In honor of her upcoming 60th birthday this Saturday (May 16), we’re doing a full week of Vintage Pop Stardom deep dives into the all-time greatness of Janet Jackson on the Greatest Pop Stars podcast. Each day this week (May 11-15), we’ll look at a different peak year in Janet Jackson’s singular career — 1986, 1990, 1993, 1998 and 2001 — and hit on all the albums, singles, videos, dance routines, tours, performances, fashion statements, social and political statements, and other big moments that made Ms. Jackson’s contributions to the music and culture of those years absolutely unforgettable.
Today, we keep climbing with Janet Jackson to 1993, where she was unquestionably at the very center of pop music and pop culture with her chart-topping, grown-up janet. album and the box office-topping, much-hyped Poetic Justice movie. Host Andrew Unterberger is joined by NYU professor and pop culture expert Naima Cochrane to remember Janet at her commercial and cultural — and arguably artistic — peak, a year of classic singles, classic videos, iconic performances and iconic-er looks, and one of the most famous magazine covers in magazine-cover history.
Along the way, we answer the most pressing questions from Janet’s 1993, including: How much did Janet have to reinvent herself from 1990 to stay on top in the very different musical world of 1993? Did we try to learn the dance moves from the “If” music video? Do we remember Poetic Justice more for the chemistry between Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur on the screen or the friction between them off of it? Was “Any Time, Any Place” actually the first big neo-soul hit? Did “You Want This” secretly inspire one of the biggest hits of the late ’90s? How unfair is it that Janet’s career peak was overshadowed by scandals that weren’t her making? And perhaps most importantly: Was this the greatest pop peak of the whole first half of the ’90s?
Check it out above, along with a YouTube playlist of Janet Jackson’s biggest 1993 moments — all of which are discussed in the episode — and check back for more Janet discussion all week on Greatest Pop Stars, with 1998 coming up tomorrow! Also, subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom!
And as we say in every one of these GPS podcast posts — if you have the time and money to spare, please consider donating to any of these causes in the fight for trans rights:
Gender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe
Human Rights Campaign – In Your Area