What Can We Learn From Janet Jackson’s Breast?
By Von Cello (Aaron Minsky)

Recently, in a performance during half time at the Super Bowl, one of Janet
Jackson’s
breasts was released on national television. That is a simple fact, but it has
caused a
massive controversy from coast to coast. You may wonder what is the big deal,
but Janet
Jackson’s breast is a very big deal!

I don’t wish to comment on the morality of her display of nudity. The fact that
there were
children watching at that moment, is not my concern. I’ll leave that debate to
the
spiritual leaders and the politicians. What concerns me, are the musical
implications of
her few seconds of infamy. What does Ms. Jackson’s breast say about the state of
music in
America in 2004?

There was a time when being an expert at playing an instrument would lead to
fame. This
was particularly true if you could compose and play your own compositions. In
this
category we think of Chopin, Liszt and Paganinni. In more modern times,
musicians who
could not compose but who were great instrumentalists became famous world wide.
The names
Casals, Heifitz, and Horowitz come to mind. In the field of jazz, one had to be
an expert
improviser, and a good tunesmith, to win fame. In this category, we think of
Dizzy
Guillespie, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane.

With the birth of rock n’ roll, all that changed. To be fair, for the most part,
in the
early days of rock, to get noticed you had to be a decent instrumentalist and
have some
kind of a distinctive sound. But very early on, a man rose to prominence in rock
who
became so influential he was dubbed “the king”. That man was Elvis Presley, yet
Elvis
could barely play the guitar! What Elvis did was not so much about being a
trained
musician as it was about being a performer, creating an image, and stirring up
controversy. The main buzz about Elvis was the way he shook his pelvis. Though
he was
quite a good singer, it was his sensual persona that brought him his fame. In
this, he set
the pattern for many who would follow in his footsteps, people who were not
really
musicians, but musical entertainers, or performance artists, commonly known
simply as
“artists”.

A decade after Elvis hit it big, the rock “artist” was still looking for a way
to be
noticed. In the sixties, the way to be noticed was to do drugs and get wild on
stage. A
good example of this was Jim Morrison. He happened to be an excellent singer,
but his
image, that of an out of control drunk, liable to do anything, helped earn him
his fame.
In fact, Morrison was arrested for indecent exposure. His antics created a
constant stream
of publicity, but it also took a toll. The attacks on him by the police and the
press, not
to mention the law suits and court appearances, became overwhelming. It was not
long
before Morrison was found dead of an overdose of drugs. A disease that also
afflicted
Elvis and many other artists.

Around the time of Morrison, rock had matured to the point where there were some
excellent
musicians on the scene. Jimi Hendrix was considered the greatest rock guitarist
of the
time, yet even Hendrix had to do more than ply his craft to get noticed. Hendrix
used to
set his guitars on fire as he kneeled sensuously over the flames. Other rock
groups would
break their guitars, smash amplifiers and keyboards and commit other acts of
violence to
get noticed. Ozzy Osborne distinguished himself by biting off the head of a
bird, and
routinely biting the heads off of rubber bats on stage. This trend, of the
violent
musician, reached its zenith with the Plasmatics, a band that I actually played
with for a
short while. (They added a string quartet to their madness for some reason.)
Admittedly
marginal musicians, they became known for chain sawing guitars and chairs,
smashing
televisions with sledge hammers, and ultimately blowing up whole cars on stage!

Back on the solo artist side, performers kept trying to push the envelope. In
the 1980’s,
Madonna burst upon the scene. Like a female Elvis, she was a decent singer, but
became
known for her sexuality. In concert, Madonna would hump on a bed or on the floor
as if she
were masturbating. She also brought in a heavy S & M presence to her stage act,
including
spankings, whips and chains, and the treating of her dancers as sex slaves. With
each CD
she pushed further, attacking sexual taboos involving race and religion. She
also included
nudity in videos and in a coffee table book that bordered on pornography.

She seemed to spawn the next generation of female artists who were even more
determined to
use sexuality to the fullest. Artists like Brittney Spears and others played on
taboos
such as the naughty schoolgirl, and the wild girl. They showed as much skin as
they could
without actually becoming naked, and they made a practice of using the most
suggestive
dance moves imaginable. On the Hip Hop side of the track, images of guys with
multiple
girlfriends in hot tubs or in expensive cars or homes became popular. Grinding
dance moves
with girls in skimpy outfits became standard video fare. One artist, Snoop Dogg,
actually
crossed over to porn, becoming a player in the “Girls Gone Wild” videos of late
night TV
fame.

Which brings us back to Janet Jackson’s breast. The whole nation was treated to
a view of
Janet’s large round breast, with her nipple surrounded by some type of jewelry
piece that
looked like a star. With the removal of a little swatch of material, in a matter
of
seconds, Ms. Jackson crossed a line that no one dared cross before. She was
naked on
national television on prime time during a family entertainment event! No longer
can
hinting at sex be considered pushing the envelope: the envelope is open!

Is what she did pornography? Perhaps one could argue that one breast is
performance art,
but two breasts would be porn. Perhaps one could argue that even two breasts are
performance art, but exposure underneath would be porn. Perhaps one could argue
that full
frontal nudity is where this is all going. Maybe we are going back the the days
of
vaudeville, the days of Gypsy Rose Lee, when an “act” consisted of a woman
singing while
stripping. Janet certainly opened the door to this possibility. Of course, Gypsy
did not
strip on television during prime time, but maybe that is what is needed to
finally bring
this trend to its conclusion.

Breasts and other parts of the female anatomy will always be a source of
fascination, but
I would like to know one thing: where’s the music?! What happened to practicing
hours a
day, studying music theory, harmony, counterpoint, performance practice? What
happened to
spirituality, to expressing deep, meaningful ideas through sound? What happened
to
becoming famous because you are a really great musician…even if you don’t shake
your
pelvis, smash your guitar, or show your bosom?

It is possible that, with Ms. Jackson’s highly public performance, we are
beginning to
reach the end of sexuality replacing musicianship? Perhaps the pendulum will
swing back to
the time when a highly trained, dedicated musician can become famous just for
being a
great musician. It is with this hope and with this dream that I have been
promoting my
cello fronted rock band, Von Cello.

If you agree that the trend toward performance “art” has gone far enough, and it
is time
to reintroduce musicianship to the world of popular music, please support those
bands and
soloists who are out there trying to make it happen. I am not saying that there
is no room
in the musical world for Janet Jackson’s breast, or any other body parts that
she may
choose to show us in the future. What I am saying, is that there should also be
room in
the musical world for those who choose to excel at playing their instruments and
singing
their hearts out!

- Von Cello (Aaron Minsky) started out in music as a rock guitarist, but later
became a
cellist, graduating with a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of
Music. He
has since published thirteen music books with Oxford University Press. He is a
Yamaha
Artist, a D’Addario Artist, in Who’s Who in America, and the International Who’s
Who. You
can find out more about his background and his music at his website:
http://www.voncello.com/