1970s-80s: Post Civil Rights Cultural Revolution -- Disco, Dancepop, and Funk

The third song in this chronology is Janet Jackson's 1986 single "Nasty." I mostly chose this song because it was the first song from the 80's that I could think of that embodied what I am going for with this project and because I just really love this song. I went back and forth with myself over whether to do this track or "New Attitude" by Patti Labelle and ultimately chose "Nasty" after texting my mom one night at 2am which song she thought I should do. She chose "Nasty," (she's a huge Janet Jackson fan) so this one's for her.

Transcript:

I’ve always been a fan of Janet Jackson’s 1986 single “Nasty.” On the surface level, “Nasty” was just a fun funk song with a danceable beat, groovy instrumentals, and sassy lyrics. It was not until I looked closer to the song for this project that I realized just how revolutionary in many ways it is.

Earlier this year, while guest starring on an episode of the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Jackson revealed the story behind “Nasty.” Jackson explained how one day while walking with a friend, a group of older men began catcalling her and her friend. Jackson said “And I didn’t like it very much. And I was pretty embarrassed. Actually, pretty upset.” After dealing with the harassment, Jackson went to the studio and told her producers what happened and turned the nasty feelings she had into “Nasty.”

When you listen to “Nasty,” the backstory makes complete sense. Throughout the song, Jackson calls for respect from her male admirers. She calls them “nasty boys”and while she tells them to never change, she also says that she does not like anything about them. In the first verse, Jackson sings

“Who's that thinkin' nasty thoughts? (Nasty boys!)

Who's that in that nasty car? (Nasty boys!)

Who's that eating that nasty food? (Nasty boys!)” it almost seems like this is something she’s as in the chorus goes:

Chorus

“Nasty boys, dont ever change”

But then Jackson tears this all up in the second verse where she says

“I don't like no nasty car, I don't like a nasty food, huh (ooh, ooh yeah)”

Throughout the song, Jackson is responding to catcallers, to men who objectify women as a means of gaining control over them and trying to pursue them. Jackson calls for respect from male admirers but still puts her sexuality in the center

In many ways, Jackson follows in the footsteps of Aretha Franklin’s 1967 version of “Respect.” She’s got what her male admirers want and what she asks in return is the bare minimum: respect.

It’s interesting that Jackson actively calls for respect throughout this song because the entire song can also be read as an anti-respectability politics anthem. This can be heard throughout the chorus where she sings

“Nasty, nasty boys, give me your nasty groove, huh

Oh you nasty boys

Nasty, nasty boys, let me see your nasty body move, huh

Oh you nasty boys” She sings this as she embraces her sexuality and engages in what the nasty boys want

The anti respectability politics is most obvious in the bridge. Let’s listen:

I'm not a prude (no)

I just want some respect (that's right)

While reading about Black womanhood in music, I stumbled upon the article “The Essence of Resexpectability: Black Women's Negotiation of Black Femininity in Rap Music and Music Video” by Shanara R. Reid Brinkley.

In it, Reid Brinkley says:

“Abuse was often justified by stereotyping black women as having loose sexual morals and the presumption that black women's bodies were available to both white and black men without black women's consent.”

The politics of respectability prescribed onto Black women, as defined by Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, were a means of racial uplift and a disavowing of the perceived hypersexuality of Black women. While respectability politics were meant to uplift Black people, they are most often forced on to Black women and their bodies and behaviors, stifling Black women’s expressions of sexuality altogether.

With the lines “I’m not a prude, No, I just want respect” rather than conforming to respectability politics and disavowing her sexuality, Jackson embraces it but still demands respect. She refuses to accept the abuse of men that has been justified by the hypersexualization of Black women but also refuses to conform to respectability politics that would make her a non sexual being, which she’s not. She refuses to be hypersexualized but also refuses to be de-sexualized. She embraces her sexuality, and demands control over it and those who wish to engage with it.

She crafts her own narrative and refuses to allow people’s perceptions of her as a Black woman control her and the way she acts and the way she’s seen.

Jackson resists perceptions of her personhood from both those who wish to abuse her sexuality and those who wish to stifle it. And that’s just what Jackson does on “Nasty,” a song born out of being disrespected by nasty boys.

Works Cited:

Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks. “African-American Women’s History and the Metalanguage of Race.” Signs, vol. 17, no. 2, University of Chicago Press, 1992, pp. 251–74. JSTOR.

Janet Jackson Reveals The ‘Crazy’ Story Behind Her Hit ‘Nasty’ | HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/janet-jackson-story-behind-nasty_n_5e431dc2c5b6d0ea380fc7c1. Accessed 8 Dec. 2020.

Janet Jackson – Nasty Lyrics | Genius Lyrics. https://genius.com/Janet-jackson-nasty-lyrics. Accessed 9 Dec. 2020.

Reid-Brinkley, Shanara R. “The Essence of Res(Ex)Pectability: Black Women's Negotiation of Black Femininity in Rap Music and Music Video.” Meridians, vol. 8, no. 1, 2008, pp. 236–260. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40338919.