Soon after, her own personality developed more fully in her music and she found her voice, both figuratively and literally.īut on-stage, in the dance-oriented numbers, Jackson’s voice seemed a little lost again. She got by initially via the novelty of her “I’m in control now” concept and by force of her Jam-Lewis production. Jackson has always had a thinner voice than most R&B singers. Rejuvenated by new material that sounds at home amid younger R&B artists, and younger R&B fans, Jackson’s performance was heavy on choreographed dance routines that you would have seen in her videos when she was 19, making little allowance that she’s now 49. Best of all the new material, though, was the current R&B chart-topper “No Sleeep,” with rapper J.Cole’s verse also presented on video. These included a set-opening “Burnitup!.” with hip-hop guest Missy Elliot on a video screen, and a dual encore of “Shoulda Known Better” and the album’s title song. While Jackson only played a handful of songs from her past decade-and-a-half, she did play five songs from the new “Unbreakable” album, which releases on Friday. The set drew heavily from her late-’80s/early ’90s heyday, with 19 of the songs coming from 1986’s “Control,” 1989’s “Rhythm Nation 1814” or 1993’s “janet.,” and no acknowledgment of the teen music she made before breaking free of the family plan and partnering with producers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis on the transformative “Control.”
Janet Jackson, the youngest sibling of one of the great American music families, performed 32 songs in about 90 minutes at FedExForum last night, giving many of them more abbreviated treatment than you’ll find on record. It’s that jolt of recognition and pleasure that ripples through the audience at the erupting beat of “Rhythm Nation.” It’s north-of-40-year-old women swaying and singing along with the 1986 chastity ballad “Let’s Wait Awhile.” It’s a basketball arena full of folks repeating a line they’ve said to themselves in the mirror, on the morning commute, goofing around with friends for years but this time saying it along with the originator herself: “No, my first name ain’t ‘Baby.’ It’s ‘Janet.’ ‘Ms. Often, big arena concerts are less about musical performance than the communal celebration of the songs being performed.
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