When a then 17 year-old Rihanna scored a hit song with 2005’s “Pon De Replay,” no one could have predicted the course the young singer’s career would take. Upon releasing her first number one single, 2006’s “SOS” from the album A Girl Like Me, she wasn’t regarded as much more than Beyoncé-lite, lacking both the vocal force and strong sense of showmanship that have defined the megastar’s ascendancy to pop music icon.
But no matter how many critics she has had, and there have been plenty, Rihanna has remained steady and established herself as a force to be reckoned with in the world of contemporary popular music.
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With her latest single “We Found Love” off the singer’s forthcoming sixth studio album Talk That Talk, Rihanna has scored her 11th number one Billboard Hot 100 single, breaking a three-way tie between herself, Stevie Wonder, and Whitney Houston and placing her behind only The Beatles (20), Mariah Carey (18), and Elvis Presley (17). Not only that, but she broke Madonna’s record for fastest solo artist to achieve 20 Top 10 singles in their career by a whopping five months, managing to do so in only six years and four months.
Not Beyoncé. Not Britney Spears. Not Lady Gaga. Not Christina Aguilera. Not even the interminable Janet Jackson. It’s the 23 year-old from Barbados that has surpassed all of her contemporaries and influences in the hit record making arena.
For some perspective, she hasn’t sold as many records worldwide as Madonna or Jackson or even Aguilera. She has never been regarded as magnificent vocalist in the vein of Beyoncé or Houston. She isn’t nearly as a theatrical a performer as Gaga. Artistically, she’s much closer to the sort of disposable glam rock influenced pop style of Katy Perry. So just how then has she managed to forge not only a sustainable and flourishing career but one that is record setting and has launched her into the icon stratosphere?
Rihanna has played to her strengths. She hasn’t attempted to wow anyone with her vocal range or elaborate stage show, because she doesn’t have a great voice and she can’t dance very well.
What she is very adept at is being a rock star. The tattoos, the devil may care attitude, the ever changing hairstyles and eye opening outfits all serve to create a persona that is at once identifiable, relatable, and just out of the reach of most ordinary people. She is endearing and likable, but edgy enough that she isn’t considered bubblegum pop any longer.
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She has used her good looks and sexiness to draw audiences in that would be less likely to be receptive to her musical output. It’s no fluke or surprise that Rihanna was named “Sexiest Woman Alive” by Esquire magazine. She has embraced her sex appeal in a way that rivals her idols Madonna and Janet Jackson and pushes the boundaries of what is considered acceptable sexual behavior for a young woman in today’s society.
She hasn’t sold sex so much as a healthy sense of sexuality, and it has made all the difference. When she sang about chains and whips exciting her in the aptly named “We Found Love,” the imagery in her videos has not shied away sensitive and taboo topics, causing widespread discussion on their impact and, perhaps more importantly for her own career, kept her name in the mouths of critics and taste-makers.
And of course there is the now infamous domestic violence incident with former boyfriend Chris Brown. The details of the 2009 Grammy night incident are well known by now, but beyond etching Rihanna permanently into the pop culture consciousness, it has provided her an opportunity speak on some very touch subjects, however subtly, and become a role model for other victims of abuse by coming out on the other side healthy and seemingly stronger.
Musically, she doesn’t deal with anything out of her vocal comfort zone. Her songs are pre-packaged guarantee hits because they are infectious on a number of different levels and are generally built for causing excitement on the dancefloor of nightclubs where not much else matters besides bass lines that are able to put bodies in motion. It’s often formulaic, but it’s a formula that works.
One could argue that it’s simply the time that we live in, that Rihanna benefits from a weak pop music scene that trots out so many would be stars with even more lackluster songs that hers simply stand out in a field of mediocrity.
It’s not an unfair assessment, but there’s also something to be said for the way Rihanna has been able to capitalize on that. She could have just as easily been one of those here today gone tomorrow types, but she has played the game better than all the others and won handsomely. As she gears up for the release of this next album, she is poised to continue building a legacy to last far beyond what any early doubters would have anticipated.
