The following is a list of albums that pop and rhythm-and-blues singer Janet Jackson has released during her solo career.

Cover of Janet Jackson's 1989 album Rhythm Nation 1814

A&M Releases

1. Janet Jackson - released on June 16, 1982, the first song from the album, Young Love, was the first single Jackson released as a singer. It eventually reached moderate success on the Billboard pop singles chart, as did the second single, Come Give Your Love to Me. But both singles including a third, Say You Do and the album itself did awesome on the Billboard R&B singles chart (then called the Black Singles Chart until 1984), hitting the top 20 and the album peaking at No. 6, eventually selling over 500,000 copies. After this album did so well in the R&B charts, Jackson was named one of the top ten biggest selling rhythm & blues artists of 1983.
2. Dream Street - released on July 7, 1984, this album is probably the least played of all Janet long players. With only one single, Don't Stand Another Chance making a nod as one of the memorable tracks of the decade. Produced by Jackson's brother, Marlon, Chance became so successful that it eventually peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart becoming one of the year's biggest singles on that chart. However, the album didn't show any sales growth or popularity for Jackson, despite a #19 showing on the R&B charts, the LP barely cracked the Billboard Top 200. Many critics thought Jackson's music career had hit a dead end. They would be proven wrong two years later with Jackson's turning-point album.
3. Control - released on February 2, 1986, this is the album that truly put the young Jackson on the map as a musical force on her own. It would be the first full-fledged project Jackson worked on with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, formerly of the Prince group, The Time . Yielding six smash hit singles including her first #1 Billboard Pop record, When I Think of You, the legendary Nasty, which featured the classic No, my first name ain't Baby, it's Janet, Ms. Jackson, if you're nasty line, and the classic ballad, Let's Wait Awhile were among the highlights. Topped as the 8th biggest album of '86 and the 5th biggest album of '87 by Billboard, Jackson sold over 10-plus million copies overall with this groundbreaking effort. After Control, Jackson hardly looked back.
4. Rhythm Nation 1814 - released on September 19, 1989, this album put Jackson in the pantheon of serious artists the same way that put rhythm and blues and soul superstar Marvin Gaye on the stratosphere of musical giants following his classic What's Going On album. Again accompanied by Jam and Lewis, the album discussed among other things racism, ghetto life, pollution, education and several other brewing issues. Some say this album was a precursor to the madness that followed in 1992 during the infamous Los Angeles . Nevertheless, the album has gone to become another top-notch achievement in the 23-year-old singer, who said she wanted to present an album where everyone can dance in unity. This time, Jackson notched 4 #1 Billboard hits, each on the Pop and Dance charts, as well as three #1's on the R&B charts, a #1 on the Adult Contemporary charts and a #1 on the Rock Singles chart. With 14 Billboard Awards to show for it, Jackson was now as big as older brother Michael and as big as two other pop phenomenons - singer Whitney Houston and the so-called queen of controversy Madonna. This turned out to be the R&B singer's last album for A&M Records after a nearly 10-year tenure as she signed a historic recording deal with Virgin Records in 1991.

Virgin Releases

1. janet. - released on May 5, 1993, this album was 26-year-old Jackson's first venture for the independent Virgin Records label. At the time, the label's biggest-selling artist was a former Jackson choreographer and future American Idol judge Paula Abdul, but Jackson easily beat Abdul in sales following the release of her self-titled debut. In her fifth solo recording as a singer in 11 years, Jackson had come a long way from the shy 16-year-old who was unaware of where she fit in the musical pantheon that had once been dominated by her own brothers. Now in her third venture with legendary producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Jackson wanted to tell her fans one thing - she was a sexually liberated being. And nothing was this more in tracks like That's The Way Love Goes (one of the singer's hugely successful singles to date), If (a Top 5 pop, R&B and #1 Dance record), Throb, The Body that Loves You and the legendary and memorable Any Time, Any Place (one of the biggest R&B hits in music history). It also proved much further that Jackson was a talented balladeer. Her song Again would give her an Oscar nod for Best Original Song due to the track being given the play after the end of Jackson's first box-office movie, Poetic Justice, while Goes ended up getting Jackson her first Grammy for a song and not just a video like her last Grammy gave her for Best R&B Song for that particular song (Jackson was the lyrical writer). All in all, this album proved to be the singer's biggest album to date.
2. The Velvet Rope - released on October 7, 1997, this was the first album by Jackson to not yield more than three singles off one album. The tradition of Jackson releasing more than five singles at once was broken in America while worldwide, Jackson released a total of six singles. Some of those songs - Got 'til It's Gone, Go Deep and Every Time became bigger hits in Europe and Asia while they were only known as hits for their eye-popping videos. But the songs that were released in America - the danceable AIDS-dedication, Together Again and the silky and seductive R&B romp, I Get Lonely - became big hits. The album focused on issues of pain, depression, abuse and sadness (and bondage and bisexuality among other issues) and for fans, seems to be the most misunderstood album of Jackson's career. Jackson further redeemed her career in her native soil thanks to the hugely successful world tour that followed.
3. All For You - released on April 30, 2001, Jackson's first album of the new millennium became a critical darling and a fan guilty pleasure because Jackson fans had been so used to the singer talking about painful issues in her music. Instead of pain though, Jackson wanted to show everyone that despite a nasty divorce with husband Rene Elizondo, Jr., the 34-year-old artist was moving on with her life. Again, the album only released three singles... and unfortunately so did most of the world, except Japan, who released a fourth single, Come On Get Up. Despite that, Jackson's title track became her biggest hit single since That's the Way Love Goes reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and staying there for seven weeks. The singer also became the only artist in history to have the song added to every radio station of any genre from mainstream pop to urban R&B nationwide. No other artist has tied it...yet. The album yielded a second big hit - Someone to Call My Lover. However, the video for the Carly Simon - sampled Son of a Gun was more memorable than the single, though the line "ha-ha, hoo-hoo, thought you get the money too, greedy motherf***er tried to have the cake and eat it too" line was a fan favorite for the most part. Critics took word on one song in particular that was more profane lyrically and visually than say a song from Prince, Marvin Gaye or even Donna Summer in her 70s heyday titled Would You Mind, which has become somewhat of a legendary song even without it being released.
4. Damita Jo - released on March 30, 2004, Jackson's eighth studio album is also one of the albums that many in American soil either didn't want to hear or were turned off not basically because of 37-year-old Jackson's lyrical takes on sexual liberation including Sexhibition, Strawberry Bounce, Warmth and Moist, but because of the controversy that had to deal with non-album matters. The much-talked about hoopla of what happen to Jackson at the 38th annual Super Bowl half-time show. But controversy aside, Jackson managed to squeeze a Billboard Top 40 hit at least on the R&B charts with the Kanye West -produced I Want You peaking at #18 on that chart. And while Jackson's two other releases Just a Little While and All Nite (Don't Stop) didn't become the big hits that they probably were supposed to on the pop singles chart, they gave Jackson two #1 hits on the dance singles chart. Even then, the album has still managed to garner Jackson some Grammy nominations - one for Best R&B Female Vocal Performance (I Want You) and Best Contemporary R&B Album for Damita Jo.

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