Music Video
The video to the song, which was filmed in February 1990 and was styled to resemble a 1930s and 1950s musical, featured Cyd Charisse, The Nicholas Brothers, and Cab Calloway in one of his last on-screen appearances. Anthony Thomas choreographed the video. The video begins with Jackson and two male dancers, all wearing flashy zoot suits sitting on a bench. A paperboy throws newspapers on them. They wake up and read the frontpage of the newspaper, from which they learn Calloway is in town for the premiere of his Alright film. Jackson and her dancers take a cross-town journey to the premiere. There, Jackson, her dancers, and Calloway fans wait for Calloway to make his grand entrance. Jackson seemingly envisions herself as Calloway's glamorized female guest, getting pushed to the red carpet. Calloway takes her hand and helps her up. Jackson and her dancers get in Calloway's limo. They arrive at large dance out in the middle of a street. Jackson and her dancers climb on the back of a car and Jackson notices her watch is missing. They get off the car and are sprayed by a street cleaning truck. They sit on the bench. Later that night, Jackson and her dancers are homeless people asleep on the bench—revealing the video to have been a dream. Cab Calloway, in the meantime, walks to the bench and places Jackson's watch in her hand. He sneaks away saying, "Alright". There is also an extended version that features rapper Heavy D. Jackson won a Soul Train Music Award for Best R&B/Soul or Rap Music Video in 1991.
During MTV's first-ever mtvICON, Usher paid tribute to Jackson by be re-enacting the sidewalk bench routine from the "Alright" music video.
On May 24, 2007, the video was added to iTunes.
Recently, Chris Brown's video "Yeah 3x" pays tribute to this video.
Read more about this topic: Alright (Janet Jackson Song)
Famous quotes containing the words music and/or video:
“Now the rich stream of Music winds along
Deep, majestic, smooth, and strong,”
—Thomas Gray (1716–1771)
“It is among the ranks of school-age children, those six- to twelve-year-olds who once avidly filled their free moments with childhood play, that the greatest change is evident. In the place of traditional, sometimes ancient childhood games that were still popular a generation ago, in the place of fantasy and make- believe play . . . today’s children have substituted television viewing and, most recently, video games.”
—Marie Winn (20th century)