Quote:
Originally posted by Patrick
I chose to commend her (at least for her work on Rated R) because I did feel like it was different than most of the material that was out at the same time and I thought her decisions to work on that album with producers other than the very of-the-moment guys did result in work that was better than what the rest of the pack was coming up with. I suppose it boils down to personal opinion, and obviously many would disagree with me, but as far as I'm concerned, Rihanna's work on Rated R was better than the work her peers were releasing around the same time.
I think there's been a push to get Rihanna that hit, and she has since reached out to guys like Guetta who have a track record of creating some of the biggest songs of recent memory, or to create songs that have traits of the current hits. She is beginning to follow the pack again, and Only Girl is a definite step towards "the generic", but again, I suppose I have to disagree and I will maintain that it has a bit of a personal character that differentiates it from the other house inspired pop tracks that are currently dominating the airwaves.
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I did like Rated R, it's probably the greatest achievement of her career to date, but it failed commercially. Rihanna chose to move in a different direction to the sound that Lady GaGa and a few others had popularised. She was making a statement with the record, but nobody paid any attention to it. It didn't captivate the buying public, perhaps it pleased her fans but that's not enough to guarantee success these days. The majority of the people who purchase music are casual buyers, during the GGGB era Rihanna was the girl who best appealed to them. If her music was truly as innovative as you suggest then it would have had a greater impact.
She's totally backtracking from the sound she went with for Rated R for this new era. She's catching on to a trend that is already in full swing, she is certainly not going to be known as a pioneering force in the popularisation of europop because others did it before her. I think OG would have been more appropriate had it been released a year ago, it just doesn't sound fresh to me. It's a little late.