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moonchild
♥love.24.energy.flesh.bones.
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student of life.creative.writer.cancer.
native new yorker.residing in new jersey.
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currently on Fifty Shades Darker
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The Velvet Rope
Hey guys -- yeah, it's been what? Forever since I have taken the time to type up a new entry. I apologize. My laptop died, my phone has been acting ignorant, and I just haven't been in the mood all together. LOL. However, things are looking up! My uncle is re-building my laptop, I get my Blackberry Tour tomorrow, and after two weeks of what I call TVR therapy I am much happier. lol.
You may be asking yourself, "what the hell is TVR therapy?" Well, good thing you asked cause that is what this post is going to be about. TVR = The Velvet Rope , a CD-- a masterpiece is more suitable, that Janet Jackson released in 1997.
You're all probably like, this chick is crazy over Janet. Though that may be, it's for all the right reasons. Y'know I shared a YouTube video of hers on Facebook and someone commented and said, "I see you're obsessed with Janet Jackson.." and I thought about it and I think it's unfair and illogical to make that sort of judgment. It's more so a connection than an obsession. I hear obsession and think of all the screaming girls across the world who break the law and would hurt a small child to see the Jonas Brothers or someone. That, my friends, I do not do lol.
Sure, I've seen her in concert and have gone to television shows to see her but that's only because I am spoiled and live 20 minutes away from Manhattan and can do that occasionally lol. If you had the access, you'd do it too.
But not to discredit my fandom in anyway, shape, or form..I do have a strong sense of relation to Janet. No, I don't feel like we're kindred souls or that we were friends in a past life -- I just feel her life. Her music is extremely personal to her and what is going on in her life when she is making her albums -- so as a listener, you can easily decipher from one album to the next, how she was feeling and what she was going through.
Even in an industry now, in which every song is about the same thing -- preaching materialism and the craziness of relations, she's still an artist that makes albums. Although, to be completely honest..20Y.O. (2006) wasn't much of anything (besides With U, Enjoy, & Take Care.....) but I can let that one slide (entirely my opinion lol).
Anywho, Janet released The Velvet Rope in 1997 after a great deal of turmoil in her personal life; Dealing with depression and supressed feelings she had through-out her life up until that point, all contributed to this album. It's very much about finding one's self: escapism, accepting what is, experimenting, sexuality, the need we all have as humans to feel needed, to feel special, to feel like we mean something to someone. The album is cohesive and deeply introspective for her and for the listener.
I remember first listening to it, at 8 or 9 years old being in complete awe and thinking, "Wow.." Now of course, at that age I didn't quite understand all the content but I had a sense of what was going on. Growing up, I myself was a quiet child and internalized a great deal and the constant talk of this "need to feel special" on the album really pulled me in, I related. I started listening to the album on a daily basis -- a couple songs here and there, or one song a day; depending on my mood and what I needed, the tracks varied.
When I got into high school though, I found myself listening to the entire album on repeat, for days. It was a healing for me -- as looney as that sounds -- relaxing and clearing my head to this album put me into a better space after a couple of days.
Now, it's almost a tradition or a "quirk" about myself that is just stuck in me. I go through a period of time where I just have to listen to this album, and that's it. It really does help. The connection is so strong with this work and it still to this day amazes me how much the music and the words, the message...gets through. I mean the delivery on this CD is so strong and so direct -- you cannot not feel it. This CD could have been released today, and still have the same level of resonance within people as it did, the day it dropped in October '97.
There's a level of vulnerability on this album that is breathtaking to me. To be so set in your ways and to open yourself up and expose what you're going through and take your listeners with you as you fix yourself..? That's courage. And it's inspiring. To know, that even she is in this journey with the rest of us. Not only did the music touch me, but Janet did as well. If someone didn't have respect for her after Control or Rhythm Nation or the janet. album...they definitely were able to see one of the best sides of Jan through this album. I say that with the utmost sincerity in that, no, I don't feel like it takes pain or troubled times to make a masterpiece, but it does take a TRUE artist to manifest something that could have easily ruined her, and turn it into self conducted therapy not only for herself but for the people with open ears; whoever will listen. This album is an open invitation to anyone who needs to know that the complexities of life effect everyone.
I find so much strength when the album is over and it's just overwhelmingly uplifting.
So, two weeks ago..I found myself feeling inadequate; different issues resurfaced, questions arose, I felt alone, and I just popped in the CD and the first night I laid in bed and just thought about every lyric. I fell asleep before the album finished, but I did the same thing the next night and the night after. It kind of put me in a better mood to wake up the next day with...and by the time I was ready to lay in bed the next day--I needed the CD again. After the some time...it clicks all over again.
And no I'm not crazy -- it never really is the same thing that pops up and has me running for the CD -- it could be anything that is challenging me in life. I find that inner strength through this CD -- it's true. It's my shrink, so to speak. Instead of the $300 a week for a couch and a notepad..I spent $10 for a CD that I've listened to for the past 12 years.
So next time, my connection is questioned...I'll just send a link to this post.
;)
Thank you, Janet.
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