*The element of surprise has been a hallmark of superstar Janet Jackson’s 30+ year career.
If you’re too young to remember, Jackson’s landmark 1986 Control album, with its defiant distancing from her famous family, surprised even her most ardent fans.
I was one of them; I’ve loved that girl since she was little Penny on Good Times.  I still can’t look at a clothes iron without experiencing a little anxiety, and I still have an emotional reaction whenever I see actress Chip Fields!Â
Send me an email if you’re with me on that!
As I think about it, the launch of Jackson’s recording career was a complete surprise, with her having spent the first years of her career focused on acting instead of trying to compete with her incomparable older brother, Michael.  Beginning with her eponymous album,  the youngest Jackson delivered passable pop with an urban edge that suggested there was something more to come.
At the age of 19, Jackson fired her father (he’d been her manager) and shocked the entertainment world as she emerged from Michael’s enormous shadow via a series of huge hit records, courtesy of wünderkinds Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.
Then there was the follow-up album a few years later. Instead of issuing the anticipated Control 2, the artist released Janet’s Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814, an opus that was that decade’s What’s Going On? with a strong, running theme of social consciousness interspersed with a groove that just wouldn’t quit.
Rhythm Nation encapsulated visual joys as well. What an impression she made in those jeans — Lord, those jeans! — that push up bra, that blond, upswept wig, and that signature megawatt smile in her Herb Ritz-directed “Love Will Never Do Without You” video.
I had never before been jealous of a tank top. Â And with the stunning shots of Antonio Sabato Jr. and Djimon Hounsou, seeing the three of them prancing around that beach may have been the moment I knew I was bisexual. Â All three of them could have gotten this!
I still haven’t recovered from the sight of Janet in that video.
Read more of Michael P. Coleman’s perspective at EURThisNthat
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