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![Rihanna S&M]()
Once upon a time when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth, recording artists attempted to boost sales by actually recording a decent record. Today? Not so much.
Somewhere Kanye West is fuming over Rihanna's recently released video 'S&M' (gee I wonder what it's about?), which has already been banned in 11 countries. Its a video chock full of Rihanna, pleather, chains, blow up dolls, licking, and a banana. Forget talent -- the key to commercial success is apparently pleather, and lots of it.
Rihanna is just the latest in a cluster of black women who apparently have thrown up the deuce to engaging in artistry or perfecting their stage presence in their careers. Now they rely exclusively on courting controversy to get attention... and Autotune. So sad that they think so little of their "talent."
A little over a month ago, Keri Hilson released her controversial video '
The Way You Love Me.' Apparently Keri's idea of self promotion is softcore porn. Before that Ciara decided to get "edgy" by putting on an eye-opening cabaret in '
Love Sex Magic' and its been down hill from there. Now here we are today watching the latest black pop "diva" show us her underwear to an overproduced track. I know this is supposed to be attention-grabbing and boost record sales, but...
My reaction to Rihanna wrapping herself in plastic and prancing around with a whip in 'S&M'? Am I clutching my pearls at the ball gags and simulated oral sex. No. I'm bored.
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I may not be the target audience, but seriously, this video is lazy and so is the song. Rihanna didn't record this song and video for any reason other than to be provocative. In fact she threw a fit when a UK radio station changed the name of the song from
'S&M' to 'Come On.' I guess you lose the meaning if the title changes. Now that's artistic integrity. Or maybe it's someone desperate to use sex, and sex alone, to sell a crappy record.
Apparently the current croup of black ingenues are obsessed with being "edgy" as an antidote for not being talented. Well, who decided that "edgy" for black female artists has to equal 'S&M,' public sex acts, and crotch shots? Who declared that the only "edgy" exploration worth pursuing is sexual exploration? It's not like that's not being explored enough all day, every day on television, radio, in the movies, and on the magazine racks. Isn't something that's cutting edge suppose to push us in a new direction?
Didn't Madonna already do an S&M video like 20 years ago? Even Janet Jackson has her own S&M collection that she amassed during her whips and chains era. In addition, photographer David LaChapelle is alleging that Rihanna copied the imagery in 'S&M' directly from his work. Can you be "edgy" if you copy, verbatim, the work of someone else, that has already been done before? Twice?
If Rihanna wanted to be different she could have taken a completely different path, but the sad truth is that she doesn't think she can. Rihanna wants us to believe that she's empowered in her career --but, I don't believe her. Nope. If you want to talk about power, talk about why you feel so powerless to sell your records that you can't demonstrate your independence in a way that doesn't require you to flop around in plastic bras and panties. And where the heck do you go after bananas and blow up dolls? After going to the cutting edge, perhaps Rihanna has achieved her career pinnacle.
When everyone is courting controversy, is it really controversy or just conformity? In the end 'S&M' comes across as more of a cop out. It's trite. We've been down this route before. It's like Keri and Ciara -- Rihanna just gave up on her real talent, ironically using sex to sell out. I'd be angry about it if they all weren't so pitiful, sad and lost.
Gina McCauley is the CEO of the Blogging While Brown Conferenceand the blogsMichelle Obama Watch and What About Our Daughters. She is currently completing her first book, 'Michelle Obama Watch.'
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