Will the bad girl image work again?

This is not being prudish, but it is just as well that Janet Jackson refrained from putting the lyrics of her songs in Damita Jo down in writing on the cover. Had she done so anybody who attempts to sing along with her would be faced with what should have been very private musings only a triple short of pornographic. So this is the reason why she came up with that cheap stunt of supposedly baring one of her breasts accidentally during her half time number with Justin Timberlake at the Superbowl. She wanted to bring the sexual theme of this new album into focus.

It is not like she has not done anything like this before. I remember her bare-breasted Rolling Stone cover some years ago. Well, she was not really bare. There were two hands, not hers, covering her breasts. Sexual innuendoes too were not unknown in her songs. But she had subtlety then. Besides, it is easy to forgive such daring when you have sounds like Rhythm Nation 1814, Control, What Have You Done for Me Lately or Miss You Much selling by the millions. Without these, the nudity, she is once again half-nude on the cover of Damita Jo, the heavy breathing cuts and the blatant in-your-face sexual content of the songs can only be seen as pathetic attempts to put fire into a flagging career.

It is also easy to understand this preoccupation with sex at this stage in her career. After a star has sold more than 40 million albums and been the highest-paid artist of her time, the drive to stay on top can truly be mind-boggling. More so, when tartlets like Britney and Christina are practically doing strip-tease numbers with their music. Facing to the law of averages with dignity is the best resort. Think Mary J. Blige. But then artists are not known for their ability to be pragmatic. Janet probably thinks the bad girl image she cultivated in her 20s will still work today so she uses sex to sell her album. And while using her middle name of "Damita Jo" as the title injects a homespun charm, the sex in the content turns off the listener.

Nonetheless, one has to admit she pulls out all the stops to present a satisfying album. There are 22 cuts. The old rhythm is present and still works in some songs. R&B Junkie, I Want You, Slolove and Just a Little While are good examples. Thinkin’ Bout My Ex also echoes the old confidence and her little girl singing works well with Kanye West in My Baby. A lot of editing though is in order if the whole package is going to work, but if you do like listening to Janet’s sweet voice, don’t let the sexual concept stop you from getting a copy.

The titles of the other tracks are Looking for Love, Damita Jo, Sexhibition, Strawberry Bounce, The Islands, Spending Time with You, Magic Hour, Island Life, All Nite (Don’t Stop), Like You Don’t Love Me, Warmth, Moist, It All Comes Down to Love, Truly, The One and Country.

I do not know if this is a reflection of the public’s reaction to the Superbowl incident or simply the wrong single choice, but there is no Janet song in this week’s top 50 sellers in the US . The album Damita Jo is ranked 15th in the top 200 albums hit list.

Usher’s Yeah! and Burn continue to occupy the first and third rungs in the hit ladder as per Billboard Magazine’s Hot 100 singles this week. The list of the ten top selling tunes is: Yeah! by Usher featuring Lil Jon & Ludacris; I Don’t Wanna Know by Mario Winans featuring Enya & P. Diddy; Burn by Usher; Naughty Girl by Beyonce; Tipsy by J-Kwon; This Love by Maroon5; My Band by D12; If I Ain’t Got You by Alicia Keys; Overnight Celebrity by Twista; and All Falls Down by Kanye West featuring Syleena Johnson.

The top 10 albums are: Confessions, the album by Usher who is on the roll these days; Hurt No More by the exciting Mario Winans; Musicology by Prince; Now 15 by Various Artists; The Reason by the hot rock act Hoobastank; The Pretty Toney Album by Ghostface; In This Skin by the reality TV star Jessica Simpson; Greatest Hits by the ‘80s rock band Guns ’N Roses; Fallen by Evanescence, which has been in the list for over a year; and The College Dropout by Kanye West.