Highly regarded as Swift’s magnum opus, Red sees the singer shed the fairytale dresses and the girl-next-door persona to craft a body of work that has now been deemed as her first “adult” record. Writing the entire album herself, Swift used Speak Now to prove her songwriting prowess to those who questioned her capabilities. For the first time since becoming an artist, she was forced to reckon with the concept of celebrity and how turning into one — whether she wanted it or not — informed her own writing and perception of herself. On the album’s liner notes, Swift says Fearless is about “living in spite” of the things that scare you, like falling in love again despite being hurt before or walking away and letting go.
Everything that happened after the success of Fearless pushed Swift from country music’s best-kept secret to a mainstream star. It might not be the romantic tale Swift dreamed of growing up, but her sophomore album signalled that bigger things were to come. It won Swift’s first Album Of The Year GRAMMY in 2010, at the time making her the youngest person to win the accolade at age 20.
- In late 2008, she released “Rehab”, the fifth and final single from Good Girl Gone Bad; it peaked within the top 20 of the charts in both the US and UK.
- Like many artists of her era who either had bad contracts or no contract at all, Sister Nancy did not benefit from the popularity of “Bam Bam” for the majority of her career.
- Rihanna comes out of left field with the Prince-inspired “Kiss It Better,” the album’s second single, which sees the superstar falling back on addictive sex that “feels like crack” to justify a destructive relationship.
- In October 2019, she stated that she declined to perform at the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show in support of Colin Kaepernick following the controversy surrounding his role in the national anthem protests.
- With the glorious “Lift Me Up,” she found herself in the top 10 for the first time since 2017’s “Wild Thoughts.”
- But four years after the Team Edward vs Team Jacob saga wrapped up, folk hero Jason Isbell proved mythical bloodsuckers weren’t a barrier to awards success.
Rihanna, A$AP Rocky, Naomi Campbell hit the white carpet at CFDA Awards
If Taylor Swift was the soundtrack to navigating the early stages of teenhood, Fearless is Swift’s coming-of-age record. While her songwriting has developed and matured, feeling like an outsider and carving her own path is a theme she still writes about now, as seen on Midnights’ “You’re On Your Own, Kid.” On the track “A Place In This World,” a song she wrote when she was just 13, Swift sings about not fitting in and trying to find her path.
Nancy was largely unaware of its popularity as a hip-hop sample, and didn’t receive royalties for the tune (itself owned by producer Winston Riley, who died in 2012). She never stopped performing, and while Sister Nancy traveled as far as Israel to sing, she was often relegated to multi-artist bills — and not in the largest text. It’s been used in film and television, including prominently in 1998’s Nas- and DMX-featuring Belly. Multiple sources consider it the most sampled reggae song ever (WhoSampled.com counts 155 samples), with Beyoncé, Madlib, Run D.M.C., Lauryn Hill, Chris Brown, Alicia Keys, Ariana Grande, and Buju Banton and many others pulling from Nancy’s crisses lyrics. Sister Nancy wouldn’t perform the song on a Jamaican stage for eight years, until she featured at 1990’s Sting competition. “I went with Yellowman to Harry J’s Studio. Yellowman did a ‘Bam Bam,’, and I had to finish my One, Two album, and I just said I am going to do a tune like Yellowman did. And I did ‘Bam Bam,’ my way,” Nancy recalls.
She didn’t want to be just “another girl singer” and knew writing her own songs would be what set her apart. Every album era has seen Swift reinvent herself over and over, which has helped pave the way for artists to explore other musical avenues. A once-in-a-lifetime generational storyteller, one could argue that she is music’s modern-day maverick, constantly evolving both her music and the culture around her. Sadly not a tribute to the classic ’60s sitcom starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Bewitched is instead a self-described “love album” that helped Laufey surpass Björk and Sigur Ros as Iceland’s most streamed artist.
Net Worth and Earning: Income Success
Although Jay-Z initially thought “Pon de Replay” was too big for a new artist, he invited her to audition. Rihanna’s demo was sent to rapper Jay-Z, who had just become the president and CEO of the record label Def Jam Recordings. In 2005, she became the first artist to sign with Syndicated Rhythm Productions, the production company founded by Rogers and Carl Sturken. Unnamed and without original material, the girl group auditioned for American producer Evan Rogers, who recalled that “the minute Rihanna walked into the room, it was like the other two girls didn’t exist”. Though she initially planned to finish high school, she ultimately dropped out at age 16 to pursue a music career. Signed to Def Jam Recordings, she debuted with the Caribbean-inspired records Music of the Sun (2005) and A Girl Like Me (2006), both of which reached the top ten of the US Billboard 200.
Billboard
While the world is still anticipating her ninth studio album, Rihanna — now a mom of two boys — continues to make her own rules and move at her own pace. With the glorious “Lift Me Up,” she found herself in the top 10 for the first time since 2017’s “Wild Thoughts.” Ever since ANTI, Rihanna’s devoted fanbase has been begging for a new album, with Rih playfully trolling them with responses like “I lost it” and Instagram captions that read, “Me listening to R9 by myself and refusing to release it.” Accolades aside, ANTI is proof that magic happens when an artist of Rihanna’s caliber follows their own instincts in pursuit of creating a body of work — one that can outlast them and continue to inspire generations to come. For instance, “Sex with Me” is featured on the deluxe edition as a bonus track, but managed to crack the Hot 100 at No. 83 and reach No. 8 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart. Elsewhere on ANTI, Rihanna drunk dials an ex (“Higher”), compares smoking weed to her lover (“James Joint”), and chastises a guy for getting emotionally attached after their fling (“Needed Me”).
In turn, Swift hasn’t just become one of the biggest artists of all time — she’s changed pop music altogether. Since then, she’s released 12 studio albums, re-recorded four as “Taylor’s Version,” and cultivated one of the most feverish fan bases in music. Furthermore, the deluxe edition consists of 16 tracks, half of which topped the Dance Club Songs chart — smashing the record (previously held by Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream) for the most No. 1s from a single album. “Same Ol’ Mistakes” is a cover of psychedelic rock band Tame Impala’s “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” — her first time remaking another artist’s song for her own album since “You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No)” on Music of the Sun. The album feels like one big celebration of life, as evidenced by Rihanna’s fire-engine red hair and No. 1 singles “Only Girl (In the World)” and “What’s My Name?” (the latter of which was Rih’s first collaboration with Drake). Despite being Good Girl Gone Bad’s lowest-charting single, Timberlake heralded the song as “the bridge for her to be accepted as an adult in the music industry.”
- Retrospective and reflective, Speak Now is an album about the speeches she could’ve, would’ve and should’ve said.
- As a pioneer of the music industry, her earnings from album sales, touring, and streaming have consistently placed her among the top earners in entertainment.
- Notable songs from her early career, including “Pon de Replay,” “Unfaithful,” and “SOS,” showcased her versatility and unique sound, quickly establishing her as a prominent figure in the music industry.
- For a project about being a showgirl, introducing people to the concept of the album at the end was puzzling for some.
- Along with having more eyes on her, Swift also felt pressured to maintain her persona as a perfect young female role model amid a time when her peers like Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato were attempting to rebrand to be more mature and sexier.
- Country songs like “cowboy like me” and “no body, no crime” reaches back to Swift’s earlier work in narrative building, seamlessly crafting a three-party story with ease.
Met Gala pays tribute to Black fashion and designers and includes Rihanna pregnancy surprise
Her debut album, “Music of the Sun,” further solidified her presence, selling over two million copies worldwide and setting the stage for her meteoric rise in the years to come. Jay-Z was immediately captivated, signing her on the spot and launching her career in the music industry. Her journey from a small island to the bustling music scene of America marked the beginning of her transformational career. Relocating from her home in Barbados to Connecticut, she stayed with music producer Evan Rogers and his wife.
On the Life of a Showgirl track directly named after the late icon, Swift circles back to the themes she touched on with folklore’s “Peace” and the tension between her private reality and her public persona. While half of The Life of a Showgirl’s 12 tracks peer into the darker corners of fame and explores the loneliness, scrutiny and fractures that used to come with it, the other half are dedicated to falling completely head over heels. And on The Tortured Poets Department’s “The betista casino Prophecy,” she pleaded for someone to change what she believed to be her predestined future of being alone and what she’d give up to find someone she loves.
True to her Carribean heritage, Rihanna’s dancehall-inspired debut single “Pon de Replay” earned the then 17-year-old Barbados native her first entry on the Hot 100 at an impressive No. 2. As the world eagerly awaits new music, celebrate 20 years of Rihanna with the monstrous hits, ambitious projects, brow-raising visuals, and iconic collabs that propelled her to international stardom — and why it’s all put her in a league of her own. Performing hit after hit while unveiling a baby bump, her 13-minute set became one of the most-watched halftime shows of all time with over 121 million viewers. Even her business ventures have been a massive success, as her Fenty Beauty brand is worth nearly $3 billion as of press time.
Throughout The Life of a Showgirl, Swift, Martin and Shellback craft tracks that go beyond what they created with 1989 and reputation. Reuniting with her pop powerhouse collaborators Max Martin and Shellback, who worked on her biggest pop radio hits like “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” “Delicate,” “Blank Space,” and “Shake It Off,” was a return to form after the fog of TTPD. (“And all the headshots on the walls/ Of the dance hall are of the b—es/ Who wish I’d hurry up and die/ But I’m immortal now.”) On “The Life of a Showgirl,” she declares with her fellow showgirl that she isn’t handing over the baton just yet. The showgirl is actually the one in charge (“I was your father figure/ You pulled the wrong trigger/ This empire belongs to me”), alluding to her battle to retain her masters.
How Rihanna’s “Work” Reinvigorated Dancehall
She recalled performing Carey’s 1993 song “Hero” at her high school talent show. Rihanna praised Madonna’s ability to change her fashion and music repeatedly, while remaining a “real force in entertainment”. On Talk That Talk (2011), Rihanna expanded on her dance-pop style while adopting a more overtly sexual persona and incorporating elements of R&B, hip-hop, dancehall, and dubstep. Aiming for artistic growth, A Girl Like Me expresses personal experiences that typical young adult women undergo, with ballads that were described as elegant and mature. Rihanna’s early dancehall roots are evident on her first two albums, Music of the Sun (2005) and A Girl Like Me (2006). In Barbados, Rihanna drew early inspiration from reggae, soca, and hip-hop, and after relocating to the US, she was introduced to a wider variety of genres, including rock.
The singer/songwriter also picked up a Best Traditional Pop GRAMMY in 2024 for her second LP, an immaculate collection of jazz, pop and classical that bridged the gap between Gen-Z and the Great American Songbook. Still, as a love song dedicated to wife Amanda Shires — and the quiet acceptance that the Grim Reaper will inevitably end their story — it’s certainly no less emotional. Just four years after picking up five GRAMMY nominations for their transatlantic chart-topper “Love the Way You Lie,” unlikely dream team Eminem and Rihanna once again joined forces for another hip-pop masterclass. Traditional Appalachian folk song “O Death” had previously been recorded by the likes of gospel vocalist Bessie Jones, folklorist Mike Seeger and Californian rockers Camper Van Beethoven, just to name a few. The King of Pop picked up a whopping 11 nominations for his first blockbuster album, Thriller, and then converted seven of them into wins, including Album Of The Year. Considering how perfectly Mike Oldfield’s prog-rock epic Tubular Bells complements all-time classic horror flick The Exorcist, it’s remarkable to think that it was recorded before director William Friedkin came calling.
Though it’s been close to a decade since Rihanna’s last studio album, 2016’s ANTI, she reminded the world of her reign with her 2023 Super Bowl halftime show — which also marked her first time taking the stage in five years. She has sold over 60 million albums worldwide, landed 14 Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers, and won nine GRAMMY Awards. As Rihanna’s debut album, ‘Music of the Sun,’ turns 20, take a deep dive into the superstar’s catalog and her evolution from teen idol to beloved icon. Though a new album still eludes the Rihanna Navy, their fearless leader hasn’t been completely musically absent in the years since ANTI‘s release.
No matter what genre Rihanna touches or what artist she links up with, she brings her full self to each session whilst completely immersing herself into the music — taking on different personas to make the collab well worth it. Amid smash collabs, Rihanna and Coldplay’s intricate “Princess of China” number gets lost in the shuffle, but it speaks to her charm as it’s the band’s first album (2011’s Mylo Xyloto) to feature another artist. The one-off single is so quintessentially Rihanna that it notably kicked off her Super Bowl halftime show.
She’d see visceral images in her mind — from battleships to tree swings to mirrored disco balls — and turned them into stories, sometimes weaving in her own personal narrative throughout, or taking on a narrator role and speaking from the perspective of someone she had never met. Crafting a world with characters like the folklore love triangle between those in “betty” and “august,” as well as Rebekah Harkness from “the last great american dynasty” (who once lived in Swift’s Rhode Island mansion), was Swift’s way of venturing outside her typical autobiographical style of writing. Without exactly setting out to create an album, she began dreaming of fictional stories and characters with various narrative arcs, allowing her imagination to run free. But Lover was more than any accolades could reflect — it was Swift’s transitional album in many ways, notably marking the first album that she owned entirely herself following leaving Big Machine Records for Republic Records in 2018. This evolution is mentioned throughout Lover, particularly in a direct callback to 2012’s Red, “Daylight,” which sees her describe her love as “golden” rather than “burning red.”
The lead single, “Work”, topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, with the third and fourth singles, “Needed Me” and “Love on the Brain”, peaking within the top ten. With an eclectic blend of genres such as pop, dancehall, and psychedelic soul, Anti peaked at number one on the Billboard 200, marking her second chart-topping record in the US. It spent ten non-consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making it both Rihanna’s longest-running chart-topping single and the longest-running number one song in the US in 2011. To support the album, Rihanna launched the Loud Tour in June 2011, which included a record-breaking ten sold-out shows at The O2 Arena in London—the most by a female artist in the venue’s history.
Swift still remained in the pop lane with reputation, largely leaning on Antonoff and the Martin/Shellback team. She stayed away from public appearances, didn’t do any press, and missed the album schedule fans became accustomed to. For years, Swift was on a strict two-year cycle — she’d release an album one year, tour the next, and then release a new album the following year. In turn, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa and more pop stars have refused to conform or stick to what they’ve done prior.
After exploring pop-leaning sonics she first found with Red, Swift worked with Martin and Shellback again on most of 1989. 1989 was lauded by critics for its infectious synth-pop that was reminiscent of the 1980s, yet still had a contemporary sound. She plays with time — speeding it up in “Starlight,” dabbling in the past in “All Too Well,” and reframing it in “State of Grace” — to better understand her experiences. In her liner notes, she references Pablo Neruda’s poem “Tonight I Can Write,” stating that “Love is so short, forgetting is so long” is the overarching theme for the album. From addressing the aforementioned VMA incident in the forgiving “Innocent” to a toxic relationship in “Dear John,” Speak Now also hinted that her rose-colored glasses were cracked, but Swift (and her songwriting) was only becoming stronger because of it.
