Rihanna - Only Girl (In The World)

Artist: Rihanna
Song: Only Girl (In The World)
Album: Loud
Out: November 2nd, 2010 (Tentatively)

"I want you to love me, like I'm the only girl in the world. Make me feel like, I'm the only girl in the world."

Well, geeze. Wouldn't that be nice? Little un-realistic though, don't you think RiRi?

Listen Rihanna, we're going to continue this love affair as planned, but it doesn't mean I'm not still seeing Britney, Gaga and Beyonce. I just... can't stop with them either. But if you want me to tell you you're the only girl, then fine. You're it for me, honey.

Today, Ryan Seacrest, old queen that is, premiered a new Rihanna track, slated as the first single from her brand new 5th album, Loud, due out in November. It's upbeat, it's a love song, its a club track. Everything Rihanna wasn't last go around on Rated R.

Here's the problem...

Rated R was FUCKING brilliant!!!!!!!

OK, I'm done.

Here's one of my biggest pet peeves in the industry. When singers or performers are stunted from gaining any sort of creative control of their own work. We've, as a society, micro-managed our entertainers to be in tiny little categories. I mean, as a society we've micro-managed our lives to be in little categories, from Twitters to FaceBooks to blogs to BlackBerries (I have all four). But in a failing record industry, we have executives that are calling the shots and playing it safe.

With Rated R, you have a classic case of mismanaged marketing and promotion. Whoever decided that hitting us with the moody (but still amazing) rock ballad Russian Roulette first, was a God-damned IDIOT. The world was on bated breath waiting for what the Princess RiRi was going to give them next. She ended her last era with quite the bang (no pun intended) and we were ready for something more. Giving us the in your face attitude of Hard as a first single would have been perfect. It would have set the tone for the dark pop grinding music she was about to give us. It was infectious, it was playful, but it was also a warning shot. A "don't fuck with me, because I'm here to stay" kind of moment for Ri. But Russian Roulette got us all worried. The typical pop fanatics, a-la Perez Hilton and such, went a flapping their gums about how the next album was going to be a drab dull look into her tortured past year. Well, this may be half way true, because life influences art. We weren't expecting Rihanna to sing about rainbows and butterflies post beat-down, were we? I sure as hell wasn't. I was expecting grit, glamour and power.

Now, I know I'm not the only one who enjoyed the Rated R era. After a successful sold out tour (don't listen to the haters, my show was SOLD OUT) and three top 10 radio singles, and platinum status (which is hard to come by these days) Rihanna is ready to move on to her next effort. *Fun fact, the picture above was taken with my camera at the concert I attended two months ago at the Staples Center in LA.

Only Girl (In The World) is fun, is upbeat, is 'little-miss-sunshine' and its safe. In other words, its a bonafied hit. We've seen this episode before, though. Go back to 2007. Kelly Clarkson has just released her scathing new power anthem for scorned women everywhere, Never Again. Its dark, its gritty, its exactly what she was feeling at that moment in time. It went top 6 on the Billboard charts. It sold healthy. But the public and the industry worried, are we getting angry Kelly on the whole record? Clive Davis agreed and pushed and fought to get Kelly re-record some future pop hits and replace half the record with something a little more... fun. Problem was, and this is where I gain my complete adoration and respect for Kelly Clarkson, that My December was her baby. She had painstakingly hand crafted every song on the album to be just hers. Her exact message. Take away six or so songs, and replace with pre-recorded, pre-written songs, and it just wasn't hers. Fast forward, and unfortunately the record bombed. Why? Because the industry didn't even try. They had already placed Kelly Clarkson in the section of pop power anthem girl. And showing her vulnerable side was just too risky. Forget that she's probably one of the top five best female voices of all time and that she could sing the phone book and it would sound incredible, lets just put her box. Make sure she keeps recycling everything she's ever done. Enter All I Ever Wanted album.

This is what we're doing to Rihanna. Now, is Rihanna really the greatest artist of our generation? God no. But does she deserve respect and the freedom to express herself how she sees fit? Yes, yes she does.

Let me bore with one more story before we get back RiRi. It was 2006. Pre-shaved head, just a touch of the the insanity, and the beginning of the spiral. Britney Spears had been working on her 5th studio album for some time, and had a majority of it finished. It was something all her own. We don't need to get into what kind of place she was mentally, because... well...

I'm pretty sure the picture says it all... Anyway, she had all but finished the new record and was ready to send it to be mixed. It was dark, it was fresh, it was different and it was moody. It had string sections, and acoustic guitars. It had European trance beats, and urban hip hop guest appearances. In 2006, the biggest song at the time was Big Girls Don't Cry by Fergie, so this record was the complete opposite of what was going on. But beneath all that insanity, Britney is one smart cookie. But Jive didn't go for it. They shelved the project, and ordered her to begin work with more contemporary producers and professional song writers. (Songs like Heaven On Earth, Been A While and Outta This World would later be moved to her Blackout project)

The record executives are the bosses. At the end of the day, the artist or performer is working for them, to make their business money. So you have the top earners, which have to follow a path. The surprise money makers (a-la Lady Gaga, Weezer, Susan Boyle, Taylor Swift etc.) that are allowed to do whatever they want, so long as it continues to make money. Then you have your indie bands, with less promotion, a lot more creative control, and a lot more freedom. Most likely, only told to write a hit song for someone else every once and a while.

But I can't help but get angry when big name top-billed artists are forced down a path that they didn't chose. Now, did I ask Rihanna if this is what she wanted to do? No. For all I know, Rated R could have been something she just needed to get out of her system. A therapy. And this is now the exact kind of path she wanted to take. Only Girl is a club banger, complete opposite direction from her previous work. What I will give her, is that she's ahead of the trend (so to speak) because no one has truly broken the US market with such a heavily Euro-influenced song. And if there's anyone that can get mainstream America to listen to this new wave of exciting music, its probably Rihanna. It was produced by Stargate, the production team responsible for Rude Boy and Don't Stop The Music. It kind of sounds like the later on crack. The chorus is infectious, and you will be throwing your hands high above your head when song comes on in the club. And perhaps if this song truly hits it big for RiRi, it will make way for far better Euro infused music to finally crack the market, like Kelly Rowland's far superior to this song Commander. Or Flo Rida's new out of the box idea Club Can't Handle Me. Because I'm tired of record labels sitting on top of these brilliant songs because they are afraid it might not work. Just as they did with Rihanna's last album.

Take a risk, you never know what you might get.

Bottom line: Get this song on your iPod, because everyone else will too. Put it on your party playlists and your gym workout playlists as well. Its a jam!

Buy Rihanna's "Rated R" Album (if you haven't already)