If you’ve logged on to any social networking site or turned to any music video channel, you’d know that Rihanna is in the spotlight once again. What’s the drama about this time? Rihanna’s new video Man Down made its world debut earlier this week and boy did it create drama. Critics say just as her Love the Way You Lie video featuring well-known rapper Eminem brings to light the problem of domestic violence while also promoting violence, Man Down emphasizes the idea that violence breeds violence.
The video begins with Rihanna shooting an unarmed man in the back of the head in a crowded train station. Later, it is revealed the man Rihanna murdered was the aggressor in a domestic violence altercation in which she was raped the day before.
Rihanna has a history or creating music that describes her taking part in violent actions. It all began with her single Unfaithful in 2006 where she mentioned killing herself because she cheated on her boyfriend and no longer wanted to hurt him. If Rihanna is trying to work through her personal problems through her music it’s clear that she survived a trauma that led to her psychological issues long before her infamous domestic altercation with then boyfriend Chris Brown in February 2009. In November 2009, Rihanna released Rated R where she describes what goes through her head as she contemplates taking her life playing Russian Roulette.
Although Rihanna’s efforts to shed light on domestic violence are admirable, her point isn’t getting across the way she intended and moreover she is not taking into consideration her younger more impressionable fans. Rihanna is supposed to be a role model to children and teens across the world and these aren’t the types of videos and ideas our impressionable leaders of tomorrow need to see.
Is it so controversial because it is a video created by a woman that’s depicting violence? I mean we see videos all the time belittling and mistreating women why aren’t these conversations brought up when those videos come out? Why are we just now bringing the conversation about the violent content of music and music videos to the table?
This article really got me to thinking about how much the content of music has changed over the years. Music has always been created to stir feelings and used for a political means but R&B/Pop was usually reserved for the fun stuff. Some would probably consider Rihanna an innovator for her lyrical content. We shall see if there are residual effects from this…
It is such a double standard, men have been violent and disrespectful to women in the their video for years and rarely do people make a fuss about it, as they are doing with this song/video. But all the media attention will hopefully open up others ears, eyes, and mind to what women are dealing with and the consequences that it can lead to.
*side note* s/o to R.City aka Rock City who wrote this song for her!
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