2. Janet JacksonRhythm Nation 1814
I loved Michael Jackson, but being a straight, young male I couldn’t ‘fall in love’ with him; luckily, there was Janet Jackson. Therefore, I could be ‘in love’ with Michael by being in love with Janet, which I know sounds weird.
I got into Janet Jackson via Rhythm Nation 1814. The main thing I loved was that Rhythm Nation 1814 had a whole ‘children are going to rule the world’ thing – almost like a manifesto. I found that really exciting as a young kid. The album also had a kind of kitchen sink production by [Jimmy] Jam and [Terry] Lewis and contained industrial-like sounds, which was actually really interesting and weird. I didn’t know any music like that, having only listened to my dad’s rock & roll records. Rhythm Nation 1814 was almost my first techno record.
There is one point where she sings, "Ain’t no acid in this house", which I thought was cool – and the record contained chopped-up cartoon sounds and little skits. Much of the album sounds a bit of a mess, but it works. Before I heard Bad and Rhythm Nation 1814, I didn’t understand the concept of an album being an entity and maybe that’s where my love of albums has stemmed from. I was probably about ten years old when I got Rhythm Nation 1814.
I love albums and I don’t have to be a particular fan of the artist. It’s more about an album referencing a point in your life at that time. For me, it is almost [that] if I find a perfect album, I don’t want to ruin it by knowing much about the artist or by exploring their other work; I have never been that interested in the artists. I am much more interested in the songs and an album as a whole.
