Did Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" harm her career?

Bill Simmons (The Sports Guy) had an interesting take on the wardrobe malfunction in today's mailbag:

Question: At halftime of Super Bowl 38, Justin Timberlake sang, "I'm gonna have you naked by the end of this song," then reached over and ripped Janet Jackson's top off. Janet got blamed for the ensuing fallout because of her fancy nipple-cover, but HE ripped HER clothes off. Then SHE gets crap for it to this day. Why does nobody ever blame JT and why does he gets to go on living his charmed life of superstardom?
— Sean C, Benton, AR

Sports Guy: The easy answer: Because it was Jackson's boob and name in every headline ("Janet Jackson's nipple," "Janet Jackson's nipple slip," etc.), blame shifted to her and stuck like a pasty. Also, Timberlake apologized right away and seemed surprised enough by the nipple that some decided, "Maybe he didn't know." Important note: OF COURSE HE KNEW! The most incredible part of this saga was the number of people who either thought at the time or believe now that Timberlake wasn't a willing conspirator … like my wife, who said just this week, "There's no way he knew! She set him up!" Actually, after JT apologized he didn't say anything else for two years and allowed public perception to shift in his favor. In 2006, he even admitted, "I probably got 10 percent of the blame, and that says something about society. I think that America's harsher on women. And I think that America is, you know, unfairly harsh on ethnic people."

Sorry, I'm not buying that one. He just handled it better and allowed "Miss Jackson If You're Nasty" to fall on the sword. Had Jackson pulled down JT's pants and revealed one of his balls, he would have been the fall guy, she would have skated free, we would have been calling it NutGate instead of NippleGate, and we'd be blaming him for everything that happened after.

Anytime something infamously bad/traumatic/indefensible happens, there's a scapegoat lurking. In Alex Gibney's documentary about Steve Bartman (premiering on ESPN in October), Gibney tries to figure out why Bartman emerged as the lightning rod of that Cubs collapse while Alex Gonzalez (who committed a killer error), Mark Prior (who fell apart right after the play), Moises Alou (who got the crowd so riled up about a ball he may not have caught, anyway) and even the people sitting around Bartman (all who went for the ball, just like him) never get mentioned. The complicated answer: It's easier to blame one person then multiple people; storylines take on a life of their own; fans need to direct their rage somewhere; and memories usually gravitate towards the most memorable image (in this case, the sight of Bartman wearing the blue Cubs hat, those headphones and that "Oh, crap, I think they're going to kill me" stare).

Look at the repercussions of NippleGate: It jump-started a two-year referendum on our country's "decaying" morality, led to more censorship on networks and basic cable, affected the 2004 presidential election (which suddenly became morals-heavy), changed the way we watched live sports on television (every network or basic cable telecast is delayed by at least a few seconds now), thrust the uber-annoying Parents Television Council into our lives, gave late-night TV shows and comedies like South Park endless fodder, launched a bunch of boring lawsuits, invigorated satellite radio (because the FCC cracked down so heavily that Howard Stern eventually fled to Sirius), doubled as one of this country's most hypocritical moments ever (because we cared so much about our kids' seeing this stupid nipple for two seconds, and yet, nobody seems to care that any semi-savvy 8-year-old kid can find Internet porn in about two clicks) and even spawned Joe Buck's "THAT'S A DISGUSTING DISPLAY!" rant after Randy Moss' fake mooning in Lambeau. We needed to blame someone for all this crap, so we blamed her.3

Did Timberlake luck out? Yeah, just like Alex Gonzalez lucked out in 2003, or Calvin Schiraldi and Bob Stanley lucked out in 1986. Talent definitely played a role: maybe we were more forgiving because Timberlake's best years were still to come (his signature album came out two years later), or because Jackson's best years were already behind her. It's the same reason why nobody throws back in his face the fact that Ashton Kutcher made him cry on Punk'd once, or that nobody's ever blamed the vicious "What Goes Around" "Cry Me a River" for helping to cause Britney's eventual mental breakdown (when you can make a decent case that it did — it's the white man's "Hit 'Em Up"). But NippleGate didn't negatively affect JT's career; if anything, it raised his profile to "You Can Now Host SNL" status, helped FutureSex/LoveSounds reach iconic status and enabled him to become the weak link in The Social Network. If I were Janet Jackson, I'd be more than a little bitter that nobody throws Timberlake into the mix every time they're blaming her boob for making television and radio a little less fun.​

 

You're on the Internet - do a search!

 

I like nipples.

I thought the Timberlake/Jackson dance/strip routine was rehearsed, I thought we were grown up enough to face a body part we see all the time anyway. This is ultra-stupid.

We are crazy.

 

I always thought the whole hubbub was excessive. Quoting myself from earlier in the thread:

I saw the game on a 27" or so TV in a hotel room. When the "malfunction" occurred, I immediately went "did I just see what I THOUGHT I saw?" It's not like there was some long, lingering shot on Janet's boobie.

I remember thinking I'd try to find info on the Internet when I got home, under the belief that this wouldn't be any big thing. After all, whatever it was, it was super-brief. Boy, was I wrong!

 

I watched the half time show and didn't even notice Janet's "wardrobe malfunction." What harmed her career was probably music related.

 

Janet's musical persona had become stagnant: sex talk and those annoying interludes. She made a series of lousy albums, and that harmed her career -- in music, at least... She seems to be leaning more towards acting recently, with fairly successful results, mainly because of the projects with which she has been involved...

 

I think another problem is that Janet just didn't have good career advice after the scandal. She made music that just didn't click with listeners. I think she should have done something similar to what Madonna did after her "Erotica/Sex" phase proved that people were tiring of Madonna's sex-related controversies. Madonna softened her image, did more ballads ("I'll Remember, "Take A Bow", "You'll See") and got good notices for her role in "Evita".

Granted, one project that sounded very promising for Janet - she was to play Lena Horne in a film - was canceled in the wake of the scandal because Horne disapproved of Jackson playing Horne; Jackson voluntarily withdrew from the project because of Horne's objections.

 

I never bought her albums anyways, I just download her photos.

 

Um, looks like a nipple is poppin' out again.

 

You sure that's not just those little frillies on her bra?

 

She was blacklisted and that publicity stunt destroyed her career.
No music videos on tv,radio airplay,half of her songs on youtube have been blocked and promotion for her last 3 albums were nonexistent.
Canceled collaborations,tours and TV appearances also affected her career.

On the bright side of things if it wasn't for that Superbowl fiasco there probably wouldn't be a little video sharing website known as "Youtube". (Considering the fact that it was the inspiration behind the creation of that site.)
She had a successful music career that spanned two decades. That's better than most of the female singers from her era.
At leas this didn't happen early on.

 

Lol.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Jackson_discography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_Ones_(Janet_Jackson_album)

She was coming to the end of her Virgin deal and each of albums before it were dropping in sales slightly. Even Janet herself is skimpy on post 2002 songs on her greatest hits comp.

 

She's still blacklisted.

 

She's still blacklisted.

 

She's recorded the wrong material with the wrong producers.

1 great album and past hang ups are forgotten.

 

It's not forgotten at all.

"The accompanying music video for "Call on Me" was directed by Hype Williams and took ten days to be completed. It incorporates Indian, Asian, and African styles, with a mixture of outfits and hairstyles. Outfits worn in the video included a specially-designed Kimono, metal corset, and nine-inch platform heels "Call on Me" is one of the most expensive music videos of all time, with a production cost of over US$1,000,000. Following its release, it was reported that the video was blacklisted by MTV following her incident at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2004, which was co-produced by the network."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_on_Me_(Janet_Jackson_song)#Chart_performance

"Rock with U" received positive reviews from music critics, with the majority lauding its retro, but futuristic sound, and commending the song's elements of house music. Due to persistent blacklisting, the song was only able to reach the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles and the top-twenty of the Hot Dance Club Songs chart."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_with_U

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture...ut-from-janet-jacksons-halftime-show-20140130

 

Janet who?

 

Did she split from Jam and Lewis on her last few efforts? It seemed they had the "magic touch" on Janet's musical career, much like Quincy Jones and Michael.

 

Currently residing in the 'where are they now file?'.

 

They stopped collaborating with her after the Superbowl fiasco.

 

Fish dixit...

 

Huh? I never knew that. I've heard her "whisper" sing on a lot records though.

 

Janet's career was tapering off after 2001 though. All for You sold less than the Velvet Rope which sold less than janet. Also Terry Lewis revealed a few years ago how Janet didn't seem into making music while they were doing "Damita Jo".

 

Well somebody must have blacklisted the s*** out of Latoya. You don't see her anywhere!