I saw Rihanna's new video last night for her song "Rudeboy" on MTV Hits. It was also the first time that I had listened to the song. On my commute to and from work I had recently heard little snippets of it on Kiss FM, although I had always changed the station.
The first observation that I had about her video is that it is very colourful, bold and primitive somehow. It immediately reminded me of Beenie Man's video for his song "Dude" from 2005. My second observation was Rihanna's dancing has become much sluttier since her last appearance in the video for "Hard" off the same "Rated R" album. Some of her dance moves are identical to those of Beyonce from her video for "Videophone" (2009), particularly her butt jiggling. Rihanna displays here without a shadow of a doubt, that she is a technically proficient dancer. There is more flesh on show than ever and one cannot deny that she smoulders. Her newfound sluttiness reaches its peak at one point in the video when she is dancing with a guy and takes a peek down his shorts.
However, the new direction that Rihanna has taken with her music has not impressed me lately. "Russian Roulette" was a tame first release and only ascended the Top 40 after her appearance at the end of November on X Factor. It seemed from this song that she had come back after the success of "Good Girl Gone Bad" (2007) with an edgier, darker sound to reflect her domestic abuse last year at the hands of Chris Brown. She followed up "Russian Roulette" with "Hard" which I believe is the worst Rihanna song after "Shut Up and Drive". In this song she has way too much attitude. It is clear to me that she is not hard - the stories that I have read about me makes me think the opposite: she is a whiny, selfish diva.
Her lyrics for "Rudeboy" are quite shocking in a sense considering how clean-cut Rihanna previously was. In the chorus she sings "Come here rude boy, boy, can you get it up? Come her rude boy, boy, is you big enough?" It seems apparent now that she not only wants a men who can pleasure her deep into the night but also a men who have large cocks. I have no problem with her saying what prefers in the bedroom nor would it make me uncomfortable in the knowledge that I would not measure up (not that I would ever get the chance to fuck Rihanna). It would not be the first time that a female solo artist has touched on this subject. I remember the line "Got a nice package alright guess I'm gonna have to ride it tonight" from Janet Jackson's song "All For You" (2001). However, in Rihanna's case it is completely different. She is still a young woman (turns 22 tomorrow according to Wikipedia) and I don't think that she has done enough in her career so far to justify such a stark change. She should have released at least one more pop album. In my opinion she is about as manufactured a popstar as you can get. She has built a big fan base with poppy upbeat hits like "Disturbia" and "Don't Stop The Music". Her music was not exactly meaningful, but it was formulaic pop at its absolute best.
Now it would seem as though she is keen to make some sort of statement with her music, the result of which has been awful so far. Every one I know who owns "Rated R" has said it is mediocre. From the singles she has released to date I would file it under "R" for "rubbish". I hope that she returns to her roots for her next album.
The first observation that I had about her video is that it is very colourful, bold and primitive somehow. It immediately reminded me of Beenie Man's video for his song "Dude" from 2005. My second observation was Rihanna's dancing has become much sluttier since her last appearance in the video for "Hard" off the same "Rated R" album. Some of her dance moves are identical to those of Beyonce from her video for "Videophone" (2009), particularly her butt jiggling. Rihanna displays here without a shadow of a doubt, that she is a technically proficient dancer. There is more flesh on show than ever and one cannot deny that she smoulders. Her newfound sluttiness reaches its peak at one point in the video when she is dancing with a guy and takes a peek down his shorts.
However, the new direction that Rihanna has taken with her music has not impressed me lately. "Russian Roulette" was a tame first release and only ascended the Top 40 after her appearance at the end of November on X Factor. It seemed from this song that she had come back after the success of "Good Girl Gone Bad" (2007) with an edgier, darker sound to reflect her domestic abuse last year at the hands of Chris Brown. She followed up "Russian Roulette" with "Hard" which I believe is the worst Rihanna song after "Shut Up and Drive". In this song she has way too much attitude. It is clear to me that she is not hard - the stories that I have read about me makes me think the opposite: she is a whiny, selfish diva.
Her lyrics for "Rudeboy" are quite shocking in a sense considering how clean-cut Rihanna previously was. In the chorus she sings "Come here rude boy, boy, can you get it up? Come her rude boy, boy, is you big enough?" It seems apparent now that she not only wants a men who can pleasure her deep into the night but also a men who have large cocks. I have no problem with her saying what prefers in the bedroom nor would it make me uncomfortable in the knowledge that I would not measure up (not that I would ever get the chance to fuck Rihanna). It would not be the first time that a female solo artist has touched on this subject. I remember the line "Got a nice package alright guess I'm gonna have to ride it tonight" from Janet Jackson's song "All For You" (2001). However, in Rihanna's case it is completely different. She is still a young woman (turns 22 tomorrow according to Wikipedia) and I don't think that she has done enough in her career so far to justify such a stark change. She should have released at least one more pop album. In my opinion she is about as manufactured a popstar as you can get. She has built a big fan base with poppy upbeat hits like "Disturbia" and "Don't Stop The Music". Her music was not exactly meaningful, but it was formulaic pop at its absolute best.
Now it would seem as though she is keen to make some sort of statement with her music, the result of which has been awful so far. Every one I know who owns "Rated R" has said it is mediocre. From the singles she has released to date I would file it under "R" for "rubbish". I hope that she returns to her roots for her next album.
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