So not to rain on anyone’s babymaking parade, but I can’t help but wonder if the clip for Janet Jackson’s “Feedback” might double as a sign that folks at Def Jam aren’t exactly confident about pouring a lot of money into her upcoming album. Why?
Well, it looks like a sort of “grown-up” take on Britney Spears’ video for “Oops!… I Did It Again,” only with a sort of stripped-down low-cost aesthetic that brings to mind Plan 9 From Outer Space. (Are those planets she’s draping herself over at the beginning made out of styrofoam or bubble wrap or what?) Perhaps the graphics department blew the entire budget on the CGI effects used in the “dancing inside a lava lamp*” segment at song’s end, and so they ran out of money to have interesting sets for the song’s first two verses? Or maybe I’m just making excuses, since I still want Janet to someday return to form instead of singing increasingly absurd songs that push her voice further and further down in the mix while using the word “sexy” 36 times, just in case you didn’t get it the first 35?
Janet Jackson Music Videos [Yahoo! Music]
* Don’t worry, folks: The bubbling liquid isn’t red.
As of when this comment is dated, the video is down…but I expect the video to be back on at 7:30 EST, when the video was originally slated to debut on Yahoo! Music. That twat Terrence is still hyping the video on 106 and Park, where the video was supposed to have its “world premiere.”
I just wish the video was entitled “Dammit, Schmanet, Interplanet Janet” instead.
“I just wish the video was entitled “Dammit, Schmanet, Interplanet Janet” instead.”
I think I just died reading that. In a positive way!
I don’t know how I feel about the video, but Janet’s smashing of the crunchy ball/planet towards the end is a no-no-no
@janine:
LOL.
I was also gonna say their is eerily similiar vibe when she’s falling with trails of gold right behind her in this one and it almost seems like an homage to “Can You Feel It” from her big brothers the Jackson 5 (or by that point the Jacksons, I think?)
I dunno, it looks like everything else Saam Farahmand has directed, right down to the liquid-disappearing reveal of “Janet” (he did it with NYPC’s “Ice Cream” video). I think it’s an intentionally low-budget stylistic choice.
yes it was the Jacksons it did remind me of can you feel it
Madonna rocked the dominatrix thing in the 80’s, but it was believable for her. For Janet it just seems disingenuous. Plus, like, how big is she supposed to be? She spends one verse like she’s bigger than mars, then she’s normal size, then she’s smaller than a drop of creamer in coffee. Oh, and couldn’t they have even made it look like they were dancing IN the creamer instead of on top of the creamer, while big, out of scale and focus drops of the stuff caused big ripples behind them that had no effect on them whatsoever? This isn’t even intentionally bad, or ironically bad, or even Michael “Bad.” it’s just poor.
Perhaps my standards have gone down because of Britney, but I liked the dancing a lot. She could have saved even more money with a throwback to her best video, “Pleasure Principle.”
@janine:
Re: “Pleasure Principle” - I loved that video! So much so that as an unsuspecting gay youth and spent many hours mimicking those dances trying to woo boys.
However, wasn’t that first vid/single from Damita Joe that throwback? It was at least a hybrid of “Pleasure” mixed with “Rhythm Nation”.
As for this video, its like 7:30 AM here. I am still trying to assess whether or not I am truly in shock at it’s WTF-ness of it. Part of me actually likes it, even though I’m sure the camp is lost on her. That whole milk thing is really absurd and kinda unnecessary. It just killed any desire for that bowl of cereal I was about to eat.
She does look good for someone in her mid 40’s, though.
@NDFSEA: …and now I come to the realization that I don’t know much about JJ after 1992…
I didn’t like this song the first time I heard it on the radio but now I really don’t like it because the chorus sounds like “Sexyback,” which is kinda ironic considering how little she thinks of JT nowadays.
As for the video, it’s boring. And I really wish she wouldn’t whip that ponytail around like it’s the sexiest thing in the world. It’s not.