Album Anniversaries: How ‘The Velvet Rope’ Remains Ahead of its Time 25 Years Later

With her sixth studio album, The Velvet Rope, global pop sensation Janet Jackson takes an extremely intimate look into the performer's life, with a groundbreaking work in more than just sound.

In Album Anniversaries, writers honor their favorite aging albums and their subsequent legacies, revealing which projects have stood the test of time.

Written by Adam Cherian

It’s 1997, and the world is still reeling from the AIDS epidemic. Tens of thousands of lives are being lost every year, and most of them in the U.S. have been queer people. The loneliness is immense: To be left for dead from an incurable disease due to the government's intentional mishandling of it has left many feeling empty. Many celebrities have taken the opportunity to donate to charities and raise awareness. But something was different when pop superstar Janet Jackson released “Together Again,” the second single from her smash hit album The Velvet Rope on World AIDS day that same year.

The song is an ode to one of Jackson’s close friends who died of AIDS. The hopeful pre-chorus, “Dream about us together again,” reflects her yearning to be reconnected to the loved ones she's lost to this virus. Jackson showed that she truly cared about the people lost. “What I'd give just to hold you close as on earth / In heaven, we will be together, baby,” is a heartbreaking lyric that perfectly emblemized how deep Jackson’s eternal love runs. This meant a lot to a community of people that may have lost family members and friends due to their queer identity, and could not even be celebrated in death for this reason. This is just one of many songs on the record that solidified Jackson as a musical mastermind and LGBTQ+ ally. The Velvet Rope album simultaneously acted as a way for Jackson to be more introspective, while radically advocating for social justice.

The Velvet Rope is a journey into the most intimate parts of Jackson. Growing up in the shadow of her brothers and under her abusive father Joe Jackson, Jackson did not have a lot of opportunities to authentically express herself. With the release of her third studio album Control, the world saw her break away from her family expectations and witness the budding of a liberated woman. With each release after that, Jackson shed her shell more and more, culminating with The Velvet Rope, where Jackson blossoms into a truly free woman.

Jackson alludes to this peak into her life with the title track. She wants to grant the listener VIP access to her personal life. She sings, “Come with me inside / Inside my velvet rope,” comparing her life to the velvet ropes that are used to block off a restricted area. A velvet rope is a symbolic barrier; the rope separates the outside world, but doesn’t completely block it. It’s a metaphor for how fame can give someone so much access to another person’s life, but not accurately represent them.

Jackson defined ‘90s R&B with this record. The overall sound of the record is one of stripped back trip-hop and house that emphasizes the percussion and bass that creates intimacy between Jackson and the listener and makes it feel like she’s in the room with them. The track “Got ‘Til It’s Gone” is a perfect example of this. The infectious chorus sung by legendary singer Joni Mitchell is accompanied by a stellar verse from Q-Tip, and what it lacks in polish it makes up for melody and intimacy.

The range of genres on this album is astounding. Trip-hop, classic R&B, and house music are packaged and presented to the listener in an unpolished, raw manner that is addictive. Jackson’s incorporation of house is particularly stunning. The genre was created by Black queer creatives in Chicago in the ‘80s, and it mixes disco music from the ‘70s with mechanical electronic beats. Jackson wears her influences on her sleeve with this record, and is not afraid to admit that she pulls inspiration from the underground queer scene. The song “Free Xone,” exemplifies this; a radical track for the time that sends the message “One rule / No rules / One love.” The lyrics are almost spiritual with how Jackson sings them, repetitive and prayer-like. It was also quite scandalous for the time, as she chants at one point of the song, “Boy meets boy / Boy loses boy / Boy gets cute boy back,” and does the same for the girls. It may not retain the same novel aspect of being revolutionary anymore, but the way in which Jackson advocates for social justice through love shows her actual care for the community.

She’s not simply making a statement; she empathizes with queer people’s struggle. And while at the time LGBTQ+ rights were not in public favor — even now there is the “slacktivism” of the LGBTQ+ community where allies feel that just saying they support the community is enough to call them an ally — Jackson wholeheartedly believes in standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, not because it would benefit her, but because she loves the people. Jackson stands up for the rights of many throughout this record. Women’s rights are obviously more pertinent to her, with songs like “What About” chronicling the rage a partner has when they’re being abused, to “Go Deep,” which is a gaudy track where Jackson asks her partner to work harder at pleasing her sexually.

In the track “Rope Burn,” Jackson gets vulnerable; even though a lot of her discography is quite sexual, never before had she revealed her love of kink and bondage. The track’s title explains itself: she wants her partner to “Tie [her] up / tie [her] down / Make [her] moan real loud,” all accompanied by orgasmic background vocals, along with a beautifully whimsical instrumental dominated by __ a classic house beat. The track is shocking in its overtly sexual nature, even for Jackson. It shows how she continues to subvert boundaries and push against social norms.

Photo courtesy of Rolling Stone Magazine

The Velvet Rope is undeniably Jackson’s magnum opus. It blends the familiar elements of R&B and house, while still remaining ahead of its time. It’s astounding how Jackson was so ahead of the curve in terms of social justice on this record, with her only contemporary that could even compare to her being Madonna. In The Velvet Rope, Jackson chooses to express her grievances with the world through love, all while letting the audience get a glimpse into her life past that rope and hook.