Rihanna’s Controversial Video Gives Song Boost on Billboard Hot 100: How Long Will It Last?

There is some good news for Rihanna today: Her single, “B***h Better Have My Money,” rises from No. 28 to No. 15 on Billboard‘s Hot 100. Rihanna’s single, which many people consider a disappointment when compared to her previous singles, recently peaked at No. 17. The sudden chart rise is mostly due to the video release for the single, which was streamed over 18 million times (Billboard counts these streams towards their chart).

Rihanna’s video for “B***h Better Have My Money” has certainly been controversial. The Guardian details the fallout.

“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.

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.”

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.”

Some see the video as a desperate way to increase Rihanna’s relevancy in the pop music world after her latest two singles failed to make the top 10 and her album, R8, has seen countless delays, presumably for failing to produce anything that resembles a hit single (at least when compared to Rihanna’s classics). Either way, the publicity — positive or negative — seems to be working. But this could all be temporary.

Rihanna’s single bolted back into the top 20 on iTunes after the video was released, but has since fallen to No. 34 as of Thursday morning. The song is shaded in pink, meaning the song continues to lose sales. “B***h Better Have My Money” has certainly outperformed the single released afterwards, “American Oxygen,” a huge embarrassment (chart-wise) for Rihanna. It peaked at No. 78 on Billboard‘s Hot 100.

It’s doubtful that Rihanna hurt her brand with her new controversial video, since Rihanna’s brand has always relied on controversy. However, it’s also doubtful that the video really helped Rihanna’s campaign for her upcoming album, which has been marred by poorly performing singles.

[Photo by Jason Kempin / Getty Images]