Rhythm, a sequence in time repeated, featured in dance: an early moving picture demonstrates the waltz.

Simple [quadr]duple drum pattern, against which duration is measured in much popular music:  Play (help·info).

File:Compound triple drum pattern.png

Compound triple drum pattern: divides three beats into three.  Play (help·info) Contains repetition on three levels.

Rhythm (from Greek ῥυθμός—rhythmos, "any regular recurring motion, symmetry"^[1]) may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions."^[2] This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or frequency of anything from microseconds to millions of years.

In the performance arts rhythm is the timing of events on a human scale; of musical sounds and silences, of the steps of a dance, or the meter of spoken language and poetry. Rhythm may also refer to visual presentation, as "timed movement through space."^[3] and a common language of pattern unites rhythm with geometry. In recent years, rhythm and meter have become an important area of research among music scholars. Recent work in these areas includes books by Maury Yeston,^[4] Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff, Jonathan Kramer, Christopher Hasty,^[5] William Rothstein and Joel Lester.

Rhythm is made up of sounds and silences. These sound and silences are put together to form a pattern of sounds which are repeated to create a rhythm. A rhythm has a steady beat, but it may also have different kinds of beats. Some beats may be stronger, longer, shorter or softer than others. In a single piece of music, a composer can use many different rhythms.

Anthropology[link]

Percussion instruments have clearly defined dynamics that aid the creation and perception of complex rhythms

In his series How Music Works, Howard Goodall presents theories that human rhythm recalls the regularity with which we walk and the heartbeat we heard in the womb. London writes that musical metre "involves our initial perception as well as subsequent anticipation of a series of beats that we abstract from the rhythm surface of the music as it unfolds in time" (London 2004, 4). The "perception" and "abstraction" of rhythmic measure is the foundation of human instinctive musical participation, as when we divide a series of identical clock-ticks into "tick-tock-tick-tock".^[6]

Joseph Jordania recently suggested that the sense of rhythm was developed in the early stages of hominid evolution by the forces of natural selection.^[7] Plenty of animals walk rhythmically and hear the sounds of the heartbeat in the womb, but only humans have the ability to be engaged (entrained) in a rhythmically coordinated vocalizations and other activities. According to Jordania, development of the sense of rhythm was central for the achievement of the specific neurological state of the battle trance. This state was crucial for the development of the effective defense system of early hominids against major African predators, after hominids descended from the safer tree branches to more dangerous ground. Rhythmic war cry, rhythmic drumming by shamans, rhythmic drilling of the soldiers, and contemporary professional combat forces listening to the heavy rhythmic rock music^[8] all use the ability of rhythm to unite human individuals into a shared collective identity where group members put the interests of the group above their individual interests and safety.

Some types of parrots can know rhythm.^[9] Neurologist Oliver Sacks states that chimpanzees and other animals show no similar appreciation of rhythm yet posits that human affinity for rhythm is fundamental, so that a person's sense of rhythm cannot be lost (e.g. by stroke).^[10] Human rhythmic arts are possibly to some extent rooted in courtship ritual.^[11]

The establishment of a basic beat requires the perception of a regular sequence of distinct short-duration pulses and, as subjective perception of loudness is relative to background noise levels, a pulse must decay to silence before the next occurs if it is to be really distinct. For this reason the fast-transient sounds of percussion instruments lend themselves to the definition of rhythm. Musical cultures that rely upon such instruments may develop multi-layered polyrhythm and simultaneous rhythms in more than one time signature, called polymeter. Such are the cross-rhythms of Sub-Saharan Africa and the interlocking kotekan rhythms of the Indonesian gamelan.

For information on rhythm in Indian music see Tala (music). For other Asian approaches to rhythm see Rhythm in Persian music, Rhythm in Arabian music and Usul - Rhythm in Turkish music and Dumbek rhythms.

Terminology[link]

Pulse, beat and measure[link]

(See main articles; Pulse (music), Beat (music))

Metric levels: beat level shown in middle with division levels above and multiple levels below.

Most music, dance and oral poetry establishes and maintains an underlying "metric level", a basic unit of time that may be audible or implied, the pulse or tactus of the mensural level,^[12][13] or beat level, sometimes simply called the beat. This consists of a (repeating) series of identical yet distinct periodic short-duration stimuli perceived as points in time.^[14] The "beat" pulse is not necessarily the fastest or the slowest component of the rhythm but the one that is perceived as basic: it has a tempo to which listeners entrain as they tap their foot or dance to a piece of music (Handel, 1989). It is currently most often designated as a crotchet or quarter note in western notation (see time signature). Faster levels are division levels, and slower levels are multiple levels (Wittlich 1975, chapt. 3). "Rhythms of recurrence" arise from the interaction of two levels of motion, the faster providing the pulse and the slower organizing the beats into repetitive groups (Yeston 1976, 50–52). "Once a metric hierarchy has been established, we, as listeners, will maintain that organization as long as minimal evidence is present" (Lester 1986, 77).

Unit and gesture[link]

Rhythmic units: division level shown above and rhythmic units shown below  Play (help·info).

A durational pattern that synchronises with a pulse or pulses on the underlying metric level may be called a rhythmic unit. These may be classified as; metric - even patterns, such as steady eighth notes or pulses - intrametric - confirming patterns, such as dotted eighth-sixteenth note and swing patterns - contrametric - non-confirming, or syncopated patterns and extrametric - irregular patterns, such as tuplets.

A rhythmic gesture is any durational pattern that, in contrast to the rhythmic unit, does not occupy a period of time equivalent to a pulse or pulses on an underlying metric level. It may be described according to its beginning and ending or by the rhythmic units it contains. Beginnings on a strong pulse are thetic, a weak pulse, anacrustic and those beginning after a rest or tied-over note are called initial rest. Endings on a strong pulse are strong, a weak pulse, weak and those that end on a strong or weak upbeat are upbeat.^[15]

Alternation and repetition[link]

Rhythm is marked by the regulated succession of opposite elements, the dynamics of the strong and weak beat, the played beat and the inaudible but implied rest beat, the long and short note. As well as perceiving rhythm we must be able to anticipate it. This depends upon repetition of a pattern that is short enough to memorize.

The alternation of the strong and weak beat is fundamental to the ancient language of poetry, dance and music. The common poetic term "foot" refers, as in dance, to the lifting and tapping of the foot in time. In a similar way musicians speak of an upbeat and a downbeat and of the "on" and "off" beat. These contrasts naturally facilitate a dual hierarchy of rhythm and depend upon repeating patterns of duration, accent and rest forming a "pulse-group" that corresponds to the poetic foot. Normally such pulse-groups are defined by taking the most accented beat as the first and counting the pulses until the next accent (MacPherson 1930, 5; Scholes 1977). A rhythm that accents another beat and de-emphasises the down beat as established or assumed from the melody or from a preceding rhythm is called syncopated rhythm.

Normally, even the most complex of meters may be broken down into a chain of duple and triple pulses (MacPherson 1930, 5; Scholes 1977) either by addition or division. According to Pierre Boulez, beat structures beyond four, in western music, are "simply not natural".^[16] Western rhythms are usually arranged with respect to a time signature, partially signifying a meter usually corresponding to measure length and grouped into either two or three beats, which are called duple meter and triple meter, respectively. If the beats are in consistently even or odd groups of two, three, or four, it is simple meter, if by admixtures of two and three it is compound meter. In other systems of music such as Indian classical music rhythms may be grouped into various number of beats. In some music styles such as Yakshagana even group rhythms into fractional beats.

Tempo and duration[link]

(See main articles; Duration (music), Tempo)

The tempo of the piece is the speed or frequency of the tactus, a measure of how quickly the beat flows. This is often measured in 'beats per minute' (bpm): 60 bpm means a speed of one beat per second, a frequency of 1 Hz. A rhythmic unit is a durational pattern that has a period equivalent to a pulse or several pulses.^[17] The duration of any such unit is inversely related to its tempo.

Musical sound may be analyzed on five different time scales, which Moravscik has arranged in order of increasing duration;^[18]:

• Supershort: a single cycle of an audible wave, approximately 1/30-1/10,000 second (30-10,000 Hz or more than 1,800 bpm). These, though rhythmic in nature, are not perceived as separate events but as continuous musical pitch.
• Short: of the order of one second (1 Hz, 60bpm, 10-100,000 audio cycles). Musical tempo is generally specified in the range 40 to 240 beats per minute. A continuous pulse cannot be perceived as a musical beat if it is faster than 8-10 per second (8–10 Hz, 480-600 bpm) or slower than 1 per 1.5 – 2 seconds (0.6-0.5 Hz, 40-30 bpm). Too fast a beat becomes a drone, too slow a succession of sounds seems unconnected.^[19] This time-frame roughly corresponds to the human heart rate and to the duration of a single step, syllable or rhythmic gesture.
• Medium: ≥ few seconds, This median durational level "defines rhythm in music"^[18] as it allows the definition of a rhythmic unit, the arrangement of an entire sequence of accented, unaccented and silent or "rest" pulses into the cells of a measure that may give rise to the "briefest intelligible and self-existent musical unit",^[20] a motif or figure. This may be further organized, by repetition and variation, into a definite phrase that may characterise an entire genre of music, dance or poetry and that may be regarded as the fundamental formal unit of music.^[21]
• Long: ≥ many seconds or a minute, corresponding to a durational unit that "consists of musical phrases"^[18] which may make up a melody, a formal section, a poetic stanza or a characteristic sequence of dance moves and steps. Thus the temporal regularity of musical organisation includes the most elementary levels of musical form^[22]
• Very long: ≥ minutes or many hours, musical compositions or subdivisions of compositions.

Curtis Roads^[23] takes a wider view by distinguishing nine time scales, this time in order of decreasing duration. The first two, the infinite and the supramusical, encompass natural periodicities of months, years, decades centuries and greater, while the last three, the sample and subsample, which take account of digital and electronic rates "too brief to be properly recorded or perceived", measured in millionths microseconds, and finally the infinitesimal or infinitely brief, are again in the extra-musical domain. Roads' Macro level, encompassing "overall musical architecture or form" roughly corresponds to Moravcsik's "very long" division while his Meso level, the level of "divisions of form" including movements, sections, phrases taking seconds or minutes, is likewise similar to Moravcsik's "long" category. Roads' Sound object (Schaeffer 1959, 1977): "a basic unit of musical structure" and a generalization of note (Xenakis' ministructural time scale); fraction of a second to several seconds, and his Microsound (see granular synthesis) down to the threshold of audible perception; thousands to millionths of seconds, are similarly comparable to Moravcsik's "short" and "supershort" levels of duration.

Metric structure[link]

(See main articles; Metre (music), Measure (music), Metre (poetry))

The study of rhythm, stress, and pitch in speech is called prosody: it is a topic in linguistics and poetics, where it means the number of lines in a verse, the number of syllables in each line and the arrangement of those syllables as long or short, accented or unaccented. Music inherited the term "meter or metre" from the terminology of poetry.^[24]

The metric structure of music includes meter, tempo and all other rhythmic aspects that produce temporal regularity against which the foreground details or durational patterns of the music are projected (Wittlich 1975, chapt. 3). The terminology of western music is notoriously imprecise in this area (Scholes 1977). MacPherson (1930, 3) preferred to speak of "time" and "rhythmic shape", Imogen Holst (1963, 17) of "measured rhythm".

Dance music has instantly recognizable patterns of beats built upon a characteristic tempo and measure. The Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (1983) defines the tango, for example, as to be danced in 2/4 time at approximately 66 beats per minute. The basic slow step forwards or backwards, lasting for one beat, is called a "slow", so that a full "right-left" step is equal to one 2/4 measure.^[25]

File:Clavepattern.svg

Notation of three measures of a clave pattern preceded by one measure of steady quarter notes. This pattern is noted in double time relative to the one above, in one instead of two four-beat measures  Four beats followed by three Clave patterns (help·info).

The general classifications of metrical rhythm, measured rhythm, and free rhythm may be distinguished.^[26] Metrical or divisive rhythm, by far the most common in Western music calculates each time value as a multiple or fraction of the beat. Normal accents re-occur regularly providing systematical grouping (measures). Measured rhythm (additive rhythm)also calculates each time value is a multiple or fraction of a specified time unit but the accents do not recur regularly within the cycle. Free rhythm is where there is neither (Cooper 1973, 30), such as in Christian chant, which has a basic pulse but a freer rhythm, like the rhythm of prose compared to that of verse (Scholes 1977) See Free time (music).

Finally some music, such as some graphically scored works since the 1950s and non-European music such as Honkyoku repertoire for shakuhachi, may be considered ametric (Karpinski 2000, 19). Senza misura is an Italian musical term for "without meter", meaning to play without a beat, using time to measure how long it will take to play the bar (Forney and Machlis 2007,^{[page needed]}).

Composite rhythm[link]

File:Bach, Sinfonia in F minor BWV 795, mm. 1-3a composite rhythm.png

Bach's Sinfonia in F minor BWV 795, mm. 1-3  Play original (help·info)  Play with composite (help·info).

A composite rhythm is the durations and patterns (rhythm) produced by amalgamating all sounding parts of a musical texture. In music of the common practice period, the composite rhythm usually confirms the meter, often in metric or even-note patterns identical to the pulse on a specific metric level. White defines composite rhythm as, "the resultant overall rhythmic articulation among all the voices of a contrapuntal texture."^[27]

Rhythm notation[link]

Worldwide there are many different approaches to passing on rhythmic phrases and patterns, as they exist in traditional music, from generation to generation.

African music[link]

In the Griot tradition of Africa everything related to music has been passed on orally. Babatunde Olatunji (1927–2003), a Nigerian drummer who lived and worked in the United States, developed a simple series of spoken sounds for teaching the rhythms of the hand drum. He used six vocal sounds: Goon Doon Go Do Pa Ta. There are three basic sounds on the drum, but each can be played with either the left or the right hand. This simple system is now used worldwide, particularly by Djembe players.

It is noteworthy that the debate about the appropriateness of staff notation for African music is a subject of particular interest to outsiders, not insiders. African scholars from Kyagambiddwa to Kongo have for the most part accepted the conventions—and limitations—of staff notation and gone on to produce transcriptions in order to inform and to make possible a higher level of discussion and debate.— Agawu (2003: 52)^[28]

John Miller Chernoff 1979 has argued that West African music is based on tension between rhythms. This tension between rhythms is called polyrhythms and is created by the simultaneous sounding of two or more different rhythms. Often there is a dominant rhythm interacting with an independent competing rhythm, or rhythms. These often oppose or complement each other, and combine freely with the dominant rhythm creating a rich rhythmic texture not limited to any one set meter or tempo.

A set of moral values underpins a full musical system based on repetition of relatively simple patterns which meet at distant cross-rhythmic intervals and call and answer schemes. Values also show up in collective utterances such as proverbs or lineages appear either in phrases that translate as drum talk or in the words of songs. People expect musicians to stimulate participation of all present, notably by reacting to people dancing the music. Appreciation of musicians is related to the effectiveness of their upholding community values.^[29]

Indian music[link]

Indian music has also been passed on orally. Tabla players would learn to speak complex rhythm patterns and phrases before attempting to play them. Sheila Chandra, an English pop singer of Indian descent, made performances based on her singing these patterns. In Indian Classical music, the Tala of a composition is the rhythmic pattern over which the whole piece is structured.

Western music[link]

In the 20th century, composers like Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Philip Glass, and Steve Reich wrote more rhythmically complex music using odd meters, and techniques such as phasing and additive rhythm. At the same time, modernists such as Olivier Messiaen and his pupils used increased complexity to disrupt the sense of a regular beat, leading eventually to the widespread use of irrational rhythms in New Complexity. This use may be explained by a comment of John Cage's where he notes that regular rhythms cause sounds to be heard as a group rather than individually; the irregular rhythms highlight the rapidly changing pitch relationships that would otherwise be subsumed into irrelevant rhythmic groupings.^[30] LaMonte Young also wrote music in which the sense of a regular beat is absent because the music consists only of long sustained tones (drones). In the 1930s, Henry Cowell wrote music involving multiple simultaneous periodic rhythms and collaborated with Léon Thérémin to invent the Rhythmicon, the first electronic rhythm machine, in order to perform them. Similarly, Conlon Nancarrow wrote for the player piano.

Use of polyrhythms in American music is generally traced to the influence of black culture through Dixieland and Jazz styles. The effect of multiple soloing in these forms, often utilizing cross-rhythms comes directly from the underlying aesthetics of sub-Saharan African music. These complex rhythmic structures have been widely adopted in many current forms of western popular music.

Rhythm in linguistics[link]

In linguistics, rhythm or isochrony is one of the three aspects of prosody, along with stress and intonation. Languages can be categorized according to whether they are syllable-timed or stress-timed. Speakers of syllable-timed languages such as Spanish and Cantonese put roughly equal time on each syllable; in contrast, speakers of stressed-timed languages such as English and Mandarin Chinese put roughly equal time lags between stressed syllables, with the timing of the unstressed syllables in between them being adjusted to accommodate the stress timing.

Narmour^[31] describes three categories of prosodic rules which create rhythmic successions which are additive (same duration repeated), cumulative (short-long), or countercumulative (long-short). Cumulation is associated with closure or relaxation, countercumulation with openness or tension, while additive rhythms are open-ended and repetitive. Richard Middleton^[32] points out this method cannot account for syncopation and suggests the concept of transformation.

See also[link]

• Meter (music)
• Drumming
• Polyrhythm
• Cross-rhythm
• Prosody (linguistics)
• Timing (linguistics)

Sources[link]

Further reading[link]

• McGaughey, William (2001). Rhythm and Self-Consciousness: New Ideals for an Electronic Civilization. Minneapolis: Thistlerose Publications. ISBN 0-9605630-4-0. 
• Honing, H. (2002). "Structure and interpretation of rhythm and timing." Tijdschrift voor Muziektheorie [Dutch Journal of Music Theory] 7(3): 227–232.
• Humble, M. (2002). The Development of Rhythmic Organization in Indian Classical Music, MA dissertation, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
• Lewis, Andrew (2005). Rhythm—What it is and How to Improve Your Sense of It. San Francisco: RhythmSource Press. ISBN 978-0-9754667-0-4.
• London, Justin (2004). Hearing in Time: Psychological Aspects of Musical Meter. ISBN 0-19-516081-9.
• Williams, C. F. A., The Aristoxenian Theory of Musical Rhythm, (Cambridge Library Collection - Music), Cambridge University Press; 1st edition, 2009.
• Toussaint, G. T., “The geometry of musical rhythm,” In J. Akiyama, M. Kano, and X. Tan, editors, Proceedings of the Japan Conference on Discrete and Computational Geometry, Vol. 3742, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, 2005, pp. 198–212.

External links[link]

Look up rhythm in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Melodyhound has a "Query by Tapping" search that allows users to identify music based on rhythm
• Louis Hébert, "A Little Semiotics of Rhythm. Elements of Rhythmology", in Signo

v t e Musical notation and development Staff Bar & bar line Clef Da capo Dal segno Key signature Ledger line Musical mode Musical scale Rehearsal letter Repeat sign Time signature Transposition Transposing instrument Notes Accidental Flat Natural Sharp Dotted note Grace note Note value Beam Note head Stem Pitch Rest Tuplet Interval Helmholtz pitch notation Letter notation Scientific pitch notation Articulation Dynamics Ornament Trill Mordent Grace note Portato Accent Legato Tenuto Marcato Staccato Staccatissimo Tie Slur Fermata Tonguing Development Cell Coda Exposition Figure Harmony Hook Lick Melody Motif Ossia Ostinato Period Phrase Recapitulation Repetition Rhythm Beat Meter Tempo Theme Tonality Atonality Related Braille music Chord chart Figured bass Graphic notation Lead sheet Eye music Neume Tablature List of musical symbols

Marina Abramović
Abramović performing The Artist is Present, MoMA, May 2010
Born	(1946-11-30) November 30, 1946 (age 65) Belgrade, PR Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia
Field	Performance Art
Training	Academy of Fine Arts, Belgrade Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb
Movement	Conceptual art
Works	Rhythm Series (1973–1974) Works with Ulay (1976–1988) Balkan Baroque (1997) The Artist is Present (2010)

Marina Abramović (Serbian Cyrillic: Марина Абрамовић; born November 30, 1946) is a Belgrade-born New York-based Serbian performance artist who began her career in the early 1970s. Active for over three decades, she has recently begun to describe herself as the "grandmother of performance art". Abramović's work explores the relationship between performer and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind.

Early life[link]

Marina Abramović's great uncle was Patriarch Varnava of the Serbian Orthodox Church.^[1] Both of her parents were Partisans^[2] during the Second World War: her father Vojo was a commander who was acclaimed as a national hero after the War; her mother Danica was a major in the army, and in the mid-sixties was Director of the Museum of the Revolution and Art in Belgrade.

Abramović's father left the family in 1964. In an interview published in 1998, she described how her "mother took complete military-style control of me and my brother. I was not allowed to leave the house after 10 o'clock at night till I was 29 years old. ... [A]ll the performances in Yugoslavia I did before 10 o'clock in the evening because I had to be home then. It's completely insane, but all of my cutting myself, whipping myself, burning myself, almost losing my life in the firestar, everything was done before 10 in the evening."^[3]

Abramović was a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade from 1965–70. She completed her post-graduate studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, SR Croatia in 1972. From 1973 to 1975, she taught at the Academy of Fine Arts at Novi Sad, while implementing her first solo performances.

From 1971 to 1976, she was married to Neša Paripović. In 1976, Abramović left Yugoslavia and moved to Amsterdam.

Selected early works[link]

[edit] Rhythm 10, 1973

In her first performance Abramović explored elements of ritual and gesture. Making use of twenty knives and two tape recorders, the artist played the Russian game in which rhythmic knife jabs are aimed between the splayed fingers of her hand. Each time she cut herself, she would pick up a new knife from the row of twenty she had set up, and record the operation.

After cutting herself twenty times, she replayed the tape, listened to the sounds, and tried to repeat the same movements, attempting to replicate the mistakes, merging together past and present. She set out to explore the physical and mental limitations of the body – the pain and the sounds of the stabbing, the double sounds from the history and from the replication. With this piece, Abramović began to consider the state of consciousness of the performer. “Once you enter into the performance state you can push your body to do things you absolutely could never normally do.”^[4]

[edit] Rhythm 5, 1974

Abramović sought to re-evoke the energy of extreme body pain, in this case using a large petroleum-drenched star, which the artist lit on fire at the start of the performance. Standing outside the star, Abramović cut her nails, toenails, and hair. When finished with each, she threw the clippings into the flames, creating a burst of light each time. Burning the communist five-pointed star represented a physical and mental purification, while addressing the political traditions of her past.

In the final act of purification, Abramović leapt across the flames, propelling herself into the center of the large star. Due to the light and smoke given off by the fire, the observing audience didn't realize that, once inside the star, the artist had lost consciousness from lack of oxygen. Some members of the audience realized what had occurred only when the flames came very near to her body and she remained inert. A doctor and several members of the audience intervened and extricated her from the star.

Abramović later commented upon this experience: “I was very angry because I understood there is a physical limit: when you lose consciousness you can’t be present; you can’t perform.”^[5]

[edit] Rhythm 2, 1974

As an experiment testing whether a state of unconsciousness could be incorporated into a performance, Abramović devised a performance in two parts.

In the first part, she took a pill prescribed for catatonia, a condition in which a person’s muscles are immobilized and remain in a single position for hours at a time. Being completely healthy, Abramović's body reacted violently to the drug, experiencing seizures and uncontrollable movements for the first half of the performance. While lacking any control over her body movements, her mind was lucid, and she observed what was occurring.

Ten minutes after the effects of that drug had worn off, Abramović ingested another pill – this time one prescribed for aggressive and depressed people – which resulted in general immobility. Bodily she was present, yet mentally she was completely removed. (In fact, she has no memory of the lapsed time.) This project was an early component of her explorations of the connections between body and mind, which later took her to Tibet and the Australian desert. Following Rhythm 2, she set to develop the rest of the series of rhythm projects, continually testing her endurance.

[edit] Rhythm 0, 1974

To test the limits of the relationship between performer and audience, Abramović developed one of her most challenging (and best-known) performances. She assigned a passive role to herself, with the public being the force which would act on her.

Abramović had placed upon a table 72 objects that people were allowed to use (a sign informed them) in any way that they chose. Some of these were objects that could give pleasure, while others could be wielded to inflict pain, or to harm her. Among them were a rose, a feather, honey, a whip, scissors, a scalpel, a gun and a single bullet. For six hours the artist allowed the audience members to manipulate her body and actions.

Initially, members of the audience reacted with caution and modesty, but as time passed (and the artist remained impassive) people began to act more aggressively. As Abramović described it later:

“What I learned was that... if you leave it up to the audience, they can kill you.” ... “I felt really violated: they cut up my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, one person aimed the gun at my head, and another took it away. It created an aggressive atmosphere. After exactly 6 hours, as planned, I stood up and started walking toward the audience. Everyone ran away, to escape an actual confrontation.”^[6]

Works with Ulay (Uwe Laysiepen)[link]

In 1976, after moving to Amsterdam, Abramović met the West German performance artist Uwe Laysiepen, who went by the single name Ulay. They have the same birthday, in different years.

When Abramović and Ulay began their collaboration, the main concepts they explored were the ego and artistic identity. This was the beginning of a decade of influential collaborative work. Each performer was interested in the traditions of their cultural heritages and the individual’s desire for ritual. Consequently, they decided to form a collective being called “the other”, and spoke of themselves as parts of a “two-headed body”.^[7] They dressed and behaved like twins, and created a relationship of complete trust. As they defined this phantom identity, their individual identities became less accessible. In an analysis of phantom artistic identities, Charles Green has noted that this allowed a deeper understanding of the artist as performer, for it revealed a way of “having the artistic self made available for self-scrutiny.”^[8]

While some critics have explored the idea of a hermaphroditic state of being as a feminist statement, Abramović herself denies considering this as a conscious concept. Her body studies, she insists, have always been concerned primarily with the body as the unit of an individual, a tendency she traces to her parents' military pasts. Rather than concern themselves with gender ideologies, Abramović/Ulay explored extreme states of consciousness and their relationship to architectural space. They devised a series of works in which their bodies created additional spaces for audience interaction. In "Relation in Space" (1976) they ran around the room – two bodies like two planets, mixing male and female energy into a third component called “that self.” "Relation in Movement" had the pair drive their car inside of a museum for 365 laps; a black liquid oozed from the car, forming a kind of sculpture, each lap representing a year. (After 365 laps they entered the New Millennium.)

In discussing this phase of her performance history, Abramović has said: “The main problem in this relationship was what to do with the two artists’ egos. I had to find out how to put my ego down, as did he, to create something like a hermaphroditic state of being that we called the death self.”^[9]

To create this “Death self,” the two performers devised a piece in which they connected their mouths and took in each other’s exhaled breaths until they had used up all of the available oxygen. Seventeen minutes after the beginning of the performance they both fell to the floor unconscious, their lungs having filled with carbon dioxide. This personal piece explored the idea of an individual's ability to absorb the life of another person, exchanging and destroying it.

In Imponderabilia (1977, reenacted in 2010) two performers, both completely nude, stand in a doorway. The public must squeeze between them in order to pass, and in doing so choose which one of them to face.

In 1988, after several years of tense relations, Abramović and Ulay decided to make a spiritual journey which would end their relationship. Each of them walked the Great Wall of China, starting from the two opposite ends and meeting in the middle. As Abramović described it: “That walk became a complete personal drama. Ulay started from the Gobi desert and I from the Yellow Sea. After each of us walked 2500 km, we met in the middle and said good-bye.”^[10]

Abramović conceived this walk in a dream, and it provided what she thought was an appropriate, romantic ending to a relationship full of mysticism, energy and attraction. She later described the process: “We needed a certain form of ending, after this huge distance walking towards each other. It is very human. It is in a way more dramatic, more like a film ending … Because in the end you are really alone, whatever you do.”^[10]

Abramović reported that during her walk she was reinterpreting her connection to the physical world and to nature. She felt that the metals in the ground influenced her mood and state of being; she also pondered the Chinese myths in which the great wall has been described as a “dragon of energy.”

[edit] Seven Easy Pieces, November 2005

Abramović performing Bruce Nauman's "Body Pressure." Guggenheim Museum, November 2005.

Beginning on November 9, 2005, Abramović presented Seven Easy Pieces at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. On seven consecutive nights for seven hours she recreated the works of five artists first performed in the 60s and 70s, in addition to re-performing her own "Lips of Thomas" and introducing a new performance on the last night. The performances were arduous, requiring both the physical and the mental concentration of the artist. Included in Abramović's performances were recreations of Gina Pane's Self-Portraits, which required lying on a bed frame suspended over a grid of lit candles, and of Vito Acconci's 1972 performance in which the artist masturbated under the floorboards of a gallery as visitors walked overhead. It is argued that Abramović re-performed these works as a series of homages to the past, though many of the performances were altered from their originals.^[11]

Here is a full list of the works performed:

• Bruce Nauman's Body Pressure (1974)
• Vito Acconci's Seedbed (1972)
• Valie Export's Action Pants: Genital Panic (1969)
• Gina Pane's The Conditioning (1973)
• Joseph Beuys's How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare (1965)
• Abramović's own Lips of Thomas (1975)
• Abramović's own Entering the Other Side (2005)

[edit] The Artist Is Present, March–May 2010

Abramović performing in "The Artist is Present" at the Museum of Modern Art, March 2010.

From March 14 to May 31, 2010, the Museum of Modern Art held a major retrospective and performance recreation of Abramović's work, the biggest exhibition of performance art in MoMA's history.^[12] During the run of the exhibition, Abramović performed "The Artist is Present," a 736-hour and 30-minute static, silent piece, in which she sat immobile in the museum's atrium, while spectators were invited to take turns sitting opposite her.^[13] A support group for the "sitters", "Sitting with Marina", was established on Facebook^[14] as was the blog "Marina Abramović made me cry".^[15] In September 2011, a video game version of Abramović's performance was released by Pippin Barr.^[16]

Later life[link]

Marina Abramović purchased a theater two hours north of Manhattan in Hudson, NY, intending to establish a nonprofit organization, Marina Abramović Foundation for the Preservation of Performance Art. She will use the space to work and develop ideas with video and post-production equipment and there will be a second property to house resident artists.^[17]

In 2009, Abramović was featured in Chiara Clemente's documentary Our City Dreams and a book of the same name. The five featured artists – also including Swoon, Ghada Amer, Kiki Smith, and Nancy Spero – "each possess a passion for making work that is inseparable from their devotion to New York," according to the publisher.^[18]

Abramović is also the subject of an independent feature documentary movie currently titled "MARINA" that is based on her life and performance at her retrospective "The Artist is Present" at the Museum of Modern Art in 2010. The film will be broadcast in the United States on HBO.^[19]

In January 2011, Abramović was on the cover of Serbian ELLE, photographed by Dushan Reljin.

Prizes and awards[link]

• Golden Lion Award, XLVII Venice Biennale, 1997
• Niedersächsischer Kunstpreis, 2003
• New York Dance and Performance Awards (The Bessies), 2003
• International Association of Art Critics, Best Show in a Commercial Gallery Award, 2003
• Honorary Doctorate of Arts, University of Plymouth UK, 25 September 2009
• Cultural Leadership Award, American Federation of Arts, 26 October 2011
• Honorary Doctorate of Arts, Instituto Superior de Arte, Cuba, 14 May 2012

See also[link]

• Avant-garde
• Experimental theatre
• Fluxus
• Richard Foreman
• Happening
• Dick Higgins
• Intermedia
• Allan Kaprow
• Elizabeth LeCompte
• Ontological-Hysteric Theater
• Performance art
• Richard Schechner
• Speculations: An Essay on the Theater
• The Flea Theater
• The Wooster Group
• Mac Wellman

Bibliography[link]

Works by Abramović and collaborators[link]

• Artist Body: Performances 1969–1998, artist, Abramović; authors Abramović, Toni Stooss, Thomas McEvilley, Bojana Pejic, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Chrissie Iles, Jan Avgikos, Thomas Wulffen, Velimir Abramović; English ed. (Charta, 1998) ISBN 978-88-8158-175-7.
• The Bridge / El Puente, artist Abramović, authors Abramović, Pablo J. Rico, Thomas Wulffen (Charta, 1998) ISBN 978-84-482-1857-7.
• Performing Body, artist Abramović, authors Abramović, Dobrila Denegri (Charta, 1998) ISBN 978-88-8158-160-3.
• Balkan Baroque, (Pierre Coulibeuf, 1999)
• Public Body: Installations and Objects 1965–2001, artist Abramović, authors Celant, Germano, Abramović (Charta, 2001) ISBN 978-88-8158-295-2.
• Marina Abramović, fifteen artists, Fondazione Ratti; co-authors Abramović, Anna Daneri, Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, Lóránd Hegyi, Societas Raffaello Sanzio, Angela Vettese (Charta, 2002) ISBN 978-88-8158-365-2.
• Student Body, artist Abramović, vari; authors Abramović, Miguel Fernandez-Cid, studenti; (Charta, 2002) ISBN 978-88-8158-449-9.
• The House with the Ocean View, artist Abramović; authors Abramović, Sean Kelly, Thomas McEvilley, Cindy Carr, Chrissie Iles, RosaLee Goldberg, Peggy Phelan (Charta, 2004) ISBN 978-88-8158-436-9; the 2002 piece of the same name, in which Abramović lived on three open platforms in a gallery with only water for 12 days, was reenacted in Sex and the City in the HBO series' sixth season.^[20]
• Marina Abramović: The Biography of Biographies, artist Abramović; co-authors Abramović, Michael Laub, Monique Veaute, Fabrizio Grifasi (Charta, 2004) ISBN 978-88-8158-495-6.
• Balkan Epic, (Skira, 2006).
• Balkan Erotic Epic, as producer and director, Destricted (Offhollywood Digital, 2006)
• Seven Easy Pieces, artist, Abramović; authors Nancy Spector, Erika Fischer-Lichte, Sandra Umathum, Abramović; (Charta, 2007). ISBN 978-88-8158-626-4.

Critical and academic studies[link]

• Laurie Anderson, “Marina Abramović,” Bomb Summer 2003: 25–31.
• Patrick Anderson, "How to Stage Self-Consumption," So Much Wasted: Hunger, Performance, and the Morbidity of Resistance. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010. pp. 85–109.
• Klaus Biesenbach (ed.), Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present, Exhibition Catalog with essays by Klaus Biesenbach, Arthur C. Danto, Chrissie Iles, Nancy Spector, and Jovana Stokić, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2010
• Aline Brandauer,. "Marina Abramović: Double Blind." Sculpture, July/August 1995, pp. 23–27.
• A Daneri, et al., (eds.), Marina Abramović, (Charta, 2002)
• Jovan Despotovic, Marina Abramović, ’Fin de siecle’ – Balkans way, Borba, Belgrade, September 6–7, 1997, p. 17
• Jennifer Fisher, “Interperformance: The Live Tableaux of Suzanne Lacy, Janine Antoni, and Marina Abramović,” Art Journal 56 (1997): 28–33.
• Charles Green, “Doppelgangers and the Third Force: The Artistic Collaborations of Gilbert & George and Marina Abramović/Ulay,” Art Journal 59.2: 36–45.
• Shogo Hagiwara, “Art Hurts: Blood and Pain are Abramović’s Media,” The Daily Yomiuri April 1, 2004 p18.
• Janet Kaplan, “Deeper and Deeper: Interview with Marina Abramović,” Art Journal 58:2 (1999):6–19.
• Zoe Kosmidou, “A Conversation with Marina Abramović,” Sculpture Nov. 2001: 27–31.
• Tom Lubbock, “Visual Arts: Caught In the Act; It’s Video But Not As We Know It,” The Independent September 2, 2003.
• Thomas McEvilley, “Performing the Present Tense,” Art in America April 2003: 114–117; 153.
• Thomas McEvilley, "Art, Love, Friendship: Marina Abramović and Ulay, Together & Apart," book, Documentext (McPherson & Company), 2010.
• Asami Nagai, “Art in Harmony with Nature,” The Daily Yomiuri July 24, 2003, p. 13.
• Anna Novakov, “Point of Access: Marina Abramović’s 1975 Performance Role Exchange,” Woman’s Art Journal Fall 2003/Winter 2004: 31–35.
• Jennifer Phipps, “Marina Abramović/Ulay/Ulay/Marina Abramović,” Art & Text 3 (1981).
• Theresa Smalec, “Not What It Seems: The Politics of Re-Performing Vito Acconci's Seedbed,” PMC: Postmodern Culture 17 (1) 2006^[21]
• “Writing Art,” Art Monthly 1999 230:13–17.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiversity has learning materials about Performance art

• Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present at MoMA
• Artfacts.Net profile with major exhibitions and public collections.
• Coulibeuf, Pierre. Balkan Baroque 1999 (video). "The autobiography, both real and imaginary, of Marina Abramović...."
• Interview with Bernard Goy for Journal of Contemporary Art, June 1990
• Marina Abramović, The Hero (for Antonio) – 2001. Vejer de la Frontera, Spain: NMAC Foundation.
• Marina Abramović, Human Nests – 2001. Vejer de la Frontera, Spain: NMAC Foundation.
• Marina Abramović Institute, San Francisco, California, USA.
• Marina Abramović: Seven Easy Pieces, November 9–15, 2005, 5PM to 12AM. New Way: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
• Mediateca Media Art Space documentary archive with biography, works, and references.
• Rosenberg, Karen. Provocateur: Marina Abramović (interview). New York magazine, December 4, 2005.
• Lisson Gallery Marina Abramović artist page. Including works, bio, exhibitions and catalogues
• Sean Kelly Gallery artist page with biography, works, press, exhibitions, and catalogues.
• Spector, Nancy. Marina Abramović, Rhythm 5, 1974, published 1994. Guggenheim collection online.
• "Marina" the feature documentary film
• Interview, March 2010, with Robert Ayers at A Sky filled with Shooting Stars.
• Arthur C. Danto, "Sitting with Marina", New York Times, 2010/05/23
• Vice magazine interview, November 2010.
• 2011 James T. Demetrion Lecture: "How Performance Art is Entering the History of Art", press release, March 9, 2011, Hirschorn Museum, Washington, DC, USA; lecture April 5, 2011.
• Conversation: Marina Abramovic, interview with Jeffrey Brown, PBS Newshour Art Beat, April 8, 2011; transcript and video. Link: The Hirshhorn conducted a Twitter forum with Abramovic in late March; Q&A here.
• Tate: Meet the Artist: Marina Abramovic The artist talks about her performance practice. January 29, 2009.
• | EAI Artist biography and list of video works.

Janet Jackson
Jackson Live in Concert on the Rock Witchu Tour at GM Place, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on September 10, 2008.
Background information
Birth name	Janet Damita Jo Jackson
Born	(1966-05-16) May 16, 1966 (age 46) Gary, Indiana, United States
Genres	R&B, pop, dance
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, dancer, record producer, actress, film producer, author, fashion designer
Instruments	Vocals, keyboards
Years active	1973–present
Labels	A&M, Virgin, Island
Website	janetjackson.com

Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966) is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years. The youngest child of the Jackson family, she began her career with the variety television series The Jacksons in 1976 and went on to appear in other television shows throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, including Good Times and Fame.

After signing a recording contract with A&M in 1982, she came to prominence following the release of her third studio album Control (1986). Her collaborations with record producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis incorporated elements of rhythm and blues, funk, disco, rap, and industrial beats, which led to crossover appeal in popular music. In addition to receiving recognition for the innovation in her records, choreography, music videos, and prominence on radio airplay and MTV, she was acknowledged as a role model for her socially conscious lyrics.

In 1991, she signed the first of two record-breaking, multi-million dollar contracts with Virgin Records, establishing her as one of the highest paid artists in the industry. Her debut album under the label, Janet (1993), saw her develop a public image as a sex symbol as she began to explore sexuality in her work. That same year, she appeared in her first starring film role in Poetic Justice; since then she has continued to act in feature films. By the end of the 1990s, Billboard named her the second most successful recording artist of the decade, following Mariah Carey. She has amassed an extensive catalog of hits, with singles such as "Nasty", "Rhythm Nation", "That's the Way Love Goes", "Together Again", and "All for You" her most iconic.

Having sold over 100 million records, she is ranked as one of the best-selling artists in the history of contemporary music.^[1] The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) lists her as the eleventh best-selling female artist in the United States, with 26 million certified albums.^[2] In 2008, Billboard magazine released its list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists, ranking her at number seven. In 2010, the magazine announced the "Top 50 R&B / Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years", ranking her at number five. One of the world's most awarded artists, her longevity, records and achievements reflect her influence in shaping and redefining the scope of popular music. She has been cited as an inspiration among numerous performers.

Life and career[link]

1966–82: Childhood and television work[link]

Jackson (bottom row) in a 1976 CBS photo on the set of The Jacksons

Janet Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana, the youngest of ten children, to Katherine Esther (née Scruse) and Joseph Walter Jackson.^[3] The Jacksons were lower-middle class and devout Jehovah's Witnesses; Jackson stated that although she was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, she eventually stopped practicing organized religion and views her relationship with God as "one-on-one".^[4] By the time Jackson was a toddler, her older brothers—Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael—were performing music at nightclubs and theaters as The Jackson 5. In March 1969, the group signed a record deal with Motown, and by the end of the year they had recorded the first of four consecutive number one singles. The Jackson 5's success allowed the family to move to the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1971, where they settled in a gated mansion called Hayvenhurst.^[3] Although born into a family of professional musicians, Jackson, whose love of horses resulted in a desire to become a race-horse jockey, had no aspiration to become an entertainer. Despite this, her father planned for her to pursue a career in entertainment. She once commented, "No one ever asked me if I wanted to go into show business ... it was expected."^[3]

In 1973, at the age of seven, Jackson appeared on stage in Las Vegas Strip with her siblings in a routine show at the MGM Casino.^[3] Jane Cornwell documented in her biography of the singer, Janet Jackson (2002), that at age eight, her father Joseph told her not to call him "Dad" anymore since he was her manager; he told her she would henceforth address him as "Joseph".^[3] She began her career as an actress with the debut of the CBS variety show The Jacksons (1976), in which she appeared with her siblings Tito, Rebbie, Randy, Michael, Marlon, La Toya and Jackie.^[3] In 1977, she was selected by producer Norman Lear to play a recurring role as Penny Gordon Woods in the sitcom Good Times.^[3] From 1979 to 1980, she starred in A New Kind of Family as Jojo Ashton, and then joined the cast of Diff'rent Strokes, portraying Charlene Duprey from 1981 to 1982.^[3] During this time, she emerged as a role model for young black women across the country, at a time when the television industry appealed overwhelmingly to white audiences; black women mimicked her distinctive hair style and wore hooped earrings in a similar fashion as she did.^[5] She played a recurring role during the fourth season of the television series Fame as Cleo Hewitt, though she later commented that the series was not a project she enjoyed working on.^[6][7]

1982–85: Early recordings[link]

Although Jackson was initially apprehensive about starting a music career, she agreed to participate in recording sessions with her family. The first of these, a duet with her brother Randy titled "Love Song for Kids", took place in 1978. When she was sixteen, her father arranged a contract for her with A&M Records.^[3] Her debut album, Janet Jackson, produced by soul singers Angela Winbush, René Moore and Leon F. Sylvers III, was released in 1982, the entire production of which was overseen by her father Joseph.^[3] It peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot R&B albums chart.^[8]

Jackson's second album, Dream Street, was released two years later. Her father recruited her brothers to help produce the album: Marlon co-wrote two of the album's tracks, while Tito, Jackie and Michael provided background vocals.^[3] Dream Street reached number nineteen on the R&B albums chart; its sales were less than that of her debut album.^[8] The album's only hit, "Don't Stand Another Chance", peaked at number nine on Billboard's R&B singles chart.^[9] In late 1984, Jackson eloped with childhood friend and fellow R&B singer James DeBarge. They divorced shortly afterwards, and the marriage was annulled in mid-1985.^[10] In 1985 Jackson joined her sister, La Toya, as a chorist under La Toya's number "Baby Sister" at the Yamaha Music Festival where they ended up with a silver medallion and an "Outstanding Song Award".

[edit] 1986–88: Control

	"Nasty" (1986) noicon "Nasty" was written as a response to an incident of sexual harassment Jackson faced during the recording of Control. The song features a triplet swing beat.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Following the release of Dream Street, Jackson decided to separate her business affairs from her family. She later commented, "I just wanted to get out of the house, get out from under my father, which was one of the most difficult things that I had to do, telling him that I didn't want to work with him again."^[7] A&M Records executive John McClain hired producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis to work with her. Within six weeks, Jackson, Jam and Lewis crafted her third studio album, Control.^[11] Jackson recalled that during the recording of the album, she was threatened by a group of men outside of her hotel in Minneapolis. She stated that "[t]he danger hit home when a couple of guys started stalking me on the street ... Instead of running to Jimmy or Terry for protection, I took a stand. I backed them down. That's how songs like 'Nasty' and 'What Have You Done for Me Lately' were born, out of a sense of self-defense."^[12]

Though Jam and Lewis were concerned with achieving cross-over appeal, their primary goal was to create a strong following for the singer within the African American community first.^[13] Jam commented, "[w]e wanted to do an album that would be in every black home in America ... we were going for the black album of all time."^[13] Released in February 1986, the album peaked at number one on the Billboard 200, with over 200,000 copies sold in one week.^[8][14] Los Angeles Times critic Connie Johnson wrote: "Though still a teen-ager, this singer's stance is remarkably nervy and mature. She has a snotty sort of assurance that permeates several cuts, plus the musical muscle to back it up."^[15] The Newsweek review of Control noted that the album was "an alternative to the sentimental balladry and opulent arrangements of Patti LaBelle and Whitney Houston."^[16] Rob Hoerburger of Rolling Stone asserted, "Control is a better album than Diana Ross has made in five years and puts Janet in a position similar to the young Donna Summer's—unwilling to accept novelty status and taking her own steps to rise above it."^[17] Five of the album's singles—"What Have You Done for Me Lately", "Nasty", "When I Think of You", "Control", and "Let's Wait Awhile"—peaked within the top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100.^[18] "When I Think of You" became Jackson's first single to peak at number one. "The Pleasure Principle" became a top 20 hit, peaking at number fourteen.^[18] Most of the Control music videos were choreographed by a then-unknown Paula Abdul. Jonathan Cohen of Billboard magazine commented "[Jackson's] accessible sound and spectacularly choreographed videos were irresistible to MTV, and helped the channel evolve from rock programming to a broader, beat-driven musical mix."^[11]

Control was certified five times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and has sold over fourteen million copies worldwide.^[1][19] It won four American Music Awards, from twelve nominations—a record that has yet to be broken—and was nominated for Album of the Year at the 1987 Grammy Awards.^[20][21][22] Musicologist Richard J. Ripani Ph.D., author of The New Blue Music: Changes in Rhythm & Blues, 1950–1999 (2006), observed that the album was one of the first successful records to influence the rise of new jack swing by creating a fusion of R&B, rap, funk, disco and synthesized percussion.^[23] The success of Control, according to Ripani, bridged the gap between R&B and rap music.^[23]

[edit] 1989–92: Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814

	"Rhythm Nation" (1989) noicon "Rhythm Nation" encompasses the full range of new jack swing genre. The use of sample loop and triplet swing are present, while vocals for the song are alternatively sung in octaves or rapped in spoken verse.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

In September 1989, Jackson released her fourth album, Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814. Though executives at A&M wanted an album similar to Control, she was determined to imbue her music with a socially conscious message that complimented her songs about love and relationships.^[24] She stated, "I'm not naive—I know an album or a song can't change the world. I just want my music and my dance to catch the audience's attention, and to hold it long enough for them to listen to the lyrics and what we're saying."^[25] Producer Jimmy Jam told The Boston Globe, "We would always have a TV turned on, usually to CNN ... And I think the social slant of songs like Rhythm Nation, State of the World and The Knowledge came from that."^[26] Rolling Stone magazine's Vince Aletti observed Jackson shifted from "personal freedom to more universal concerns—injustice, illiteracy, crime, drugs—without missing a beat."^[27]

Peaking at number one on the Billboard 200, the album was later certified six times platinum and eventually sold over fourteen million copies worldwide.^[1][8][19] The release became the only album in history to produce number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 in three separate calendar years—"Miss You Much" in 1989, "Escapade" and "Black Cat" in 1990, and "Love Will Never Do (Without You)" in 1991—and the only album in the history of the Hot 100 to have seven top 5 hit singles.^[28][29] The corresponding music video for "Rhythm Nation" won the 1989 Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video.^[30] Billboard named Rhythm Nation 1814 the number-one selling album of the year in 1990, winning a record 15 Billboard music awards.^[31][32][33] The Rhythm Nation World Tour, Jackson's first world tour in support of a studio album, became the most successful debut tour by any recording artist.^[34] As Jackson began her tour, she was acknowledged for the cultural impact of her music. Joel Selvin of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote "the 23-year-old has been making smash hit records for four years, becoming a fixture on MTV and a major role model to teenage girls across the country", and William Allen, then-executive vice president of the United Negro College Fund, told the Los Angeles Times, "Jackson is a role model for all young people to emulate and the message she has gotten to the young people of this country through the lyrics of 'Rhythm Nation 1814' is having positive effects."^[35][36] She established the "Rhythm Nation Scholarship" as a joint venture with the United Negro College Fund, as well as donating funds from her concert tour to other educational programs, raising over $1/2 million dollars to fund educational projects.^[37][38] Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women: Global Women's Issues and Knowledge (2000) documented that Jackson's success during this time period placed her on par with several other recording artists, including her older brother Michael Jackson, Madonna and Tina Turner.^[39]

With the release of Rhythm Nation 1814, Jackson fulfilled her contract with A&M Records. In 1991, after being approached personally by Virgin Records owner Richard Branson, she signed a highly publicized multi-million dollar contract with the label.^[40][41][42] The contract value, estimated between $32–50 million, made her the highest paid recording artist in contemporary music, until her brother Michael signed a $65 million dollar contract with Sony only a few days later.^[43] Ebony reported: "No individual or group has impacted the world of entertainment as have Michael and Janet Jackson, who both signed multimillion dollar contracts in recent months ... There are many imitators, but few can match Michael and Janet's stunning style and dexterity."^[43] Her reputation as a fashion icon also garnered recognition, in that "[a]s Janet was entertaining 2 million fans during her triumphant Rhythm Nation tour, hoards of teen girls were imitating her distinctive look—black quasi-military long jackets, black tight-tight pants, and big white shirts."^[43] That same year, she secretly entered into her second marriage with long-term friend—dancer, songwriter and director René Elizondo, Jr.^[44] In early 1992, Jackson recorded a song entitled "The Best Things in Life Are Free" with Luther Vandross, featuring Bell Biv DeVoe and Ralph Tresvant, for the Mo' Money film soundtrack.^[45]

[edit] 1993–96: Janet, Poetic Justice and Design of a Decade 1986/1996

In August 1992, after completing work on Poetic Justice, Jackson set out to plan on recording her first album for Virgin Records. Recording sessions for the album began in September 1992, commencing in the first quarter of 1993. In May 1993, Jackson's fifth studio album Janet, was released and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.^[8] She commented, "[c]ertain people feel I'm just riding on my last name ... That's why I just put my first name on janet. and why I never asked my brothers to write or produce music for me."^[46] Billboard magazine's Larry Flick noted she "also broadens her musical scope on 'janet.' by layering deep house, swing jazz, hip hop, rock, and Caribbean elements on top of a radio-minded jack/funk foundation."^[47] Rolling Stone wrote: "As princess of America's black royal family, everything Janet Jackson does is important. Whether proclaiming herself in charge of her life, as she did on Control (1986), or commander in chief of a rhythm army dancing to fight society's problems (Rhythm Nation 1814, from 1989), she's influential. And when she announces her sexual maturity, as she does on her new album, Janet., it's a cultural moment."^[48] The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) commented that the album's number one hit single "That's the Way Love Goes"—winner of the 1994 Grammy Award for Best R&B Song—and the top 10 singles "If", "Because of Love", "You Want This", and "Any Time, Any Place", all contained "grown-up desires".^[30][49] Janet was certified six times platinum by the RIAA, with worldwide sales exceeding twenty million copies.^[19][50]

In July 1993, Jackson made her film debut in Poetic Justice. Rolling Stone described her performance as "a beguiling film debut" despite her inexperience, while The Washington Post considered her "believably eccentric".^[51][52] Several reviews were also negative, as Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly noted she "isn't an inept actress, yet there are no more edges to her personality than there are to her plastic Kewpie-doll visage."^[53] Jackson's ballad "Again" was featured in the film, and she received her first Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for Best Original Song.^[54][55] In September 1993, Jackson appeared topless on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine with the hands of her then-husband René Elizondo, Jr. covering her breasts. The photograph is the original full-length version of the cropped image used on the cover of the Janet album, shot by Patrick Demarchelier.^[56] Sonia Murray of The Vancouver Sun later reported, "Jackson, 27, remains clearly established as both role model and sex symbol; the Rolling Stone photo of Jackson ... became one of the most recognizable, and most lampooned, magazine covers of the year."^[57] David Ritz likened her transformation to Marvin Gaye, stating "[j]ust as Gaye moved from What's Going On to Let's Get It On, from the austere to the ecstatic, Janet, every bit as serious-minded as Marvin, moved from Rhythm Nation to janet., her statement of sexual liberation."^[12] Her second world tour—the Janet World Tour—garnered critical acclaim as Michael Snyder of the San Francisco Chronicle described Jackson's stage performance as erasing the line between "stadium-size pop music concerts and full-scale theatrical extravaganzas."^[58]

During this time period, her brother Michael was immersed in a child sex abuse scandal, of which he denied any wrongdoing.^[59] She gave moral support to her brother, and denied allegations made by her sister La Toya in her book La Toya: Growing Up in the Jackson Family (1991) that their parents had abused her and her siblings as children.^[41] In an interview with Lynn Norment of Ebony, she commented on her sister's then-estrangement from the family, stating, "her [husband Jack Gordon] has ... brainwashed her so much she keeps herself away from us."^[60] In addition, she criticized her brother Jermaine for attacking Michael in his 1991 single "Word to the Badd".^[60] In December 1994, she collaborated with her brother Michael on "Scream", the lead single from his 1995 album HIStory, which was written by both siblings as a response to the media scrutiny he suffered from being accused of child sexual abuse.^[61] The song debuted at number five on the Hot 100 singles chart, becoming the first song ever to debut in the top 5. "Scream" is featured in the Guinness Book of Records as the "Most Expensive Music Video Ever Made" at a cost of $7 million, which was filmed in May 1995. Jackson and her brother won the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video for "Scream".^[30]

In October 1995, Jackson's first compilation album, Design of a Decade 1986/1996, was released via A&M Records. It debuted at number four and peaked at number three on the Billboard 200.^[8] The lead single "Runaway" became the first song by a female artist to debut within the top ten of the Hot 100, which eventually peaked at number three.^[62][63] Design of a Decade 1986/1996 was certified two times platinum by the RIAA and sold over four million copies worldwide.^[19][64] Jackson's influence in popular music continued to garner recognition, as Steve Morse of The Boston Globe remarked: "If you're talking about the female power elite in pop, you can't get much higher than Janet Jackson, Bonnie Raitt, Madonna and Yoko Ono. Their collective influence ... is beyond measure. And who could dispute that Janet Jackson now has more credibility than brother Michael?"^[65] In January 1996, Jackson renewed her contract with Virgin Records for a reported $80 million dollars.^[66] The contract established her as the then-highest paid recording artist in contemporary music, surpassing the recording industry's then-unparalleled $60 million dollar contracts earned by her brother, Michael Jackson, and Madonna.^[67][68][69]

[edit] 1997–99: The Velvet Rope

During the two year period prior to the release of her sixth studio album, The Velvet Rope, Jackson reportedly suffered from depression and anxiety.^[7] Michael Saunders of The Boston Globe considered the album to be an introspective look into her bout with depression, describing it as a "critical self-examination and an audio journal of a woman's road to self-discovery."^[7] The Velvet Rope also introduced sadomasochism into Jackson's music. Eric Henderson of Slant Magazine wrote, "The Velvet Rope is a richly dark masterwork that illustrates that, amid the whips and chains, there is nothing sexier than emotional nakedness."^[70] Larry Flick of Billboard called The Velvet Rope "[t]he best American album of the year and the most empowering of her last five."^[71] Released in October 1997, The Velvet Rope debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.^[8] In August, 1997 the album's lead single, "Got 'til It's Gone", was released to radio, peaking at number 12 on the Billboard Rhythmic Airplay Chart.^[72] The single sampled the Joni Mitchell song "Big Yellow Taxi", and featured a cameo appearance by rapper Q-Tip. "Got 'til It's Gone" won the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video.^[30] The album's second single "Together Again", became her eighth number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and placing her on par with Elton John, Diana Ross, and The Rolling Stones.^[73] The single spent a record 46 weeks on the Hot 100, as well as spending 19 weeks on the UK singles chart.^[73] "I Get Lonely" peaked at number three on the Hot 100.^[18] The Velvet Rope sold over ten million albums worldwide and was certified three times platinum by the RIAA.^[1][19]

Jackson donated a portion of the proceeds earned from "Together Again" to the American Foundation for AIDS Research.^[73] Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph observed, "[Jackson] even makes a bid for gay icon status, delivering a diva-ish performance reminiscent of Diana Ross on 'Together Again' (a post-Aids pop song), singing a paean to homosexuality on the jazzy 'Free Xone' and climaxing (if that's the right word) with a bizarre lesbian reinterpretation of Rod Stewart's 'Tonight's the Night'."^[74] Rolling Stone regarded "Free Xone" as the album's "best song", describing it as an "anti-homophobia track [which] shifts moods and tempos on a dime, segueing from a Prince-like jam to a masterful sample from Archie Bell and the Drells' 'Tighten Up'."^[75] The Velvet Rope was honored by the National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum, and received the award for Outstanding Music Album at the 9th Annual GLAAD Media Awards.^[76]

In 1998, Jackson began The Velvet Rope World Tour, an international trek that included Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, New Zealand and Australia. Robert Hilburn of The Los Angeles Times reported, "[t]here is so much of the ambition and glamour of a Broadway musical in Janet Jackson's new Velvet Rope tour that it's only fitting that the concert program credits her as the show's 'creator and director'."^[77] Her HBO special, The Velvet Rope: Live in Madison Square Garden, was watched by more than fifteen million viewers. The two hour concert beat the ratings of all four major networks in homes that were subscribed to HBO.^[78] The HBO concert special was awarded four Emmy nominations including one win.^[79] Jackson donated a portion of her concert ticket sales to America's Promise, a non-profit organization designed by Colin Powell to assist disenfranchised youth.^[80]

The following month, Jackson separated from Elizondo Jr.^[81] As her world tour came to a close in 1999, Jackson lent guest vocals to a number of songs by other artists, including Shaggy's "Luv Me, Luv Me", for the soundtrack to How Stella Got Her Groove Back, "God's Stepchild" from the Down on the Delta soundtrack, "Girlfriend/Boyfriend" with BLACKstreet, and "What's It Gonna Be?!" with Busta Rhymes. She also performed a duet with Elton John for the song "I Know the Truth". At the 1999 World Music Awards, Jackson received the Legend Award alongside Cher for "outstanding contribution to the pop industry."^[82] As 1999 ended, Billboard magazine ranked Jackson as the second most successful artist of the decade, behind Mariah Carey.^[83]

[edit] 2000–03: Nutty Professor II: The Klumps and All for You

In July 2000, Jackson appeared in her second film, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, as Professor Denise Gaines, opposite Eddie Murphy. The film became her second to open at number one at the box office, grossing an estimated $42.7 million dollars in its opening weekend.^[84][85] Her contribution to the film's soundtrack, "Doesn't Really Matter", became her ninth number one Billboard Hot 100 single. In the same year, Jackson's husband filed for divorce. Jeff Gordinier of Entertainment Weekly reported that for eight of the thirteen years she and Elizondo had known one another, "[they] were married—a fact they managed to hide not only from the international press but from Jackson's own father."^[44] Elizondo filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against her, estimated between $10–25 million; they did not reach a settlement until 2003.^[44][86]

Jackson was awarded the American Music Awards' Award of Merit in March 2001 for "her finely crafted, critically acclaimed and socially conscious, multi-platinum albums."^[87] She became the inaugural honoree of the "mtvICON" award, "an annual recognition of artists who have made significant contributions to music, music video and pop culture while tremendously impacting the MTV generation."^[88] Jackson's seventh album, All for You, was released in April 2001, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200.^[8] Selling 605,000 copies, All for You had the highest first-week sales total of her career.^[89] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic stated "[Jackson's] created a record that's luxurious and sensual, spreading leisurely over its 70 minutes, luring you in even when you know better", and Jon Pareles of The New York Times commented, "[a]s other rhythm and blues strips down to match the angularity of hip-hop, Ms. Jackson luxuriates in textures as dizzying as a new infatuation."^[90][91]

	"All for You" (2001) noicon The disco inspired "All for You" features an uptempo dance beat and samples "The Glow of Love" originally performed by Change
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The album's title-track, "All for You", debuted on the Hot 100 at number fourteen, the highest debut ever for a single that was not commercially available.^[92] Teri VanHorn of MTV dubbed Jackson "Queen of Radio" as the single made radio airplay history, "[being] added to every pop, rhythmic and urban radio station that reports to the national trade magazine Radio & Records" in its first week.^[92] The single peaked at number one, where it topped the Hot 100 for seven weeks.^[93] It received the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording.^[30] The second single, "Someone to Call My Lover", which contained a heavy guitar loop of America's "Ventura Highway", peaked at number three on the Hot 100.^[94] All for You was certified double platinum by the RIAA and sold more than nine million copies worldwide.^[19][95]

Jackson's All for You Tour began in July, 2001. Los Angeles Times' pop music critic Robert Hilburn gave a negative review of the concert tour, comparing it unfavorably to Madonna's Drowned World Tour and Britney Spears' Dream Within a Dream Tour. Hilburn remarked: "At 35, Jackson is only eight years younger than Madonna, but her presentation feels more akin to Britney Spears'. Madonna knows how to dig beneath the surface; Jackson lives on it."^[96] Hilburns' review sparked backlash from those who felt Jackson gave the superior performance. David Massey commented that "Janet outdid the Material Girl by a mile ... And the gall to bring Britney Spears' name into the picture by saying Janet's show is like Britney's? Hello, it's the other way around!"^[97] Similarly, Rudy Scalese complimented Jackson's performance, stating: "Janet Jackson hasn't skipped a beat. She is still the Queen of Pop."^[97] Jackson donated a portion of the proceeds from the tour's ticket sales to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, with President Roxanne Spillett stating, "[t]he increased awareness she will bring to our cause, along with her generous financial contribution, will help us reach an even greater number of young people in search of hope and opportunity."^[98]

In 2002, Jackson collaborated with reggae singer Beenie Man on the song "Feel It Boy". She later admitted regret over the collaboration after discovering Beenie Man's music often contained homophobic lyrics, and soon issued an apology to her gay fans in an article published in The Voice.^[99] Jackson also began her relationship with record producer Jermaine Dupri that same year.^[100]

[edit] 2004–05: Super Bowl XXXVIII and Damita Jo

For the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show in February 2004, Jackson performed a medley of her singles "All for You" and "Rhythm Nation"; she then performed alongside Justin Timberlake. As Timberlake sang the lyric "gonna have you naked by the end of this song" from his single "Rock Your Body", he tore open her top, exposing her right breast. After the performance, Jackson apologized, calling it an accident, and said that Timberlake was supposed to pull away the bustier and leave the red-lace bra intact.^[101] She further commented, "I am really sorry if I offended anyone. That was truly not my intention ... MTV, CBS, the NFL had no knowledge of this whatsoever, and unfortunately, the whole thing went wrong in the end."^[102] Timberlake also issued an apology, calling the accident a "wardrobe malfunction".^[101] TIME reported that the incident became the most replayed moment in TiVo history and Monte Burke of Forbes magazine reported "[t]he fleeting moment enticed an estimated 35,000 new [TiVo] subscribers to sign up."^[103][104] Jackson was later listed in the 2007 edition of Guinness World Records as "Most Searched in Internet History" and the "Most Searched for News Item".^[105] CBS, the NFL, and MTV (CBS's sister network, which produced the halftime show), denied any knowledge of, and all responsibility for, the incident. Still, the Federal Communications Commission continued an investigation, ultimately losing its appeal for a $550,000 fine against CBS.^[106]