This course, part 2 of a 2-course sequence, examines the history of rock, primarily as it unfolded in the United States, from the early 1970s to the early 1990s. This course covers the music of Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers, Carole King, Bob Marley, the Sex Pistols, Donna Summer, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Metallica, Run-DMC, and Nirvana, and many more artists, with an emphasis both on cultural context and on the music itself. We will also explore how developments in the music business and in technology helped shape the ways in which styles developed. Emerging out of the experimental and ambitious years of late-60s psychedelia, rock splintered into a variety of styles in the 1970s as the music business continued to expand. By the end of the decade, punk and disco had challenged the excesses of the hippie aesthetic, as rock became more commercially streamlined and radio friendly. The emergence and rise of MTV transformed pop music and propelled the careers of Michael jackson and Madonna, while heavy metal and hip hop dominated the late 1980s. Nirvana leads alt-rock's return to simplicity in the early 1990s.
Prince and Janet Jackson
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Del curso dictado por University of Rochester
History of Rock, Part Two
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I Want My MTV (1980-89)
MTV emerges from a developing cable television industry. Michael Jackson and Thriller. The rise of Madonna, Prince, and Janet Jackson. Does MTV make music more visual than aural? Mainstream rockers continue thrive. [Read Chapter 11 and work through listening guides and dedicated video.]
Conoce a los instructores
John CovachProfessor of Music and Director
Institute for Popular Music
Thinking now about the music of Prince and Janet Jackson, these four artists,
Michael jackson, Madonna, Prince and Janet Jackson, intersting
interconnections between all of them. Prince and Janet Jackson maybe having
more of their success in the second half of the 1980s, but all of them big MTV
stars and, and stars that depended an awful lot on the video dimension of what
they did to bring the music to audiences. So let's start with the music of Prince
from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Born Prince Rogers Nelson Prince
developed an image as a kind of sexually charged and somewhat androgynous figure.
If you look at the, the video of him during those days and the pictures and
stuff, he's He you, you, you're reminded, to a certain extent, of maybe somebody
like David Bowie during the Ziggy Stardust period.
You know, you're not really quite sure whether he's, he's, he's dressing,
dressing to, to, to sort of approach, more, his feminine side, or whether he's
just a dandy, or a pretty boy, or what exactly is going on.
But there's something. Definitely sort of sexually charged so
it's not like he's not interested, asexual.
He's definitely sexual. Definitely, you know, in a lot of his
songs you can tell that that sexuality is a markedly kind of heterosexual nature,
but his appearance is somewhat androgenous, and so in many ways,
continues some of that kind of thing that we've already seen happening in rock and
roll. Certainly has his roots in 1970s black
pop and funk so really kind of coming out of the parliament funkadelic, Sly and the
Family Stone kind of background and sound and approached his music making.
Prince is a guy who was extremely prolific as a songs writer.
I mean the guy would, could just write songs and songs and songs.
A fantastic multi instrumentalist. If you left Prince alone in a studio,
with all of the instruments there, he could probably record, you know, any
number of tunes in an afternoon, or at least one, you know, give him a couple of
days and he could probably do a whole album.
In fact one of the problems for awhile was that Prince was recording and had
more music ready to go than the record company was willing to release, they
thought, oh God, we can't sell this stuff, you're going to flood the market.
So it turns out that Prince has got, or the reports are, that Prince has got tons
and tons of music in a vault somewhere. So we can look forward to hearing tons of
this Prince music unfold as they years go by.
tracking his career a bit. we can turn to the album, Prince, from
1979. His initial success was mostly in the
rhythm and blues market, so unlike Michael Jackson who was really crossing
over Prince was really having his success with black audiences.
That album, as I say, Prince for 1979 going to number three in the r&b charts
with the number one r&b hit I want to be your lover, made it to number 11 on the
pop charts, but again most of his early success in the black market, black music
market... 1980, dirty mind, a number seven R&B hit
album. Controversy from 1981 at number three,
R&B album, made it number 21 in the pop charts.
But it's with the 1982 album 1999, which was a number nine hit album, but that
song 1999 became extremely popular, especially after he had his, his success
with the next album Purple Rain. That was a number twelve pop hit, number
four on R and B charts. Other hits he had, Little Red Corvette, a
number 6 hit on the pop charts, number 15 on the R and B charts.
Delirious was a number eight pop chart, pop hit, and a number eighteen r and b
hit. We look at some of the music that's on
1999. You can really start to see the different
dimensions of, of, of Prince's music. On the one hand, you've got that title
song, 1999 that starts off with the big keyboard chords sounding an awful lot
like the Mama Papa's Monday Monday. the, the, but the, sort of the big synth.
Big beat kind of sound, really kind of reminds you of a kind of a 80s version of
Sly and the Family Stone, you know kind of sing along.
That's the kind of song that if you've been to a wedding reception in the last,
I don't know, ever since that's been out. So the last three years or something like
that you've probably heard that song played by the DJ and the minute it hits
everybody is out on the dance floor or it's a fantastic dance number.
But if you go a little bit deeper into the album and you listen o the track Lady
Cab Driver, the song about Prince and he's hooking up with this lady cab
driver. And the whole end of the song is a,
explicit sexual encounter between Prince and this lady cab driver.
As explicit as any of those disco records with the moaning and groaning except
maybe even more so. You ca really see the sexuality element
in what Prince was doing and these kinds of things went over real big.
This, this element of it went over real big in his stage shows.
had to tame it down a bit for videos and that kind of things because after all,
they did have to broadcast this stuff. Well after 1999 and 19, from 1982.
we get Purple Rain. A number 1 album for Prince and The
Revolution, now, as he was calling the group.
Number 2 on the R and B charts. this was also a soundtrack to a film that
was released by a, a major studio. A film that was not directed by.
Prince, or written by Prince, but was designed to showcase Prince.
Not unlike the Beatles' Hard Days Nights, say.
It became a real cult classic, you can still find it on, on movie channels on
cable TV. And America, I'm sure if you go to
Netflix or any of the kind of movie, online movie dealers, you should, you
should be able to find it there, too. number of big hits on that, When Doves
Cry was number1, Let's Go crazy number one, another great sort of dance tune,
let's go crazy. Purple rain number two, I would die for
you number eight, these records 1999 purple rain really defined Prince I think
in the middle of the 1980s, he goes on with tremendous success.
I mean I'm not going to list these albums, but they're fantastically
successful year and year, but remember, he not only were these top records that
came out one every year. But he had a lot more material.
They were telling him, don't release it. We can't, we can't take any more then
what you're already giving us. Around the World in a Day, number 1 in
1985. Parade, number 3 in 1986.
Sign O' the Times, number 6 in 1987. Lovesexy, number 11 in 1988.
And the soundtrack to the movie, Batman, number 1 in 1989.
Fantastic success. In the sweepstakes in the 80s sweepstakes
for who was the biggest the bigger artist, Prince or Michael Jackson.
Michael Jackson probably takes that, takes the prize, in the '80s.
In the '90s, as Michael Jackson starts to fall from favor, and Prince continues to
be active. I think the equation maybe starts to
change a bit. But, and it will probably continue to
change as we look back on the music of both of these artists.
But anyway, if you juxtapose Prince and, and Michael Jackson.
You really did, really did get two very sort of photogenic guys.
Fantastic performers. Michael Jackson more the dancer, Prince
more the sort of musician type, but a very interesting sort of juxtaposition.
Well we talk about Prince and Michael Jackson, how about the career of Janet
Jackson, who is the youngest sister of the Jackson kids.
And who ends up being produced by associates of Prince from Minneapolis.
Two guys by the name of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.
So there's where the Prince and Jackson family thing sort of comes together in
the music of Janet Jackson. But let's back up a little bit and tell
about the story of Janet Jackson's career.
As I've said she's the youngest sister of the Jackson 5 members, many many Jackson
kids having as I said originally grown up in Gary Indiana but then eventually
making it to LA because that's really where Mo Town was located by the early
1970s. like her brother, her famous brother
Michael... Her act showcases dances, she's a
fantastic dancer, many of those early dance routines from MTV I think were,
choreographed by Paula Abdul, at least some of them were.
She was a child actress so she appeared on television shows like Good Times...
Different Strokes, Fame. So kind of a child star that was the
direction that her career seemed to be going.
So the first kind of albums she did as a musician were very much in that child
star kind of mode. There was one called Janet Jackson from
1982, another one called Dream Street from 1984.
This is sometimes been called bubblegum soul.
It was very much dominated by her family and by her Dad.
She was very much under their management. I would advise you if you can on the
internet to compare the pictures of Janet Jackson, Dream Street and then what you
see with the third album Control. The break is obvious.
The first two look very you know, sort of teen idol, network TV, squeaky clean, you
know, teenage kind of thing. The third one.
It's like Janet Jackson has got something she wants to say, something she needs to
prove, and I think that, that something she needs to prove thing.
Is a key to understanding a good deal of what happens in her career and her music.
What she does with control, her big number one, really it's the album that
made her career, the big number one album from 1986 is she breaks with her family,
she doesn't want to have anything to do with them managing her music or her
career or anything. Gets new management, different record
company people, everything... She brings in Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis
who had been, who had worked together with Prince in a group called Time in
Minneapolis, and they produced the records and she comes, she decides she's
going to go at it as a way to really sort of show that she's somebody different
now, and so, um... While she has a fantastic, she has
fantastic success with the record, five top five singles including "When I Think
of You" a number one hit, "Let's Wait Awhile" a number two hit.
I would draw your attention to two particular songs on that recond to really
get a sense Of, of what Janet Jackson has got to prove with this album.
I would first direct you to the song Control, which starts with a spoken
declaration of independence. That is, she's basically saying I'm in
control now, this is my thing you know. And she's basically sort of narrates it.
And after this sort of dramatic introduction where she sort of does this
kind of declaration of independence and then bang, the tune hits.
And so you get the idea what, what this record is about.
It's like hey, it's my career now, here we go.
And then, there's the sexuality element. Janet Jackson, Always a very, at this
point in her career, maybe, maybe emphasizing the sexual element not only
because Madonna has already done it, so it's not like she's the first one to do
it and maybe she has to outdo Madonna or compete with Madonna in that element to a
certain extent. But also because she had been such a
squeaky clean teen idol, maybe she felt like she had Something to prove or some
ground to make up [LAUGH] in that area. Who knows.
But if you listen to the song Nasty, that song, if you listen to the lyrics and all
that goes with it, really is a complete break with teen innocence with regard at
the sexuality. well Janet Jackson continues her career
in the second half of the 80s with Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation.
1814 Number One Album in 1989 with seven top five singles.
Four number one hits on that record. That's a concept album addressing social
injustice but really pretty much continues, I don't want to say formula
but he approach that she used in the control, album from 1986.
So in many ways, I think that Janet Jackson's career from this period can be
looked at as sort of a continuation of Madonna's sexual rebellion, meeting,
meeting up with a kind of Proof of independence.
In other words, she has coming out of that Jackson family and what we've come
to understand is could be, can be kind of an oppressive environment to one's
personal identity. she needs to prove that she's her own
person, and she continues with the kind of challenging of sexuality and sexual
roles in society. than Madonna in many ways sort of made
famous especially with that Like a Virgin video that we talked about in the last
video. You can see more of this Janet Jackson
sexuality thing playing out in two incidents that are, uh...
I won't say scandalous, but pretty famous.
The first is the 1993 Rolling Stone cover, the cover to a Rolling Stone
magazine where you see Janet Jackson on the front of the cover topless, but with
arms of some unknown man coming around and covering her breasts, alright, and
the subtitle there on the cover says Janet Jackson...
The Joy of Sex. Alright, so pretty scandalous cover for
its day, sold a lot of magazines [LAUGH]. and then of course, there's the famous
Super Bowl 2004 wardrobe malfunction where, when in performing together with
Justin Timberlake at the half-time show of the Super Bowl, what was supposed to
be just a ripping away of the, of her Top to show her breast covered by some sort
of undergarment. The undergarment itself came when Justin
Timberlake pulled it away, and you got just the bare breast on national TV, with
mom, dad, grandma, the kids, and the dog all watching.
It was a scandal. I remember sitting there watching, saying
did I see what I thought I just saw? Unbelievable.
Not like you couldn't see that like any evening on Cinemax, [LAUGH] on cable TV.
But to see it at a Super Bowl was really scandalous.
Did she do it on purpose? Does she have a history of these kinds of
shocking things? Well I think she wanted to shock.
With the undergarment there, but she shocked more than she planneed to and the
other underga, undergarment gave way the wardrope malfunction and there was her
breast clear for everybody to see primetime how many viewers were watching
that certainly a lot. So When we bring it together, we have now
four artists that really through their success on MTV.
really by the time you get to the, the, the 86, 87 period, you gotta tune into
MTV to see what Michael Jackson is doing, what Madonna is doing.
What Prince i sup to, what Janet Jackson's up to, the fantastic success
form these four artists really turn MTV into a force to be reckoned with.
In the next video we'll talk about more MTV success stories.
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