Robyn Rihanna Fenty, Born February 20 1988, is known by the mononym of Rihanna (2005-present), is a popular R&B/pop star who hails from Saint Michael, Barbados, although her mother was from Guyana. Discovered by Jay-Z, she gained fame in the music industry via her first single, "Pon de Replay".Her third album,Good Girl Gone Bad, is considered her breakout album, containing what many would call her Signature Song, "Umbrella." However, what catapulted her into mainstream worldwide focus was when she was physically assaulted by her then boyfriend, R&B singer Chris Brown, in February of 2009. The incident seemed to have changed her once upbeat and pop-laden image, as her more recent works, as well as her appearance, have become almost blatantly Darker and Edgier. Even her happy, upbeat songs have an edge to them that doesn't happen by accident...She is notable for having released an astounding six albums in six years leaving her in the public eye at all times in some form thanks to annual releases since 2005.Discography:
Bowdlerize: In "Unfaithful", the line "I might as well take a gun and put it to his head, get it over with" has the word gun bleeped out.
But Not Too Black: Some pictures of her show her like this. Not the one at the top of this page, though.
Broken Bird: Rated R and Talk That Talk show hidden issues and some of her workaholic choices show some kind of broken ness in her. See Heroic RROD for the worst case scenario
Censored Title: As a pathetic attempt at them trying to Think of The Children, "S&M" was retitled "Come On" by BBC Radio, in response to their ruling that the song could not be played on the air before 7 PM. The same edit of the song removed instances of the words "sex," "chains," and "whips," each with a Sound Effect Bleep in the form of a vinyl scratch. As well, the eponymous "S S S & M M M" hook was removed altogether.
Creator Backlash: She's mentioned several times that she really hates performing "Pon de Replay".
Creator Breakdown: Even before she went seriously Darker and Edgier, after Chris Brown assaulted her she appeared on a Vogue shoot bound and muzzled.
"Rated R" was her deciding to face her fears and deal with what happened with Chris. She was going to take a break but decided to do music instead.
"Talk That Talk" is like a second half of "Rated R" continuing to deal with the problems brought up by that album.
Then comes the "We Found Love" video, which features an Opening Narration about how sometimes you're willing to take the bad parts of a relationship because the good parts are just so good. Then the first half of the video depicts scenes of happy romance and misadventures of Rihanna and a Chris Brown lookalike, while the second half shows the fights that erupted after the happy parts of all those scenes.
Darker and Edgier: Her entire career after Chris Brown assaulted her, starting with Rated R. "Russian Roulette" is especially worth noting, as it is possibly her darkest song to date.
Rated R and Talk That Talk are much darker then the albums which came before them. Good Girl Gone Bad is very dark compared to her even earlier work.
Averted with "S&M", as it's pretty explicit with what she wants.
"Birthday Cake" is... not about a birthday cake. (The original interlude version is about female sexual empowerment, the Chris Brown version is about aggressive sex)
In "Cockiness (Love It)", she wants you to suck her cock...iness. And lick her persuasion...
Good Bad Girl: If her music is any indication, she thinks of herself this way. She has an album called Good Girl Gone Bad. See also her song "S&M": "I may be bad, but I'm perfectly good at it!"
Hell-Bent for Leather: Talk That Talk and Rated R's artwork theme, S+M discusses it and generally been playing with it since 2007.
Suck my cockiness Lick my persuasion Eat my words and then Swallow your pride down, down
The Illuminati: Much like Lady Gaga, she now uses a lot of Masonic and Illuminati symbolism in her videos.
Intercourse with You: "Rude Boy" deserves special mention. Also "Only Girl (In The World)", "Skin" "S&M" and many other songs, particularly of "Good Girl Gone Bad" and every single album after that point.
The Lad Ette: G 4 L (Titled together) is her gangsta side on show. (Gangsta for Life)
Love Nostalgia Song: A Million Miles Away, California King Bed and P.S. (I'm Still Not Over You)
Love Makes You Crazy: "Fire Bomb", "Rehab", "There's A Thug In My Life", "Stupid In Love", and really the greater Rated R and Talk That Talk projects.
Lyrical Dissonance: "Where Have You Been" is rather dark musically for a song about finding someone extremely special out of nowhere.
Mood Whiplash: On the album Loud, the tracklisting seems to be randomized. Point being that the slow, sad "Fading" is inbetween the upbeat "Cheers (Drink to That)" and "Only Girl (In the World)"
She Is All Grown Up: Has possibly gone off the deep end trying to invoke this.
Spiritual Successor: It has been implied that "Talk That Talk" is the second half of the "Rated R" project even though the albums are technically and creatively unrelated, they both are edgy, deep and extremely personal.
Where Have You Been can be seen as a successor to Disturbia visually.
Re Arrange The Song: As mentioned above, Birthday Cake (Interlude) on Talk That Talk is about female sexual empowerment and wanting to be pleased, the version with Chris Brown on it is about rough aggressive thankless make up sex after apparently a long time not being together.
The Unfair Sex: "Unfaithful" is a song about a woman who's cheating on her boyfriend, and she knows he knows, and she knows its hurting him terribly. At no point does she raise the possibility of stopping the affair. "Take A Bow" is about a woman kicking her boyfriend out because he cheated on her, and refusing to listen to his explanations.
Breakin' Dishes. If a guy did a song like that, he'd be scorned.
Wrench Wench: The first part of the music video for "Shut Up and Drive" is basically girls walking around in skimpy clothes or red jumpsuits fixing cars.
Woman Scorned: "Good Girl Gone Bad", "Breakin' Dishes", "Cold Case Love", "Coulda Been The One".
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