2010: Man Down - Rihanna
Looking back at 30 years of music | Rihanna, My Chemical Romance, Janelle Monáe, Kanye West, Taylor Swift
(TW/Trigger warning - this post addresses issues of sexual assault and rape, pertaining to it's depiction in Rihanna's Man Down music video.)
When I was just a baby my mama told me, "Son,
Always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns"
But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die
Folsom Prison Blues
Shoot that boy
Yeah, shoot 'em
Oh, they're gonna get him, y'all
Oh, they're gonna get that man
Shoot Him On Sight
Early one mornin' while makin' the rounds
I took a shot of cocaine and I shot my woman down
Cocaine Blues
Judge said to the jury
"Plain as plain can be
A woman shot her lover down
Murder in the second degree"
Frankie and Albert
I'm goin' down to shoot my old lady
You know I caught her messin' 'round with another man
And that ain't too cool
Hey Joe
He's gonna shoot me down, put my body in the river
Cover me up with the leaves of September
Like an old sad song, you heard it all before
Well, Delia's gone, but I'm settling the score
The Body Electric
I shot the sheriff
But I didn't shoot no deputy, oh no
I Shot the Sheriff
Oh, Mama, mama, mama
I just shot a man down
In Central Station
Man Down
By the time that Rihanna released her fifth album, 2010’s Loud, she was one of the biggest pop stars in the world. Each of her albums up to that point had made the Top 10 in the USA, and Good Girl Gone Bad went to Number 1 in the UK. Each new release was packed with chart-topping singles and pop anthems. Loud was no different. A huge hit record which spawned 7 singles (out of 10 songs on the album!), including Only Girl (In the World), What’s My Name?, S&M, California King Bed, and, Man Down.
Whilst a lot (or, really the majority) of Rihanna’s songs are pure contemporary pop - complete with huge and fun chorus’, memorable melodies; danceable beats and high energy and are always right on the trends of the day - there is sometimes a slightly darker edge and undercurrent to her work, and definitely more so than with a lot of her contemporaries’ output.
Man Down dials those darker themes and aspects up and, whilst the song still retains the upbeat tone in the music and rhythm as heard elsewhere on the album, it contrasts that tone with the contents of the lyrics and vocal performance. The words paint a much more morbid picture than your average top 40 pop hit.
Rihanna bursts onto the scene in the song at a breathless pace, sounding like the crime she is singing about has only just been committed and we, the audience, are the first ones to hear about it; the first ones that she is confessing her sins to, “I didn't mean to end his life, I know it wasn't right”.
When she makes it to the chorus, we realise that we are not the one that she is singing to, after all, as she cries, “Mama, mama, mama / I just shot a man down”.
Through this repeated use of the word ‘mama’, before the explanation of what she has done, Rihanna puts us in mind of Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, but subverts the language of that track.
Back in 1973 Dylan sang, “Mama put my guns in the ground / I can't shoot them anymore”. His narrator knew he could no longer be trusted with the weapons, so preempted any action by begging that they be buried away. Rihanna’s character is too late for such a solution, and is in desperate need of help from this maternal figure, nonetheless. (The lyrics for the song were actually inspired by another timeless 1973 song by a man named Bob - I Shot the Sheriff, written by Bob Marley. You can hear the reggae influence in the music in Man Down, as well as the push and pull between confession, remorse, regret and indignation in the lyrics.)
After she says what she has done, she wails “Oh why? Oh why?”. The lyrics of the song actually remain fairly ambiguous as to exactly why the narrator did shoot the man down (“What you expect me to do if you're playing me for a fool? / I will lose my cool and reach for my firearm” is all we’re given to work with), but the video is much more overt.
We see the shooting before we hear anything about it in the video. Before the song even starts, we see Rihanna standing in the shadows. We see a gun raised and ready. We see the trigger pulled. We see the impact, as a man makes his way through a busy crowd and is hit in the throat by the bullet before dropping to the ground.
The text “Yesterday morning” appears on screen and now we see Rihanna again, though this time she is smiling brightly with everyone she passes, as she alternately walks and cycles along the street. She plays with some children on the beach and in the ocean. She kisses the cheek of an elderly woman. Doesn’t look like much of a criminal. As day turns to night, she hits the town, and heads out to get a drink.
Like an episode of Columbo, we opened with the crime and now have spent the rest of the time working out the motive. It comes when she is in the club, and rejects the unwanted advances of a man.
He, in turn, rejects this rejection. Doesn’t take no for an answer. He turns physical. He turns violent. He gets Rihanna outside, away from the crowded room. And once he has taken what he wants - without consent or permission - he leaves. Leaves Rihanna crumpled in a pool of her own tears; broken, defiled and alone.
Now we have our motive. He has taken something precious and vital from Rihanna - the rest of her life, so she in turn, takes his.
When the video was released, it sparked a lot of controversy. The Parents Television Council, a non-profit organisation who advocate for responsible entertainment, condemned the video for its “cold, calculated execution of murder”. Presumably they stopped watching before they made it to the rape scene, or perhaps, just like the criminal justice system, they do not see that particular crime as worthy of too harsh a condemnation or punishment.
This is not to condone the actions of Rihanna’s character in the video, but in the video she is just that - a character.
Just like the long line of characters who have shot, stabbed, bludgeoned and brutalised their lovers and others who have wronged them throughout history, in countless love songs and murder ballads.
Elsewhere in the Year
My Chemical Romance released their fourth, and still to this day most recent, album, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. Like The Black Parade before it, Danger Days is a rock opera and contains some of the band’s most fun songs such as Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na) and Planetary (Go!).
Also releasing an ambitious concept album, and in this case her debut full length release, was Janelle Monáe with The ArchAndroid. Following on directly from her Metropolis: The Chase Suite EP, the record introduced Monáe to the international stage with hits like Tightrope - a great fun, energetic, bouncing and breathless soulful track.
Kanye West released My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, to huge critical acclaim. Rolling Stone described it as being “music as sprawlingly messy as his life” when calling it the best album of the year. That sprawlingly messy life has always kept me at a distance from testing the waters of his music. I have never heard this much lauded and feted album. It almost feels a little too late to approach his body of work now without any perception of it being informed by all the noise that surrounds him.
Just as I have missed out on hearing Kanye West with fresh ears, anyone who hasn’t heard any music by Taylor Swift (if you can imagine such a person to exist) now would also have a similar problem when approaching her work for the first time.
Tom Briehan discussed how the ‘lore’ which surrounds her life and work can influence, disturb or derail your reaction to her music in his recent Stereogum review for her latest record. Back in 2010, though, Swift was still able to release music without all that accompanying hysteria.
Speak Now does give us glimpses of the pop sensation who we are now all so familiar with, but it is still balanced out with the youthful innocence of her first two releases. This is a real transition album, it catches Swift on the half-turn; a transition from girlhood to adulthood (a theme which Swift still returns to again and again), a transition from country to more pop oriented production, a transition from teen idol to global icon.
Notable Album Releases
The Black Keys - Brothers
The Growlers - Hot Tropics
Katy Perry - Teenage Dream
Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can
Marina & The Diamonds - The Family Jewels
The National - High Violet
Neil Young - Le Noise
Robyn - Body Talk
Tame Impala - InnerSpeaker
Vampire Weekend - Contra
Up next: I’m going to listen to and write about the only Kate Bush album I’ve never heard before, 50 Words for Snow.