Funk influenced
Funk : Deja Vu/Suga Mama/Freakum Dress
Go-Go/Funk : Work it Out/Crazy in Love/Green Light
Afro-funk : End of Time/Grown Woman
Dance-Funk: Schoolin' Life/Lay Up Under Me
Dance influenced
Dance-pop : Sweet Dreams/Single Ladies
Electro-pop : Radio
Disco : Naughty Girl/Why Don't You Love Me
Hip Hop influenced
Rap : Diva/Back Up/I Been On
Hip Hop-Soul : Check on It/Upgrade U
Bounce : Get Me Bodied/Single Ladies
Electro-Hip Hop/Crunk : Video Phone
Reggae influenced
Dancehall : Baby Boy/Naughty Girl/Run the World/Countdown
Reggae-pop : Standing on the Sun
Rock influenced:
Soft-rock : If I Were a Boy/Smash into You
Indie-pop : That's Why You're Beautiful/Satellites
Pure pop ballads
Irreplaceable
Halo
Broken Hearted Girl
Soul Ballads:
Dangerously in Love 2
Resentment
Listen
1+1
Honest to God she deserves no credit for her diversity. I saw a video of her getting interviewed and she's all like 'da producer just tells me how to sing it and he's like 'sing it more staccato' and I'm like wat I do not know wat that means.' She has noooooo knowledge of music terminology, they jus tell her how to sing everything, and because (my assumption) she just does what they tell her to do its easy for the producer to get the right sound from her.
Quote:
While recoding tracks for her third studio album, Good Girl Gone Bad, Rihanna took vocal lessons from Ne-Yo. Speaking of the experience she stated, "I've never had vocal training, so when I'm in the studio, he'll tell me how to breathe and stuff... He'll call out these big fancy words: 'OK, I want you to do staccato.' And I'm like, 'OK, I don't know what that is.'"[
She was 19 and she had no previous music education beforehand
Like she literally went from high school to recording music
Yes, your assumption. Because you, nor any of us, know anything about Rihanna's recording process
Funk influenced
Funk : Deja Vu/Suga Mama/Freakum Dress
Go-Go/Funk : Work it Out/Crazy in Love/Green Light
Afro-funk : End of Time/Grown Woman
Dance-Funk: Schoolin' Life/Lay Up Under Me
Dance influenced
Dance-pop : Sweet Dreams/Single Ladies
Electro-pop : Radio
Disco : Naughty Girl/Why Don't You Love Me
Hip Hop influenced
Rap : Diva/Back Up/I Been On
Hip Hop-Soul : Check on It/Upgrade U
Bounce : Get Me Bodied/Single Ladies
Electro-Hip Hop/Crunk : Video Phone
Reggae influenced
Dancehall : Baby Boy/Naughty Girl/Run the World/Countdown
Reggae-pop : Standing on the Sun
Rock influenced:
Soft-rock : If I Were a Boy/Smash into You
Indie-pop : That's Why You're Beautiful/Satellites
Pure pop ballads
Irreplaceable
Halo
Broken Hearted Girl
Soul Ballads:
Dangerously in Love 2
Resentment
Listen
1+1
Also Opera and Rap=Bow Down Rihanna
Jazz= Scatting just for Vegas
Rihanna certainly has the one of the most diverse catalogues if not the most of our generation. But as for being the most diverse artist, I'm not quite sold on that. The reason being that her vocals (what are to be considered her artistry) remain pretty much the same per song. The only notable changes she makes her to voice is perhaps on any reggae song or sub-genre where she uses her island accent a bit more, but that is more linguistics than artistry to me. Her vocals on an R&B song are not that different than that of a Euro-pop song and when she does change her vocal style, it is mimicking that of the person who wrote the song (Esther Dean, Sia) leading us to believe that the diverse comes not from her vocals, but from her choice of production and/or songwriter (if that is her choice) and that to me is a stretch to consider her "artistry."
I know the OP predicted this sentiment to be brought up, so I'm really not trying to shade Rihanna here. The OP clearly knew the answer to this question.
So she is perhaps the most fluid artist but diverse, I'm not convinced.
Funk influenced
Funk : Deja Vu/Suga Mama/Freakum Dress
Go-Go/Funk : Work it Out/Crazy in Love/Green Light
Afro-funk : End of Time/Grown Woman
Dance-Funk: Schoolin' Life/Lay Up Under Me
Dance influenced
Dance-pop : Sweet Dreams/Single Ladies
Electro-pop : Radio
Disco : Naughty Girl/Why Don't You Love Me
Hip Hop influenced
Rap : Diva/Back Up/I Been On
Hip Hop-Soul : Check on It/Upgrade U
Bounce : Get Me Bodied/Single Ladies
Electro-Hip Hop/Crunk : Video Phone
Reggae influenced
Dancehall : Baby Boy/Naughty Girl/Run the World/Countdown
Reggae-pop : Standing on the Sun
Rock influenced:
Soft-rock : If I Were a Boy/Smash into You
Indie-pop : That's Why You're Beautiful/Satellites
Pure pop ballads
Irreplaceable
Halo
Broken Hearted Girl
Soul Ballads:
Dangerously in Love 2
Resentment
Listen
1+1
And the thing is, Beyoncé changes her voice on these records too. Like, most of her songs are funk and R&B influenced, so she uses her actual live voice on a lot of these studio recordings, but when she does a song like Sweet Dreams or Naughty Girl she changes her voice and makes it a bit softer. Or how about those operatic High C's on I Been On. Or her hard hitting voice on Diva, compared to the softer tone in Speechless. Truly versatile.
I don't know anything about Beyonces music because I have listened to none of it besides a couple singles so I probably shouldn't have made that assumption
But things like 'funk influenced' and 'hip hop influenced' really fall under the umbrella of R&B. they aren't much different from each other so you can't claim its a completely different genre
Lol. I realized I don't need to post all of her songs it will take so much time since all her songs are categorized to different genres, not try-hard genres. And even so, GP knows the real tea.
Also Opera and Rap=Bow Down Rihanna
Jazz= Scatting just for Vegas
RihRih could never.
And the Jazz breakdown in Bootylicous, or are we just talking about solo? And if so would Fever count?
And did you not mention R&B and all the sub-genres because that is her obvious genre? Because as well as doing contemporary R&B songs (I Miss You, Kitty Kat, etc.) she does classic R&B (The Closer I Get to You with Luther Vandross) and old-school R&B (all the Etta tracks she recorded) and then there are her gospel moments (with DC though).
Lol. I realized I don't need to post all of her songs it will take so much time since all her songs are categorized to different genres, not try-hard genres. And even so, GP knows the real tea.
What is a try-hard genre? You mean like neo-pop-reggae-soul-rap-ska-opera-dance?
I would agree that Rihanna was the most diverse artist out of the pop girls, if she was actually more present in creating the music. But, since she hardly pens or produces songs (hardly, not never) unlike other artists like Beyoncé, Gaga, Katy, Kelly, P!nk, etc. I would just say she has the most diverse production and writing teams.
Also Opera and Rap=Bow Down Rihanna
Jazz= Scatting just for Vegas
RihRih could never.
Yes, let's talk about versatility. Let's just pretend they're also performers for a moment and ignore the fact that they all work with millions of different producers and that's why they're all so versatile. Let's look at the vocals.
Scatting/Jazz vocals ^see above
"Operatic" vocals on I Been On
Soul vocals
Rap vocals
Classical vocals after 1:50
Lighter tone
Darker tone
Obviously, she doesn't do anything as well as she does Soul, but she shows off her versatility as a singer all the time.
Rihanna certainly has the one of the most diverse catalogues if not the most of our generation. But as for being the most diverse artist, I'm not quite sold on that. The reason being that her vocals (what are to be considered her artistry) remain pretty much the same per song. The only notable changes she makes her to voice is perhaps on any reggae song or sub-genre where she uses her island accent a bit more, but that is more linguistics than artistry to me. Her vocals on an R&B song are not that different than that of a Euro-pop song and when she does change her vocal style, it is mimicking that of the person who wrote the song (Esther Dean, Sia) leading us to believe that the diverse comes not from her vocals, but from her choice of production and/or songwriter (if that is her choice) and that to me is a stretch to consider her "artistry."
I know the OP predicted this sentiment to be brought up, so I'm really not trying to shade Rihanna here. The OP clearly knew the answer to this question.
So she is perhaps the most fluid artist but diverse, I'm not convinced.
You're probably the only one that has actually discussed her diversity rather than just saying 'No' so thanks
And I do agree her voice sounds the same in a lot of songs but in terms of the production most of her songs sound completely different. From the Latin influences of Te Amo to the EDM of We Found Love to the Reggae of Man Down and the Urban influences of Pour It Up to the Dubstep of G4L, you can really see how far she goes with the music and the choice of producers or writers
And by making music that sounds so sonically different, she reaches a wide range of music listeners.
And the Jazz breakdown in Bootylicous, or are we just talking about solo? And if so would Fever count?
And did you not mention R&B and all the sub-genres because that is her obvious genre? Because as well as doing contemporary R&B songs (I Miss You, Kitty Kat, etc.) she does classic R&B (The Closer I Get to You with Luther Vandross) and old-school R&B (all the Etta tracks she recorded) and then there are her gospel moments (with DC though).
Rihanna certainly has the one of the most diverse catalogues if not the most of our generation. But as for being the most diverse artist, I'm not quite sold on that. The reason being that her vocals (what are to be considered her artistry) remain pretty much the same per song. The only notable changes she makes her to voice is perhaps on any reggae song or sub-genre where she uses her island accent a bit more, but that is more linguistics than artistry to me. Her vocals on an R&B song are not that different than that of a Euro-pop song and when she does change her vocal style, it is mimicking that of the person who wrote the song (Esther Dean, Sia) leading us to believe that the diverse comes not from her vocals, but from her choice of production and/or songwriter (if that is her choice) and that to me is a stretch to consider her "artistry."
I know the OP predicted this sentiment to be brought up, so I'm really not trying to shade Rihanna here. The OP clearly knew the answer to this question.
So she is perhaps the most fluid artist but diverse, I'm not convinced.
At least you didn't try to sound pressed about the issue. It's just a matter of yes or no. Yes, this is your opinion, but rmember one thing, you know nothing, youre not there during the album conception neither when she is recording so you know nothing about her artistry (and I thought you believed she doesnt have any so let's not get deep into that).
It's just that her voice is easily recognizable. But she has different attacks to her songs, OG and WFL clearly shows different tone, so is Hard and WMN. She doesn't use the same deliveru again and again compare to others. Listen to Loud and you'll know how diverse her voice when it comes to singing them (bar OG and sandm), her deliveries are far from being the same with each song.
Awesome I was close with the quote.