It’s halftime of Superbowl XXXVIII (or 38 for you non-romans) The New England Patriots lead the Carolina Panthers 14-10 and will eventually go on and keep their lead to win their second Superbowl in three years. The win for New England isn’t what is remembered at this particular Superbowl, however, it’s the hijinks that occurred during the halftime show. This week The Beat Marches On to 1st February 2004 the date of the infamous wardrobe malfunction.
The show which was headlined by Janet Jackson, had ex-*NSYNC member and new solo star Justin Timberlake on as the final act of the show, performing his latest single Rock Your Body. As the pair danced together throughout the song Timberlake ripped off a piece of Jackson’s dress (designed by Alexander McQueen) to reveal a red laced bra. The tear-off didn’t go as planned though as it exposed the Rhythm Nation’s singer’s right breast to the 143 million viewers.
The host channel Columbia Broadcast System, or CBS cut away from the exposure less than a second after it happened, but the damage was already done. The Federal Communications Commission, or FCC was flooded with complaints from across the country. 540,000 in total.
As soon as the boob was exposed the production company of the halftime show, Viacom and MTV released a statement about the incident explaining ‘The tearing of Janet’s costume was unrehearsed, unplanned, completely unintentional and was inconsistent with assurances we had of the content of the performance’ Essentially covering themselves for any blowback, and boy would there be blowback.
At this time in America, there was a growing concern from conservative Christian parents and the FCC about the growing amount of sex, violence, and obscene language used in media. All they needed was someone to be made an example of and as soon as the wardrobe malfunction happened it fell on a plate for them.
CBS was taken to court by the FCC over showing the incident which let’s not forget that it was on screens for less than a second, and the broadcasting company were fined $550,000 effectively $1000 per complaint. The court battles lasted until 2012. They decided to take out the repercussions on Jackson.
Janet made a statement on the Monday after the big game taking full responsibility for the exposure. Explaining the tear-off was a last-minute decision after the final rehearsal and that it went wrong. This wasn’t good enough for the TV networks as they wanted her to make a recorded statement the following day. Reiterating that she was to blame.
Then the snowball was falling down the mountain faster and bigger as it affected her chart sales and record exposure. The parent company of CBS, Clear Channel Communications, decided to ban her videos and singles, past and present, from being broadcast. Essentially blacklisting the star. The singer was banned from the Grammy’s that year even though they said they wouldn’t. She lost film roles and had to resign from a multi-film deal. Even Disney turned their back on the star, as they dismantled a Mickey Mouse statue that was wearing an outfit from her breakout album Rhythm Nation.
In an attempt to stop the fall from grace, Jackson appeared on the comedy sketch show SNL. She mocked the whole situation but it didn’t really work and the singer went away from the limelight. In a pre-cancel culture, she was cancelled, even though it wasn’t her fault. It was Justin Timberlake who pulled the dress off.
Did Timberlake get any of the blowback that Janet Jackson did? The short answer is no. He carried on his career and became a huge superstar in music and film. He was allowed to perform and attend that year’s Grammys. He kept quiet during the whole explosion of reports other than one comment to Access Hollywood ‘Hey man, we love giving you all something to talk about’
JT did comment about the incident in 2006 promoting his next album Future Sex/Love Sounds, he admitted he should have handled it better, it’s been classed as an apology or as close as we’re going to get to an apology. The singer even headlined his own Superbowl halftime show in 2017. Jackson did admit in an interview that he did call the singer to see how she was coping with the backlash.
The FCC on the other hand wanted blood. They cracked down on nudity, violence, and language in the media. It drove some of the shock jocks away, the biggest of which was New York DJ Howard Stern who moved from broadcast radio to a then-new satellite radio, which wasn’t ruled by the FCC.
No one was safe from the indecency police, even the animation show Family Guy who was fined for showing a character’s backside from a repeat. They retaliated with a parody song about the organisation.
The cracking down by the FCC did have people questioning their power. It felt that it was affecting the First Amendment right, the right to free speech. It was a difficult line to cross as you didn’t want the youth to see or hear the bad images or the obscene language. However, you don’t want to stifle the creativity of the media.
There is one positive from the incident, it would become one of the inspirations for arguably the internet’s most famous and successful websites, YouTube. Apparently, Jawad Karim started coding the website that very night because he was frustrated that he couldn’t find the footage online.
The reaction from everyone involved was an overreaction. In reality, when do people react normally to this sort of thing? The NFL’s next five Superbowl halftime shows were all men. The blackballing by the television network owners was such an overreaction that Janet Jackson never really recovered from it. The singer was the most googled person on the internet for two years afterwards. Yes, it was her body that was exposed, but if it happened to someone the likes of Madonna the reaction probably wouldn’t be so severe.
The Beat Marches On is a music blog written by Jimmy Whitehead. Jimmy has been blogging for six years specialising in Sports (especially American Football). If you want to follow Jimmy on Twitter: @Jimmy_W1987
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The websites used for research were:
Janet Jackson Super Bowl Incident: What Happened Afterwards | Billboard – Billboard
What Really happened Between Janet Jackson And Justin Timberlake? | Goalcast
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