


“It’s more of a thing to say that people can talk….people are going to talk about you, you can’t stop that. She sounds like she isn’t singing for anyone but herself.Ī month before the album’s release, Rihanna told SPIN that she saw the BDSM-inspired track as a metaphor. There’s no Auto-Tune restraining the slight grit in her voice. As opposed to “Disturbia,” she’s completely unleashed herself. “S&M,” Loud‘s shocking and exciting opening track, proudly asserted that “pain is for pleasure” over a buzzy keyboard and clubby drumbeat sterilized the sampled melody of the Cure’s “ Let’s Go To Bed.” StarGate and Sandy Vee’s production might have aged a bit limply, but what makes the song a Rihanna classic is her vocal delivery, from velvety to prickly, from sensual to fervent. For Loud, she wasn’t going to let her demons hold her back, and she wasn’t going to ignore them either.īefore she built her own fashion empire, supplying the same products that she once said excited her, she was discovering newfound ferocity through her music. Following an album that wore every shade of black, it was a thrill to see her in the redemption of a fiery red mane. “It was like putting up a guard wall, this tough image that people couldn’t get past, to me.” Her Rated R-era hair was a shield that covered up what might be seen as weakness, reclaiming her vulnerability when she had no control over how much people perceived her. “It seemed aggressive, but it was more defensive,” she said of her gothic drill sergeant vibe.
The color choice felt even more jarring than her previous haircut - a gunpowder black pixie cut and a luscious swoop of side bang that went well with a bubblegum pink military tank. It was the perfect bold look to accompany her fifth album in five years, an expression of sex-positivity and power with the quite-literal title Loud, released 10 years ago today. When Rihanna dyed her hair fire hydrant red in 2010, she said she felt liberated. But “Disturbia” is a significant reminder that Rih posited a playful salaciousness even before she sang about being a masochist 10 years ago. This was before the gruesome Rated R and the painful period it reflected, the highly publicized aftermath of Brown’s physical abuse.
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Although it was theatrical and freaky, it presented her bound by demons, not fully free to be herself. The song was written by her then-boyfriend Chris Brown. In the video for her 2008 hit single “Disturbia,” she’s in a cramped space, pulling at her colorful bondage. Before Rihanna had red hair, she had pink chains.
