Beyoncé Vs. Rihanna: The Queen Of Pop Vs. The Queen Of Flop
Both Beyoncé and Rihanna have released new music, thrusting themselves back in the spotlight over the past month. However, their approaches have been completely different, with Beyoncé expanding her legacy while Rihanna becomes a part of history (and not in the way she expected).
First, let’s talk about Beyoncé. Many think she is overrated and there are also many who think she overstepped her bounds with her Super Bowl performance, which promoted the Black Panthers. According to the New York Post, former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani blasted Beyoncé the day after the Super Bowl.
“I thought that she used it as a platform to attack police officers, who are the people who protect her and protect us and keep us alive. And what we should be doing, in the African-American community and in all communities, is build up respect for police officers and focus on the fact that when something does go wrong, OK, we’ll work on that,” Giuliani angrily said.
Instead of releasing a controversial video that at least had a message like Beyoncé’s “Formation,” Rihanna released a “revenge” video that many considered not only racist, but unnecessarily violent. Rihanna could have had many people in her court over the “race” thing, but those same people were turned off by the misogyny in the video. Even the Guardian condemned the video.
“The main issue here is surely: misogyny, who’s allowed to do it? And the only answer can be: nobody. It’s even difficult to excuse it on the grounds of artistic expression, given how crude is the video.”
The reviewer, Barbara Ellen, believes that just because there are misogynistic male artists out there, it doesn’t give Rihanna the privilege of making a video in where she kills men. She believes that reversing gender roles is tired and Rihanna’s video doesn’t even follow through on the concept properly.
The video certainly didn’t help Rihanna’s career, which was why her album — eventually titled Anti — is a huge disappointment. It has sold a lot less than her previous album, Unapologetic, during its first month of release. The duet “Work” with Drake may be a hit on Billboard‘s Hot 100, but that has to do with the fact that Drake is involved more than it has to do with Rihanna.
A true measure of an artist’s popularity is how well the are selling concert tickets. According to Billboard, Rihanna has postponed several U.S. dates on her Anti tour.
“Following her Grammy performance cancellation from a bout with bronchitis, several dates of Rihanna’s Anti tour, initially scheduled to begin at the end of February, have been postponed.”
Billboard says the reasons for the postponements are because of production delays. People in the industry say it has more to do with poor ticket sales. Things aren’t much better on the other side of the Ocean, where, according to the Sun, Rihanna has cancelled two of her UK dates due to awful ticket sales. On the other hand, Beyoncé has been selling her shows out in minues.
At the beginning of the decade, both Beyoncé and Rihanna were the biggest names in the music industry. Six years later, it appears that only Beyoncé has survived. Do you think Rihanna can make a comeback? Let us know in the comments section.
[Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images]
