Crown Yourself
August 15, 2018 2:58 PM   Subscribe

For most of my life, there has been a Rihanna single — or multiple Rihanna singles, or multiple songs defined by a Rihanna hook — playing prominently on Top 40 radio. So it's not enough to say Rihanna is the air. Rihanna shaped the texture and taste of the air by consistently doing what pop, at its very best, is supposed to do: taking disparate genres — rock, EDM, dancehall, trap and even dubstep — and turning them into something that makes sense to us, to everyone. If she's not seen as taking musical risks, it's only because so many of them paid off. Jenny Gathright argues for Rihanna as the most influential musician of the 21st century.
posted by ChuraChura (39 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
For most of my life, there has been a Rihanna single....playing prominently on Top 40 radio

I feel so old. So very very old.
posted by downtohisturtles at 3:21 PM on August 15, 2018 [26 favorites]


In addition to her obvious musical genius, her entire career has occurred during the time when "people don't buy albums anymore"-- and she's sold 250 million of them. And she's 30 years old. And impossibly beautiful. I can't even.
posted by gwint at 3:25 PM on August 15, 2018 [6 favorites]


Um...We’re not even 1/5th of the way into the century.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:26 PM on August 15, 2018 [10 favorites]


18 years in... isn't this like saying Edwin Edwards was the most influential musician of the 20th? After Edwards came Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Coltrane, Elvis, Lennon/McCartney, Aretha Franklin etc etc

I'm not doubting Rihanna's influence (though her music isn't my cup of tea) but maybe there's a way to argue she's influential without resorting to clickbaity superlatives?

Also I think the fragmentation of culture that's the outcome of late capitalism + handheld computers + big data + identity politics means there probably isn't a single cultural landscape over which one or a handful of artists can be influential. I think the idea of an American songbook is no longer possible.
posted by eustacescrubb at 3:29 PM on August 15, 2018 [10 favorites]


I just kind of assumed she meant "of the 21st century thus far"

because I took a peek behind the veil and the 2070s music scene is ì̷̛̖̠̞̽̈́̍̈̋̀̌͆̓͐̊͝n̵̙̠͓̫̖̠̹̪̺̦͓͎͛́͒̿̍͗̆̀͘͠s̸̰͉̝̳̥̭͙͎̭͎̓̅̄̑̕ͅǎ̷̢̧̭̫̝͈̘̘̟̦̖͉̙̝̒̓͐̚͜͠n̵̢͚͎̮͎̠̝̥̲̉͗̑̑͒͋̍͒̋̿͗̾̈͘͜͠ę̸̧̜̼͈̗͖͋̑̀.
posted by gwint at 3:35 PM on August 15, 2018 [11 favorites]


Hi! So this is part of the Turning the Tables project on NPR (previously) and I suppose I should have framed this better but that 21st century bit is part of the title of what I actually think is a pretty interesting piece about Rihanna and what we expect from pop stars and yes, the author of the piece is probably younger than you but she's also a fairly accomplished journalist. Imagine that I wrote "of the 21st Century so far," and take "for most of my life" in the slightly hyperbolic spirit it was intended (Pon de Replay hit number 2 on the US charts 13 years ago).
posted by ChuraChura at 3:36 PM on August 15, 2018 [10 favorites]


eustacescrubb, that last paragraph is pretty much what I had planned to say.

I don't think she's had any influence at all over the types of music that I listen to -- and to say that isn't to discredit her or the author in the slightest; it's just that the Venn diagram of musical culture has a lot of bubbles in it and they don't all touch in the same places.
posted by Foosnark at 3:40 PM on August 15, 2018 [5 favorites]


If you've come to challenge the premise that Rihanna is the most influential artist of the 21st century THUS FAR, that's fair, but please, posit your contender, that we may speculate as to whether they would be capable of besting Rihanna in a Music Battle

I want to see a giant smoking pile of beardy indie rockers when this is done
posted by prize bull octorok at 3:41 PM on August 15, 2018 [21 favorites]


Please don't think I don't consider effective and charismatic performance a perfectly good skill as the basis for a big pop star career, but as far as I know Rihanna doesn't write any of her own music, so it's kind of weird to argue for her "taking musical risks" and shaping the musical landscape and such, isn't it?
posted by praemunire at 3:42 PM on August 15, 2018 [6 favorites]


I'm going to admit that I know her only from the soundtrack of Home and her role in Battleship.
posted by SPrintF at 3:58 PM on August 15, 2018


The first song I ever stripped to was a Rihanna song. To be honest, I forget which one—I may have written it down somewhere? But the truth is that I’ve stripped to so much of her music since that much of it blends together. I’ve stripped to more of Rihanna’s music than any other artist’s, probably.

It was my audition. The DJ asked me what I wanted to dance to. I said didn’t know. I hadn’t thought that far ahead. He asked me what I thought the room wanted. I looked out at the men—a bunch of guys in their 40s and 50s, maybe a few in their 60s—and I said I didn’t know. He asked me what I listened to. I finally had an answer: “Rihanna.” He suggested a song by her, and it happened to be one I didn’t know at the time. But whatever, at least the artist would be somewhat familiar—the only damn thing in the entire audition process that was.

I was nervous. I changed in the bathroom, not the main dressing room, even though I was going be stripping onstage in minutes. And then onstage, the adrenaline kicked in. I didn’t notice that my new pair of cheap-ass, not-broken-in red pumps were ripping open blisters. In fact, it wasn’t until I stepped out of the club and into the sunlight that the pain kicked in and I realized my feet were bleeding. #sexxxy

Rihanna’s music has been a staple of my stripping career since that very first day. DJs getting to know me ask, “What’s your music?" And among the various artists and genres I list, I always mention Rihanna. Because no matter the DJ’s taste, I know he’s gonna have some Rihanna in his library, and we can get together on her music.

Moreover, Rihanna’s songs have become a key part of the soundtrack to my life. I listen to her music when I’m feeling sexy, when I’m feeling ugly, when I’m feeling powerful, when I’m feeling powerless. I strip to her music at the club and I listen to it on the drive home. I tap my foot to her music when I’m at a bar with my friends who know that I strip. I dance to her music when I’m at a bar with friends who don’t know that I strip. I’ve stripped to her music at clubs on small and large, shitty and upscale, domestic and abroad. She's got enough range that there's always a Rihanna song to fit my mood and current predicament.

Rihanna is a special artist to me. I'm glad to see someone making the case for her as the most influential artist of the 21st century (so far*).

*It’s 2018, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Who knows what I’ll be stripping to in the 2080s?
posted by Peppermint Snowflake at 5:11 PM on August 15, 2018 [37 favorites]


I would have said Beyonce' but honestly, I'm old, I listen to old people music and I really have no idea who the most influential artist of the 21st century is. I'm just happily surprised that it's not someone from some manufactured band.
posted by evilDoug at 5:19 PM on August 15, 2018


Also I think the fragmentation of culture that's the outcome of late capitalism + handheld computers + big data + identity politics means there probably isn't a single cultural landscape over which one or a handful of artists can be influential.

Rihanna's "authorial control" that the article talks about is to me clearly a marker of someone who is aware of and able to affect that fragmentation, and is part of why she is important as an artist.

It's a great article and worth reading, whether or not you are a fan of her music.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:11 PM on August 15, 2018 [7 favorites]


Maybe instead of everyone proudly declaring themselves old (I'm 51, I love Rihanna deeply, it's not a thing that's impossible) and ignorant, maybe read TFA and learn why someone thinks this artist is so influential. This was a thoughtful and well-written piece, worth your time even if you're counting down days til they put you in a nursing home.
posted by donnagirl at 6:36 PM on August 15, 2018 [16 favorites]


Nancy_LockIsLit_Palmer> I can, however, sing along to several songs from Al Bowlly.

Does Al Bowlly smoke blunts topless on a yacht? 'Cause that's how Ri-Ri do.
posted by UrineSoakedRube at 6:50 PM on August 15, 2018 [9 favorites]


Dip Flash, I did read the article, and I think I'm not its intended audience. It's clear from the article that the author really feels deeply about Rihanna's music and in that aspect of it I recognize my own deep feels about the recent careers of musicians (say, Brad Mehldau) but I had a hard time with the stuff I always have with articles about celebrities (e.g. the way the word "real" is used in a vague way to mean "authentic" or something like that, which is a way of framing things that doesn't work for me because I don't think "authentic" is an adjective that describes humans in a useful or enlightening way, and Rihanna, like any other pop star, manages a carefully controlled image that requires a team of people, the opposite of "real" as it's meant here, or, I'm not sure I buy "authorial control" as a defining feature of a perfomer who doesn't compose her own material, none of which are complaints about Rihanna but rather with the article ) - ultimately I didn't find it persuaded me of its thesis (Rihanna is THE MOST INFLUENTIAL musician of the first fifth of the 21st century).

It did make me empathize with the author, because I love certain music as passionately as she does, and I will probaly give some of the songs mentioned in the article a listen. And she mentioned Jamila Woods, whose debut album I think is great, so that was awesome
posted by eustacescrubb at 8:02 PM on August 15, 2018 [1 favorite]


I think the most influential musician of the first fifth of the 21st century is Max Martin. But Kudos to Rihanna for having such an influential career without giving Max a single writer's credit.
posted by mmoncur at 8:45 PM on August 15, 2018 [5 favorites]


The first song I ever stripped to was a Rihanna song. [snip] I didn’t notice that my new pair of cheap-ass, not-broken-in red pumps were ripping open blisters. In fact, it wasn’t until I stepped out of the club and into the sunlight that the pain kicked in and I realized my feet were bleeding.

Ginger effing Rogers, backwards, forwards, and naked but for the bloody high heels.
posted by pracowity at 12:46 AM on August 16, 2018 [3 favorites]


I've thought a lot about Rihanna and her music, and I'm inclined to agree with the author. (I'm 51 and find people my age who are proudly ignorant of [insert popular-with-the-youts music genre or artist here] puzzling, but whatever floats anyone's boat.)

I know that (say) Beyoncé is probably a more of a musical genius than Rihanna is, and while I love B's music too--perhaps even "admire" the accomplishment of it more--given the choice of only being able to listen to one or the other, I'd pick Rihanna in a heartbeat.

One thing I've learned being an old is that, yes, often an artist is standing on the shoulders of many others, credited or not--but, frankly, fuck that line of thinking. It's ultimately meaningless in any context of consequence, can be applied to 99.98% of all artists, and is usually just a ham-handed attempt to belittle the artist being referenced.
posted by maxwelton at 3:08 AM on August 16, 2018 [6 favorites]


Rihanna is a force. Not only does she cross musical genres pretty competently and manages to always sound current, she's also been a savvy businesswoman, capitalising her Fenty namesake into fashion (from luxury to streetwear to lingerie), acting, philanthropy, and beauty. Fenty Makeup has been discussed on Metafilter for rocking the conversation around diversity and inclusivity in the beauty industry. Met Gala 2018, which she was honorary co-chair, was also much discussed. Metafilter loves Beyonce and so do I, but I actually think Rihanna has been more influential in a wider context around multiple industries compared to Beyonce.

She's also been able to take full control of her narrative. This can not be overstated. Her experience with being assaulted by Chris Brown could have gone a completely different way but she's come out stronger and more influential and as far as I'm aware he's still a fucking loser. She refused to let Drake's infatuation overtake her hard earned moment of recognition and I don't have enough likes for this meme.

As the kids say, I stan Rihanna.
posted by like_neon at 4:03 AM on August 16, 2018 [13 favorites]


It’s so weird how as a culture we like to shit on female artists who don’t do all of the work themselves, with no help. Taylor Swift gets a pass because she writes songs (and some other reasons, gosh, what could they be?), but praise Rihanna or Beyoncé and even at enlightened, liberal Metafilter you’ll get people rolling up to tear them down because they’re not writing every lyric, running every mixing board, and sewing every sequin onto their own costumes. It’s so weird. I don’t see folks doing this to male artists. Just... certain female artists. Gosh. I wonder what it is about them that makes people need to do that.
posted by palomar at 6:19 AM on August 16, 2018 [14 favorites]


(also, she has writing credits on 55 songs)
posted by ChuraChura at 6:24 AM on August 16, 2018 [12 favorites]


Over the past couple of years, I've been trying to expand my understanding of the history of American music, and the latest step I've undertaken to further that goal has been to start working my way through the complete works of EVERYBODY appearing on DJRob's list of the "100 Greatest Black Artists of All Time". It's early days yet in this project; I just this week finished the playlist for 1931, which is only far enough along to have reached the recorded output of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie.

Nobody's suggesting those guys aren't legitimate artists, right? And legitimately great, as well? I hope?

Because I'll tell you what: when you scrutinize their discographies, you find them covering a fuck of a lot of other's people's compositions. That's true even for Ellington, who's KNOWN for having composed a vast amount of music himself. So let's maybe dispense with the bullshit "ShE dOeSn'T eVeN wRiTe HeR oWn MuSic!!!!" arguments, which are sexist as fuck, and per ChuraChura's comment above, factually fucking incorrect. Jesus wept.

Oh, also: Rihanna appears at #27 in the list I linked above, and I dare anybody to come up with a convincing argument why she shouldn't, or why anyone should care if you "think's it ok she's on there, but she's just not my thing, y'know?"
posted by Ipsifendus at 6:36 AM on August 16, 2018 [10 favorites]


I like Rhianna way better than most of the pop artists my kids make me listen to, but for most influential I'd still say Beyonce or Bruno Mars. I also think that Rhianna suffers 'Kiss syndrome', where like the band Kiss, like 50% of her songs are the chorus, but she writes or performs better songs than Kiss, so I give her a pass. The worst thing she's done in my eyes is not edit down Jay-Z's stupid hacky intro for her song Umbrella to 'little miss sunshine Rhianna where you at'.
posted by The_Vegetables at 6:42 AM on August 16, 2018


I mean, fucking hell:

but as far as I know Rihanna doesn't write any of her own music

Maybe look it up, before you make this goddamn argument?
posted by Ipsifendus at 6:47 AM on August 16, 2018 [10 favorites]


Maybe look it up, before you make this goddamn argument?

Oof, yeah, I took praemunire's statement as fact and I also should have looked it up. Thanks for the correction, ChuraChura.
posted by eustacescrubb at 7:06 AM on August 16, 2018


"people don't buy albums anymore"-- and she's sold 250 million of them

As far as I can tell, this is not even close to correct in light of the first phrase. Wikipedia's citations for worldwide sales of her eight studio albums total in the mid-30s. Her 230-262 million certified units are mostly not people buying albums; they're streams.
posted by aaronetc at 7:41 AM on August 16, 2018


People tend refer to full-length musical releases as an "album" regardless of whether it had its initial release on vinyl, CD, or bits. The point being made is that, streaming or not, people paid for her specific albums 230-262 million times, rather than just, say, listening to it on Spotify.
posted by Ipsifendus at 7:47 AM on August 16, 2018 [3 favorites]


Except that number includes Spotify, is my point. "Certified units" are not "specific albums" anymore. 1500 streams now gets you the equivalent of an album sale, even if it's 1500 streams of one song.
posted by aaronetc at 8:17 AM on August 16, 2018


Anything to delegitimize her work. Damn.
posted by palomar at 8:51 AM on August 16, 2018 [5 favorites]


I don't think it's de-legitimizing her work to be accurate about statements regarding her album sales.
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:55 AM on August 16, 2018


Go look at the list of all-time top sellers -- it's not just Rihanna. There are many artists on there whose work is primarily in the last 10-15 years who have not sold hundreds of millions of "specific albums." Eminem, Kanye, Taylor Swift, Beiber are all in this same boat. The reason goes back to what the original comment claimed to be countering: People don't buy albums anymore. Saying people don't buy albums anymore and yet Rihanna's sold 250 million of them in 10 years is totally misleading. If what she's sold (or whatever the proper verb is for streaming) count as albums bought, people do still "buy albums," and the context of the claim is all wrong. If they don't count, the number is all wrong.
posted by aaronetc at 9:03 AM on August 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


it may be accurate, but it's also in the context of a thread full of people troubling themselves to take her down a peg.

by the way folks, if "I don't care much for [black artist] but I loooove [other, marginally more famous black artist]" is part of your arsenal of takes, it's time to retire it
posted by prize bull octorok at 9:05 AM on August 16, 2018 [9 favorites]


Yeah, the nitpicking over terminology used when discussing music sales is weird, like the entire industry hasn't changed dramatically in the past decade, like every recording artist's sales/plays aren't measured by the same metrics, like someone's trying to play a trick on you and by god you're not going to let that stand. Good lord.
posted by palomar at 9:08 AM on August 16, 2018 [5 favorites]


Mod note: folks, maybe unstick from the album/song distinction if you're not bringing it back to the topic of the thread?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:13 AM on August 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


That just means she has 82 more years to widen her lead.
posted by whuppy at 11:24 AM on August 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


That just means she has 82 more years to widen her lead.
That's actually my favorite part of country music vs pop - that older country artists are able to not only keep performing but also get played on the radio, even if it's independent radio vs big money radio, so the casual fans still get to stay in touch. So I'd just love to see a 75 year old Rhianna out there still singing and dropping new records.
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:49 PM on August 16, 2018 [3 favorites]


Rihanna and Childish Gambino Spotted Filming in Cuba
The two superstars are both cast members of Guava Island, a new movie from Atlanta director Hiro Murai, according to Vistar. Murai also directed Childish Gambino’s polarizing “This Is America” music video.
posted by like_neon at 3:09 AM on August 17, 2018


Thanks for posting this. Rihanna is a treasure. Anti is a masterpiece and an album that I listen to more than any other. It has songs for all times and places. If you have never listened to Rihanna, or new music, Anti is the album I would suggest to start with. It makes me want to dance, cry, scream, smile, lol, and much more. Shit, there is a Tame Impala cover that may be better than the incredible original (listening to them play at the same time is pretty great, too).

Arguing over most influential musician in whatever time period will never end, but Rihanna has a prominent place in the argument for her time.

For context, this is coming from a 40 yo white male (apparently a youngster) who signed up after years of lurking to finally comment.
posted by dark matter at 8:28 AM on August 17, 2018 [8 favorites]


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