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The Janet Jackson Accomplishments Thread


Mr. Wonder

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  • 3 weeks later...

Janet Jackson Spins a New Record: $80-Million Deal

Pop diva Janet Jackson is expected to sign a four-album contract today with Virgin Records worth an estimated $80 million--an unprecedented fee that analysts say could set the stage for another round of music industry mega-deals.

The pact is the biggest ever awarded, surpassing the $60-million mark shared by such superstars as Michael Jackson and Madonna, whose six-album deals included film and joint-venture record label components.

The 29-year-old entertainer has been the target of a ferocious industry bidding war since her Virgin contract expired last year. Jackson is so hot that sources said Walt Disney Co. President Michael Ovitz met with Jackson's representatives three weeks ago, hoping to woo her with a huge offer that included film opportunities. Jackson starred in John Singleton's 1992 movie, "Poetic Justice."

But executives at Disney as well as at Sony, PolyGram, Bertelsmann, Time Warner and DreamWorks dropped out of the bidding because they believed their companies could not make enough money under the terms sought by Jackson.

Industry reaction to the deal was mixed. Analysts and executives agreed that Jackson is worth a hefty price but many said the deal she sought went too far.

"A deal of this size is a huge risk," said Harold Vogel, entertainment industry analyst at Cowen & Co. "It's true that an artist of Janet Jackson's stature adds prestige to a roster and functions as a magnet to draw other acts to the company. But just like in the movie business, the price of these music industry bidding wars just keeps escalating and tends to sap the profitability of the companies who participate."

Jackson's pact comes at a juncture in the record business when sales are flat and many retail record chains are in severe trouble. But competition for market share among the big six record conglomerates is fierce; several large entertainment companies, including Disney, want to become major players in the music industry, and a flurry of new labels has arrived on the scene--several managed by powerful industry veterans.

The spectacular size of Jackson's deal raises the stakes in the battle for other superstars such as rock act R.E.M., whose contract with Warner Bros. Records runs out this year. Analysts also expect the price to sign potentially hot new acts to skyrocket in the months ahead.

One reason Jackson was able to secure such favorable terms from Virgin is that she is the label's best-selling artist and her deal was negotiated at a time when Virgin's parent company, EMI Music, is perceived as a takeover target in entertainment circles, sources said.

The firm also recently signed a $12-million, two-album deal for the international rights to music released by pop singer George Michael, who is under contract in the United States to DreamWorks. EMI and DreamWorks reportedly coughed up an additional $40 million to buy out the British star's contract from Sony.

Even if EMI Music doesn't reach the auction block, the firm could not afford to lose one of its best-selling artists in the United States, where the company ranked fifth last year in the album market share race. Jackson's attraction is that she is young and has mastered a dance-pop style that helped push the combined sales of her last three albums near the 30-million mark.

Representatives for Jackson and Virgin refused to discuss the pact, which was negotiated by Virgin Records Chairman Ken Berry, EMI Music Chairman James Fifield, the singer's attorney, Donald S. Passman, and her manager, Roger Davies.

But sources said Jackson will be paid a $35-million advance upon signing and guaranteed an estimated $5-million advance per album plus a 24% royalty on the retail price of each record sold--about $2.50 per record.

Jackson's new deal covers four albums of new material plus a greatest hits compilation. Under the terms of the contract, ownership of the masters to those albums will revert to Jackson seven years after the contract ends.

Sources said the agreement also requires Virgin to allocate about $25 million in video production, marketing and promotion costs--a huge amount by industry standards. Virgin will deduct all cash advances from Jackson's portion of the royalties until they are paid off.

Sources at Virgin said the company plans to dramatically expand Jackson's presence on the international front, where compact disc sales are still booming.

Companies that dropped out of the bidding said they would have had to sell more than 50 million Jackson albums over the course of the contract to break even. But several entertainment attorneys disagreed, saying Virgin could break even after selling about 25 million. Jackson's last Virgin album, "janet.," has sold nearly 10 million copies since its 1992 release.

Jackson stunned the pop world in March 1991 when she announced her estimated $40-million, three-album pact with Virgin Records. Although the pact triggered a series of huge deals, hers was widely considered to be the shrewdest pact ever negotiated.

Not only did she exact substantial advances and a 22% royalty rate, it also contained an unprecedented clause allowing her to bow out after one album--if Virgin Records was sold to another company, which it was. Her new contract does not have such a contract option, sources said.

Jackson's 1991 pact set the stage for several other multimillion-dollar contracts by stars including her brother Michael, Madonna, Prince, Barbara Streisand, the Rolling Stones and Aerosmith.

Analysts say that few of these deals have delivered the profits that the companies were hoping for. But in an industry full of uncertainty and single-hit acts, these superstars are perceived as the closest thing to a sure bet. The superstars also provide a record company with leverage in the retail market for other offerings.

http://articles.latimes.com/1996-01-12/news/mn-23892_1_janet-jackson

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Janet Jackson is one of the top ten selling artists in the history of contemporary music; ranked by Billboard magazine as the ninth most successful act in rock and roll history, and the second most successful female artist in pop music history, selling over 100 million albums worldwide. ‘Discipline’, which was released on February 26th, is her tenth studio album.

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080310005488&newsLang=en

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  • 2 weeks later...

They've counted from 100 to 51 so far:

http://www.shewired.com/Article.cfm?ArticlePage=3&ID=26891

albums64.jpg

64. Janet Jackson, Rhythm Nation 1814 1989

Born into an iconic music family Janet Jackson broke the mold with her concept album. Ignoring her record companies demand for dance hits similar to her previous album, Jackson instead chose to address social injustice on Rhythm Nation. With songs about racism, poverty, and drug abuse, she dressed in black leather army gear and became a new kind of powerful sex symbol.

*insert butch smilie*

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Janet Jackson is one of the top ten selling artists in the history of contemporary music; ranked by Billboard magazine as the ninth most successful act in rock and roll history, and the second most successful female artist in pop music history, selling over 100 million albums worldwide. ‘Discipline’, which was released on February 26th, is her tenth studio album.

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080310005488&newsLang=en

This gives me oxygen.. -_-

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  • 3 weeks later...

Rolling Stone Ten Best Apocalyptic Dance Music Videos

Janet Jackson, 'Rhythm Nation' (1989)

Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation" is the gold standard for dystopian dance pop music videos. qx29nd.jpg Shot in stark black and white and set in a smokey, oppressive factory setting, Jackson leads what appears to be a hip paramilitary organization through some of the most memorable choreography in pop video history. The future may look bleak, but at least it's funky.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/photos/ten-best-apocalyptic-dance-music-videos-20110406/janet-jackson-rhythm-nation-1989-0545021

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Esquire: The 75 Greatest Women of All Time

Politicians, pop stars, Native American guides: A definitive list of the women who have shaped the world. Well, inasmuch as definitive can be completely arbitrary.

Janet Jackson

75-w-janet-jackson-photo-lg.jpg

That Rolling Stone cover would have been enough.

She's on slide #59.

http://www.esquire.com/women/women-issue/greatest-women-in-history

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#28

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"This is a story about control: my control." So begins Janet Jackson's musical diary about her coming of age.

Growing up in America's first family of pop music, Janet began writing and playing at the age of nine. But Control was her declaration of independence from a family in which a musical career was expected and all business and career decisions were made by an autocratic father. "The Control project represents the first time that I chose to use my ideas on one of my albums," Jackson says.

Jimmy Jam, who coproduced the album with his partner, Terry Lewis, says that the singer desperately desired to make an album that would demonstrate she was capable of standing on her own.

"She wanted to separate from her past two albums, where she had been a singer with no say-so," says Jam. "She was also getting out of a bad marriage and about to start living on her own, away from her family. Being a singer and entertainer was something she had been thrust into before she actually knew that was what she wanted to be."

Working with Jam and Lewis at their Minneapolis studio, Flyte Tyme, provided an excellent environment for such a break. "She came to Minneapolis with just her friend Melanie," says Jam. "There were no bodyguards, no limos. She drove herself around in my Blazer. She didn't have people doing things for her."

Only one of the album's songs, "He Doesn't Know I'm Alive," penned by Flyte Tyme staff writer Spencer Bernard, was in hand when the sessions began. "We worked on the album for two months," says Jam. "But we spent the first week just talking and getting to know each other." Those conversations — in which Jackson talked about her desire to be independent — provided the material for the songs on Control, most of which were co-written by Jam, Lewis and Jackson. Actual recording time for the album, which would eventually sell more than 5 million copies in the U.S., was just three weeks.

Jam says he had no idea that Control would find such a broad audience. "We knew it would be a successful black album," he says. "We tried to make the hardest, funkiest black album — almost a male singer's album. The edginess that's evident in the music on Control is her; that's our interpretation of Janet."

Although Michael Jackson's Thriller had sold 40 million copies worldwide just a few years earlier, Jam says they felt little pressure about working in the shadow of Michael's accomplishment. "Our joke was that we were out to make it so that Janet was no longer Michael's little sister," says Jam, "but rather that Michael was Janet's big brother."

Control succeeded in establishing Janet Jackson as an artist in her own right. Jam also views the album as a late-Eighties watershed in popular music. "It opened radio to funk," he says, "and now that has spread into rap. Before Control it wasn't acceptable to have hard-edged black music on pop radio. Now it's the norm."

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-best-albums-of-the-eighties-20110418/janet-jackson-control-19691231

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#28

566b7a191df840ea55a2c9cf3bcd49676d9a8bd5.png

"This is a story about control: my control." So begins Janet Jackson's musical diary about her coming of age.

Growing up in America's first family of pop music, Janet began writing and playing at the age of nine. But Control was her declaration of independence from a family in which a musical career was expected and all business and career decisions were made by an autocratic father. "The Control project represents the first time that I chose to use my ideas on one of my albums," Jackson says.

Jimmy Jam, who coproduced the album with his partner, Terry Lewis, says that the singer desperately desired to make an album that would demonstrate she was capable of standing on her own.

"She wanted to separate from her past two albums, where she had been a singer with no say-so," says Jam. "She was also getting out of a bad marriage and about to start living on her own, away from her family. Being a singer and entertainer was something she had been thrust into before she actually knew that was what she wanted to be."

Working with Jam and Lewis at their Minneapolis studio, Flyte Tyme, provided an excellent environment for such a break. "She came to Minneapolis with just her friend Melanie," says Jam. "There were no bodyguards, no limos. She drove herself around in my Blazer. She didn't have people doing things for her."

Only one of the album's songs, "He Doesn't Know I'm Alive," penned by Flyte Tyme staff writer Spencer Bernard, was in hand when the sessions began. "We worked on the album for two months," says Jam. "But we spent the first week just talking and getting to know each other." Those conversations — in which Jackson talked about her desire to be independent — provided the material for the songs on Control, most of which were co-written by Jam, Lewis and Jackson. Actual recording time for the album, which would eventually sell more than 5 million copies in the U.S., was just three weeks.

Jam says he had no idea that Control would find such a broad audience. "We knew it would be a successful black album," he says. "We tried to make the hardest, funkiest black album — almost a male singer's album. The edginess that's evident in the music on Control is her; that's our interpretation of Janet."

Although Michael Jackson's Thriller had sold 40 million copies worldwide just a few years earlier, Jam says they felt little pressure about working in the shadow of Michael's accomplishment. "Our joke was that we were out to make it so that Janet was no longer Michael's little sister," says Jam, "but rather that Michael was Janet's big brother."

Control succeeded in establishing Janet Jackson as an artist in her own right. Jam also views the album as a late-Eighties watershed in popular music. "It opened radio to funk," he says, "and now that has spread into rap. Before Control it wasn't acceptable to have hard-edged black music on pop radio. Now it's the norm."

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-best-albums-of-the-eighties-20110418/janet-jackson-control-19691231

:wub::wub::wub:

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