pop & funWikipedia1986 · United States

Janet Jackson's Control made her the first woman with five top-five hits from one album

the gist

Janet Jackson's 1986 album Control was made with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who blended funk, disco, R&B and rap with a syncopated triplet swing beat that foreshadowed new jack swing. Its lyrics drew on her own life, including the annulment of her marriage to James DeBarge and a break from her family's management. It became her first album to top the Billboard 200, and five of its singles reached the Hot 100 top five. That made her the first woman with five top-five hits from one album, and 'When I Think of You' gave her first number one. It has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.

so what

Control is widely seen as the album that made Janet Jackson a major star in her own right. Its sound helped define 1980s R&B and became a template for many women artists, particularly Black women, to shape their careers.

fun fact

Control set a record for the longest continuous run of charting singles on the Hot 100, with 65 consecutive weeks.

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Adapted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Illustrative photo · Arbolitobellui, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons