"[7] Joseph Jackson resented John McClain for what he saw as an underhanded attempt to steal his daughter's career out from under him, stating, "I've worked hard for my family.

"[10] He subsequently introduced her to the songwriting/production duo of James "Jimmy Jam" Harris III and Terry Lewis, former Prince associates and ex-members of The Time.

[11] When Jam and Lewis agreed to produce Jackson's third studio album, they wanted to appeal primarily to the African American community, in addition to achieving crossover success on the pop music charts.

"[4] Before their association with Jackson, Jam and Lewis had originally planned to record an album with tracks they wrote for Sharon Bryant, but she found their lyrics and sound to be too "rambunctious".

"[13] For the song "What Have You Done for Me Lately", which was originally penned for one of Jam and Lewis's own records, the lyrics were rewritten to convey Jackson's feelings about her recent annulment from James DeBarge.

[14] "Nasty", which in Jackson's opinion was the most innovative song on the album, was inspired by her experience with street harassment in Minneapolis by a group of men outside the hotel she resided at during the recording of Control.

Jam commented that it is common practice for songwriters to use current events as a means of inspiration for lyrics and that the AIDS pandemic had raised awareness about sexually transmitted diseases.

"[24] Alexander Fury wrote in The Independent, "the artwork created with Eighties illustrator Tony Viramontes for Control stands the test of time.

Author Dave Marsh in The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made (1999) comments: "Certainly, Janet must have written her own lyrics, which went after men—in particular, not very well disguised stand-ins for her father and former husband—more venomously than another guy would have dared.

"[28] Jonathan Cohen of Billboard magazine commented "[Jackson's] accessible sound and spectacularly choreographed videos were irresistible to MTV, and helped the channel evolve from rock programming to a broader, beat-driven musical mix.

[39] The song was compared favorably to similar recordings of female empowerment released by black women, such as "New Attitude" by Patti LaBelle, "Better Be Good to Me" by Tina Turner, and "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves" by The Eurythmics and Aretha Franklin.

[41] Critic Jon Bream noted "the songwriters have slyly juxtaposed a nasty-sounding groove and the repetition of the word 'nasty' with a subtle antinasty message.

[38] Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune commented in a similar vein to "Nasty", the ballad "throw[s] cold water on the passions of young love 'before we go too far'.

"[53] Newsweek stated "[i]n an era of big-voiced pop-soul divas ... her current hit album, is taut, funky, hard as nails, an alternative to the sentimental balladry and opulent arrangements of Patti LaBelle and Whitney Houston.

"[54] In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau "scoffed at Janet's claims of autonomy", but applauded Jam & Lewis's beats as "their deepest ever" while finding Jackson's contribution entertaining enough.

"[56] Jon Pareles of The New York Times notes Control takes obvious influence from Prince, describing "[t]he album's pacing, its clipped vocal lines—even the spoken introduction that starts things off" as pure Minneapolis sound; he adds "[b]ut where the Prince style is usually connected with heavy-breathing come-ons, Miss Jackson is cheerfully standoffish.

Eric Henderson of Slant Magazine expressed that the misconception that Control is Jackson's debut album only confirmed the "quintessential statement on personal and artistic self-actualization" that it set out to accomplish.

[29] Henderson claimed critics who judged Jackson harshly for her thin voice "somehow missed the explosive 'gimme a beat' vocal pyrotechnics she unleashes all over "Nasty" ... Or that they completely dismissed how perfect her tremulous hesitance fits into the abstinence anthem "Let's Wait Awhile.

"[29] However, Henderson also commented that the "Jam-Lewis formula wasn't completely infallible" as "You Can Be Mine" and "Funny How Time Flies (When You're Having Fun)", were two of the album's least impressive misfires.

[29] While William Ruhlmann of AllMusic commented Jackson "came across as an aggressive, independent woman", he asserts the album's true value is the production talents of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

[64] In The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Laura Sinagra said that on Control, "Jam and Lewis perfected their melodic, full-blown funk attack", while Jackson "filled each track with a breathy believability" with vocal performances that ranged from yearning to seductive.

[4] In The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion, and Rock'n'roll (1996) author Simon Reynolds wrote that "Janet Jackson became a superstar with the immaculately designed soft-core feminism of Control.

"[83] Jet magazine commented that although the Jackson family's musical legacy had given her an opportunity to tap into an international audience, Control was the turning point at which "her career took off and she became a bona fide superstar.

Its success in both the mainstream R&B and pop music charts "led to the incorporation of many of the stylistic traits of rap over the next few years, and Janet Jackson was to continue to be one of the leaders in that development.

[93] Los Angeles Times writer Paul Grein wrote a segment titled "The influence of Madonna and Janet Jackson", reporting Debbie Gibson's manager Doug Breitbart claimed "Madonna has brought back a really strong, melodic component to pop music", while Teen Beat editor Maggie Murphy remarked "Janet Jackson may have started this more than anyone else.

[95] Laura Sinagra documented that within two years of the release of Control, "a new crop of female singers (such as Paula Abdul and Karyn White) were charged with imitating Janet.

"[50] Anthony DeCurtis of Rolling Stone remarked: "Control—with its quintuple-platinum sales and string of hit singles—established" a then-twenty-year-old Jackson "as one of the most popular recording artists in the world.

And not only was Jackson’s maiden voyage with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis at the forefront of R&B, pop and hip-hop’s intersection, it birthed a novel sound in the process.

"[99] Kyle Anderson of Entertainment Weekly commented: "The videos from Control were all over MTV, and Janet established herself as an instantly dominant pop figure talked about in the same sentences as Madonna and her older brother Michael.

"[100] MTV's Meaghan Garvey asserted "it's hard to overstate the significance of Control, whether in terms of the pop landscape, the evolution of the music video as a vessel for promotion and expression, or Top 40 feminist anthems."