during the ‘80’s most girls were either into madonna, janet jackson or whitney houston. of those three, janet jackson was my favorite. madonna spent a good portion of the decade mimicking b-girls and everything grace jones did during the ‘70’s, and i always felt like i could go to any church in america and hear someone sing like whitney houston...or better.
then along came jody watley. she returned to the u.s. in the mid-’80’s after spending a few years living in london and recorded her self-titled solo debut. she completely broke away from her former life as a soul train dancer and one-third of shalamar. everything from her voice to her style whispered individuality. her videos always looked like some avant-garde fashion shoot--my favorite being 1987’s “still a thrill” shot in black and white in paris. not since janet jackson’s “pleasure principle” had a music video been that well-executed in a minimalistic way.
ms. watley never blatantly copies from any particular artist. instead, she takes her influences and breaks them down to fit her own personality. her voice is simultaneously boutique, sexy and soulful--a feat even diana ross never quite mastered. when i was trying to find myself as a little girl, it was nice to see the end result of the journey in finding one’s own identity, manifest in someone like her.
i exhausted my mother, asking her to style my hair like ms. watley’s. her look on the cover of her larger than life album was my favorite: her hair is slick, straight and brushed back into an even, straight line that hits the middle of her back. her wardrobe staples of crinoline skirts, pedal pushers, bustiers and hightop canvas converse made up the required uniform for her one-woman army. because of ms. watley, i still get cravings for chucks. during her ‘80’s dance pop peak, i owned three pairs: my dad bought my first pair which were red, then came the blue-green and gray-pink.
her song “friends” was one of the first pop songs to effectively utilize an mc (in this case, rakim) throughout a song, not just for a few bars. her carpenters medley on her latest album, the makeover, reinvents the cover song. her voice on “close to you,” “superstar” and “we’ve only just begun” wraps karen carpenter’s melancholic undertones in sensuous layers of silk fabric.
she keeps carving out her own space in a hardened music industry that doesn’t know what to do with artists over 35 years old. she’s had her own independent label since the mid-’90s, long before most musicians recognized the necessity of owning their work.
over the years, my concentration on ms. watley has seesawed as i’ve gotten into other artists, but there will always be a part of my heart reserved only for her and at least one pair of chucks.
