|
''Rated R'' is the fourth studio album by Barbadian singer Rihanna. It was released on November 20, 2009 by Def Jam Recordings. Recording sessions for the album began in April 2009 and took place at several recording studios throughout United States and Europe. Rihanna together with Antonio "L.A." Reid and The Carter Administration was the executive producer of the album and worked with many record producers, including Chase & Status, StarGate, The-Dream, Ne-Yo, and Brian Kennedy. The record featured several vocalists and instrumentalists, including Young Jeezy, will.i.am, Justin Timberlake and Slash who played the guitars in "Rockstar 101". Musically, the album represents a departure from her 2007 effort ''Good Girl Gone Bad'', which contained up-tempo and ballad-oriented songs. Conceived after Rihanna's assault by her then-boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, ''Rated R'' features a foreboding and atmospheric tone in terms of musical and lyrical direction. It incorporated elements of hip hop, rock, and dubstep. It also explores other genres, such as dancehall in "Rude Boy" and Latin in "Te Amo". ''Rated R'' received positive reviews from music critics, who commended Rihanna's mature performance and called the album her most layered and heartfelt effort. In the United States, the album debuted at number four on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart and sold 181,000 copies in its first week. It also attained top ten positions in over twelve other countries. The album produced six singles, including the international hits "Russian Roulette", "Rude Boy" and "Te Amo", and in addition to "Hard". "Russian Roulette" was released as the album's lead single and managed to reach top-ten in seventeen countries and topped the charts in Norway and Switzerland. "Hard" reached number nine in the United States and became her thirteenth top-ten single re-tying her with Beyoncé as the female artist with the most top-ten hit singles in the country. "Rude Boy" was a commercial success and became the only single from the album that topped the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for five consecutive weeks. To further promote the album, Rihanna embarked on her third worldwide concert tour "Last Girl on Earth". ==Background== Rihanna's previous album ''Good Girl Gone Bad'' (2007) was a commercial success and received generally positive reviews from most music critics.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Good Girl Gone Bad (2007): Reviews )〕 The album featured five top ten hits—three US number one hit singles—including the international breakthrough single "Umbrella". Following the assault of Rihanna's boyfriend Chris Brown on her, there was much speculation as to whether any song featured on the upcoming album would be about him. In an interview with MTV News, regular Rihanna collaborator Ne-Yo clarified that he would not write a song for Rihanna about Brown, because he considered the idea unnecessary.〔 Producer Chuck Harmony mused that no matter what song Rihanna released as the lead single, it would immediately be looked at as a song about Brown. During an interview with Marc Malkin at the MTV Video Music Awards, Ne-Yo stated that listeners should expect an edgier and angrier Rihanna on the album. He later told ''In Touch Weekly'' that the album is definitely more menacing than Rihanna's prior work, describing the album as "liberated". American singer Akon, on the other hand, stated that he was "going to lighten her up" and didn't want an angry Rihanna.〔 With the success of her last album, Rihanna wanted to make sure that she didn't fall into one sound or vibe.〔 At the "Justin Timberlake & Friends Concert in Las Vegas", Timberlake told MTV News that the ''Rated R'' is a whole new sound and that the new songs are not just a rehash of what fans heard on her last album. "She broke onto the scene so hard with the last record — to have that many songs on the charts is impressive. I think that the smartest thing she's doing is not trying to emulate what she did but move forward", Timberlake explained.〔 After the release of the lead single, "Russian Roulette", Harmony was aware of the mixed reaction from fans who had heard the track.〔 He assured fans that the song was not fully representative to the rest of the album, though it reflected Rihanna's growth as an artist. In an interview with ''Rap-Up'', Tricky Stewart announced that he had collaborated with The-Dream on the project. He described the album as a whole as "uptempo and edgy", stating that the album is different from her past works. In February 2010, Rihanna expressed a positive opinion on the album, but commented that her future work would be less intense. She asserted, "I really like the bottom, the grime of it. But if I were to combine that with more energetic, up-tempo pop records, then I think that would be a happy marriage. And that's where we'll probably go next". When asked what the most important song to her was, she stated that she doesn't have one, however, "Fire Bomb" and "Cold Case Love" were cited as her favorites. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rated R (Rihanna album)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|