Janet Jackson - Together Again

What this video is

Released in December 1997 as the second single from The Velvet Rope, 'Together Again' was written as a tribute to friends and communities devastated by the AIDS crisis. The video's utopian Afrocentric paradise — humans and animals coexisting in a sun-drenched spiritual afterlife — channeled the AIDS memorial culture of the late 1990s into a joyous, celebratory aesthetic rather than a mournful one. The near-$2M…

Why it matters

A landmark of late-90s dance-pop and garage house crossover, 'Together Again' demonstrated that house music's emotive architecture could anchor a mainstream #1 pop single with real thematic weight. The video's cinematic scale and Afrocentric futurist imagery set a benchmark for ambitious,…

The director

Seb Janiak is a French photographer and video director of Polish origin. He built an international career directing music videos and working as a fashion photographer before transitioning in 2009 to artistic and scientific research in art photography. His…