#339 Janet Jackson, 'Rhythm Nation 1814' (1989)

Previously #277

The best-selling album of 1990 in the US and Janet Jackson’s fourth album, ‘Rhythm Nation 1814,’ is often regarded as the pinnacle of Jackson’s career. This album broke record after record; it is the only album in history to have 7 singles chart within the top 5 of the Billboard charts (including 4x #1s, 2x #2s), the only album to produce #1 hits in three separate calendar years and the first woman to be nominated for Producer Of The Year at the Grammys (the album garnered 9x nominations).

By 1989, The Jackson Family had already owned the music industry for 20 years, with big brother, Michael dominating in the ‘80s, of course. With this record, Janet continued riding the wave of ‘Control’ (1986) to claim her second #1 record in a row. The 6x platinum record gave us ‘Miss You Much,’ ‘Rhythm Nation,’ ‘Escapade,’ ‘Alright,’ ‘Come Back To Me,’ ‘Black Cat,’ ‘Love Will Never Do (Without You)’ and ‘State Of The World.’ It cemented her as an artist in her own right. She was no longer just Michael’s little sister. This album explored racism, poverty and drug abuse – unusual for a pop record in the late ‘80s. I’ll end this with an interesting fact for you, besides for Janet’s debut and Michael’s final album, the two never released albums in the same years. In fact, there was mostly a gap of two years, ensuring that the two would never cannibalise each other. 

#rs500albums