Control

After releasing two commercially disappointing albums, Janet Jackson (1982) and Dream Street (1984), Janet Jackson returned in 1986 with her breakthrough third album, Control. While her previous releases were full of bubblegum pop, Jackson’s sound was given a funky makeover, courtesy of the Minneapolis sound from production duo Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, along with their former bandmates Monte Moir and Jellybean Johnson from the Prince-assembled group The Time. The entire album was recorded at Jam & Lewis' Flyte Tyme studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota, instead of Los Angeles to keep away the distractions from the Hollywood scene.

Jam & Lewis spent time with Janet in an attempt to get to know her and craft songs specifically for her, which resulted in the album being completed in six weeks. The title track was about Janet being independent from the “control” of her father, Joe Jackson, who she fired as her manager going into this album. “Nasty” was created after she was harrassed by “nasty boys” on the street, and “What Have You Done For Me Lately” was, in part, about her annulled marriage to singer James DeBarge.

In an interview, Janet talked about Control being a make-or-break album:

That was a point where it was like a crossroads for me in my career. If it wasn’t going to pan out, I was gonna go back to school. I was studying business law and I thought I would try music one more time. […] I wanted to do it differently than being handed a piece of music and told, ‘Here, sing this,’ which it was in the past. I wanted to express myself, and Jimmy and Terry helped me to do that.

Control was the genesis of Janet’s iconic status, but the album only debuted at #102 on the Billboard 200. However, the album quickly rose to the top of the pop charts as the first two singles, “What Have You Done For Me Lately” and “Nasty,” began to rise to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in the US and pop charts in multiple countries. Within a matter of months, the album topped the Billboard 200 and was certified platinum, selling as many as 250,000 copies in one week. The album is currently certified 5x platinum in the US and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. This success was fueled by the first two singles, as well as the subsequently released hit singles “Control,” “Let’s Wait Awhile,” and “When I Think of You,” which all reached the Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart. “Funny How Time Flies (When You’re Having Fun)” and “The Pleasure Principle” were also released as singles, with the latter reaching the top of the R&B chart.

Control is considered one of the definitive albums of the 1980s. It helped lay the foundation for the popularity of the R&B/Hip-Hop hybrid sound known as New Jack Swing—the movement led by producer Teddy Riley—as Jam & Lewis used the LinnDrum machine that was primarily used in hip-hop productions. The album is used as a blueprint for many of the female pop stars who emulated Janet’s style. She was also influential in helping Black artists receive more regular airplay on MTV with her intricate choreography in videos for “Nasty” and “The Pleasure Principle,” which both won MTV Video Music Awards.

Control helped land Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis a Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical in 1987, and Janet won multiple American Music Awards and Soul Train Music Awards. The album has also been recognized on a number of “best of” lists, including Vibe’s 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century, Rolling Stone’s 100 Best Albums of the 1980s, and Billboard’s Greatest of All Time Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.