The Black Britney Spears

OK,

It is interesting to watch girl power transform and shift in the market place. First Britney Spears did the whole Lolita thing; and, our penchant for calling her the new Madonna said more about our puritanical notions of sexual boundaries than her actual talent. So true to form, after we have treated her as a whore, she has been cast down the Mesopotamian mineshaft and covered with a ziggurat. I think the girl has gone crazy, but a sort of crazy that comes from being used. Let's face it. Madonna had Andy Warhol as a mentor and Basquiat as a lover, Britney stared in a Disney bubble gum show. You do the math.

Anyway. Christina has the pipes. Beyoncé has the whole package. Gwen has the ska background (Stefani's pop personae is really Courtney Love sans grunge ideology -- which is not an ideology at all, it is just saying you are fucked up and you don't know why or how it happened -- but this ideology produced some of the greatest music despite its shunning of capitalism -- but then we have to get into the music industry and the price of CD's won't we?). And, Rihanna is the Black Britney. I hate making those carbon copy race comparisons in the hyper-race sensitive United States; and, I know that it is problematic, like Spike Lee being the Black Woody Allen, but stay with my logic.

I am not mad at Rihanna. If Britney can make millions with that voice of hers, let Rihanna get some! She has the same twangy alto voice, but more velvety and womanly underneath. Plus, unlike Spears, she holds her sexuality at a distance; she doesn't dance like Beyoncé or Christina even. She is the Tyra to the Naomi. The camera loves her and she is spell bounding in her own slow and methodological way, with out all the spice and fire, just beauty queen realness with a pop-dip-and-spin Pop candor reserved for certain vocal moments of her own design. You know, kind of like Sade. She holds back.

So, Rihanna's Cover Girl contract must be making the B-woman feel a bit old, and J. Lopez Senora Anthony feel like the old woman in the shoe. Stefani was being played in hard rotation in the tweens and young woman’s section as I browsed through the men’s cologne section of Macy's (don't ask why I was there). Lamb is making money I believe, maybe more than Baby Phat, from what I hear. Lenny will have to confirm it. But they all will deal.

I heard Rihanna's Umbrella at the mall. Then saw the video this morning.

She has had some voice lessons.

We will see where this album goes. She is out pacing Christina Milan I think. I do like Ms. Milan, but her A&R has underestimated a couple of key elements about the American music market.

Suprisingly Rihanna looks so much like Florence Ballard in her photo opts it is a bit scary to me.

Discuss the implications amongst yourselves.


Rihanna- Umbrella

Add to My Profile More Videos