Musicology

Janet Jackson was already two albums into R&B obscurity when Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis basically created her relevancy with their killer production on 1986's Control. Shortly before this, Jam and Lewis were fired by Prince after a blizzard left them unable to rejoin his tour after a short break to produce music for the SOS Band. Luckily, their work for the SOS Band cemented their reputation and Jam and Lewis went on to seriously alter the way R&B sounded in the mid 80's. Think sharp stabs of electric keyboard and punchy drum programming punctuating groovey synthetic basslines, keeping dance-oriented R&B exciting and fresh in the despressing post-disco drought. Their sound still resonates today, as I can totally hear traces of Alexander O'Neil's "What's Missing" in The Dream's "Walking On The Moon" and there is no way The Neptunes were not touched by the space-jazz synthesized chorus on Klymaxx's "Wild Girls".