Janet Damita Jo Jackson is one of the most prominent female and black performers of all time, a trendsetter and innovatively influential artist. As the youngest member of the Jackson family, Janet's career, which initially started in acting, was marked at first by the active intervention of her father/manager Joseph Jackson, who helped to craft her mostly-ignored and poorly-received pop/R&B albums Janet Jackson (1982) and Dream Street (1984); Janet's subsequent separation from Joseph came with a new sound and image, exemplified in Control (1986), a widely acclaimed and blockbuster success that not only gave her mainstream success separated from her association with the Jackson clan, but also helped to birth the new jack swing genre. in 1989 she moved her lyrics to a more conscious direction with the eclectic concept album Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814, whose hard-hitting visuals and socially explicit content make it into one of the most renowned albums of the decade. She decided to take more creative control and assert not just her individualism but also her sexuality with her next record, 1993's blockbuster hit janet., and change her sound from the industrial atmosphere of her previous releases to a mellower R&B hybrid; the record was another critical and commercial juggernaut. Her battles with depression and anxiety led her to develop a widely-personal concept album, 1997's The Velvet Rope, whose explicit handling of controversial subject matters (BDSM, same-sex relationships, domestic violence, etc.) and an eclectic and darker sound gave her some of her best reviews ever. In 2001 she softened her sound and image with the release of the upbeat All For You, which continued Janet's trend of big-selling records. In 2004, while promoting the then-upcoming sexual record Damita Jo, an infamous "wardrobe malfunction" during her Super Bowl performance overshadowed the release of the record, which had received a more tepid critical response than her previous efforts, and heavily slowed-down her momentum, which continued with 2006's 20 Y.O., another critical misfire and commercial letdown. The release of 2008's Discipline, a more electronic album, was positively received but its lack of commercial impact made Janet focus on other career endeavors for the next years, as she would return to music, this time as an independent artist, until 2015, with the eclectic Unbreakable, which got her some of her best sales and reviews in over a decade. A new album, Black Diamond, is slated to be released in 2020.

Janet is a renowned LGBT rights advocate, feminist and sex icon whose conscious and sexually explicit lyrics and visuals have created multiple music trends over the decades; as one of the most outspoken AIDS activists in the entertainment industry, she was she was honored with a Humanitarian Award in 2005 by the Human Rights Campaign and AIDS Project Los Angeles as recognition for her multiple fundraising efforts. Janet is often considered one the most influential and important female and black pop star of all time, with her music, songwriting, visuals, fashion, display of sexuality, live performances, outspokenness and ambitious artistry becoming influential to multiple generations of artists; she has been credited for creating the basis of the new jack swing genre with Control, which became the dominating genre in the late-80s and early-90s, for bridging racial gaps in the recording industry (alongside Prince, Whitney Houston and her brother Michael) and for elevating the art of choreography and visuals to new heights. As an actress, and outside of her TV work as a child, she has starred in the 1993 drama Poetic Justice with Tupac Shakur, the 2000 Eddie Murphy comedy The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps and the 2007 Tyler Perry dramedy Why Did I Get Married? and its 2010 sequel.

Having sold over 100 million records worldwide, Janet is the third best-selling black female artist of all time and the third most successful female artist in the Billboard charts. She has been recognized with 34 Billboard Music Awards, 11 American Music Awards, 9 Guinness World Records, 9 MTV Video Music Awards, 5 Grammy Awards, 2 GLAAD Media Awards and has been nominated for an Academy Award. She was inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2019.