About a year ago, we recorded a show discussing two legendary pop stars: Madonna and Janet Jackson. Then my Macbook died, taking the podcast with it. The release of Janet’s “Unbreakable” album made us realize that it was time to revisit the topic. So, here we are once again, talking Madge and Janet.
Here’s some show notes for y’all:
-We welcome Michael Parr back after a baby-related absence! (Although in true “the Lord giveth…” fashion, we’re missing The Packet Man this time around.)
-I (Big Money) wrote a well-received review of Unbreakable. You should read it.
-Between the solid reviews, a #1 debut, and her nomination for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Miss Jackson is having a pretty awesome week.
-Oh hey–Madonna also released an album this year. Two of us were scared away by the song titles and guest lineup. The one of us who did give Rebel Heart a listen didn’t come away with the warm fuzzies, exactly.
-Which begs the question; how does one age gracefully in pop music? Is it necessary to keep up with the younger artists, many of whom are influenced by Madonna and Janet?
-Are we unfair to Madonna because she dares to express herself as a sexual being in her fifties, or are we just tired of her doing things seemingly for shock value?
-Does Madonna have a run of albums comparable to Janet’s legendary Control/Rhythm Nation/janet/Velvet Rope sequence?
-We do an Unbreakable deep dive. Dr. Z, not wanting to spoil the listening experience, is still waiting for his copy to come in the mail so he can listen.
-Why haven’t Madonna and Janet (and many other legendary female artists) been the focus of remaster/reissue campaigns like many of their male counterparts?
-In case you forgot-these ladies also act. Well, you probably haven’t forgotten. But we understand if you’d like to.
-We discuss our favorite album by each artist, which sidebars into the alleged Janet Jackson/The Time movie that was discussed in the wake of Control‘s success.
-Next up: our 3 favorite songs by each artist.
-We wrap up by discussing the most underrated songs or albums by Madonna and Janet, and pay tribute to the guy who was so stoned he called the cops on himself. No, it has nothing to do with Janet Jackson or Madonna, but we do go off on tangents quite a bit. This should be expected!
Listen in the player below, or download directly from Liberated Syndication.
You can also download earlier episodes from LibSyn or good ol’ iTunes.
5 comments
John says:
Nov 5, 2015
Such a great podcast. And Big Money, “Keep It Together” is in my top three as well…it’s shocking to me that it wasn’t released as a single outside of North America. I don’t know if we’ve blocked it out or what, but the combo of Damita Jo and 20 Y.O. was REALLY bad, with one or two songs being the exception. (I like Discipline a lot more than 20 Y.O., which really isn’t saying a lot)
MJ says:
Nov 5, 2015
I will actually defend “Damita Jo”. It was too long by half, but there’s some top quality material in there if you’re willing to dig through the randomness. 20 Y.O. was awful, though. No defending that one. The two Jam/Lewis tracks were great. Everything else sucked.
John says:
Nov 5, 2015
I Want You could be my overlooked track choice for Janet, or even All Nite, but they just couldn’t salvage that disc.
Mike says:
Jan 24, 2016
“Damita Jo” definitely gets a bad rap, largely based on the Super Bowl controversy. The fact that it still sold platinum in the USA is pretty astounding.
“Unbreakable” is damn near perfection.
Reed says:
Feb 14, 2016
First, I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your podcast about Janet vs. Madonna. I am a big fan of both of their work, and it was fun to hear what others thought was well. I’m probably slightly more on the Madonna side, and it did seem like you were all much more willing to be more forgiving about some of Janet’s musical mis-steps than Madonna’s. You really didn’t mention much about how mixed Damita Jo, 20 YO, and Discipline are and how little success she’s been able to achieve when she doesn’t work with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, whereas Madonna has worked successfully with numerous producers. I also thought it was a bit unfair that none of you had really listened to Madonna’s most recent album – which is probably her best in close to a decade – Ghost Town ranks among the best songs she’s probably ever done – but yet were critiquing it based mostly on the song titles and guest artists.
I think though that Janet’s and Madonna’s most recent albums suffer in the exact opposite way. I totally agree with you that Madonna should have raised the level of maturity on her album; Rebel Heart has some incredibly cringe-worthy tracks which I think could have just been eliminated (SEX, Holy Water, etc), and the album is just too long. At the same time, I think Unbreakable could benefit from a few more truly upbeat songs since the only real club banger is Burn It Up!
Ultimately, I think they both have had career-making albums as well as some very inconsistent records, but the strength for both artists is really in their singles. I think the chronology of their singles over their careers is rivaled by pretty much no-one and rank among some of the best and most diverse catalogs of work.
The one area I think they are both under-rated is with their remixes and unreleased material. I think they both have had incredible remixes done of their work which doesn’t always get remembered. A few of Janet’s b-sides are among some of her best songs (One More Chance, On and On). Madonna’s released b-sides probably aren’t as impressive, but some of the leaked unreleased material (Liquid Love, Broken, Avicii version of Rebel Heart) that Madonna has recorded are pretty amazing, and it’s too bad that they are officially unreleased and just sitting in a vault somewhere and haven’t made it onto one of her albums.