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“The Scorn”: The Album That Could Have Been


Lenzo88

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You know, sometimes I wonder why Janet never considered doing an album centered around the aftermath of the Super Bowl. 🤔 I know at the time she was extremely embarrassed and wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with talking about, but seems like such a great opportunity for her to once again use what was going on in her life to make an album that was boldly political and tragically personal. I’m not saying “The Scorn” (just go with it! 🤪👍) would have been a commercial success considering she was still being so blacklisted my the media and radio but at least her immense credibility as an artist wouldn’t have continued to rapidly dip in quality after “Damita Joke”. 🙄👎🏿

She could have used the theme and concept of the album to be about how marginalized black women are in the media, how hypocritical the CBS, NFL and the Grammys were, talk about the betrayal she felt from Justin Timberlake’s reaction and how his career seemingly got better while her reputation was tainted. Her 9th album could have been a true testament to her resilience yet remarkable vulnerability by setting the record straight through her music and leaving it up to listeners on how THEY should feel feeding into the mass hysteria when there were more important things going on in the world. It’s clear during interviews between 2004-2006 she was furious and had a lot to say but shied away from the subject out of embarrassment. But what could have been an album that could have possibly rivaled “The Velvet Rope” And even “Rhythm Nation” in its insightful lyricism and thought provoking examination of society at the time focusing on something so inconvenient and should have been inconsequential given the hypocrisy of American TV at the time. What people should be worried about and what the children SHOULDN’T be exposed too. Enlightening the people that are still willing to hear her opinion on the subject n instead talking about it, singing and writing about like she always has instead feeding into the bad press and career slide with more meaningless sex driven albums like 20 Y.O.

Who knows! The album still would have probably failed but at least Janet would have controlled the narrative and made people way more interested in what she had to say instead of constantly avoiding the subject. So the album could have failed and “Discipline” still would have come after. But 2006’s “The Scorn” could have been a thematically triumph in keeping with the Control 20th Anniversary angle but with an overall dark underlining presence showing Janet at her angriest and in utter disbelief on how terrible things were in this country by showing what truly matters. I don’t know...what do you guys think?

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Yeah I would have loved for this to happen and she could have even tackled the War on Terror/Bush administration/Katrina and tied it into the hypocrisy of the FCC. Tho her blacklisting my have escalated to the level of Nina Simone if she had done that. I just think for whatever reason her creativity was stifled. I think 20 YO and Discipline are good albums but Unbreakable you could just tell that she found her voice as an artist again and you could make the connection between Unbreakable and the projects released from 86-01. She's at her best when she's not only making jams but being self-reflective and also examining the world outside of her. 

It makes me think of how white artists have so much freedom. For example no matter how much controversy Madonna has been involved in with in her career yet she's never been permanently cancelled and still has the critical acclaim. 

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i remember reading somewhere she did have a song made about the whole ting, but she scrapped it, but i'm not sure so take it as you may -_- anyhow as for why we never got a whole social conscious album at the time was probably because she didn't want to scrap what she had.  it would take entirely too much effort to make a whole new album when damita jo was planned to be released. the effort it'd require would be exhausting :unsure: anyhow it's 2019 she may have had her whole career destroyed bc of a white guy -_- but she's moved on and so should you !

 

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