Songfacts®:

• VH1 asked Janet Jackson if this was the only baby-making song on the album. She replied: " I'm only putting one on this time. I did do another, but I'm not putting it on. Maybe I'll do it as a bonus record or something. There is another song that comes after [the title track]. It's has a sensual feel for sure, lyrically speaking, and it paints the whole picture of what I do on stage and taking it to the bedroom with him. But it's faster than 'Discipline' and it's called 'Curtains.'"
• Janet Jackson on her record label's website: "Discipline has been much on my mind. It's the idea that unifies the songs on this record. As a concept, and even a lifestyle, discipline goes extremely deep. It can be applied to so much about ourselves. In my case, I see it as one of defining aspects of my character. Discipline was there for me from the start. But it was not until this record that I began to understand its full meaning. In putting Discipline out front - as both the title of the album and title of a song about sexual surrender - I wanted to announce that I was venturing into new creative waters. That meant working with producers like Jermaine Dupri, Rodney Jerkins, and Ne-Yo, whose songs spoke to the immediacy of my emotions. Like all my records, this one, whether intentional or not, has autobiographical roots. It's difficult for me to work any other way. I don't feel it, if I don't believe it, I can't sing it.
  
  So Discipline, as a storyline, begins in my childhood which someone could see as a classic study in discipline. Discipline was part of a family culture that I absorbed. I was born with it. I also believe that discipline has given me the confidence to jump out of the nest. When L.A. Reid, Chairman of Island Def Jam, and I discussed co-executive producing this record, we both agreed that the feeling had to be adventuresome and fresh. I was interested in exploring musical scenarios-some exotic, many erotic, but all deeply emotional. I wanted to push the envelope. And I'm glad that 'Discipline,' both as a song and an album, does just that."
  
  Jackson then discussed how she has matured since her breakthrough album Control in 1986: "Funny, but my first big album also had a one-word title: Control. I was naïve in thinking that I could control every aspect of my life. The only one who really has control is God. But it took discipline-the discipline of thought, the discipline of action, the discipline of creating music-to make me see that. Finally, discipline has to do with faith. I have faith that a gentle but steady discipline will let me continue to grow as an artist and a woman."
• Jackson told Billboard magazine that the aim of the album was to innovate without totally reinventing the wheel: "There's so much that I've done, from 'Black Cat' to 'I Get Lonely' to 'That's the Way Love Goes' to 'Together Again.' I have never stuck to one style of music ever. There are some things that maybe I'll try for right now and some things I'll wait later on to try. It's [about] sticking to who I am. Even lyrically, something that I've experienced or someone that I know has experienced, it has to relate to my life and myself."