FEATURE:
Groovelines
Rihanna (ft. JAY-Z) - Umbrella
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I can’t think why…
I have overlooked this song when thinking of inspiration for Groovelines. Umbrella is a classic track by Rihanna. Taken from her third studio album, Good Girl Gone Bad (2007). It features JAY-Z (who co-wrote the song with its producers Tricky Stewart and Kuk Harrell). The song was originally offered to Britney Spears, but her label rejected it. To me, Umbrella is one of the best songs of the ‘00s. It is a song that gets into the head with its catchiness, though the lyrics make you think. That idea of shelter and platonic respect and affection. I will end with a Wikipedia section that collates some of the reception that Umbrella was afforded. Beforehand, DAZED marked the tenth anniversary of the worldwide smash:
“In March 2007, the world desperately needed a new, female pop hit. Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and Kesha were still a year or two from arriving to the party with their fireworks, bad romances, and era-defying anthems, while Britney Spears was in the middle of a highly-publicised breakdown. Beyoncé was going steady, but hadn’t quite crossed over from the more R&B-centric side of pop music into the full-on pop juggernaut she is today. And then there was Rihanna, a Caribbean-diva-in-making who already had the hits, the looks, and the moves, but who lacked that one special song.
Though she was already two albums into her career, Rihanna still hadn’t quite found her musical identity until “Umbrella” came out. She’d had big hits, like the dancehall-inflected “Pon De Replay” and the “Tainted Love”-sampling “SOS” (the latter of which earned Rihanna her first #1), but a lot of her music was dismissed as by-the-numbers ‘urban’ pop filler, and it was hard to see her breaking through into pop’s top tier. Things were, of course, about to change, but it’s interesting to imagine what might have happened had history turned out differently. “Umbrella”, after all, wasn’t originally intended for Rihanna – it was first offered to Britney Spears, whose label famously turned it down.
Lyrically, “Umbrella” was your typical pop metaphor for being supportive, inviting listeners to stand under the singer’s metaphorical umbrella on a rainy day. It could be heard as either a song about love or a song about friendship, making it even more appealing to a big audience – although some more eccentric listeners read a sinister subtext into the lyrics, insisting they’re actually about demonic posession. The lyrics are pretty clunky (the words, “in the dark you can’t see shiny cars” can never be redeemed), but they’re not really important – instead, it’s all about that magical, post-chorus chanting. The “ella-ella-eh-eh-eh” hook may have seemed contrived or repetitive at first, but it quickly grew on listeners. It also clearly foreshadowed the arrival of Lady Gaga’s trademark stuttering syllable-repeating, paving the way for her “rah-mah-mah-ahs” and “pah-pah-pahs”.
Released to US radio on March 24 and as a single on March 29 that year, “Umbrella” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for seven consecutive weeks and turned Good Girl Gone Bad, Rihanna’s third album and one of her finest, into a multi-platinum event, spawning five more singles and a re-released deluxe version the following year. The song brought Rihanna and Jay-Z a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, and was also nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Meanwhile in the UK, “Umbrella” topped the UK Top 40 chart for ten weeks, with the start of her chart reign oddly coinciding with an unprecedented burst of rainfall and flooding around the country. The same thing happened in New Zealand and Romania, which both experienced violent storms, leading to The Sun newspaper coining ‘the Rihanna curse’ and advising readers to buy sunnier songs in future. Arguably more strange was that Rihanna ended up performing the song at the BRITs with Klaxons – a surreal team-up that’s aged terribly, but which might have made some sense when the UK band were at their critical and commercial peak”.
I am not a massive Rihanna fan, though I do really like Umbrella and the Good Girl Gone Bad album. It is the Pop icon at her absolute peak. Nearly fifteen years after its release, Umbrella still sounds so amazing and fresh. Her bond with JAY-Z on the track is electric.! There have not been many songs since that have matched Umbrella’s swagger and swoon. Maybe those are t6he wrong words. There is a definite sense of confidence working alongside romance and tenderness. Rihanna turns in an amazing performance on the track! MTV also marked a decade of Umbrella in their feature:
“Once “Umbrella” made its way to the airwaves and onto people’s iPods, it stuck. The ubiquitous hit — which went on to earn Rih her first Grammy and her first VMA — shattered download records and even crashed iTunes. It lived on the charts for an entire year, ascending to the top of the Hot 100 just after Memorial Day and holding the No. 1 spot for seven consecutive weeks (it was unseated in July by “Hey There Delilah” by The Plain White T's). “Nothing else came close that summer in terms of weeks at No. 1,” says Bronson. “No question that that song ruled the summer of ’07.”
“Umbrella” represented a sonic evolution for Rihanna, but it also coincided with a whole new look: one that found her shedding her wholesome, island-girl image and opting for sexier styles. “Edgy” became her new norm — she cut her hair into an asymmetrical bob and began performing in leather and latex dresses alluding to bondage.
No part of this was coincidental. She told Billboard in June 2007, “My new look is purposely adult. I did what felt natural.” It was also, she added, simply part of her Good Girl Gone Bad mission statement. “I wanted to show growth as a person and artist. But for me, ‘bad girl’ does not mean ‘wild girl.’ It's more about taking chances, trying new things — visually and musically.”
The launchpad for that visual transformation was the “Umbrella” music video, which premiered on April 26, 2007. Director Chris Applebaum, who also helmed the “SOS” video, told MTV News that Rihanna was “starting to mature and wanting to break out” with “SOS.” That propelled her to continue “pushing boundaries” with “Umbrella,” which he says couldn’t have come at a more opportune time.
“She hadn’t really turned into a big worldwide superstar yet, so she wasn’t self-conscious,” Applebaum explained. “She didn’t have this eye on her that she has now, where your behavior and the statements that you make and the things that you do when you’re a superstar are different than the things that you do beforehand. I think that was Rihanna at a really honest moment. Kind of a little bit scared, a little bit afraid of what people were going to think about her. But also, I think, feeling pretty convinced. She had a small group of people around her that were all like, ‘Do it! Go for it! This is your moment, take advantage of it!’”
That’s exactly what she did. Between the rainstorm of sparks, the stunning choreography, and the showstopping silver body paint, the “Umbrella” video showed off Rihanna’s class, brass, and swagger. Most importantly, though, it defined who she was as an artist.
“There’s something really authentic and genuine about a person who stands up for the first time and says, ‘This is who I am,’” Applebaum says. “And that was a moment in her life that we were able to capture. I feel like that was really what made it special”.
I will leave this with a section regarding how Umbrella was received. There is no doubt in my mind that it is one of the great songs from the past fifteen years. Whether you class it as Pop, R&B or something else, there is no doubt it has a place in musical history. Here is some useful information from Wikipedia:
"Umbrella" received critical acclaim. Andy Kellman of AllMusic commented: "'Umbrella' is [Rihanna's best song] to date, delivering mammoth if spacious drums, a towering backdrop during the chorus, and vocals that are somehow totally convincing without sounding all that impassioned – an ideal spot between trying too hard and boredom, like she might've been on her 20th take." Alex Macpherson of British newspaper The Guardian, "Umbrella" is "evidence" that Rihanna's "strict work ethic is paying off", adding that she "delivers [in the song] an impassioned declaration of us-against-the-world devotion". Tom Breihan of Pitchfork, though he complimented the production, dismissed Rihanna's voice which "takes on an unpleasant icepick edge when she tries to fill the space between the slow-tempo beats", adding that the song is "uncompelling as event-pop, particularly because of the disconnect between Rihanna's cold, clinical delivery and the comforting warmth of the lyrics".
Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine wrote "That the song is just plain good, regardless of genre, proves that Jay and Rihanna, who's already scored hits across several formats with a string of singles that couldn't be more different from each other, are dedicated to producing quality hits—however frivolous they may be." Quentin B. Huff of PopMatters.com said that ""Umbrella" is a monster, so much so that I'll even confess to spending a portion of a rainy afternoon practicing the hook." Jonah Weiner of Blender magazine called the song the album's highlight and stated that it "would be far less engrossing if it wasn't for the way Rihanna disassembles its ungainly title into 11 hypnotic, tongue-flicking syllables". The New York Times' Kelefa Sanneh described the song as "a space-age hip-pop song".
I have been playing Umbrella a bit in preparation for this feature. Go and listen to the whole of the Good Girl Gone Bad album and the sort of wave Rihanna was riding back in 2007. The lead single from her incredible third studio album, it is no surprise that Umbrella was such a massive success. The amazing track is definitely…
AN absolute diamond.