Billboard’s Greatest Pop Star of 1990: Janet Jackson

(In 2018, the Billboard staff released a list project of its choices for the Greatest Pop Star of every year, going back to 1981. Read our entry below on why Janet Jackson was our Greatest Pop Star of 1990 — with our ’90 Honorable Mention runner-ups, Rookie of the Year and Comeback of the Year pop stars at the bottom — and find the rest of our picks for every year up to present day here.)

Birthday party at a roller rink? Yes. High school dance in a gymnasium? Yes. Suburban car ride with your mother to the dentist? Yes. All over MTV, inspiring you to try out militaristic fashions? For better or worse, also yes. Everywhere you looked, or listened, in 1990, Janet Jackson was there, soundtracking every moment in your life — from the magnificent to the mundane — with the socially conscious, message-laden smashes from her pop and R&B powerhouse of a fourth album, Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814.

It arrived in September 1989, more than three years after she blew open the doors of modern R&B with the funky, in-your-face statement piece (and call for her own independence) that was Control, her first collaboration with her now-career-spanning producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. But while Control found Jackson self-reflective, she turned the mirror around on Rhythm Nation to show images of poverty, racism and substance abuse. The messages shared threads with those coming out of hip-hop at the time from Public Enemy, Salt-N-Pepa and N.W.A, but unlike those contemporaries, Jackson’s music came in a pop and R&B package whose call-to-action was twofold: pay attention, but also dance.

If you were lucky, you got the Rhythm Nation black cassette tape to pop into your Walkman for Christmas in 1989. But even if you weren’t, the songs were inescapable through 1990, yielding her a record seven top five hits on the Billboard Hot 100 from 1989-1991, with four of those — “Miss You Much,” “Love Will Never Do (Without You),” “Escapade,” and “Black Cat” — going all the way to No. 1. Jackson’s album had already reached platinum status by November 1989, and the accolades kept coming — with four Grammy nominations for the then-23-year-old, including producer of the year, announced right after the new year. 

She collected her first Grammy in February for the 30-minute Rhythm Nation music video, and only days later, embarked on her first-ever concert tour. The international headlining venture was a huge step for Jackson, who never played shows for Control, despite its multi-platinum status. Some speculated it had to do with nerves, but as she told MTV at the time, she wanted to wait to tour until she had more songs under her belt. The tour wrapped in November after nine months, grossing $28.1 million for 89 shows.

For those who couldn’t see her on the road, MTV kept fans sated with tour updates, performances — including a bra-bearing rendition of “Black Cat” at the VMAs in September — and of course, stunning music videos. In addition to 1989’s choreography-heavy black-and-white clips for “Miss You Much” and “Rhythm Nation,” MTV’s Janet-filled rotation in 1990 also included the dreamy close-ups of Jackson in Paris in “Come Back to Me”; the carnival-like, colorful atmosphere of “Escapade”; Jackson breaking it down in a zoot suit, with a guest appearance from Cab Calloway, for “Alright”; the fierce live concert footage assembled for “Black Cat”; and a return to B&W for the gorgeous Herb Ritts-shot (and Antonio Sabato Jr co-starring) “Love Will Never Do (Without You).”

By the end of 1990, Rhythm Nation’s meager platinum count from 1989 was multiplied by five, making it the best-selling album of the year. The Grammys also weren’t done with her quite yet, adding three more nominations for her Rhythm Nation material, but no more wins, at the 33rd annual ceremony in 1991. Those nods included one for best rock vocal performance, female, for the Jellybean Johnson-produced (and Janet solo-penned) “Black Cat”: a nomination that proved Jackson, consistently labeled R&B, was too versatile to be contained to one category. She might have released Control in 1986, but 1990 felt like the year she truly took it.

Honorable Mention: New Kids on the Block (Step by Step, “Step by Step,” “Tonight”), Madonna (The Immaculate Collection, “Vogue,” Dick Tracy) Vanilla Ice (To the Extreme, “Ice Ice Baby,” “Play That Funky Music”)

Rookie of the Year: Wilson Phillips

A band comprising the grown children of famous musicians might seem like a gimmicky idea in theory, but it spawned one of 1990’s greatest debut acts in Wilson Phillips. Childhood friends Carnie and Wendy Wilson, daughters of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, and Chynna Phillips, daughter of the Mamas and the Papas’ Michelle and John Phillips, formed the group in 1989 and released their self-titled debut album in May of 1990. Inescapable lead single “Hold On” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June, and they spent the summer touring season opening for Richard Marx, while the album peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in August. “Release Me” topped the Hot 100 in September, while “Impulsive” went to No. 4 in December, proving the second-gen supertrio were no one-hit wonders.

Comeback of the Year: Bonnie Raitt

Bonnie Raitt had always been a critical darling ever since the release of her first album in 1971, but it would take nearly 20 years before she managed to find huge commercial success. By the late 1980s, Raitt was sober and newly signed to Capitol Records, where she and producer Don Was created her 10th album, 1989’s Nick of Time — a smooth, 1970s-blues-rock release that showcased Raitt’s lived-in vocal and her rootsy guitar playing. The (appropriately) well-timed effort coincided with the crossover breakout of a number of fellow AOR peers and the debut of the more adult-oriented video channel VH1. Raitt took home four Grammys at the 1990 ceremony — including album of the year for Nick of Time, which spent three weeks atop the Billboard 200 that April and was certified 2x platinum by May. 

(Read on to our Greatest Pop Star of 1991 here, or head back to the full list here.)