"Miss Jackson" is a song by American rock bandPanic! at the Disco, released on July 15, 2013, as the first single for the band's fourth studio album, Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die!. The song features vocals from Lolo. A music video directed by Jordan Bahat accompanied the song's announcement as well as the album's title and release date, and headlining tour dates. It was the band's first release since 2011. The Butch Walker-produced track has been described as "darkly anthemic". It reached the top 10 on iTunes on its release and sold 56,000 digital downloads in its first week to debut at No. 68 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 27 on Digital Songs. In January 2015, it was certified Gold by the RIAA.
Writing and composition
"Miss Jackson" is titled after Janet Jackson and refers to her hit "Nasty" in the line "Miss Jackson, are you nasty?" during its chorus. "Nasty" is notorious for the line "My first name ain't baby, it's Janet - Miss Jackson if you're nasty", which became widely used in pop culture in various forms and is an iconic catchphrase. The song is one of Jackson's signature hits and was released as the second single from her breakthrough album Control. The song was originally titled "Bad Apple" as it contained a sample from Fiona Apple's tune "Every Single Night", but when the band played it for her she denied them publishing rights to use her melody. Lead singerBrendon Urie confessed to being 'pretty pissed' by the refusal, but also admitted he prefers the band's new approach to the song. In an interview with MTV, the lead singer Brendon Urie, says the lyrics were based on personal experiences:
"'Miss Jackson' is about something that actually happened to me when I was younger. I hadn't really talked about it, and I felt that if I didn't, I would keep thinking about it, it would drive me crazy. When I was younger, I would mess around; I'd sleep with one girl one night, sleep with her friend the next night, and not care about how they felt, or how I made them feel. And then it happened to me and I realized 'Wow, that's what that feels like?'"
Release
Regarding the band's decision to release "Miss Jackson" as the lead single from their fourth studio album, Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die!, vocalist and guitarist Brendon Urie stated, "Every song on the album is pretty different from one another, but there are a lot of the sounds of the other songs are kind of mixed together in . There are songs that range from something personal to something fictitious to a song about where I grew up in Vegas. This really sums up the vibe of the record, of this party record that we’re excited about." The song impacted alternative radio on July 30, 2013, and released to mainstream radio on November 11, 2013.
Music video
The music video for "Miss Jackson" was directed by Jordan Bahat and released on Fueled by Ramen's YouTube channel, featuring the American actressKatrina Bowden, who is known for playing Cerie on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock. The motel scene was filmed in Barstow, California. It starts with a flaming tire rolling around Urie's house. It then changes to Urie washing blood off his hands and enduring a flashback where he drove to a cult and decapitated the leader and goes back to him taking the role as new leader.
