The Pop Culture Thread: When IMPACTNET Strikes Edition

[hotboy06]

 

Apparently a Janet fan made this tonight regarding the new episode that will be on later and it's very popular on twitter with almost 900 retweets and over 200 favorited lol. Let me know if y'all get the joke.

https://twitter.com/mynameisnojuan/status/578371187274694656

 

  :lmao:    

[bu.]

I was watching a Pakistani drama/soap last night and they played Feedback (instrumental) as background music which surprised me as I thought she was local.

[vibeology]

I was watching a Pakistani drama/soap last night and they played Feedback (instrumental) as background music which surprised me as I thought she was local.

Asian persuasion 

[BlackCat1989]

The 93 Rolling Stone cover continues its influence.

[Mr. Wonder]

^^^ Where's that one from?

 

 

And an older one I found some time ago but forgot to upload.  

 

 

[Mr. Wonder]

Nevermind, found it. 

 

 

 

 

 

One of Instagram's biggest sensations can thank his fat stomach for an upcoming photo spread in Inked Magazine. 

Josh "The Fat Jewish" Ostrovsky is a certified social media icon that has almost as many followers as President Obama -- 3.7 mil and counting -- which is probably why the mag asked him to make that body work for them.

FJ recreated famous magazine covers for the shoot and while he's no Janet Jackson, for some reason we keep getting sucked in ... to that huge belly button.

We've heard FJ tells the mag he's the new face of male modeling and he'll have 6 pics/chances to show us why.

Dig in.

Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2015/04/04/the-fat-jewish-janet-jackson-pic-inked-magazine-instagram/#ixzz3WMfu8EOE

[JoeJoe]

problem hoe?

 

  :lmao:    

the smirk on Janet's face

[Mr. Wonder]

Nearly three weeks late.  

[Rock & Roll Hall of Game]

Last night on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Janet's legendary Rolling Stone cover appeared.. Kinda

Some Context: Jon Stewart was joined by Senior Middle East Correspondent, Bassem Youssef (an Egyptian). Bassem was 'upset' about not being chosen as Jon's replacement and displayed Trever Noah's Rolling Stones cover. He goes on to say "Can you imagine my Rolling Stones cover?"

[hotboy06]

Geez. When will her impact end?

 

[Utopia]

[hotboy06]

 

When will ANYONE have her endless impacT?

[Mr. Wonder]

The only other person I can think of is Jesus....and even then the lines are still a little blurry.

[hotboy06]

You make me sick.

[bu.]

Popnet Cultureson

Jansus Muhammadson

[hotboy06]

http://www.complex.com/music/2015/04/tinashe-is-as-close-to-janet-jackson-as-well-ever-get

 

There will never, ever be another Janet Jackson.

 

Mega stardom of her kind is increasingly hard to reach, especially if you are a black woman. There is Beyoncé, but even she can no longer claim to have the sort of radio dominance Janet once commanded—though that’s more so a testament to the diminished influence of “urban” music than Yoncé’s catalog. She’s also more an amalgamation of several pop stars of yore—Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Michael and Janet Jackson, respectively—than a singular artist. There is also Rihanna, but she’s long noted that she desires to be more of a “Black Madonna.”

 

Both dance (one way more energetically than the other), but neither offer the sort of choreography that made Janet Jackson the iconic pop star she is today.

I’m sure some people would now like to interject Ciara, who I’ve jokingly said in the past could’ve been some country-fried-steak version of Damita Jo. I wish Ciara the best in all her future endeavors, but she lacks vision, cohesion, and for all intents and purposes, blew whatever chance she had at becoming a behemoth in music. At this stage of her career, she’s more like a Kardashian who can dance.

 

Nonetheless, there is hope of an artist who can at least encompass some of Janet’s best qualities for a new generation.

If there’s anyone who might be able to muster what Janet Jackson meant to me growing up, it is the 22-year-old singer Tinashe. Whenever I say this to someone, I’m often met with one or two response: “Who?” or “That ‘2 On’​ girl?” These are fair reactions, but not necessarily credible ones.

 

If there’s anyone who might be able to muster what Janet Jackson meant to me growing up, it is the 22-year-old singer Tinashe.

 

For starters, Tinashe has made her love of Janet Jackson very clear. In an interview with The Cut, Tinashe was asked about “How Many Times,” a track that features Future and is a sample of the Janet classic “Funny How Time Flies When You’re Having Fun.” Tinashe explained, “I listened to her all the time growing up, and she was definitely one of the people I idolized from a dance perspective, to performance, to music videos, to the music, just all around.”

 

If you listen to her very well done debut album, Aquarius, the previous mixtapes she released prior (which she wrote and produced on her own), you can tell The Velvet Rope is likely Tinashe’s favorite Janet album. She confirmed that last summer with theGrio, noting, “I would tell my future kids that if they wanted to know what artist represented R&B, it would be Janet. The Velvet Rope-era Janet was my favorite.”

 

I’ve seen complaints that perhaps Janet influences Tinashe a wee bit too much in terms of both style and vocal arrangement. Younger acts tend to draw heavily from those who inspire them, but for a woman who has been the dominant force of her own creative direction, one imagines those are more kinks needed to be worked out in her own development. If you listen to Tinashe’s excellent new EP, Amethyst, one thing should be certain: She has a distinct point of view.

In her review of Amethyst, Julianne Escobedo Shepherd wrote, “There's an ease and intellect, a fortitude and freedom.” This is much of Janet’s catalog in a nutshell, and if Tinashe spends much of her career trying to create her own The Velvet Rope, R&B lovers should all be so lucky.

 

The “All Hands on Deck” video is Tinashe’s best thus far, and honestly, one of the few music videos I’ve bothered to watch more than once. Tinashe actually tries to give audiences a show—see her most recent performance of the song on Conan.

 

It remains to be seen as to whether Tinashe will ever be able to amass even a fraction of the success and influence Janet Jackson once yielded, but if going by her already impressive catalog, music videos, and performances, she at least gets the tenets of Janet’s success better than most who have come after Damita Jo and before her. That makes her a breath of fresh air. That said, if she does blow up, please keep Nick Jonas away from her tits. That’s one Janet redux none of us need.

 

[Mr. Wonder]

It'll never end.

[MorganR]

Tinashe Wishes Janet Jackson A Happy Birthday and Does A Medley of Her Iconic Dance Moves

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hduLn6hDp90

[hotboy06]

I love that Tinashe seems genuine about Janhova's impact and influence on ha!

[Mr. Wonder]

I love that Tinashe seems genuine about Janhova's impact and influence on ha!

 

 

 

When you allow the spirit to move you, you begin to move with the spirit. 

 

 

 

[hotboy06]

 

http://www.factmag.com/2015/05/19/janet-jackson-best-songs-new-album/

 

The six songs that prove Janet Jackson did it best, and did it first.

 

 

Even after all this time, Janet Jackson is inevitably forced to retain ‘sister of Michael’ as part of her CV.

 

For those of us who truly love R&B and soul music, though, she will forever be one of our most cherished performers, and the artist whose catalogue and influence shines brighter than ever. I’ll readily admit to the fact that I’ve made the statement “Janet > Michael” to people as a means of testing their musical character. Whilst I wouldn’t seriously hold this as a firm belief, if a person’s reaction isn’t to think this argument in any way outlandish, then they’re definitely on the side of right.

 

With any discussions regarding Janet, we should remember that she spent the bulk of her career working with the greatest of all time, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the production geniuses who steered her work peerlessly through the ‘hip-hop soul’ sea change of the early 90s. These years claimed many a victim: Bobby Brown, Al B. Sure, Aaron Hall and others were swept aside as 80s soul and swingbeat morphed into what we currently enjoy as R&B. Janet, on the other hand, released perhaps her most defining work in this period (1993’s self-titled album, janet.) as if she was fresh out of the box.

 

A key factor in Janet’s music from the 80s was her embracing of tempo and joy (particularly with lead singles), a sound that reflected the brasher, more grandstanding times that her brother, the market leader, defined. However, with the 90s fully underway, Janet’s re-emergence was with the subtle, mid-tempo ‘That’s The Way Love Goes’ and a video about as far away from wireless headsets and shoulder-pads as you could go. The second half of janet. contains songs, particularly ‘The Body That Loves You’ into ‘Any Time Any Place’, where Janet delivers the kind of loose, plaintive vocal that’s always been credited to Aaliyah when discussing the modern female R&B landscape, despite this album arriving almost a year earlier. She repeated this on The Velvet Rope, where more ethereal songs like ‘Anything’ are pretty much the blueprint of the R&B that we now listen to.

 

Although Brandy will forever be the signifier for the ‘deep cuts’ tag, Janet has an even better claim to this title, often tucking away quiet storm gems like ‘Feels So Right’ and ‘Truly’ right near the end of albums. As she’s also been totally unafraid to switch moods from energetic club records to slow-jams (a far cry from some of the one-note R&B albums this decade has brought), her career could easily be compiled as either a flawless club collection or a slow-paced bedroom album – and both and both would annihilate all competition. The ATL bass-pop lane that Ciara exists in? Janet did it first. Those breathy, slow placed jams of Tinashe and FKA twigs? A 20 year-old concern for Janet.

 

Most crucially of all, although Janet embraced instrumental experimentation, she never relied too heavily on the production movement of whatever time she was working in (despite work spanning collaborations with everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Kanye West). Instead, her authenticity came from her vocals, and she mastered the art of sitting in the pocket of the groove like nobody else. It’s impossible to listen to Carly Rae Jepsen’s recent vocal on ‘All That’ without immediately thinking of mid-80s Janet, and the distant, cool essence of many modern singers is something that Janet fostered long ago.

In short, Janet Jackson (with, of course, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis) remains one of the key architects of the modern R&B sound, and with a new album on the way, has a catalogue that simply demands to be revisited. Her 15-year, five-album run from 1986 to 2001 in particular is one of the best in all music. It’s a thankless task trying to pick key records from a career that’s so extensive and so loved by us soul addicts. So here’s just five (one from each of those aforementioned albums, plus a bonus) that I will always feel both musically and personally significant.

 

 

‘When I Think Of You’ (from Control, 1986)

If you want an era-defining mid-80s record without any of the crassness that has aged other music from the time so badly, then this is the one. Grooves within grooves within grooves direct from the Flyte Tyme Production Studios, and the effortless, light vocal is the definition of everything Janet from this moment on.

 

 

 

 

‘Escapade’ (from Rhythm Nation 1814, 1989)

One of the many Janet Jackson records where the self-conscious need not apply. The staccato joy of this hook is something that she repeated and updated throughout her career (’Go Deep’, ‘All For You’) and every single time both dancers and the positivity-inclined around the world rejoiced. You would have to be the bitterest of the bitter to not feel some sense of happiness when this record plays.

 

 

‘Any Time, Any Place’ (from janet., 1993)

Kendrick reviving this for a new generation is one of the greatest gifts of his already great career, and this record remains one of the best quiet storm records of all time. To truly create that R&B feeling, the groove and bottom-end on a record has simply got to be luxurious and romantic and let’s be honest, the romance and luxury found here is peerless.

 

 

‘Empty’ (from The Velvet Rope, 1997)

If any of Janet’s 90s records could be re-released and feel totally contemporary, then it’s this one. The rhythms remain almost impossible to place chronologically and with Janet in her most visually bohemian phase, she managed to embrace the future, predicting a world of interaction we’re now all too familiar with.

 

 

‘Doesn’t Really Matter’ (from All For You, 2001)

This was Jam and Lewis competing – as they did throughout their career – with new sounds. In this case, they set their sights on producers like Timbaland, Rodney Jerkins and She’kspere, making Janet relevant to a younger generation whose formative years were soundtracked by Destiny’s Child, Lil Mo and Nivea. As with everything Janet, however, it retains those incredible bridges and breakdowns that render the song timeless. For some perspective, bear in mind this was almost 20 years on from her debut record.

 

 

Bonus: ‘Let’s Wait A While’ (from Control, 1986)

This had to be included (despite it also being from Control) purely because it’s my favourite Janet Jackson song. To anyone with any sense, this is one of the greatest soul songs of all time.

 

 

When I Think Of Impact and it's endless acclaim.

 

[bu.]

YAAAAAAS!

 

When I Think Of Slaying mentioned FIRST >

 

[vibeology]

That description of Empty is so right...its a song that cant be defined and 18 years later it would still feel completely fresh.

[Mr. Wonder]

Someone is gonna be upSETTE.

[hotboy06]

YAAAAAAS!

 

When I Think Of Slaying mentioned FIRST >

 

Defining not only music in general, but A GENERATION.

 

When will anyone tbh?