Another Jackson sibling in the spotlight

This archived article was written by: Jeff Spears

Feb. 1’s Superbowl concluded with the New England Patriots victory over the Carolina Panthers. The score of the game will not be remembered nor will the winner. Forever, the incident involving pop stars Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake will live on forever.
Their sexually explicit moment left some legal ramifications. The multiple scenarios of meanings for the future of controversial music and the Superbowl itself will outline a change in the way American’s sell music and use artists as sex symbols.
The legal issues surrounding the halftime show are being investigated by the FBI and pose possibility of legal trouble for CBS. The biggest reason for the penalty was the incident happened with millions of people watching the event. Children were subjected to this distasteful display of music and parents were outraged by the lack of consideration from MTV.
The Superbowl will probably have a stern type of entertainment next year with the Janet Jackson escapade. The network, CBS, has already guaranteed that MTV would not be in charge of the halftime and demanded a refund of the financial allocations for the halftime show. The music industry will be careful the way they handle this situation, but there is little they can do. Not one in management know about this incident and this will not change in the future. Stars do unique and crazy things, restricted or not.
My biggest problem with the media finally having enough of the sexual content is that it has been far too long. We see Lil Kim will the same apparel as Janet, yet we condone her. This is no different then what we have seen in the past. The only difference is there were 90 million people viewing. I don’t believe that was a good excuse.
We need to make a stand and define what is accepted within the realm of society. This Superbowl stunt redefines the way pop stars try to sell an image and rebuild a career. Let’s face it, Janet is not getting any younger and she must face the burden of evolving new revolutionary ways of being in this business.
This stunt must also downplay her brother, Michael, in the public eye. Her career is fading and her brother outshines her, yet again.
Feb. 1, sparked a new wave of music and its appeal to the public. We moved from concerts, to two women kissing on stage, to showing a woman’s partial frontal nudity. What is next? That is something that the industry must examine and make clear to the general public. There has to be a line in which society will disregard new ways of attracting fans and have common decency. Until then, I worry for America and the lessons we are teaching our kids. The meaning of sex is something that should come from the home and not the television.