"Disturbia" Indeed (Part II of II)

The second type of image shift, and the more common and calculated of the two, usually accompanies some change in the singer’s music, an attempt to pair a new and more ‘of-the-moment’ musical style with a more contemporary image. Madonna has mastered such image makeovers effortlessly – with every new album, not only do we get a new style of music, but we get a new haircut, a new wardrobe, and almost an entirely new personality. Just look atthe last ten years of Madonna’s career: for Ray of Light’s mystic electronica, she styled herself as a spiritually deep, Mother Earth figure; two years later, to accompany Music’s dirty French house-influenced electro-pop, she turned naughty cowgirl; and soon afterwards she transformed into a disco diva for the poppy club music of Confessions on a Dance Floor, from wavy red hair to skimpy pink leotard. Now, don’t get me wrong, Madonna’s image changes are cold and calculated, precise down to the colour of her lip stick and the size of her earrings. But they are part of the package: new album, new music, new image. And it’s a tactic that seems to have worked – at age 50 she’s still topping charts worldwide.

Now what’s interesting about Rihanna’s image makeover is that it ticks neither of those boxes; not only is she one of the most blandly well-behaved pop stars in recent memory, but in the evidence of “Disturbia,” her music hasn’t changed one jot. In fact, “Disturbia” is a much safer piece of music than half the songs on Good Girl Gone Bad. That’s not to say it’s bad– it’s slick, catchy and danceable electro-pop, like most of the songs she releases. However, it’s certainly not ear-catching in the way that “Umbrella” was and, if it’s meant to be remotely disturbing as a pure piece of music, she’ll have to try a lot harder than singing lines like “Am I scaring you tonight?” I mean, even the song’s title is cribbed from a recent blockbuster movie, further proving the premeditated dishonesty to her new ‘Goth Rihanna’ image.

What is disturbing, however, is that the orchestrators of Rihanna’s career – those shadowy record execs in dark conference rooms – have seen fit to manipulate images of mental breakdown merely in order to generate commercial interest and not as a reflection of her music. One celeb’s nervous collapse in particular seems to have inspired the Rihanna camp; above all, the “Disturbia” video seems to reference Britney Spear’s public meltdown . Not only does Rihanna’s new short hair echo Britney’s, but the images of the scandalously clad singer crawling around on the floor seem calculated to remind viewers of the less happy moments of Ms. Spears’ career. Watch the video for yourself–it seems to me that Rihanna has appropriated and re-contextualized images of Spears’ mental deterioration in “Disturbia,” using them as nothing more than a callous ploy to generate attention. And if the references to Spears are unintentional, the “Disturbia” video mercilessly trades on imagery that should be relevantly shocking and repulsive – allusions to rape, torture, and supposedly rebellious genres of music like death metal – all in a desperate attempt to snare our interest.

As such, “Disturbia” represents a new low in advertisers’ perceptions of contemporary youth. The music industry seems to believe that Rihanna’s audience, chipped away by the one-click-and-it’s yours 21st century world, suffers from such a microscopic attention span that it’s necessary to drastically reconfigure the singer’s image in just one year in order to maintain commercial interest. But Rihanna herself hasn’t changed, her music certainly hasn’t changed, and Goddammit, she hasn’t even released a new album!

Maybe one day the industry will turn back towards the music above all else. In the meantime, as long as artists are reinventing themselves as drastically and needlessly as Rihanna, that day will remain a distant light at the end of a very dark tunnel.

Adam Tanaka

Date Posted: 21 October 2008
The Odes Team.


Comments

You need to sign in to contribute to the La Crónica.

If you're new to The Odes, creating your membership is quick and easy.

By Amrit Nanra on 22/10/2008 17:19:18
Excellent article Adam

Really enjoyed reading it.