Someone Remind Us Why Rihanna is Famous
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010
After a rather dull night at a club, I downloaded a leaked copy of Rihanna’s new album. I thought I had heard a snippet of Enya on one of he new tracks. “There’s no way,” I thought. “Rihanna did not sample Enya.”
Now, I like generic pop as much as the next club-bound gay guy, but there’s a point where I have to draw some sort of thick line to preserve both my dignity and my I.Q. Her new album, entitled “Loud”, (perhaps more aptly titled “Loud and Bad”) has all the promisings of a commercial success — its generic nature ensures it. It’s pop music’s job to be general, to provide some sort of all-encompassing hook to ensnare its listeners. However, if there’s a way to make pop even more generic, Rihanna’s done it.
A practice which originated in the hip hop community in the 1970s, sampling, a term created to describe musicians using other musicians work within their own song, is a tricky craft to master. Often producers will use sampling to create a catchy, recognizable beat or chorus for the listener — a chorus that will make up for the lack of bridge and contemplative verses. And Rihanna abuses it. Unlike Kanye West, who, arguably, is the proclaimed king of sampling, Rihanna fails to be original in any possible way. Original without help from her producers, that is. West often creates his own videos, writes his own verses, and shamelessly promotes his image — an image he created, no matter how much of a douchebag savant he actually is. Nevertheless, his sampling is careful and creative.
Two songs on Rihanna’s new album, “Cheers” and “Fading,” use sampling to create a familiarizing hook for the hopefully brainless listener. Taking arguably the most catchy piece of Avril Lavigne’s “I’m With You” (the annoying shrill “Yeah, yeah, yeahs” that accompany each chorus), Rihanna has created a track that fits together about as well as wet puzzle pieces. Why anyone would want to resurrect such an ear-splitting, teenage angst anthem I don’t understand, but if you’re going to sample something well-known, make sure it’s done with some tact. Lavigne’s screechy lyrics are heard at the song’s very beginning and then disappear entirely, completely incongruous to the rest of the song.
I was not mistaken. “Fading” does indeed sample Enya. I understand wanting to bridge musical styles, but Enya? I do yoga to Enya. The beat is remixed to provide a catchy backdrop for the forgettable lyrics. Forsaking art for business is not only morally reprehensible, it’s derivative, and outright boring. The purpose of sampling is to constructively borrow from another artist to cleverly insert a recognizable beat or lyric into a new song. Artists and producers like Rihanna confuse the purpose of sampling: to carefully insert a song from the past into a current song, either to bridge styles or to attract a larger audience. Rihanna’s sampling seems both reckless and out of control, revealing pop as nothing more than business, and reducing Rihanna to a product.
This has been my problem with Rihanna from the beginning. She can’t sing (but Lord does she try), she doesn’t write her own music, she doesn’t conceptualize her music videos, and she doesn’t even design her own clothing — remind me why she’s famous. Please. I welcome the challenge.
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Some Marketing Machinery Made Her Famous
I totally agree.
sampling
hmmm