AM I SCARING YOU NOW?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yes, Rihanna, yes you really are.

This video has gone a long way to turning me round on 'Disturbia' (from "this is OK" to "this might be really really great but holy shit her EYES")...

Comments

[koganbot]

Yes, she is copping the NiN look.

From the YouTube thread:

luv the song, luv her, luv the video!
i luv scariness, creepiness, u name it!
i'm all goth!

Myself, I don't find the vid or song at all scary: when she tries to look hard she actually ends up looking extra cute; the whole thing seems rather guileless and a bit corny. The song lyrics aren't really about scaring us tonight, even though she asks us if she's scaring us. They're more about an inner dissatisfaction; and they're expressionist rather than being the introspection* of something like "Question Existing": "I like to think that I'm pretty normal. I laugh, I get mad, I hurt, I think I suck sometimes. When you're in the spotlight, everything seems good. Sometimes I feel like I have it worst, 'cause I have to always keep my guard up. I don't know who to trust." So in that song you've got a 19-year-old's normal "Who am I living for?" magnified by fame and fortune. Whereas a year later with "Disturbia" she's singing about what it feels like to be haunted (the title of another recent Rihanna song), being more generic than self-analytic in her imagery. That is, she's not telling us the (normal) story of what might be disturbing her (spotlight is good/spotlight is the worst/I don't know who to trust); instead she's telling a story of possession and hauntings.

*Of course, "Disturbia" and "Question Existing" are written by different people, none of whom is Rihanna, and "Disturbia" was originally slated to be recorded by co-writer Chris Brown. But presumably there's an attempt to convey some continuity in her persona; and whether the intent is there or not, lyrics help to create a persona, even when the singer doesn't write them herself.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Riri's most genuinely insane song to date is still 'Unfaithful'.

[rubberheadz-inc.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. That song definitely was a bit of a scary listen the first few times around.