ABSTRACT
This chapter examines pop feminism in Janet Jackson’s overlooked 2016 music video Dammn Baby, illustrating how people can derive meaningful information from moving bodies via description. Dammn Baby’s (re)articulation of Jackson as a confident, sexy woman stages “a performance which authenticates an image of the performer that pre-dates the video in the same sense it has already been constructed and circulated through a range of mediated channels.” Musically, Jackson’s light soprano contrasts with the sparse, bass-heavy beats. Sound production by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis features reverb and lushly textured layers. The funky groove is supported by the looped vocal sample “Dammn baby.” Jackson and the dancers often face the camera, but they also face the sides and the back of the formations. They dance in and out of frame as if to mock the would-be voyeur, suggesting their bodies cannot be fully captured by the viewing lens.
