Janet Jackson is the ninth and last child in the musically talented
Jackson family that includes the Jackson 5, Michael
Jackson, and Jermaine Jackson. Janet Jackson performed on stage
with her brothers at the age of seven. At ten, she acted in the TV series
Good Times and was later seen in Diff'rent Strokes and Fame. She released
her first album, Janet Jackson,
in 1982 and her second, Dream Street,
in 1984, but neither of these records was notably successful. Then,
in 1985, Jackson turned to the production team of Jimmy Jam and Terry
Lewis (formerly of the Time) for the album Control,
which, ironically, emphasized the artist's new maturity and independence,
even though most of the songs were co-compositions of the three. Control
was a massive hit: it topped the charts, selling more than four million
copies, and spawned five Top Ten hits, including the #1 "When I Think
of You." The follow-up, Rhythm Nation
1814, did even better, spawning seven Top Ten hits, among them the #1s
"Miss You Much," "Escapade, " and "Black Cat." In 1991, Jackson signed
a new recording contract with Virgin Records for a reported $32 million.
1993's janet. proved to
be as successful as her previous two releases, featuring a series of
Top Ten singles including "If" and "That's the Way Love Goes."