Janet Jackson is the ninth and last child in the musically talented 
          Jackson family that includes the Jackson 5, Michael 
          Jackson, and Jermaine Jackson. Janet Jackson performed on stage 
          with her brothers at the age of seven. At ten, she acted in the TV series 
          Good Times and was later seen in Diff'rent Strokes and Fame. She released 
          her first album, Janet Jackson, 
          in 1982 and her second, Dream Street, 
          in 1984, but neither of these records was notably successful. Then, 
          in 1985, Jackson turned to the production team of Jimmy Jam and Terry 
          Lewis (formerly of the Time) for the album Control, 
          which, ironically, emphasized the artist's new maturity and independence, 
          even though most of the songs were co-compositions of the three. Control 
          was a massive hit: it topped the charts, selling more than four million 
          copies, and spawned five Top Ten hits, including the #1 "When I Think 
          of You." The follow-up, Rhythm Nation 
          1814, did even better, spawning seven Top Ten hits, among them the #1s 
          "Miss You Much," "Escapade, " and "Black Cat." In 1991, Jackson signed 
          a new recording contract with Virgin Records for a reported $32 million.
        
 1993's janet. proved to 
          be as successful as her previous two releases, featuring a series of 
          Top Ten singles including "If" and "That's the Way Love Goes."