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The Banality of Fug
Aug. 14th, 2010 11:33 amI think Ben Ratliff, the NYT pop music critic, of all people, may have taken the Fug Girls' genius exegesis a step farther, and gotten to the bottom of the fug that is Rihanna, all KoolAid red Justin Bieber hair and third-rate Gaga outfits. This was recently brought into contrast to devastating effect when preceded by a smoking hot Kesha set.
Rihanna is affectless.
Writes Ratliff:
In her show at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night, she bestrode a pink tank’s gun turret while wearing a Mouseketeer helmet; smashed the husk of an old car and entreated a young female fan to do the same; played a flying-V electric guitar — crudely, imperiously — from atop a tall platform; sang in front of trapeze artists hanging from giant rifles; and spent a lot of time in a black latex unitard with fabric at the haunchesand high boots. Love is a battlefield. Love is a circus. Love is a strip club.
None of this cut very deeply, and not just because these themes are so incredibly banal, but because Rihanna keeps her affect on lockdown. She spoke little. That vibrato shake at the end of her vocal lines is about the sum of her charm as a singer. She moved in smooth, even glides. Her low hip-grind in “Rude Boy” and her lip curl in “Rehab,” as she reclined on a hideous therapist’s couch, adorned with metal casts of human heads and limbs: these were the smash hits of her body language. (Most at the Garden could see her snarl only via overhead video screens, which also picked up clear angles of her new Francophone neck tattoo.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/arts/music/14riha.html
The best part of the Rude Boy video is the non-Rihanna parts, all clearly bites of M.I.A., with the "I ain't fakin'" at 2:34 a riposte to "Poker Face". Rihanna's swivelhips just make my eyes feel dehydrated.
One tiny Google reveals that the video director is female and has already been widely accused of ripping M.I.A. off.
You read it here first.
Me, I prefer my video vixens totally affectless, like the heroin chic one on the left here, not even pretending to work the keyboard.
Rihanna is affectless.
Writes Ratliff:
In her show at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night, she bestrode a pink tank’s gun turret while wearing a Mouseketeer helmet; smashed the husk of an old car and entreated a young female fan to do the same; played a flying-V electric guitar — crudely, imperiously — from atop a tall platform; sang in front of trapeze artists hanging from giant rifles; and spent a lot of time in a black latex unitard with fabric at the haunchesand high boots. Love is a battlefield. Love is a circus. Love is a strip club.
None of this cut very deeply, and not just because these themes are so incredibly banal, but because Rihanna keeps her affect on lockdown. She spoke little. That vibrato shake at the end of her vocal lines is about the sum of her charm as a singer. She moved in smooth, even glides. Her low hip-grind in “Rude Boy” and her lip curl in “Rehab,” as she reclined on a hideous therapist’s couch, adorned with metal casts of human heads and limbs: these were the smash hits of her body language. (Most at the Garden could see her snarl only via overhead video screens, which also picked up clear angles of her new Francophone neck tattoo.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/arts/music/14riha.html
The best part of the Rude Boy video is the non-Rihanna parts, all clearly bites of M.I.A., with the "I ain't fakin'" at 2:34 a riposte to "Poker Face". Rihanna's swivelhips just make my eyes feel dehydrated.
One tiny Google reveals that the video director is female and has already been widely accused of ripping M.I.A. off.
You read it here first.
Me, I prefer my video vixens totally affectless, like the heroin chic one on the left here, not even pretending to work the keyboard.
