by: Ellen C. Caldwell
for JSTOR Daily
This October marks the 20th anniversary of Janet Jackson’s 1997 album The Velvet Rope.
The album’s top single “Got ‘Til it’s Gone”holds up after two decades, thanks to the contributions of six people: Janet Jackson, yes, but also Joni Mitchell, director Mark Romanek, and African photographers Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé, and Samuel Fosso.
Jackson leant the music an extra dimension by sampling influential songwriter Joni Mitchell, using a riff from Big Yellow Taxi in the song and in the title itself. As Lloyd Whitesell points out, Jackson, along with many other artists including Prince, “claimed Joni as an important muse.”
Released in MTV’s heyday, the music video was steeped in genre-defying visual language. Director Mark Romanek suggested to Jackson that they recreate an apartheid-era South African dance hall….