247 The Sound Entertainment News

Janet Jackson Wasn't Proud of Her First 2 Albums

 

Janet Jackson has been making music for four decades, starting with her self-titled debut album. And while today she enjoys her status as a pop and R&B legend with Grammy Awards and countless achievements to her name, the early days of her career weren’t picture-perfect, to say the least.

 

As the youngest child in the famous Jackson family, Janet Jackson was in the spotlight practically from the time she was born. She appeared on her family's variety show and their live shows in Las Vegas.
 

As she grew older, Jackson planned on studying business law in college and didn’t care to continue performing as a singer. But under the management of her father Joe Jackson, she launched her own solo career with her self-titled debut album. The album was released in 1982 — the same year her brother Michael released his record-breaking album Thriller.

 

Jackson reflected on the early days of her career in her highly-anticipated 2022 documentary Janet Jackson. When looking back on the early days of her career, she was honest about what was happening behind the scenes. “My father was in charge of my life and my career and he was my manager,” she recounted. When asked what she was trying to achieve with her first two albums, she answered honestly: “It was really their albums. It was the kind of music they wanted me to make.” “I didn’t write any of the material,” she continued. “It was just a matter of going to the studio, doing what they wanted you to do, and then you leave.” Jackson didn’t even have a say in the album title or cover art. “I didn’t want my last name to be on the album; I just wanted to go by my first name,” she lamented. “I wanted them to accept me for me, to be interested in this for me, not because I was the brother or sister of [the Jacksons]. But that’s everything that this industry takes advantage of, and they wanted to play on that, and I didn’t want that.” “At the time, I didn’t understand the vision that my father had for me: to be a musician,” she admitted. “Even the cover of the album he chose, and I didn’t want that as the cover of the album. So it was a lot of that.”

On Air Now

Station Programming
6:00am - 10:00am
Station Programming

Radio Ads Here

Artist Sound Off


Maeta   
"
Through the Night"
On Video
 


MORE VIDEOS

Poll Question

What was your favorite old school jam?

Station Powered by: