Control
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Album Summary
Janet Jackson walked into Flyte Tyme Studios in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1985 and walked out a completely different artist — and the world was never quite the same. Cutting ties with her father Joe Jackson as manager and linking up for the first time with the extraordinarily gifted production duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, she laid down something that was more than just an album. Released on February 4, 1986, through A&M Records, 'Control' was a declaration, a statement, a whole entire mood. The sessions were completed on a remarkably tight timeline, but you would never know it listening to the finished product — every groove locked in, every lyric purposeful, every beat hitting exactly where it needed to hit. The sound Jam and Terry built around her — that gorgeous blend of funk, R&B, dance-pop, and the early stirrings of new jack swing — gave Janet the perfect foundation to step fully into her own power.
Reception
- Commercially, 'Control' was an absolute force of nature, ascending to number one on the Billboard 200 and generating a remarkable string of top-five singles including 'What Have You Done for Me Lately,' 'Nasty,' 'When I Think of You' — her first number-one pop single — 'Control,' and 'Let's Wait Awhile.'
- Critics received the album as a genuine artistic breakthrough, consistently praising the cohesive, immaculately crafted production by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis alongside Janet's confident, assertive vocal presence — a dramatic and undeniable evolution from anything she had released before.
- The album earned Janet Jackson Grammy nominations and broad industry recognition, firmly establishing her as a major solo artist standing magnificently on her own merits, independent of the celebrated family name she carried.
Significance
- Few albums in the modern era can claim to have helped shape an entire sonic movement the way 'Control' did — its drum-machine-driven, synth-funk architecture laid by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis became a blueprint that producers across R&B and pop spent the better part of a decade chasing.
- Thematically, 'Control' arrived as something far deeper than a pop record — it became a genuine cultural statement about female autonomy and self-determination, resonating profoundly with young women in the mid-1980s and cementing Janet Jackson as an enduring icon of independence in popular music history.
- The album expanded the very definition of what a Black woman's pop record could be in the 1980s, merging personal narrative with sophisticated sonic production in a way that influenced not only the artists who followed but the entire conversation around women, agency, and artistry in mainstream music.
Samples
- "Nasty" — one of the most sampled tracks of the era, interpolated and sampled across countless hip-hop and R&B records throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, with its iconic opening groove and attitude becoming a touchstone of the sampling culture that defined that generation.
- "What Have You Done for Me Lately" — sampled and interpolated by numerous hip-hop and R&B artists throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, with its punchy rhythm track and melodic hook proving irresistible to producers mining the era's defining records.
- "The Pleasure Principle" — sampled by various hip-hop producers drawn to its propulsive, stripped-down groove, contributing to the track's lasting legacy well beyond its original chart run.
- "When I Think of You" — sampled across multiple hip-hop and dance productions, its bright, effervescent rhythm track lending itself naturally to the sample-driven production style that flourished in the years following the album's release.
- "Control" — the title track's rhythmic foundation was tapped by hip-hop and R&B producers throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, part of the broader wave of sampling that drew heavily from the Jam and Terry Lewis catalog of this period.
Tracklist
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A1 Control 120
5:55
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A2 Nasty 103
4:00
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A3 What Have You Done For Me Lately 114
4:41
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A4 You Can Be Mine 113
5:12
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B1 The Pleasure Principle 116
4:58
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B2 When I Think Of You 116
3:57
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B3 He Doesn't Know I'm Alive 120
3:30
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B4 Let's Wait Awhile 86
4:36
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B5 Funny How Time Flies (When You're Having Fun) 78
4:27
Artist Details
Janet Jackson burst onto the scene as a force all her own — born in Gary, Indiana in 1966, the youngest of the legendary Jackson family, she stepped out from that long shadow and carved her own groove with a sound that fused pop, R&B, funk, and new jack swing into something undeniably electric, especially with her landmark albums Control and Rhythm Nation 1814 in the mid-to-late '80s. Working alongside production wizards Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, she didn't just make hit records — she made statements, with Rhythm Nation speaking truth to social issues like poverty and racism with a rhythm that made the world move and think at the same time. Janet stands as one of the best-selling music artists of all time, a pioneer who proved that a Black woman could command the pop world on her own terms, influencing generations of artists who came after her and cementing her place as a true queen of the modern musical age.
