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Rihanna's prolificness in the music scene
From Billboard:
RIHANNA-MANIA? MAYBE.
By RICH APPEL
It took six weeks from top 40’s first play of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” until the Beatles ruled radio. It took 15 months from the debut of “Holiday” until Madonna was played once an hour. Which brings us to this week. It’s taken six-and-a-half years from “Pon De Replay” to—dare I say it, given “S&M” earlier this year— Rihanna’s domination. She has at least 25 songs in play, most notably the No. 1 “We Found Love,” second single “You Da One” and other tracks on new album Talk That Talk also getting spins. Along with songs from last album Loud (including “S&M”) and the earlier hits under her “Umbrella,” there are Rihanna’s multiple guest shots: She’s currently on Drake’s “Take Care,” Nicki Minaj’s “Fly” and Coldplay’s “Princess of China,” and past collaborations include Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie,” T.I.’s “Live Your Life” and Jay-Z’s “Run This Town.” A quick look at station logs through Nielsen BDS proves the rarity of a non-Rihanna hour at radio. This isn’t like the Beatles or Madonna blowups, where both acts were relatively new. Rather, it’s a success story built over time. It’s a bit reminiscent of Mariah Carey in the ’90s, except few of her songs had the staying power of Rihanna’s, and that was an era when top 40 was musically confused, with grunge and gangsta in the mix. Setting Rihanna apart from other artists who have ever taken over top 40: She doesn’t like taking time off. A hit every few months. An album a year, if you count the “Reloaded” version of Good Girl Gone Bad. (You should, since it added “Take a Bow” and “Disturbia” to the five hits on the original.) Between projects, she’s always managed to steal the show on someone else’s hit, as was the case on last year’s “Lie.” And she’s always managed to recover from missteps like “Shut Up and Drive” and “California King Bed.” With this level of exposure comes a concern for overexposure, like the type that did in the Bee Gees after Saturday Night Fever. With the lyrical direction taken by Talk, there’s also concern that Rihanna could push the envelope too far—the way Madonna may have in her “Justify My Love”/“Erotica” phase. Should neither of the above get in her way, Rihanna could keep delivering No. 1s on the Billboard Hot 100, challenging the Beatles’ total of 20. At the rate she’s going, she’ll get there by 2014. If her attitude and drive match those found in her lyrics, then, to quote “Cheers (Drink to That)”: “It’s only up from here, no downward spiral.” So, cheers to Rihanna on joining an exclusive club of top artists at top 40. I—and a lot of folks at Def Jam—drink to that.
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