RIRI v BEY

singles: rihanna
albums: beyonce
celebrity: rihanna

I voted Ri

same

i feel like this was made as a trap for fomenting humorous arguments and it's not working at full efficiency as yet, damn *throws away popcorn*

did i accidentally post this to ilh

Rihanna is chill. Bey is too potent and contradictory as a cultural symbol, it's stressful

kelis

Think this prob needs 1000 words or so to really decide it.

i like how in unbrella the rap is short and at the beginning functioning like an intro more songs shd do that w their raps imo

Can't help but feel if Ri was Beyoncé she'd get the same amount of coverage. Fairly typical of today's media.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CBdFkVDUYAAT6jZ.jpg

they have theoretically comparably sized discographies -- Rihanna about to release her 8th album, Beyonce has 9 including Destiny's Child -- but Ri's feels more slight to me, even setting aside that they're very different kinds of artists/vocalists. lot more Rihanna songs i actively want to never hear again, no albums i can play all the way through as easily as Beyonce or The Writing's On The Wall.

I vibe with RiRi more I can't really get with Beyonce's perfection

http://i.imgur.com/ixW4h08.png

Like this is probably the greatest Instagram post ever made

bey tbh

i feel like voting for rihanna in this is rank contrarianism

but i didn't realize we were voting based on instagram contribution >:[

am def spoken to more by riri

im not gonna argue for riri being "overall better" she is just more "my thing"

bey has some nice songs too tho

tbh the last rihanna song i was aware of was "pour it up" which put her robotic song stylings to good use imo, but i just don't really get her. except "rude boy," which is a great song and the only time she sounds awake + alive as a singer to me.

i am lol old, obvs

I'll take Umbrella over Bey's entire catalog but Umbrella is like a top 5 song of all time for me so

I actually own the official Totes Isotoner umbrella used in the music video -_-

how can that possibly be true you are a nonsense person

xp

cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake

oh i see now this thread was designed in a lab to troll me

i like how in unbrella the rap is short and at the beginning functioning like an intro more songs shd do that w their raps imo

― lag∞n, Tuesday, March 31, 2015 2:15 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah Jay is like a medieval herald on that track. Rick Ross does the same thing on "Monster" too.

the horseshoe troller

horseshoe and i had to disagree sometime

how can that possibly be true you are a nonsense person

otm

also this is so obviously bey what are you ppl even talking about

Guys I'm not saying Bey's catalog sucks it's actually very good and extremely awesome I'm just trying to let you guys know how much Umbrella means to me

i love umbrella too its a very touching song

i can't really listen to umbrella anymore i took it off the wedding playlist. i used to love it :(

:(

Also as the proud owner of a fivehead I need to stand with my other fiveheads in solidarity

"Umbrella" felt like a huge deal at the time but I stopped caring that much about it after it faded from ubiquity

☔

also this is so obviously bey what are you ppl even talking about

― The Reverend, Tuesday, March 31, 2015 6:23 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i am coming from a place of ignorance here, because i have never listened to a rihanna album all the way through, but she basically has five good songs, right?

on the rihanna greatest hits album theres a song called "Love The Way You Lie (Piano Version)" that does not have eminem on it :)

That's probably true but you're not counting the instagrams xp

i like her. like i like her crazy outfits and she seems likable, based on the very little i know about her. but i mean...

on the rihanna greatest hits album theres a song called "Love The Way You Lie (Piano Version)" that does not have eminem on it :)

similarly fwiw the album version of birthday cake is sans chris brown (and 80 seconds long)

i am going to need everyone on ilx to weigh in on this poll fyi

there's a rihanna greatest hits album?

more like a greatest hits ep, amirite

Probably shoulda put this poll on ile to emphasize we are evaluating holistically

wow rude xp

yeah tbh idk if i like rihannas music more than beyonces but i def felt like i wanted to vote rihanna

rihanna rolled a blunt on her bodyguard's head

Bey. Riri does very little for me on any level.

yeah i mean rolling a bunt on yr bodyguards head v wearing a kale tshirt its not really a contest

tbh the last rihanna song i was aware of was "pour it up" which put her robotic song stylings to good use imo, but i just don't really get her. except "rude boy," which is a great song and the only time she sounds awake + alive as a singer to me.

IMO Rihanna figured out how to emote sometime around "What's My Name?" and has been a genuinely expressive singer ever since.

Even with that, this is OBVIOUSLY Beyoncé

(FWIW "SOS" and "Please Don't Stop The Music" feature primo Robohanna and are among the best songs ever so it's not like I see her flat-affect delivery as a universal negative; Holleroncyé loses me on songs like "Unbreakable")

i agree the roboticness works on some songs. i don't like SOS or Please don't stop the music, though.

super icey rihanna is especially good when the lyrical content of the song is very emotional, its good tension

they are both v good and i think rihanna will actually have a very strong greatest hits album

in terms of personality i have surprised myself and prefer beyonce, rihanna seems like kind of a jerk, i mean the ugg instagram post is funny but also vaguely dickish

'umbrella' is a weird highlight from her catalog bc imo it doesn't really capture rihanna's personality in song

i'm voting beyonce, there's something genuine & sincere about her aggression that i find more likeable at the end of the day

i dont mean to imply rihanna is not sincere or genuine but there's a lack of empathy there or something idk

should have posted this to i love freud

horseshoe do you like 'where have you been'? imo the best of the big rihanna records

i am embarrassed to admit i don't know that song, but i will go listen to it now

i remember the first time i heard sos i ran into this guy i barely knew in the deli and and he stopped suddenly mid small talk cocked his head and was all "this samples tainted love"

oh okay i now this song

i think maybe rihanna's voice only works for me very sparingly

know not now

i think the only riri song i ever really really could get behind was "umbrella"

i like "you da one"

and "rude boy"

being skeptical of beyonce's whole perfection aesthetic is understandable, but it's not like Rihanna's whole vibe is any less calculated, it's just a different sort of calculation, like knowing you'll be photographed rolling a blunt on your bodyguard's head and understanding the reaction it will elicit

v interested to see what she does on the next album though, her voice has developed this rich expressive sound that wasn't there before as evidenced on four five seconds

deej otm re: riri's empathy level but that's not a quality i find in a whole lot of pop stars at the moment tbh, bey included, tho i understand that bey's declarations of self are there to be felt as ours too.

i like when rihanna says she wants to set you on fire so she won't have to burn alone. that is like the opposite of empathy but when the violence is over there will def be empathy!

i think my fav riri songs are

1. umbrella
2. we found love
3. all of lights

tbh sounds like you met me

^^^

that's a very delayed xpost to lagoon's sos story

have u guys ever seen the rude boy video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e82VE8UtW8A

damn girl

you da one is good, umbrella, most of the singles from loud, diamonds and bitch better have my money also good

Beyoncé wins for me bc I can listen to most of her albums (and a bunch of the destiny's child stuff too) w/o skipping tracks

yeah i'm not gonna argue on the album front; i just listen to rated r + singles.

i do think her fashion sense is genius, like its craziness only emphasizes her intense beauty, in a who the fuck else could pull this off kind of way.

but that won't fill out a greatest hits album imo

i dont know how you guys can make this decision based on some sort of mathematical calculation oriented around numbers and hit rate etc

being skeptical of beyonce's whole perfection aesthetic is understandable, but it's not like Rihanna's whole vibe is any less calculated, it's just a different sort of calculation

of course, which is why some people are answering this question in terms of which (calculated) aesthetic they prefer.

I've never been super into Bey, but I don't think I've heard anything from her I like as much as "rude boy"

like these are both accomplished enough artists that u should be grading on the intangibles

yeah rihanna not really an "album artist" not really a fair comparison

but that won't fill out a greatest hits album imo

the liner notes tho

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B_TwmweXIAAd39z.jpg

it's not about numbers exactly but it is genuinely surprising that rihanna seems musically comparable to beyonce to a lot of people. they just seem in different leagues to me.

"We Found Love" is an astounding song; every time I hear it, it feels like it's 1993 all over again

i don't like that song :(

i can feel how annoying i'm being. i'm the tuomas of rihanna.

it's not about numbers exactly but it is genuinely surprising that rihanna seems musically comparable to beyonce to a lot of people. they just seem in different leagues to me.

― horseshoe, Tuesday, March 31, 2015 6:58 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

like, "schoolin' life" trumps every rihanna song put together to me, and it's kind of a one-off for beyonce

i can feel how annoying i'm being. i'm the tuomas of rihanna.
--horseshoe

this is unduly harsh on yourself man

i dont think 'we found love' is as amazing personally, the beat is kinda #basic vocal house imo. although it's better than 'sos' or 'umbrella'

much prefer 'you da one' 'where have you been' 'only girl in the world' 'rude boy'

One day, horseshoe, you will be in a hopeless place and Love* will be there and you'll say "I FINALLY UNDERSTAND, RIRI"

* obv I mean basketball star Kevin Love

one day we will all be rude boyz and we will all be big enough

my sister just threw a birthday party where she insisted on playing B'Day from beginning to end. twice.

well that obviously rules

she is an insane person but it got the people on the floor

she had invited some young people to the party and i think she wanted to school them on pre-self-titled beyonce golden oldies

i wish the rihanna song abt killing a guy was cooler

"Rude Boy" is Rihanna's masterpiece, horseshoe otm

she had invited some young people to the party and i think she wanted to school them on pre-self-titled beyonce golden oldies

some people still had flip phones in those days, like on mad men, i mean star trek

g4l is pretty cool!

unless as conceded above u are in the empathy market

ha i was thinking of man down

oh yeah that one always rolls off me.

another point in rihannas column more songs about murder

no angel--->partition--->jealous---->rocket

^^^^
better than any four songs by anyone else ever

"ring the alarm" is implicitly murderous?

the rihanna persona is amazing but her recorded output matches up to it maybe 25% of the time

beyoncé's persona was amazing and is now secretly kind of boring but her output has consistently transcended it

i prefer to judge on the music

i just want to argue that rihanna has some pretty great album tracks in there
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7mVL78-3j8

i feel like beyonce is just kind of private and proper except when it comes to her rapacious desire for wealth?

which i enjoy, don't get me wrong

and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEL8SXgZ0KI

talk that talk def the second best riri album unless i should have listened to a girl like me more or something

unapologetic has some joints too i mean 'loveee song' is on that

bascially i agree with horseshoe about beyonce > rihanna but i think it's much closer than she does

This is like having to choose between country and western.

we got both kinds

rap AND metal

the real trolling in this thread is multiple people singling out, from rihanna's entire discography, YOU DA ONE

this is hard as it is just a moment in time, like i'm a little fatigued with bey right now and am psyched for some new rihanna material so that's going to color my vote, also i do just find riri to be a very funny and entertaining public figure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY_mrU8MPfI

This

also THIS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XY3AvVgDns

pls do not forget & srs cred to riri for the insane rihanna plane & 77 content tho obv

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rihanna_777_Documentary..._7Countries7Days7Shows

lol i love you da one

best song from talk that talk was "watch n' learn", fuiud

ciara vs amerie

super-famous people are boring

lol i love you da one

― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Tuesday, March 31, 2015 10:46 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the rihanna plane stuff seemed insanely dum to me at the time idk

Talk That Talk had some keepers but was overall probably the most phoned-in of her albums during that "one Rihanna album a year" phase we were in. It was even shipped with an incomplete track! I actually think Unapologetic is pretty high up there as far as her albums go whereas Talk That Talk is somewhere towards the bottom.

The "incomplete track" faded out before Chris Brown could ruin it so I'm a-ok with that decision

Also: "Cockiness" rules

i want to vote Rihanna but Beyonce's been more consistent, though it feels weird for me to say that

bey still hasn't released a great album. neither has ri. ri has singles but they all grate after a while due to her voice.

these two arent about albums. ridiculous to expect them to be. though id say that 'beyonce' is a good album, and rihanna's good girl gone bad are both pretty strong. id vote rihanna every time though - its just her voice that does it, i find it more character-full on the whole and more versatile in terms of expressiveness. beyonce has the more powerful voice obv, but suffers from less feeling. shes never able to really let her guard down.

i agree RE: their voices - i have made the same observation in the past

i also agree that both have released very solid albums.

bey's voice is just totally devoid of soul. ri obviously can't really sing but what she does do with it just kind of grates after a while.

rihanna has, idk, 'grain' in her voice, whereas beyonce prefers a certain flawlessness. beyonce is expressive with the right song (eg - her emotions cover) but rihanna can give pretty much all her songs a certain emotional complexity (pathos?) just by virtue of her vocal character/presence. or maybe its just a preference for a certain 'grit' (for lack of a better word, though i think it does actually fit, even though most ppl prob wouldnt associate rihanna with grittiness) to sheer power, though i would say its not exactly power i dislike, but the tendency a lot of big voiced singers have, which is just that difficulty in relaxing their power.

I don't think it's a problem of relaxing her power, it's that she can't impart any soul (or feeling) on even the power. Soulful singers are capable of being soulful singing loud. She on the other hand sings loud, especially live, to cover for her inabiilty to put feeling into her voice. This isn't actually an issue for her normally because she avoids these types of songs in general. But live the need is occasionally seen and unfulfilled.

Listen to the DC song Emotion for an example of a perfect song where Bey could demo her soulful feeling in her voice and totally fails, it's left to Michelle to come in at the end of the song and in a 10 second cameo show Bey how it's done, and then, fittingly, Bey comes in screaming over the top of her and drowns her out to finish the song.

This is why also a lot of those ballads on DDC albums didn't work - Bey couldn't carry them with the right feeling they were written for, they felt cold (Brown Eyes, for eg, is just mediocre). But they wouldn't let the other 2 take the lead on these songs, even though they were more capable, especially Michelle.

I didn't think Michelle stans were real

it's all about character for me. you can have the best voice in the world but if you don't have character i could give a shit. hence my being a Mariah stan - she knows this down to the consonant.

Mariah's got it.

They've both got like 2 great albums to their names at this point in my estimation.

Re: Rihanna's grit, it's definitely a thing I noticed that sets her apart. For example on something like that S&M remix where Britney's vocal lifelessness only served to highlight the ease with which Rihanna just sells the whole song.

also (not that Shakira doesn't have grit) but on that duet with Shakira - whatever it's called - Rihanna's 2nd verse *clearly* makes the song

"can't remember to forget you" - like the song doesn't make any sense until Rihanna comes in

doing some listening over here and one lil thing i noticed was how nimble rihannas phrasing is, especially on those first two hits pon de replay and sos she tears it up, i bet she can rap good

wonder if that comes from growing up in the dancehall belt

"Rude Boy" is Rihanna's masterpiece, horseshoe otm

― some dude, Tuesday, March 31, 2015 7:10 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

if it's not "umbrella" then my contrarian pick would be "cold case love" tbh

i feel like rihanna is more of a big deal in the black community (judging from my black friends' twitters/various memes)(not that she's not huge overall) so my impression might be skewed but to me rihanna seems a lot less singular, more replaceable, more blank slatish than beyonce. i mean i can't really imagine anyone else having beyonce's career.

arctic noon k3v

I'd contest that, especially since Rihanna has spent most of her career being a huge popstar who didn't have a huge impact on urban radio. (With Beyonce it's the opposite as of late). Loud was a massive international album. Her pop singles always do well globally, but especially in places like the UK and Europe. She's got global appeal. I don't think it's because she's a blank slate either.

it's all throwaway music though. no one's going to be playing umbrella and drunk in love in 30 years.

[citation needed]

dude is strafing this thread with challops

adult contemporary stations will be playing "Umbrella" at least

i feel like rihanna is more of a big deal in the black community (judging from my black friends' twitters/various memes)(not that she's not huge overall) so my impression might be skewed but to me rihanna seems a lot less singular, more replaceable, more blank slatish than beyonce. i mean i can't really imagine anyone else having beyonce's career.

― k3vin k., Wednesday, April 1, 2015 2:32 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is probably kind of a can of worms to convo to even have. but it's interesting for you to say that just because it runs so totally counter to their careers of the past 5 years or so, wherein every Beyonce single has been a huge R&B radio hit and only a couple have been on pop radio, and most Rihanna singles are huge pop hits and maybe less than half of them impact R&B radio.

drunk in love is going to sound awesome in 30 years at my old lady party fyi

cake cake cake cake

i do vocabulary questions at the beginning of my class, and today one of the questions asked kids to name and defend their choice of a "virtuoso" performer. basically everyone chose beyonce and then mentioned very specific moments in performance. it was cute.

no one said rihanna fyi

I don't think Rihanna's persona is based on virtuosity

"my impression might be skewed but to me rihanna seems a lot less singular, more replaceable, more blank slatish than beyonce"

where exactly is beyonce this intimidating mass of personality and opinion? i mean, shes a 'big' performer, but as a person, even though i have a lot of problems with rihanna's tiringly snotty teenage rebellion persona, that is at least a lot less blank slatish than beyonce's professionalism.

diamonds, stay and we found love will all sound excellent in 30 years.

horseshoe repeat the same exercise but with the vocab word 'rebel badass'

haha okay

lol

tbh a lot of my female students dislike rihanna, view her as sexually "loose," and blame her for chris brown's abuse. it depresses me something awful.

Yeah that's partly based on stereotypes about Carribean women right? :\

she sings about being into sex, too

beyonce does that but it's almost always in some relationship context

stop shaming rihanna, you asshole kids

the thing abt rihanna is shes a good girl but then gone bad

otm

its crazy the stuff she gets up to

it's all throwaway music though. no one's going to be playing umbrella and drunk in love in 30 years.

― Arctic Noon Auk, Wednesday, April 1, 2015 8:29 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i will be playing umbrella for all time. also everyone knows my obsession with LOUD. not surprised it was a global hit.

a friend of a friend went to a party with Rihanna recently - to speak to Kevin's point, it was a super hip-hop party and apparently Rihanna knows how to get DOWN. not surprising.

good story

Charlamagne "Rihanna Is the Realest Since Tupac"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejRwLJcXjGQ

i'm tellin' you! LOVELOVELOVE

that's exactly what i heard about her.
also my friend wrote this great article on RIRI: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/14/fashion/perched-in-the-sky-rihanna-toasts-fendi.html?_r=0

"oh word rihanna just randomly picked you up from the hotel and took you to the hood and beanie sigel was in the club" lmao

I was at a UFC fight in Las Vegas that Rihanna also attended, and was really considering taking her some nachos. I bet she likes nachos.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"my impression might be skewed but to me rihanna seems a lot less singular, more replaceable, more blank slatish than beyonce"

where exactly is beyonce this intimidating mass of personality and opinion? i mean, shes a 'big' performer, but as a person, even though i have a lot of problems with rihanna's tiringly snotty teenage rebellion persona, that is at least a lot less blank slatish than beyonce's professionalism.

― StillAdvance, Wednesday, April 1, 2015 4:14 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Reducing Beyonce's vocal appeal to her professionalism is boring because it's not like her appeal is that she's a traditionally good vocalist giving you traditional good vocalist R&B approach to singing. She's not a Toni Braxton handing out these stately vocal performances. As early as the DC days her vocal appeal has been in the way she sort of nimbly navigates the verses of her songs in these cadences that border on the sort of thing rappers would do (Jumpin Jumpin, Upgrade U, Run The World, Lose My Breath, Get Me Bodied, Countdown). The way she's developed into someone who can believably sell ballads has been interesting, but the way she approaches mid-tempos and up-tempos is way more interesting to me.

even without taking her technical accomplishments into account the pejorative "perfection aesthetic" caricature m/l represents an indie-nihilist slur on the human condition tbh. like who finds excellence intimidating ugh so basic

i see no reason to choose between these titans

ciara vs amerie

― billstevejim, Wednesday, 1 April 2015 05:51 Bookmark

now this sloppy bar brawl otoh is a worthy affront to the brevity of life let's do it

agree umbrella belongs in the past, surely only peter pan internet thumbsuckers could deny that it now merely lives on to serve as a granite mausoleum of the people u sang it with in 2007 that ur no longer tite with

this is 2 nerdy 2 qualify as a 'rihanna is cool' story i spose but i was trying to trace back a recent non-obvi soca tune of note a while back and eventually the earliest ref i could find turned out to be an insta of rih and her wig carrier shaking their asses to it in a holiday mansion. respect

Rihanna takes it by virtue of the coolness of her excited tweets about Miroslav Klose and hanging out with the German national team post World Cup triumph.

I love them both but ultimately I guess I'm in love with Rihanna's careless cool more than anything.

"Reducing Beyonce's vocal appeal to her professionalism is boring because it's not like her appeal is that she's a traditionally good vocalist giving you traditional good vocalist R&B approach to singing. She's not a Toni Braxton handing out these stately vocal performances. As early as the DC days her vocal appeal has been in the way she sort of nimbly navigates the verses of her songs in these cadences that border on the sort of thing rappers would do (Jumpin Jumpin, Upgrade U, Run The World, Lose My Breath, Get Me Bodied, Countdown). The way she's developed into someone who can believably sell ballads has been interesting, but the way she approaches mid-tempos and up-tempos is way more interesting to me."

when i said professionalism, it wasnt that shes patti labelle or peabo bryson (though she is not exactly someone to resist showing off - i remember her at glasto, it wasnt that far off what ive seen toni braxton do), it was more how she reveals very little with her voice or personality, and her songs are *often* not written to reveal much emotion either. so its not about 'i like indie imperfections' or some corny dichotomy like that, its simply that beyonce is somewhat impenetrable, and doesnt seem to enjoy showing anything approaching vulnerability. i love her doing stuff like jumpin jumpin, bug a boo, so its not like i want every performance to be like XO (though again, while i like the song, its simply that the melody compensates for the emoting she isnt doing). rihanna, for all her 'me so crazy' image, does fragility and tenderness a lot more convincingly than beyonce (eg - love song with future, or stay).

its simply that beyonce is somewhat impenetrable,

really untrue of her singing on 4 and the self-titled.

How can you say she doesn't emote in XO? Right before the first chorus, her voice freaking breaks!

Until "Diamonds" was used in a fantastic and beautiful way in the movie Girlhood I'd liked at most three Rihanna songs. A cipher she remains.

drunk in love is going to sound awesome in 30 years at my old lady party fyi

― horseshoe, Wednesday, April 1, 2015 4:11 PM (Yesterday)

I'll bring the gin

it's not that beyonce's singles aren't written to show emotion, it's that the Beyonce Meme is such that nobody has canonized the ones that do, like "sweet dreams" or "if i were a boy"

Fwiw Rihanna is the most attractive pop star of my lifetime. I do like Beyonce's music more tho.

i think that Beyonce's relentless poise and guarded sense of privacy are genuine aspects of her art and persona that are pretty much undeniable at this point, but i think the last 2 albums were interesting largely for how they punctured that (or incorporated a newfound sense of intimacy and transparency into her still very polished public self), and at this point knocking her for being 'too perfect' is just a boring old saw. you can't just drop it like a truth bomb without having some actual insight about it.

This isn't about dropping truth bombs this is about how you feel

I saw Rihanna take a kid to his senior prom on an MTV show years ago; I thought that was really sweet, especially when she said "I never had a prom so this is fun for me, too!"

:D

Too perfect like Super Mario World

Beyonce doesn't seem entirely about "relentless poise/guarded privacy" just look at this last video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4YRWT_Aldo

haven't played the video yet but that booty is being popped with relentless poise in the still

loll

yea can't deny that 7/11 and Flawless aren't GRITTY enough, those are some of my favorite tracks.

beyonces perfection is cool w me and i agree with whoever said its part of her art, if anything its annoying when artist like that listen to the criticism and make overt calculating efforts at opening up

like jay did btw

if anything its annoying when artist like that listen to the criticism and make overt calculating efforts at opening up

― lag∞n, Thursday, April 2, 2015 11:21 AM (24 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i.e. 7/11

This buzzfeed article comparing Avril Lavigne and Rihanna meet 'n' greets pretty much proves Rihanna's awesomeness. Don't know how you could not vote for her.

That perfection may be a projection. I see it as a tireless work ethic, relentless towards the goal not of achieving perfection but of always refining her craft.

("too perfect" is meaningless anyway, it's positive or negative based on public perception of the artist and on nothing else.)

oh are we bringing Avril into this, because jjj has a hilarious story about her

i.e. 7/11

― katherine, Thursday, April 2, 2015 11:22 AM (20 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tho i like that video and my theory as to why bey is so guarded is at least partly its beacuase shes kind of a kooky lunatic, you can def see it in her live performances but then in her recorded music and videos etc that quality is almost nowhere to be found

ugh 7/11 is so good it sends me to another planet

it is completely irrelevant to thread, but I need this jjj story

I PUT UP
MY HANDS UP
I PUT UP
MY HANDS UP
SPINNIN WITH MY HANDS UP

like, what else do you need?

http://ak-hdl.buzzfed.com/static/2014-05/enhanced/webdr08/5/11/enhanced-6437-1399303097-14.jpg

incredible

the meet-n-greet photos really make me wish I'd tried to bring her nachos

lol

every picture shes groping on her fans lmao

omg. what is this meet n greet???????? she looks perfect.

i don't think i can vote in this poll. i'll be the peanut gallery

Beyonce doesn't seem entirely about "relentless poise/guarded privacy" just look at this last video:

(7/11 video)

― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau)

Lol that's the most contrived video i've ever seen. Everything about B is contrived to a fault. Nothing is natural. She's a contrivance machine genius. She's a chameleon cuttlefish. She can imitate anyone and does so very well. She's been all of Amerie, Gaga, Taylor, Rihanna and some at the same time. My guess is the 7/11 video is a direct comeback to Taylor Swift's (also contrived) girly fun openness as B's serious work diva look may not be hitting right now.

the most interesting thing to me about Beyonce is her evolution. The chameleon thing can also be seen as her always trying different things and I really admire that about her discography.

That makes a lot of sense. The contrivance thing is a useless point though, you could argue any artist is nothing but a contrivance once they begin to play for an audience. The coffee shop guy sitting on a stool in a real coffee shop, he's acting out a part too. Don't give her shit just bc she's really successful at it.

Contrivance is what music is.

Those notes aren't there haphazardly. A drum pattern is a contrivance. There are musicians who make use of natural processes and systems in their music but they are typically thought of as on the fringe culture-wise.

maybe next we can poll predestination vs. free will

suggest ignore the raccoon itt

lol xp

suggest ignore the raccoon itt

― lag∞n,

you have a serious problem with opinions that don't align with your own dont you?

a lot of people here do.

it fits well into the demographic.

I have no problem with your opinions, just the way they're conveyed

i might have to take whats my name off my riri mix cause the drake verse is so unbearable :(

cake cake cake cake

i might have to take whats my name off my riri mix cause the drake verse is so unbearable :(

every time I think I can soldier through the Drake appearance and then he says "the square root of 69 is 'ate something'" and I lose 3 minutes to a rage blackout and miss the rest of the song

same

1-ilx thread begins about a pop act

2-raccoon says something critical about pop act

3-raccoon is trolling so ignore him guys

4-can't we just ban him instead?

repeat

cake cake cake cake

have you considered learning to converse instead of just yelling opinions?

I mean, half the time it's like someone stopped into a birthday gathering and decided to stand in the middle of the room and loudly moan about how they don't like cake while everyone else is just talking

cake cake cake cake

really wish we cld not have this conversation itt which is about RIRI v BEY

I would have gone with "someone stopped into a birthday gathering, pooped on the cake and insisted people eat around it because it made the cake more interesting"

You could argue any artist is nothing but a contrivance once they begin to play for an audience. The coffee shop guy sitting on a stool in a real coffee shop, he's acting out a part too. Don't give her shit just bc she's really successful at it.

― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau)

Nah.

really wish we cld not have this conversation itt which is about RIRI v BEY

― lag∞n

How delicate. So we're not allowed to discuss them individually, only together. Could you proffer a terms and conditions next time?

this thread has truly become "a hopeless place"

Arctic you seem like the type of person to get angry at a neighbor for throwing you off their property after you were kind enough to water their plants without realizing you'd actually peed on them

plz stop talking to him thank you

to who?

idk

the answer to this q is Bey easy

xp:

http://i.cdn.turner.com/drp/nba/cavaliers/sites/default/files/styles/story_main_photo/public/growingup_love_140925.jpg?itok=JafwYAtF

found him

oh hi

cakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecake

lifeblood
https://soundcloud.com/funkystepzuk/funkystepz-x-rihanna-birthday

lagoon doesn't like not being in control

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koVHN6eO4Xg

what do you guys think of S&M

sounds like gaga

pretty much every Rihanna single that isn't a ballad is good aside from Drake's appearance on "What's My Name", and her newer ballads are much, much better than her older ones

ergo, S&M is great

Rihanna is hot

http://i.imgur.com/2Qvpn2Z.png

wow blessed

hmmm

i might have to take whats my name off my riri mix cause the drake verse is so unbearable :(

every time I think I can soldier through the Drake appearance and then he says "the square root of 69 is 'ate something'" and I lose 3 minutes to a rage blackout and miss the rest of the song

― DJP, Thursday, April 2, 2015 2:33 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha you actually made me appreciate this line more because i always assumed he was just saying '8 something' like 8 with other digits after the decimal, it didn't occur to me that it might be a double entendre for 'ate something.' given Drake's spotty track record with wordplay, though, i dunno if he even intended it that way.

i think he might've and i like his verse! that is one of my favorite songs.

i think we all know i'm a huge LOUD stan but S&M is my least fav track on it

lol that line is hilarious. The double entendre is obviously on purpose!

yeah that one was intentional, it was an old school yard joke. I remember a kid in surfer clothes coming up to my nerdy ass while I was playing NBA Jam in an arcade back in like 1994 and telling me that joke.

(I didn't get it until 2004)

hahaha

ok it makes sense if it's an old thing that Drake picked up, didn't seem like the kind of thing he'd come up with on his own

what's my name used to make me cry on a regular basis #tmi

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

not surprising! i am now listening to Beyonce on repeat thanks to this thread. i like her a lot. she has grown on me.

http://www.bet.com/content/dam/betcom/images/2011/10/Music-10.16-10.31/102711-music-beyonce-rap-collabos-bun-b-slim-thug.png.custom1200x675x20.dimg

I love both of these artists for different reasons

singles: rihanna
albums: beyonce
celebrity: rihanna

― J0rdan S.,

talent: bey
edginess: rihanna
fashion: bey
stage presence: bey
live shows: bey
sluttiness: rihanna
weed promotion to minors: rihanna
intelligence: bey
videos: bey
music: bey
dancing: bey
singing: bey

would win in a fight: bey

voice: rihanna

Rihanna: Rihanna
Beyonce: Beyonce

artist: badu

Rihanna takes it by virtue of the coolness of her excited tweets about Miroslav Klose and hanging out with the German national team post World Cup triumph.

― pandemic, Thursday, 2 April 2015 09:49 Bookmark

http://i.imgur.com/AtvnrMT.jpg

o rly

Instagram: Beyonce

That's the KO punch in favour of RiRi

xp

voice: rihanna

― StillAdvance, Friday, April 3, 2015 12:06 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Rihanna has one of the best voices for studio recording. when i heard please don't stop the music the first time, that fact was very clear to me. her tracks must be very fun for producers to mess with.

noeh areta ‏@johnxnoeh 34m34 minutes ago
@on3ness avril didn't touch her fans because her fans might get sick too because Lyme Disease is contagious and very serious illness. Yep.

lmao

http://i.imgur.com/LE8Hbv1.jpg

The disease does not appear to be transmissible between people, by other animals, or through food.

seems like a good kid, though, if a little obsessed

are there any filipino ilxors, seems like he might have some untranslatable wisdom in the tweets

Rihanna has one of the best voices for studio recording. when i heard please don't stop the music the first time, that fact was very clear to me. her tracks must be very fun for producers to mess with.

― surm,

LOLOLOL dude she literally cannot sing a note

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4LXdT5qtJs

Thats a live video and the comment was about studio recording

so her voice magically becomes wonderful inside a studio, a producers dream? xD

cakecakecakecake

suggest album cuts / minor singles / guest spots for my riri mix thank u

There's a Dave Aude remix of S&M that I like

Arctic - some singers' voices just sound really good on record. Rihanna knows how to make a song sound like a party, on record. always has. that's all.

i do think rihanna's a good studio vocalist, as someone mentioned above the britney remix of "s&m" ended up really showing just how effortlessly great rih's original vocal was

yup. (also her dancing for that song, whatever performance it was. totally upstaged beloved Brit.)

Rihanna knows how to make a song sound like a party, on record. always has. that's all.

― surm, Friday, April 3, 2015 12:25 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

very well said thank u

so her voice magically becomes wonderful inside a studio, a producers dream? xD

Yeah usually when you record vocals you spend hours and hours doing one song, fixing intonation, getting the notes right, messing up and then doing it again and again until you get it right. So yes magic.

suggest album cuts / minor singles / guest spots for my riri mix thank u

― lag∞n, Friday, April 3, 2015 12:23 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Sell Me Candy
Raining Men
Breakin' Dishes
Watch n Learn
Do Ya Thang
Bad (Remix)
G4L
No Love Allowed
Man Down

sweet thx

suggest album cuts / minor singles / guest spots for my riri mix thank u

― lag∞n, Friday, April 3, 2015 11:23 AM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i posted some upthread did u get those or do u want them again

i did get those thank u

Pon de replay remix

Yeah usually when you record vocals you spend hours and hours doing one song, fixing intonation, getting the notes right, messing up and then doing it again and again until you get it right. So yes magic.

― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Friday, April 3, 2015 5:33 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yup thank you for explaining <3

the rihanna clip upthread is by no fucking means "cannot sing a note," it's at least good enough that I'd start wondering whether it was lip-synched

She couldn't hear the backing music and was having serious breath support problems during "Love The Way You Lie" but the rest of it was fine, especially when you add in the dancing.

well okay she made a poor choice in the ad lib at the end but, as katherine said, that clip is not good proof that Rihanna can't sing a note

to be fair the "love the way you lie" chorus is surprisingly difficult to sing ("just gonna" is belted but "stand" is not, and it takes at least some skill to not fuck that up)

I'd argue a lot of that difficulty is due to how Rihanna's voice works more than anything else; there are singers out there who could either belt the whole thing or can transition into head voice in their passaggio much easier than Rihanna can, but that heavy inflexibility is one of the things that draws people into her voice/songs. (It's kind of similar to what's going on with Katy Perry actually, only Rihanna generally isn't singing songs that highlight how ugly her voice can get.)

yeah, that was what I was getting at but backed off from, except if you belted the whole chorus it'd become an entirely different mood

Oh agreed!

yeah, she kind of had that passaggio thing going on in We Found Love. i liked it. i definitely prefer "stand" in the head voice.

i actually forgot how high the chorus is on Love the Way You Lie!

Remember when this was her avi http://i.imgur.com/LZF1tAV.jpg

Good discussion!

Standing on the Sun cld be a Riri song bt I'm kinda glad it isn't

beyonces perfection is cool w me and i agree with whoever said its part of her art, if anything its annoying when artist like that listen to the criticism and make overt calculating efforts at opening up

― lag∞n, T

this is my favorite post -- I want more pop stars who force you to think about what their distance b/w you and them means (i.e. Bowie, Beyonce).

I love Madonna because she could write songs about the hot Puerto Rican boy she saw across the street and another about what's it like to be Madonna Ciccone, rich as fuck, having a child, and you the listener will never know what it's like.

No mention in this thread of "Unfaithful," which is my favorite Rihanna ballad and also a song where I feel like she found some new depth as a singer.

(That said I still voted B. But it feels like a mismatch. I like a ton of Rihanna singles.)

"Unfaithful" is horrifying IMO

Unfaithful years later is still the worst fucking song. An interesting melody and maybe even a necessary in her discography for Rih's evolution but just an otherwise awful piece of music.

Having gone back through Good Girl Gone Bad, I'm still so amazed at how everything on that album could've been a single easily.

Ha, so that's why Unfaithful hadn't been mentioned. I still love it -- Stargate goth. First time I remember Rihanna sounding vulnerable.

if anything "unfaithful" reminds me of what a crap vocalist rihanna used to be early on

I respect the technical analysis but for me its like

Does it bang

If yes ----> I like it

same, tho obvs theyre not totally unrelated, also i like hearing ppl who understand the technical aspect speak on it

so far upon reviewing rihannas output the songs thatre moving up the charts of my estimation are every girl in the world and livin a lie (the-dream feat rihanna)

"Livin' a Lie" is my favorite early Rihanna.

Thinking about these two together -- as the Whitney/Mariah of their era, more or less -- makes me wonder what (if anything but coincidence) led to the prominence of nasally-inflected R&B in the early 2000s. I like nasal voices in general, which is part of why I like both B and Ri, but I feel like there's not a lot of precedent for it among R&B powerhouses. That plus obvious hip-hop influence on phrasing are what distinguish them from earlier eras, it seems to me.

One other point of comparison -- Rihanna is a better voice actress in subpar animated movies.

so far upon reviewing rihannas output the songs thatre moving up the charts of my estimation are every girl in the world and livin a lie (the-dream feat rihanna)

― lag∞n, Saturday, April 4, 2015 11:37 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

did you hear "cold case love" yet

possibly related to the proliferation of nasally-inflected pop around the same time?

Maybe it's allergies!

I'd love DJP to weigh in.

I keep reading "nasal infection" and think of coke

I think it's a little bit of a misnomer to call Beyoncé "nasal". Usually what's happening there is a technique thing to lock into a particular section of her voice; you can hear a similar thing in other R&B/soul singers of ages past including Patti LaBelle, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Night, Donna Summer, Chaka Khan, etc, with the big difference being that B overall has a lighter voice than those women (note: "lighter" is not intended to imply "worse"; it's merely a descriptive term that describes vocal color and heft).

Rihanna is a total nasal buzz saw, which tied partially into how her speaking voice developed and how she can lift her naturally deep voice into higher register. That being said, there's some element of nasality in all singing as that's part of the basic technique for developing a singing resonance; what I hear in Rihanna's voice reads to me as overcompensation to both help her steady/clarify her pitch and to fit into a pop milieu. I could pretty easily hear her moving into the classical realm as a woofy contralto, given the weight and relative inflexibility of her voice.

I was gonna cite LaBelle and Stephanie Mills.

DJP MVP

Ask and ye shall receive -- interesting! Light is a good word for Beyoncé.

did you hear "cold case love" yet

― k3vin k., Saturday, April 4, 2015 1:17 PM (49 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

im not that into her as an rnb singer tbh idk

Missed this thread but want to say that "Who's That Chick" (her song with David Guetta) is actually my secret club jam. I miss the era when gay clubs were all about that and "Good Girl" and "Dirty Talk".

"dirty talk" was a great gay club jam, yes

whose "good girl" do you mean? perhaps alexis jordan's? :D

i never really liked "who's that chick" but i never heard it in a club either

or maybe i did and didn't notice, lol

Yep Alexis. "Happiness" too.

"Who's That Chick" is the least of the four(or five, including "Only Girl In The World") but I still think it's quite underrated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTe4zm8iIJE

https://twitter.com/fatbellybella/status/584573861124935681

Ha

http://www.buzzfeed.com/hgiorgis/rihanna-da-gawd

http://i.imgur.com/ptcQV26.gif

i like in livin a lie when they call each other impeccable

http://gawker.com/great-rumor-jay-z-has-a-special-phone-just-for-rihanna-1697406073

http://i.imgur.com/frxX7jp.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/MNmw1FW.gif

Changing vote to Rihanna

ay just wanted to say that i enjoy both of the tracks off of talk that talk that deej recommended watch and learn and do ya thing

theyre both kinda in that caribbean style i can never recall the name of that sounds like its not trying too hard

zouk

http://i.imgur.com/AAl5RX6.jpg

same

sexi phot

so what's this "American Oxygen" shit

You breathe it when u live in America iirc

Hear that Ri is ending lives tonight

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CENREwXUgAAziR4.png

seems like it might be a size too large for her idk

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CENSxE3WIAEZ4qH.jpg

jlo's was p tight too

Ri looked hot

it was like a giant yellow hoodie

with diamond studs

rihanna's dress is dripping, no young thug

https://mobile.twitter.com/AbeBroman/status/595387309501087744

stupid tweet

it's such quaint faux naïf blog voice though

i cant have been the only one who was like, i bet there's a pee joke here, but def got the feeling that it would have to be a real knock-me-down hilarious line or it wasnt even worth making

everyone stop trying to make jokes online

aw

sorry this is "the end of jokes"

everyone tried too hard to make too many jokes and now there are no more jokes left

honestly though

http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2015/05/05/1227336/853372-2b074714-f2cb-11e4-845d-5939ce041631.jpg

praise ri

https://scontent-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/t31.0-8/11155094_10152709245535633_3064103389656792945_o.jpg

bitch better have my train

surm what did lagoon say about jokes

idk if thats really a joke, more of a quip

btw was thinking its kinda interesting how ri and bey both came out w minimalist repetitive not very melodic bangers at the same time

sorry thx for checking me

wait what did bey come out with (not 7/11?)

7/11 lol

fucking love both those songs

7/11 literally sends me into like a tantric tizzy (with my hands up of course)

\(*_*)/

:)

http://i.imgur.com/qQDoQmP.jpg

lmaooo

it's true tho

lol

7/11 literally sends me into like a tantric tizzy (with my hands up of course)

― surm, Tuesday, May 5, 2015 11:28 AM (3 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

UM

this song JUST came on

weird timing marcos

crazy bey made the better dark bass banger, shes a true master

[refuses to acknowledge the "trap" metatag]

lol surm

i have been playing this song like 3x a day for the past week

rly good advice

http://i.imgur.com/PbpTXG0.jpg

might have to change my vote

looooooooooool

must be fun to float in knee high water with photogs clicking

She is about to swim out and kill a shark just off-screen.

LOL also that is def me in the middle.

is it a surm lookalike or really you?!?

lookalike lol but kindof uncanny. putting on 711 now per marcos life advice xo

putting on 711 now per marcos life advice xo

― surm, Thursday, August 20, 2015 4:38 PM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

me too

:)

I would have gone with "someone stopped into a birthday gathering, pooped on the cake and insisted people eat around it because it made the cake more interesting"

― DJP, Thursday, April 2, 2015 2:39 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink