Rihanna’s Single Drops Sharply On Billboard Hot 100 Despite Controversial Video
Rihanna was hoping that her video for the poorly-received “B***h Better Have My Money” single would help make the song a hit. The controversial video, which features Rihanna murdering a white woman as a revenge act against her husband, helped the song climb from No. 28 to No. 15 last week. However, this week, Rihanna’s song drops to No. 22, proving that a controversial video doesn’t always guarantee success.
The Guardian details the fallout from the controversial video.
“Depending on which commentator or social media spat you choose, the video – viewed 12 million times since its release – is either an empowering challenge to music industry stereotypes or a racist and gory piece of misogyny.”
The Guardian goes on to note that a headline of one site read “Not Safe for Work or Feminists,” while Twitter said Rihanna was glorifying violence against women. There are also a lot of people on Twitter who think Rihanna’s video is racist.
Sarah Vine of the Daily Mail definitely isn’t a fan of Rihanna’s controversial video.
“This video contains, in no particular order, extreme violence, torture, drug-taking, guns, negative racial stereotyping (towards both black and white), sexual exploitation and murder. Actually, sorry: not just contains, but also glorifies and justifies.”
However, not everybody hates the video for “B***h Better Have My Money.” The Huffington Post says Rihanna’s new video is brilliant.
“The sexualized violence in the video is graphic and disturbing (we’ll get to that in a minute), but overall the video is everything we love about Rihanna — it’s ballsy, edgy, explicit, and unapologetic.”
Rihanna is having a very difficult time connecting with the general music-listening public. Her album, R8, has constantly been delayed because she is having a difficult time producing anything that resembles a hit single, like Rihanna was able to deliver just two years ago.
However, all isn’t bad in Rihanna’s world. Entertainment Weekly recently revealed that Rihanna is the first artist to hit 100 million in digital sales. The magazine notes that Rihanna easily leads over second-place Taylor Swift (88 million) and third-place Katy Perry (79 million). Kanye West, who is in fourth place, has sold 46.5 million.
Perhaps Rihanna realizes that her recording career has peaked, and is just trying to branch out in other directions. According to E! Online, Rihanna has partnered with Stance Socks to release a limited edition collection of crewneck socks called “Murder Rih Wrote.” Let’s hope Rihanna’s new socks sell better than her new music.
[Photo Credit: E! Online]
