Janet Jackson really does deserve better.
The video for her new single "Feedback" seems like yet another haphazard step in this good-not-great portion of her career. "Feedback" looks cheap, but Jackson has the dancing chops to overcome that. (Remember "The Pleasure Principle"?) The problem isn't that it's low-concept, but that the low-concept is ridiculously bad. First, she's apparently queen of the world. Then, she and her dance troupe colonize Mars. Then, they apparently flee to a bowl of milk where they dance while trying to avoid getting hit by Kix cereal, where they -- spolier alert! -- drown in the milk. Luckily, Janet survives to do a CGI-enhanced dance break in a brand new outfit with some giant Kix cereal. But, um, why?
What makes the video maddening is that the choreography looks good and Jackson clearly still has skills, but instead of making the most of them, the video's cheesiness detracts from it. Even if she simply danced in front of an amplifier, the "Feedback" video would have been better.
Concepts aren't really all that important when the video stars Janet Jackson. You'd think that she and her handlers would know that by now.