Janet Jackson Breaks Down Her Most Iconic Music Videos

Hi, this is Janet Jackson.

[upbeat music]

I will be breaking down some of my most iconic video looks.

♪ We are a part of the rhythm nation. ♪

Wow! 1989 Rhythm Nation and,

the director, Dominic Sena.

It's a film short.

With this project it's about,

you know bringing positivity and

and that positive light and energy

was a child who's troubled a kid who's troubled.

The inspiration for this is a few places, Blade Runner.

We actually shot, you know, the elevator scene.

It was the scene from Blade Runner. Same place.

We shot this downtown LA. It was a lot of work,

a lot of long hours.

There were times when we were shooting 21 hours,

just in one night, wardrobe wise,

the styling for this it was inspired

by a movie called Fahrenheit 451

one with the mock necks.

And so that's where the inspiration came from for this,

but taking it to another level with more hardware on the

jackets and not just the plate on the neck and on the

baseball caps, I wore an earring with a key on it,

and that key was molded from the key that I used to wear on

my actual earrings as a kid growing up.

Cause I used to take care of the animals. That was my,

my chore, the giraffe, the peacocks,

the pheasants and the sheep, the fawn,

all the animals, I used to

clean their cages and wash them.

And I had no place to put this key,

so I would keep it on my earring.

So that's how me wearing a key on my earring began

kids liked it even before rhythm nation project.

My mother gave me gold hoop earrings.

She liked me in gold hoop earrings. So I wore them a lot

[Scream plays]

Scream featuring me. And it was in 1990, I think 1995,

his label Sony.

They basically left it in my hands

and so did Mike to choose everyone for the project

was supposed to only be like a two day shoot.

I think it was might've been seven days.

It was, yeah, it was a $7 million deal.

I didn't have to pay for it. Mike did.

So it was fun getting in,

in the studio and dancing together.

Cause we hadn't done that since I was a kid.

We used to dance together all the time.

That was a great deal of fun.

I think it was a suggestion of Mark's

to shoot it in black and white.

And we were down with that.

We were cool with that. I mean,

if it would have been shot in color,

I think it would've been just as beautiful.

I loved that it was shot in black and white.

And even looking back on some of the color images from then

I think are just as incredible. Kevyn Aucoin,

may he rest in peace

The legend makeup, makeup artist.

It was a very good friend of mine.

He did my makeup for this and he Janet

and myself got together and we thought

it might be very interesting to

pattern it after Japanese anime, kind of the look of it,

the hair, you know, the smokey eyes and the feel of it.

I love anything Japanese. I think it's important.

It's a collaborative effort. Everyone seemed to love it.

And it was very inspirational for a lot

of directors and artists.

I've seen lots of videos since then.

I said, okay, they were inspired by Scream.

[music playing]

What's it going to be? Yeah,

with Busta that I did in 1999, Hype Williams

that was the first time Hype and myself worked together.

The inspiration came from, from busts and, and,

and hype and it being very futuristic.

And I love anything that relates to the future.

It was important to make it strong and bold in the end for

it to feel very, very futuristic

and trying to do those ideas,

things looks that would be different.

Once again, Janet Zeitoun doing my hair.

Wayne Scot Lukas was the stylist.

Mathu Andersen. We worked together a couple of times,

incredible makeup artists.

And I remember him putting these big black Cock's feathers.

That's the name of the bird,

but they were big cock feathers on my for lashes

You know, I don't ever remember

seeing someone having black lips.

I remember there was something that they used for my beauty

mark for this video and it was something shiny.

And there's one point in the video where I stick my tongue

out and everyone thought that I was going to lick him.

But my beauty mark had gone from

my beauty mark on my face to

down by my lip. And I didn't want it to ruin the take.

So I was licking it off of my lip

and I had put it on my tongue at that point.

And no one knows, I guess, until

now I've never spoken about it.

They knew on the set June Ambrose, she did Busta's costume.

I remember they made the, this, this mock-up of that,

that outfit, that catsuit that I wore

and the mock-up lasted the original outfit

It, it just basically has just withered away

because of the materials because of time,

being so old, It just.

Unfortunately it, it no longer exists.

I hope I'm not getting too crass here,

but those were cock rings that I,

that's what they call them.

They're cock rings that I have all

down my costume. Putting rings

through each and every one of my fingernails with the

acrylic nails on it,

it took me 11 hours to get ready for this video.

It's great when you can collaborate and you connect.

And I love that when you work together and you're family and

you're a team and you feed off of each other's energy and,

and I've been thankful that that has happened throughout my

career with the majority of the videos that I've I've shot

Together Again'. Seb Janiak 1997

Seb's, a photographer.

He had never shot a video before.

We met in Paris. And I saw some

of his work and I, I,

I wanted to do something together.

With this, Together Again,

once again, when it comes to hair,

just getting bored and wanting

to do something different

and decided to dye it red.

Then Janet came up with this,

really interesting way of making

it look like my hair was like tree branches.

She put wire and they would braid

and twist my hair around the wire.

We used a lot of Gootee for the

dance sequences on, on, on this project.

We shot it in LA and it was, a lot

of wonderful effects and this

And I think I had Mike's giraffe

and his elephant that were in the shoot.

But the funny thing about it,

I think it was the elephant that

Elizabeth [Taylor] had given him.

And the funny thing about it.

When we wrapped this shoot.

they didn't want to tell me,

but the giraffe had gotten away.

Especially because it was Mike's.

They were trying their damnedest to, they got him back.

[upbeat music playing]

If 1993, once again, Dominic, I love Dominic.

I love this figure because this was before we had the

teleconferencing art FaceTiming and

way before any of that ever existed.

And I love this video because it

shows that very thing happening

and just the look of it and

the way they were dressed in the

suits and the longwigs and the shaved heads.

And it was very different looking

and very beautifully done. At least to me

They call it bed hair,

which is free flowing and natural. And,

and I lightened it and I guess coming more into my own,

becoming more of a woman, I suppose,

showing more of a sensual side, that it was very fitting.

And once again, Janet's Zeitoun

[The Pleasure Principle plays]

Pleasure Principle, the year was 1986

And the Director Dominic Sena.

The look, the fashion just really relaxed.

I remember Guess jeans were a big thing back then,

but as a, as a teenager,

one of my very good friends of a few

good years older than me, she worked at Guess.

And after school I would go to Guess

and I would work the cash register,

phone calls with them. Cause I,

I got out of school early. That was pretty fun for me,

but it was supposed to be this really casual, relaxed,

just working out, dancing in this huge warehouse.

Everyone always asks me what are the

letters and the numbers on, on my t-shirt mean?

And to be quite quite honest,

I can't remember if it's a Gaultier shirt

or Comme De Garcon shirt

Even, I, I don't know what those numbers were,

but it was cool. It was fun.

And I used to always wear wrestling shoes.

So we thought it might be nice to dancing wrestling shoes,

Janet Zeitoun who has cut my hair.

Since I was 17 years of age,

she did the majority of the videos that I've shot.

We wanted to do something different and she came up with

this, this look, which I absolutely loved.

But after those two days,

I cut it all off about an inch and a half.

[Interviewer] Why?

Just didn't want to be bothered with fun hair,

never in a million years. Are you thinking,

oh, this is going to be so incredible.

And down the line, people are going to

still enjoy this generations to come.

I mean, I'm just working in doing

my job and trying to do the best

that I can with each and every scene that we shot

But I love that it's inspired people

on so many different levels.

That makes me feel really good.

[I get lonely plays]

I get lonely 1997, Paul Hunter,

the title of the song I get lonely.

It has a feeling of loneliness to me though,

even in the video except for the dance scene

and even to the point of I end up,

being in the future of not even having another person,

another human being there,

but this mannequin and feeling on the mannequin and

beginning to undress him,

not even having someone to actually touch.

So it's the mannequins taking its place in this video,

but it does come on very strong. It's powerful,

like even in the corridor scene

where you're walking with

this purpose, with this feeling, this moon,

the one thing I do remember, with the makeup,

I think it was one of the very first times that I,

I put like a little crystal on my mole

and you could see it in the car scene.

Janet wanted to do something different

with it this time around. And she straightened it.

making it bond straight, which I enjoyed.

It was different, different for me.

And no one else was running around

with red hair at the time. So I really liked it,

but I love the masculine feminine mix,

especially with the dance sequence,

the big floppy hat, the tie,

and then you had this shirt

but putting a corset over it with

the wide leg pants.

I love that mix. I'm very much a tomboy.

Looking back through some old images. I,

I saw some pictures of myself being 14

and how I was dressed back then I feel more

comfortable that way than the,

pushup bra and the tight clothes

legs showing and always being

covered head to toe from Rhythm Nation

until the Janet project.

Then skin started to show. That hat,

it belonged to Mick Jagger from back

in the day, he wore it for this video.

At least that's what they told me.

In some kind of way. I wound up with it in this video.

I got rid of the maunches this year.

I had a huge, huge auction.

I kept a few things, but all of it, I got rid of.

Rhythm Nation, All for you.

If, I get lonely.

It was important to me to take care of it.

And I did have it taken to the correct cleaners

and then they will box it. To preserve it.

and then it would be labeled and a picture

from the video or from a live performance

will be put with each item.

It was just floor to ceiling. Thank you so much allure.

I really enjoyed myself and I hope you did too.

See you next time.