerned me.

In the '80s, America's inner cities had been hit hard by a combination of recession and severe budget cuts.

We're in control here.

There's nothing wrong with America that together we can't fix.

NEWS REPORT: 'Industry is reeling from the recession.

'In affluent America, the soup kitchen has been revived by public authorities.'

You couldn't turn on CNN without being blown away by the tragedy in the news.

Something started burning creatively with us

as to what the album should be...

and the blueprint - not really the blueprint for the album - but the inspiration for the album

then became Marvin Gaye's What's Going On? album.

# It makes me wanna holler And throw up both my hands

# Yeah, it make me wanna holler And throw up both my hands... #

Ow!

Soul singer Marvin Gaye's album What's Going On

had taken a critical look at racism and inequality in late '60s America.

Janet now looked to the urban black community of the '80s

and the emerging hip-hop scene for her lyrical and musical inspiration.

What Janet was doing was picking up on what was happening during that time.

There was a lot of changes.

People were starting to

get comfortable with having a voice, and the voice was coming through

at that time through music and dance.

It was like the modern day Blues for African Americans, for ethnic people in general.

The thing about Janet is...

..she would go out and just hang in regular places.

She would come to the teen nightclubs.

I mean, she hung out and she loved it.

She would talk about things that would really hurt her, you know.

Poverty and racism, you know, those things that really, really struck

at the core of her.

And I think Rhythm Nation was really important, a really important vehicle for her to share that side of her.

On the Rhythm Nation 1814 album, Janet, Jimmy and Terry would adopt hip-hop production techniques

and sample classic old school songs.

For the album's title track, they used a sample of a Sly And The Family Stone funk anthem.

# Thank you for letting me be myself again... #

And all of a sudden, it went to the break of the song, and the break of the song is this guitar riff.

And I just said,

"That's it! That it!" I knew that was the riff

and I went straight to the studio, looped that guitar riff

and then started building it from there. Put in the drums,

the keyboards and all that stuff over it.

They weren't imitating hip hop,

but they were certainly taking a different kind of energy

and a different kind of, you know, more aggressive rhythm.

Whoo, that's funky!

'They painted in broader strokes. They used bigger sounds'

and more sounds. They used that amazing Sly Stone sample.

That's what drives the Rhythm Nation song.

Technology was changing. All of these things were happening

and she wasn't chasing those trends, she was very much a leader at that time.

# Join voices in protest To social injustice

# A generation full of courage... #

MTV, the channel that had once refused to put black artists on their play list,

now embraced Janet, not only as a recording artist,

but also as a producer of innovative videos.

Keen to give emerging street dance talent a platform,

Janet enlisted unknown 21-year-old locker and popper Anthony Thomas to devise the choreography.

'The craziest thing about it was...

'..she had never really told me that I was the lead choreographer, that I was the guy.'

They kept giving me stuff to do and I'm like,

"Man, am I really THE choreographer for this?"

I'd never stirred up a gumbo like that before, you know?

It was either locking over here or popping over here.

No-one had ever gone,

"Ooh, that's kind of cool." No-one had ever mixed it up like that.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Pow, pow, pow, pow, you know?

That strength from the word go.

You have to see that this Janet Jackson funk army was here to stay.

We weren't playing around.

# It's time to give a damn Let's work together

# Come on now... #

In 1990, the Rhythm Nation video won a Grammy and the MTV vanguard award for its groundbreaking choreography.

# Everybody sing

# We want a better way of life

# Sing it people

# Sing it real good

# Sing it if you want a better way of life... #

Rhythm Nation was a huge commercial success,

but a young Janet hoped the song could also serve a real purpose.

I know an album or song can't change the world, but for those who are on the borderline,

hopefully it will make a difference in that person's life by listening to what we have to say.

# Let's work together to improve our way of life

# Join voices in protest

# To social injustice

# A generation full of courage come forth with me... #

Maybe I could create something

that was thought-provoking for someone that was on drugs

and make them realise.

Listen to the music,

then understand, well, OK, there's a message in there.

So just hopefully to help one person, that would be an accomplishment.

# This is the test

# No struggle, no progress... #

Actor Michael K Williams, who plays Omar in cult TV series The Wire,

was one of the very people Janet was trying to reach.

# It's time to give a damn... #

I was lost in my low self-esteem.

I was low in my lack of awareness.

I was low in drug addiction, you know.

I just, you know, I was lost in a lot of different ways,

and when I saw Rhythm Nation I was just like, I felt like she was talking to me.

I'm just so grateful that I know that

she touched me through her music.

Rhythm Nation definitely changed my life on a personal level and a professional level.

We are a part of Rhythm Nation, you know.

That blew my mind.

The Rhythm Nation album proved even more popular than its predecessor Control.

With seven top five hit singles, including four number ones on the Billboard chart,

Janet smashed the record previously held by big brother Michael with his album Thriller.

# Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh

# Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh

# Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.

Michael was very close to his little sister.

The language did change when she started getting hits.

When she did Control, it was like, "OK, this is cute.

"Let's see what happens here."

First number one record. "Oh, my God.

"My sister's got a number one record."

That third number one, "Yeah, Janet's got another number one record."

That fourth number one, "OK, the gloves are off.

"You're competition now!"

In just five years, Janet had sold 14 million albums in the US alone, and scored hit 15 singles.

She is a star.

She is, not only does she have the talent to make important records,

she now has an aesthetic that, is not only competing with her brother,

but she is now giving Madonna some pause.

# Still we manage to stay together

# There's no easy explanation... #

Now one of the most successful women in pop,

and with her record contract with A&M coming to an end,

Janet was free to pick and choose from the major record labels.

Everybody and their mother was trying to get Janet.

I mean, everyone from CBS, to Motown, tried to get into the fight, Warner Bros, I mean,

everyone was after this woman, because she was the hottest thing.

# Never do without you... #

She had something over all the other artists that she competed with,

and that is, her brother was Michael.

She had the opportunity to learn at the loafers of this guy.

I think the economic deals that Janet Jackson does in the 1990s

was the record industry responding to the fact that things had changed.

That you could, in fact,

carry the success of the industry on the crossover success

of an African-American artist.

# Never do without you and they said it wouldn't last... #

Richard Branson literally opened up the bank and just said,

"Listen, whatever we can do to make this deal happen, let's do it."

In 1991, Branson signed Janet to his Virgin record label for 40 million.

At the time, it was the biggest deal in music industry history.

Did it shock me? No. It was just my 9 to 5, it was my work.

I got this, I mean, I hate to make it sound like this, it was like,

OK, you get a promotion, but what a huge promotion it was,

but, I'm doing my job, and I try to do it to the best of my ability,

give my all, at what I do, and I work very, very hard.

Still, to this day. So, it was my job, my life, you know?

With that record deal under her belt,

Janet was now firmly established and able to wield

considerable creative and commercial control over her career.

In the same year that she signed to Virgin, she also secretly married

long-term friend, former dancer and video director, Rene Elizondo.

Her new found personal and creative confidence was reflected on her next album.

Simply titled "Janet", her first album for Virgin delivered

the love songs her former record company had craved.

# Oh, baby, don't you worry

# I'm gonna make you crazy

# I'll give you the time of your life

# I'm gonna take you places

# You've never been before... #

The debut single, That's The Way Love Goes,

went straight to number one in the US charts

and stayed there for eight weeks.

# I'm gonna take you there... #

If Rhythm Nation was a sort of version of What's Goin' On?,

then Janet was our version of Let's Get It On.

# That's the way love is... #

The title is so incredibly telling, that it's simply "Janet",

it's not "Janet Jackson".

It's simply, "Janet", and I think that her sensuality,

more than her sexuality, is completely intact.

I think she's very happy with her body, and she feels

like she's earned the right, on a different level, to express herself.

# I don't wanna stop, just because

# You feel so good inside of my love

# I'm not gonna stop, no, no, no

# I want you... #

And with each subsequent record, she gets more and more provocative,

to the point where you're like, "Janet, you know, man!"

# Any place I don't care who's around

# No, no, no, no, no... #

It wasn't only the lyrics that became more provocative.

Janet arranged a photo-shoot with fashion photographer

Patrick Demarchelier to create a unique cover for her new album.

Everybody wants to know, whose is this hand?

# My mind is starting to burn

# With forbidden thoughts... #

The hands belonged to husband, Rene,

but the risque picture proved too much for her record label.

That was actually supposed to be the album cover.

They didn't want to use it for the album cover.

So I said, "OK"... I thought, coming up with the idea,

I thought it would make a great album cover,

so I said, "OK, don't use it for the album cover".

So, they used it for a magazine cover, instead.

So that's when we went to Rolling Stone, and they fell in love with it.

She has this banging body, and she's ready to show it.

With the Rolling Stone cover, that, you know,

became one of the most iconic images of pop star, ever.

Ah! I had a lot of friends talking about,

"Ah, man, what could I do to meet her, where is she at? Who is she?"

Man, come on, I know she look like that - I didn't know she looked like that, from Good Times.

You hear all different stuff, I'm like, "Look, man, this is my aunt".

Janet worked closely with her new husband, Rene,

forming a formidable creative partnership.

And there's no doubt her album, Janet,

reflected a woman at ease, both in her life, and her work.

# Never fall again... #

I love the Again video. It was a very, very intimate

part of Janet that she was letting people see.

And I think that that video was directed by Rene, and they were

together at the time, and he knew how to find her vulnerability,

knew how to comfort her, in allowing that to come out, and how to shoot it.

# Falling in love again

# And we can do... #

She had moved to a different place in her career and in her life,

and this album was about a different relationship to herself.

The fact that she could be successful,

showing this most feminine side of herself

just demonstrated the range of what was possible for her.

# Say it just one time

# Say you love me

# God knows I do love you again... #

Michael Jackson records weren't really personal records,

and I think, with Janet,

her records were deeply personal in ways that Michael's weren't.

With the exception of Leave Me Alone, he didn't talk about himself.

Whereas Janet's records were basically open books.

Whilst Janet was now firmly established

as one of the biggest pop stars of the '90s,

brother Michael's career was in crisis.

Michael needed Janet much more

at the moment that he does Scream, than Janet ever needed Michael.

After a year battling allegations of child sexual abuse,

Michael was acquitted of all charges in 1994.

But, five years since his last album, Dangerous,

he struggled to re-establish himself as "the King of Pop".

Michael turned to his little sister Janet, to co-write his comeback single, Scream.

Janet encouraged Michael to adopt

a more direct and personal approach to his lyrics.

Together, they vented their anger at the tabloid press

who had hounded Michael long before his trial.

# Tired of injustice

# Tired of the schemes These lies are disgustin'

# So what does it mean, Daddy... #

Michael and Janet are very different artists, and I think that

when you watch Scream, you see that, yes, they were angry.

They had a reason to be angry.

A lot of the dance came out very forceful and very strong.

# Peek in the shadow... #

It spoke volumes when you watched their movement.

# Tell me I'm wrong

# Then you better prove you're right

# You're selling out souls

# I care about mine... #

This is what Black Power looks like.

It could take the form of an Oprah Winfrey,

it could take the form of Will Smith, it could also

take the form of a brother and sister who are highly competitive,

but, by being competitive, have been able

to push their artistic sensibilities further than anyone would've ever expected.

# Somebody please have mercy Cos I just can't take it... #

I remember going into the studio, and Michael just blew it away.

First take. Just killed it, with all the anger and the rage.

# With such confusion Don't it make you wanna scream?

# Make you wanna scream... #

I was like, "I'm not following that! Nobody follows Michael Jackson after that!"

# You find your pleasure Scandalisin' every lie... #

Feeling the pressure, Janet recorded in a different studio on a different day

and laid down a vocal that more than matched her brother's performance.

# Keep playin' the game

# Can't take it much longer

# I think I might go insane... #

Michael goes "I want to come to Minneapolis, to redo my vocal."

I was like, "Michael, your vocal's perfect, man!"

He was like, "No, no, Janet sounds really good,

"I have to redo my vocal."

I was like, "OK, fine."

So, that's competition. I don't know if it's healthy competition.

# Just stop pressurin' me, Make me wanna scream

# Stop your pressure. #

I think she's absolutely being competitive with her brother,

but in the way that women should be competitive.

I think that Janet is the prototype of the girl who's raised

to be a nice girl, and could've had a reasonably successful career,

as a nice girl, but, when she was allowed to be a woman,

and embrace the side of her, that is competitive,

and competitive didn't mean, like,

she wanted to stab her brother in the back,

or that she didn't love her brother, or she wasn't very much a Jackson,

it meant that, "I want to be the best that I can be."

The competition certainly paid off.

Michael and Janet's Scream, still one of the most expensive videos

of all time, won both a Grammy and the MTV Award for Best Dance Video.

Janet was a major, major player in pop music history.

Not only was she now just a recording artist, she was someone

the music industry at large knew they were going to have to respect.

In 1996, Janet negotiated a second record-breaking contract with Virgin,

worth 80 million, and appeared to have the world at her feet.

So the mood of the songs on her next album, Velvet Rope,

surprised many of her fans.

If you ever want to know anything about Janet, just listen to her albums.

It's all there on the album.

You don't have to go by the book, read an article -

it's all right there on the records. Listen to the lyrics.

# I get so lonely

# Can't let just anybody hold me

# You are the one... #

There are murmurs about her marriage with Rene Elizondo.

Is it still going on? Are they still married?

There's all this speculation that, if it's still happening,

that it may be on the rocks.

# All alone with my fears

# I'm wonderin' if I have to do withoutcha

# But there's no reason why... #

When you look around,

and you have everything, and you're still not happy,

that's a weird feeling.

One that you'd think a lot of people wouldn't relate to it,

because you feel like, well, what's her problem? She's got everything.

The Velvet Rope album was a masterpiece.

Janet was going through a lot at that time. There was an inner struggle going on with her.

Some people might want to say that it was dark,

and I just think it was Janet evolving into another Janet,

another place in her life.

Thank God I made a decision to deal with it,

as opposed to run away from it, or dive into drugs or drinking.

And that's where Velvet Rope came from.

# Believin' that you were the one

# I was meant to be with

# Oh, how I'm wishin'

# Thinkin', dreamin' of you

# And the love, How'd I let you get away? #

Returning to hip-hop for inspiration,

Janet enlisted the talents of rapper, Q-Tip.

# Don't it seem to go, that you don't know what you got... #

Using a sample of Joni's Mitchell's 1970 hit, Big Yellow Taxi...

# Don't know what you've got... #

..the single, Got Till It's Gone, redefined Janet again as a cutting-edge artist.

# That you could ever, love me again

# So would you give me One more chance, to love

# To love you, the right way again? #

The process of self-examination whilst writing Velvet Rope

also saw Janet return to more socially conscious lyrics.

# That you don't know what you got till it's gone... #

She was looking for a way to make a contribution, to be more than just a pop icon.

# Don't it always seem to go

# That you don't know what you got till it's gone... #

A lot of my friends had passed away from AIDS

and I wanted to write a song that would celebrate them

and not something that was sombre,

but something that was up and celebratory and that reminded me

of their personalities, their energy.

And Together Again come out of me.

# There are times when I look above

# And beyond

# There are times when I feel your love

# Around me, baby

# I'll never forget my baby... #

There were a few people that thought I should not do it.

That thought I should go in and at least redo the lyrics.

They didn't want it to be about

my friends passing away from AIDS.

And I disagreed with that and just went with it.

Some people at the label...

And I'm glad I didn't back down from what I was feeling.

Together Again went on to be Janet's biggest international hit -

proceeds going to AMFAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.

# From the words when you said Hey, it's about you, baby

# Look deeper inside you, baby... #

When an artist puts their reputation and their career on the line

in the way Janet does for causes which may not be popular with everyone...

Janet does that in a tradition, I think, of people willing to put

their name on the line for a cause that they care deeply about.

# I know you are there

# Smiling back at me... #

But I think it was also reflective of someone who was searching for a bigger voice.

And I think she found it.

# Shining down on me... #

Key to Janet's continued global appeal was her ability to connect with audiences everywhere,

regardless of age, sexuality or race.

# Together again, ooh Good times we'll share again... #

So, it's African-Americans, it's Latino, it' s Filipino-Americans.

I mean, if you wanted the best face of what America would look like, just look at a Janet Jackson video.

And they're all beautiful and pretty, right. It's like a Benetton ad.

As the new millennium rolled in, Janet was single again.

Now divorced from second husband, Rene, the album All For You celebrated her new found freedom.

-# It's all for you... #

-The title track went to number one in the US charts,

stayed there for seven weeks and made radio airplay history.

# It's all for you

# If you make a move... #

Despite the album being knocked from the top of the charts by Destiny's Child,

the queen of radio wasn't ready to give up her throne.

# Want to approach me Throw me a line

# But there's something inside you... #

At the top of the pop game for over 17 years, Janet - America's sweetheart -

was invited to sing with Justin Timberlake at the 2004 Superbowl Final

to a worldwide television audience of a 145 million.

Oh!

'Justin Timberlake made the most of his opportunity as he tried his best to rock Janet's body.'

# Talk to me, boy... #

'But the prince of pop got a little too enthusiastic -

'Janet was left blushing.'

Janet's breast was exposed for less than a second, leading to a media frenzy.

We've received 200,000 complaints on the Superbowl incident.

We have a striptease in front of billions of people.

..and unfortunately the whole thing went wrong in the end.

'Janet apologised, but some critics insisted it was simply a publicity stunt.'

It's been taken apart and re-analysed frame by frame.

It's like the Kennedy assassination.

I think it sort of spiralled her into a place

that clearly her career's never really fully come back from.

# This is so good.

# This rhythm than just makes me... #

Released just a couple of months after the Superbowl, her next album,

2004's Damita Jo, suggested an artist already off her game.

I remember the first day she said to Terry,

"You know what, Terry, you write the lyrics."

Terry looked at her like, "What?"

"No, Terry, you can write the lyrics.

"I don't really feel I have anything to talk about."

"Well, you know what, then we shouldn't be making an album.

"If you really don't feel that way."

With over 30 hit singles since the 1986 album Control,

Janet, Jimmy and Terry had forged

one of the most successful production teams of all time.

I have to say that those are bombs were all -

Control, Rhythm Nation, Janet, Velvet Rope, and All For You -

those five albums, to me, are really a great cohesive

journey in time. A journey of the evolution of a girl to a woman.

# Can we take this body higher?

# Come on. Yeah. #

The Damita Jo album received mixed reviews

and failed to make an impact in the charts.

# Can we takes this party higher?

# I could dance all night

# Work it like you're working a pole

# Shake it 'til you're shaking the floor

# Pop it like you're poppin' a cork Don't stop, don't stop. #

Janet's musical evolution that began almost 20 years earlier

when she took control of her life and sacked her father,

seemed to have come to an end.

In her personal life, Janet had settled

into a long-term relationship with producer Jermaine Dupri

and attempted to shun the limelight.

But to no avail.

Since her years as a teen pop star, Janet's fluctuating weight

had remained a source of tabloid fascination.

There were pictures that were coming out on the internet,

you know, "Does she have that body, does she not have that body?"

I was always so self-conscious of this body image.

And that can swing you in the wrong direction.

Either you can overeat because of it, nerves.

Or undereat and become anorexic.

Janet's issues with her physical appearance had first started

as a child actress in Good Times.

They bound my chest.

When I was on the show, they never told me they were going to do it.

When I got dressed for the first episode, that's when

the wardrobe lady told me that she was going to,

and I was developing at a young age. I was just ten.

So that was telling me immediately that I'm not good enough as I was.

And then the following season they said,

"OK, she's getting too fat, she needs to lose weight."

When I look back, I was not a heavy kid.

But there have been times when I've been too thin, and I know that.

And I've had to have my friends say to me and I would say to them,

"Tell me when to stop because I don't know.

"I will find fault."

In 2009, Janet returned to the big screen

when she was cast in Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too?

You son of a bitch!

Who gave you money for this architect firm, huh?

As an actress, she cast vanity aside.

Her critically acclaimed portrayal of curvy lawyer Patricia

was both convincing and compelling.

Get out of my house.

Get out of my house!

I'm interested in the director

that's going to push her out of that particular

angry, pained and closed roles.

I'm interested in the director that can do for her

what Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis did for her musically.

It was while she was on the set of Why Did I Get Married Too?

that Janet received some shocking news.

It's like the world stopped.

Everybody stopped. The world stopped.

'There was no indication of any external trauma.'

'The big question is whether or not the doctor who was by his side...'

'Since before it was confirmed that Michael Jackson died...'

It was Janet who found the strength to speak to the world

on behalf of the Jackson family.

To you, Michael is an icon.

To us, Michael is family.

And he will forever live in all of our hearts.

She's a very private person, right, but in some ways

allowed her fans and Michael's fans into her private space in order for

her to grieve, so that everyone else could grieve at the same time.

When my uncle passed,

Janet did help bring everyone together.

She was right there.

It's actually hard to see my uncles

and my aunts go through this because they are such different individuals.

It didn't pull them apart, it pulled them closer.

She really helped us.

She keeps us together.

To have to have endured

such a difficult loss,

I think it either hardens some people or it kind of adds another

"I'm going to live my life on my own terms"

sense of resolve for others.

And Janet definitely falls into that latter category.

Summer 2011. 25 years since her first hit single,

Janet is back, staging her biggest world tour to date.

# First time I fell in love

# I didn't know what hit me. #

Janet Jackson will be remembered as an artist

that was pushing the envelope

and that empowered herself by being this young girl that

was able to say, "Hey, this is who I am.

"Take me or leave me."

We have so few examples of pop stars, whether or not we're talking

about black pop stars or anybody, who can continue to build a career

now 30 years in the running,

and be able to do it consistently on their own terms.

The music business is not what it used to be.

The real players are going to be the ones

who have to get out there on-stage and show what they can do.

# Take a bow... #

That's really what her legacy is.

It's really more being a performer,

whether it's Britney, whether it's Rihanna, everybody that wants to

kind of do a bit of the acting, have a coquettish sexual stage presence

and make records that talk about issues of control

and issues of trying to be an icon and a woman and a sexual being

at the same time, Janet was the first to really do all that.

# Hey, what have you done for me lately? #

People underestimate what she's contributed as a Jackson.

And she's contributed a lot.

She's brilliant!

I really honestly look up to her.

She's got a long, long legacy and a lot of women will never touch her.

# Oooh! Yeah! #

I just feel there's so much more I have to do.

When I was with Jermaine Dupri, I remember coming to London

and I remember calling him and I said,

"Jermaine, they introduced me on the show today as 'legendary'."

And he said, "Well, you are."

You know, I don't see myself like that.

There's so much more that I want to do, to accomplish,

that I don't think I...can hold that title.

Hopefully in the future I'll be able to.

# When you walk into the room

# You knew just what to do... #

No longer signed to a major record label, Janet is a free agent.

Although it's been some years

since she's enjoyed significant chart success,

there's no doubting her legacy and no doubting who's in control.

She has probably at least 150 million.

She's completely independent.

She's making movies.

I think if she makes records, she'll make them on her own terms.

# Let's put on a show. #

Being free is the best thing that could possibly happen to her now.

She's doing the right thing by making the movies...

by touring.

And really embracing and enduring

the incredible legacy of music that she has.

I am free.

I have the freedom of doing whatever it is that that I want to do.

Which feels absolutely wonderful.

And I love that. I'm not tied to any contract or anyone.

I absolutely love it.

# Free at last

# Out here on my own... #

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