Jackson began performing with her family at age seven (doing a Mae West imitation as part of a Las Vegas stage act), and acted during the 1970s and 80s in recurring or supporting roles on the TV series "Good Times", "Diff'rent Strokes" and "Fame". She made her feature acting debut as the sensitive poet Justice in the John Singleton misfire, "Poetic Justice" (1993). Her hit single "Again" (which was also featured on her wildly successful album "janet.") was prominently featured in the film and earned Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Original Song. She returned to the big-screen in the summer of 2000 as the scientist fiancee of Eddie Murphy's Professor Klump in the comedy "Nutty Professor II: The Klumps". Once again, a Janet Jackson song ("Doesn't Really Matter,) was included on the film's soundtrack album.

Although an effective supporting player and pleasant minor comedienne, Jackson displayed her real passions and talents through her music and dancing. Virgin Records acknowledged this in 1996 when it offered her an $80 million deal that made her the music industry's highest paid performer. She justified Virgin's faith by releasing "The Velvet Rope" (1997), a collection of highly personal, very emotional songs that went triple-platinum within a year of its release. The album addressed Jackson's battle with depression, her own self-image problems, family woes and how she escaped an abusive relationship. The recording also set the rumor mill a-spin when two of her songs hinted at a romantic interest in women. Whether drawn to the album's honesty or controversy really didn't matter, Jackson's fans turned out for her "Velvet Rope" world tour en masse. In addition to her usual energetic singing and tireless dancing, Jackson treated audiences to a show she "created and directed" and which looked more like a splashy Broadway musical than a rock concert with its eight back-up dancers and enormous video screens.

Unlike her siblings Michael and LaToya, Janet Jackson had largely avoided courting controversy throughout her career (minus a long-secret nine-year marriage to Rene Elizondo Jr.), until February 1, 2004. While Jackson was performing a duet with pop star Justin Timberlake during the halftime show for Super Bowl XXXVIII, Timberlake reached over at the climax of the segment--on the lyric "Gonna have you naked by the end of this song") and pulled off a breakaway black leather bustier cup on Jackson's bustier, exposing her right breast (and sunburst-shaped nipple clamp) on live global television. The incident incited a massive media frenzy and much public uproar: broadcaster CBS announced its outrage and disavowed advance knowledge of the stunt, blaming its corporate sibling and halftime producer MTV, which had promised a "shocking" show; Timberlake issued a public apology and called the incident a "wardrobe malfunction," explaining that a red brassiere cup under the black bustier intended to cover her breast had inadvertantly been torn away as well; and the NFL and FCC launched investigations into the incident. A day after the furor erupted Jackson announced that she had privately concocted the stunt on her own and issued her own public regrets in a videotaped apology.

In the wake of "Boobgate"--which to some seemed suspiciously timed as Jackson had a new album pending after several years of professional inactivity--Jackson was asked to withdraw from an appearance on the Grammys to deliver an award to Luther Vandross, although Timberlake was allowed to perform on the show. It was later revealed that CBS would have allowed her to appear if she issued another apology from the Grammy stage, as Timberlake did. The various broadcast tlelevision networks also had knee-jerk reactions to the stunt, with NBC and ABC adding stricter censoring of partial nudity on series such as "ER" and "NYPD Blue," and ABC issuing the first-ever five-second broadcast delay on the Academy Awards ceremony.

In 2005 Jackson was at the center of two new scandals which broke within days of one another: first, reports claimed that at age 18 the singer was the mother of a secret daughter born during her brief 1984 marriage to James Debarge and allegedly raised by her sister Rebbie, which Jackson vehemently denied, and a paparazzi video clip showing Jackson sunbathing nude made the rounds of the Internet before the popster's attorney had it removed, threatening legal action to anyone showing it.