Quote:
Originally posted by LDYGG
To be completely honest, Bey's power and influence is greatly hyperbolated. I honestly don't understand why people think she's so big when her last album and singles didn't do anything. Rihanna is indeed bigger than Rihanna right now and I think the sales prove it.
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I just don't understand what sales have to do with being perceived as being the HBIC?
Let me list a bunch of HBICs:
Madonna, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Diana Ross, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson, Beyonce.
What do they all have in common? They are all Superbowl headliners. Legends. HBICs. Don't you see? Being an HBIC goes far beyond sales performance. Who even knows what Paul McCartney's last album sold? It probably sold a lot less than Bruno Mars', and the singles surely did not perform anywhere near his. But is Bruno Mars an HBIC over Paul? No he is not because sales is only an indication of current trends, not lasting impressions. Paul couldn't be where he's at without sales, but at this point bringing them up is irrelevant. To scold his latest efforts and negate his past is foolish.
If we are continually going to use this "last album this happened" scenario, we might as well declare Adele the HBIC. Sales, sales, sales. She wins. But is she really in charge? No, she's just hugely successful in everything she does. And still she isn't in charge.
It's not that I'm trying to take away any of Rihanna's success, and I know that sales indicate buyer approval, but at this point I think people are just a little bit conditioned into buying her music (take that lightly please). It's not as if someone buying a song means that they think the artist is the best thing ever. They like the song. So they buy it. They like her music. So they buy it. She's a pop mainstay, but that's in the moment.