PopSyndicate.com

It’s the hair. I’m sure if it!

A funny thing happened to me last year. And I’m sure it happened to a lot of people. It all started with that damn “Umbrella” song by Rihanna.  As far as pop songs go, it certainly struck the right chord with listeners, and arguably marked the singer’s “arrival”, as it were. Her star had certainly been on the rise for some time, but it’s only recently that she’s really managed to captivate the public. I honestly didn’t think much of her when she first came out three years ago, as I had grown tired of “Pon De Replay” after hearing it repeatedly on the radio, and at three consecutive wedding receptions. A native of Barbados, there was a clear Caribbean/dancehall influence and audiences accepted it. But I always knew her career wouldn’t be built on the genre. As someone of Caribbean descent, I’ve been fairly observant of the varying degrees of crossover success for artists like Shaba Ranks, Super Cat, Beenie Man, and Sean Paul. More often than not, that success has been limited to urban markets, and the presence of females is virtually non-existent, with the exception of maybe Patra in the early 90s. Mmmmmm. . . . Patra. . . . .Sorry, where was I? Basically, Rihanna could only push the envelope so far as an artist representing dancehall in the pop music scene, which is to say, not far at all.

Instead, Rihanna has allowed herself to be more of a pop music chameleon. Why limit yourself to one genre, and thus limit your fan base? Especially when you have to compete with a glut of cutesy blond teenage girls singing about a love they’ll never got over. . . at least not until the end of the school year. Instead, Rihanna is dealing in what I like to call “pot luck pop”. Mainstream music is such that no artist is really required to represent their respective musical genres to the fullest, so there’s nothing better than an artist that can represent multiple genres with just enough effort to win over listeners who aren’t that demanding anyway. Jennifer Lopez played this game in the late 90s into the 2000s, and clearly played it well enough to have three of her albums sell better than they had any right to. She had songs for the ‘hood, songs for the middle-American malls, songs for the trendy techno/dance clubs, and so on and so forth. Sometimes, she’d just have one song that would get remixed to fit all those categories! And if she ever needed to, she could just full back on her culture and put out a Spanish album! Whether you want to admit it or not, Jennifer Lopez’s side career as a pop artist is nothing short of brilliant! And I’ve always maintained that she put out some great pop songs, they just needed someone else singing them!

By comparison, Rihanna’s at an advantage, not having to overcome the stigma of being an actress who just up and decided to try singing. Furthermore, she’s a better singer. That might not being saying much, but when the likes of Britney Spears set the bar so low and still manage such high levels of success, anything’s better than J.Lo. The result is Good Girl Gone Bad, an album that does nothing but throw you one curveball after another. If you like your pop music to have a little hip-hop dashed on, Jay-Z appears on “Umbrella”. If you like pseudo-rocker-chick pop, play yourself some “Shut Up and Drive” ‘till your ears bleed. Imagining yourself in some South Beach discothèque? Crank up “Please Don’t Stop The Music”. If you need some Beyonce-inspired R&B, how about “Take A Bow”? This “everything but the kitchen sink” approach is tricky, but with the right people and the right timing, the rewards can be great and plentiful. “Umbrella” has countless remixes and cover versions floating around, and the re-release of Good Girl Gone Bad (subtitled “Reloaded”) features the Maroon 5 song “If I Never See Your Face Again” (my favorite song off of their sophomore album) reworked as a duet between Rihanna and lead singer Adam Levine. It’s at this point that I really had to put up the white flag, and surrender to her charms.

It’ll be interesting to see how long Rihanna can hold onto the pop princess crown she can almost certainly claim now. Not only does she have to stay ahead of music trends, she needs to be mindful of what she does when she’s not making music. As it stands, she’s done a very good job of not becoming a tabloid target, as well as downplaying her relationship with singer Chris Brown in the press. Don’t make the same mistake as J.Lo, who really tried people’s patience when she made the real “I’m F***ing Ben Affleck” video for the song “Jenny From the Block”, years before Ben and Jimmy Kimmel ever thought of it.