Rhythm Nation
| Janet Jackson
Rhythm Nation
Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 (commonly referred to as Rhythm Nation) is the fourth studio album by American singer Janet Jackson, released on September 19, 1989, by A&M Records. Although label executives wanted material similar to her previous album, Control (1986), Jackson insisted on creating a concept albumaddressing social issues. Collaborating with songwriters and record producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, she drew inspiration from various tragedies reported through news media, exploring racism, poverty, and substance abuse, in addition to themes of romance. Although its primary concept was met with mixed reactions, its composition received critical acclaim. Jackson came to be considered a role model for youth because of her socially conscious lyrics.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
Show All-
Pitchfork
October 9, 2016. Rhythm Nation 1814 is a thrilling mix of social messaging and dancefloor pleasure.
-
Rolling Stone
October 19, 1989. The community Jackson, Jam and Lewis imagine and encourage here is an activist extension of George Clinton’s one nation under a groove. Their “Rhythm Nation” is a multiracial, multinational network “looking for a better way of life” on and off the dance floor.
-
Slant Magazine
September 7, 2009. . . . Jam and Lewis’s work on Rhythm Nation expanded Janet’s range in every conceivable direction. She was more credibly feminine, more crucially masculine, more viably adult, more believably childlike. This was, of course, critical to a project in which Janet assumed the role of mouthpiece for a nationless, multicultural utopia. Jam and Lewis helped sell Janet’s notion of a consciousness raised.
-
Billboard
September 18, 2014. Rhythm Nation stays political for a few songs and then segues into kinder, gentler relationship songs, many of which dominated radio and MTV.
-
AllMusic
In 1989, protest songs were common in rap but rare in R&B -- Janet Jackson, following rap's lead, dares to address social and political topics on "The Knowledge," the disturbing "State of the World," and the poignant ballad "Living in a World" (which decries the reality of children being exposed to violence).
-
Talk About Pop Music
October 4, 2018. If “Control” was all about Janet Jackson’s personal freedom and independence then the follow up in 1989 would explore wider themes and Janet’s emerging social conscience, such as poverty, racism, social inequality and drugs. The album was another huge hit especially in the US with seven single releases, but the UK never did quite take the album to heart.
-
People
November 20, 1989. On Rhythm Nation she has cast her net wider—taking on a whole world of problems. As it stands, it is a misguided effort from a little lady who has gained maybe a tad too much control.
-
The Current
September 19, 2014. One of the most commercially successful albums ever to come out of Minnesota, Rhythm Nation 1814 was produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and all of the tracks were recorded at their Flyte Tyme studio in Minneapolis. Sonically, the album is considered a landmark of the New Jack Swing genre.
-
Chunky Glasses
November 9, 2017. Buttressed by pop hits and jam-packed with hooks set loose from some future utopia, Nation was a not-so-subtle exploration of racism, sexism, love, and social responsibility that sought to elevate our humanity by any means necessary. More importantly, it's an album who's messages sadly may be MORE relevant almost thirty years later.
-
Entertainment
September 19, 2014. Though it’s a quarter century old, Rhythm Nation has barely aged—it sounds as rich and vital as it did when it was first released, and stylistically as contemporary as anything on the Billboard charts.
-
Elsewhere by Graham Reid
January 14, 2019. In many ways the Rhythm Nation album belongs to Jam and Lewis – and Jellybean Johnson on Black Cat which was a sole Jackson composition – who created the rhythmic and bass-driven substructures, although she did, quite rightly, get co-credit as the producer. It added up to an album which seemed to say more than it actually did, but said the little so convincingly that it was easy to be won over by it . . . after all, for most of it you are on the dancefloor.
-
Grammy
June 28, 2018. Released Sept. 19, 1989, Rhythm Nation 1814 gifted us with some of Jackson's biggest career hits, . . . . Despite its political leanings, Rhythm Nation 1814 also provides a healthy dose of romance and dancing, which spawned a record-breaking seven Top 5 hits while the album itself landed at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
-
Metro Weekly
September 21, 2014. Following up Control was no doubt a daunting endeavor, but Jackson, Jam and Lewis had ambitious plans and ended up topping it by a mile with an edgy and kinetic collection of songs that not only grooved hard and but also had a positive message.
-
Robert Christgau
Not so smashingly is all--if the P-Funk pretensions of "nation" are a little much from somebody whose knowledge of the world is based on the 6 o'clock news, the "rhythm" is real, and I give her credit for it. Her voice is as unequal to her vaguely admonitory politics as it was to her declaration of sexual availability, but the music is the message: never before have Jam & Lewis rocked so hard for so long.
-
The Farr Side
September 25, 2014. The album had it all: a fresh sound, a deep message and a track list that ruled the airwaves. It has barely aged, the more I think of it. It's every bit as contemporary today as it was 25 years ago. It's pure pop perfection at it's finest, even a quarter-century later.
-
The Atlantic
September 15, 2014. Rhythm Nation was a transformative work that arrived at a transformative moment. Released in 1989—the year of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, protests at Tiananmen Square, and the fall of the Berlin Wall—its sounds, its visuals, its messaging spoke to a generation in transition, at once empowered and restless.
-
DeeperTheBeats
September 23, 2014. Listening to the album today Rhythm Nation sounds as rich, and powerful as it did when it was first released. After the successful breakthrough 1986 album ‘Control’, which was her first collaboration with Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, this leather-and-metal caged ‘dystopian’ world was created by Janet who wanted an idealistic and socially conscious album for the Youth.
-
itunes Apple Music
While no less tuneful and danceable, 1989's Rhythm Nation 1814 is infused by a clear-eyed and optimistic social conscience, with interludes that directly address important issues, like racism, addiction, and poverty. Matching this tough-love lyrical commitment, Jackson and her creative partners Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis bring hard rock, hip-hop, and new jack swing influences to instant classics, . . . .
Rate This Album and Leave Your Comments