Week 7 Assignment

     I will be conducting the topic of this week's discussion post on the singer Rhianna. Over the years Rhianna has become increasingly popular in making a name for herself in different aspects of music. Her pop songs which included faster beats paired with her beautiful voice made her songs increasingly popular throughout her career. I first started hearing her songs in middle school which makes sense because her highest-grossing song was “We Fell In Love,” which was released in 2015.

I found a biography that goes in-depth about Rhianna’s career and how she became so famous. According to the blog, Rhianna was born in 1988 and her first hit was in 2005 which was “Pon De Replay” which “immediately captured an international audience.” This skyrocketed her career and helped her reach new audiences that she had not been able to reach prior. After she continued to increase in popularity, she started slowly changing her songs to become more ‘dirty’ in a sense. She began singing more rap songs and about more seductive topics. This greatly started thriving in the early 2010s with songs on albums like “Talk That Talk.” According to this post, “Rihanna maintained a steely and seductive persona on the albums Talk That Talk (2011).”(Britannica)

                                                                          

The first song that comes to mind when I think of Rhianna is “We Fell in Love.” This was the first song of hers that I listened to and will still occasionally listen to from time to time. This was part of her album Talk That Talk, and according to Wikipedia, “The song was a major worldwide success. It topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for ten non-consecutive weeks, becoming the longest-running number-one single of 2011.” This helped streamline her popularity internationally and helped her become more and more popular. The songs on this album were hits amongst the public and helped her build fame. This song, in particular, was sung to a steady beat and was designed to be more upbeat to help the listener enjoy a more upbeat yet calming song. While she did not write this song, she did perform it and add her twist to these songs. Overall, her performance helped the songs to become successful. This song was originally written by Scottish DJ Calvin Harris.

                                                                            

The next song that caught my attention was “S.O.S.” This song starts with a predominant beat and strong vocal sections. Rhianna is practically screaming throughout this song and not only uses words but also sounds to help move the song along. The tempo of this song is faster than most average resting heart rates. This causes the song to be perceived as upbeat and makes the listener move quickly and dance. Overall it was a good song and helpful towards furthering her career. This song also was not written by Rhianna, but instead written by "J. R. Rotem and E. Kidd Bogart" Rhianna was the performer who helped make the song more popular by performing it.

My opinion of Rhianna is that she is a good artist with a lot of talent. She has had many different songs that have attested to her upcoming and has made a massive name for herself within the music industry. While she keeps making upbeat songs, she has also made a lot of songs for people to dance to, whether they are out and about or making food. In my opinion, she is one of the best singers/ performers out there and should continue to keep making incredible music. As a performer, Rhianna helps the songs become successful. When people hear the songs being performed by Rhianna, they recognize the name and are more likely to listen to said performance. Overall I believe performers play a crucial role in advancing and advertising the songs that they perform.

 

                                                                         References

“Rihanna.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 5 Nov. 2024, www.britannica.com/biography/Rihanna. 

“We Found Love.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Oct. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Found_Love.