A year ago, if you'd said "this time next year, a high-profile domestically-abused popstar will be releasing a song about being domestically abused, in order to make money", it would have seemed like a terrifying vision of a future so far removed from the way life and the universe should operate we'd have been scrabbling around trying to prevent it from happening. But it is happening.
Rihanna seems like a nice enough girl, but there is something horrifyingly wrong about her new single, premiered today on http://www.rihannanow.com/. The song is a story about a girlfriend playing Russian roulette at the request of her bloke, as a test of her loyalty to him. "I know that I must pass this test", she sings; "it's too late to think of the value of my life."
I'm not saying that songs, by women, about being abused by men and how glamorous it all is, haven't been warbled since the beginning of pop ('He hit me and it felt like a kiss', anyone?) but this might be just a bit too close for comfort. Listen to it and you'll get what I mean.
I don't think this is Rihanna's fault, mind you. I think anyone who has recently come out of an abusive relationship could be forgiven for taking a while to get over it, and for perhaps being a bit easily-led and easily talked into making the wrong decisions. It's Rihanna's managers and record company people I blame: at the very least, she's being marketed as "the girl that got beat up", almost as though, soon after the Chris Brown incident, they had a meeting about how to make the best of a bad situation and ended it rubbing their hands with glee. I can't imagine how Rihanna feels inside when she sings this song - if it was me, I wouldn't be able to get through the first chorus.
Unfortunately, musically it's quite good. It's no Umberella-ella-ella, but it's melodic, sinister and dramatic, and keeps you listening until the chilling climax. But it should never have been written, and certainly not for a woman whose boyfriend was smacking her in the face with a pistol nine months ago.
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5 comments:
You do realise that, if it was us, the record company would be scratching their little heads trying to work out how to market "the girls with many cardigans"?
Very slightly freaked out by that ending, though. Not to mention the rest of it.
Are you kidding? I've had Hollywood on the phone all night, wanting to buy the rights to my story: "The girl with two cardigans".
I didn't say too much about the ending, as I wanted everyone to be as shocked as I was. Blimey though.
Hmmm... One red-headed musical genius also sings of domestic violence:
A kiss with a fist is quite catchy though.
"You smashed a plate over my head, then I set fire to our bed."
'Kiss with a fist' is the same sort of thing, yes, but it's a bit more ballsy - she's not just saying "I will risk my life because maybe then he'll love me." Unless maybe Rihanna is pulling some kind of mental double-bluff thing and she shoots him instead, which would be ace.
I doubt that. This is Rihanna we're talking about.
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