The Culture Corner: Janet Jackson’s ‘The Velvet Rope’ turns 25

When Janet Jackson released her album The Velvet Rope in 1997, it was a game changer for lots of different reasons. It was right after Jackson had just signed the biggest recording contract in history at the time, it topped charts around the world and won her a slew of awards.

But it was more than just sales and trophies. In this edition of The Culture Corner, World Cafe correspondent John Morrison talks about how Jackson experimented lyrically on The Velvet Rope, which included exploring new sexual themes she’d never sung about before.

As Morrison explains, “This is all radical stuff for a Black pop star to talk about in the 1990s. In a lot of ways The Velvet Rope‘s intention was to present us with a fleshed out multidimensional Janet.”

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Janet Jackson’s The Velvet Rope on the Culture Corner, listen in the player above.