"Parallel Lines: Media Representations of Dance" (1993) observed that in "Rhythm Nation 1814", Jackson represents a "modern good fairy" attempting to guide troubled youth to a more positive way of life. Each of the three segments serve a different purpose, beginning with affinity and companionship in "Miss You Much", followed by anger and frustration in her rooftop solo and ending with "Rhythm Nation", in which Jackson and her dancers "have become a uniformed, formidable army, whose controlled energetic moves and shouts project a disciplined resolution to inspire others through dance and music." Their group dynamic visually depicts a gender neutral equality, with Jackson "performing asexually and anonymously in front of, but as one of the members of the group." It is also noted that the success of the film is not only the final product, but in the commercial and social implications of its development. In selecting an unknown street dancer, Anthony Thomas, to develop her choreography, "Janet Jackson secures a threefold achievement: she satisfies the dictates of the commercial pop music industry by creating a dance image which is significantly different from her earlier work; she demonstrates that, despite fame, she is still in touch with contemporary youth pop culture and its fashions; and finally, she not the dance traditions of Hollywood musical ... but the work of a young black man whose training is outside the institutions of Western theatre and clearly an Afro-American cultural expression of the late 1980s." The film received positive reception. Jefferson Graham in "USA Today" commented that "she dances up a storm in the moody black-and-white video's three songs ... and plays the role of a mystical figure to young kids." Jon Pareles remarked that "[it juxtaposes her dance routines with grim urban imagery and a plot line about drugs versus dreams." It was later released on VHS and LaserDisc as the "Rhythm Nation 1814 Compilation", and reissued the following year with each of the album's promotional music videos. Jackson received two MTV Music Video Award nominations for "Best Dance Video" and "Best Choreography" for "Rhythm Nation", winning the latter.