Rihanna: Ranking Her Albums From Worst To Best
Robyn Rihanna Fenty is one of the biggest names in the world right now and has become, quite rightly, a massive global star. Of course the world knows her under a sole name - 'Rihanna'. For the past seven years, Rihanna has emerged from being a vaguely catchy purveyor of pop music to one of the most influential, monitored and beloved women on the planet. Always a step ahead of the musical curve, she made house pop catchy before it hit its stride and sent us all clamoring for our spacey midtempo ballads before we even knew she wanted them. Quite what makes Rihanna such a culturally phenomenon is a mystery - perhaps it's that thin line she treads between being explicit and being enjoyable. Equally cheeky, sassy and saucy, mothers might be shocked and outraged at some of her on-stage antics, but they'll still dance to her songs in a club and sing along with everyone else. She's the antidote to the picture perfect pop, or rather takes it and makes it her own - if Katy Perry is the preppy cheerleader and Gaga is the weird nerd, Rihanna is most certainly the bad girl, the unashamed, unabashed rebel of the pop world. She takes the best parts of pop and adapts it to herself and her team, and transforms era-to-era to suit her own purposes. Having released seven albums in as many years, Rihanna's sound and image has dramatically changed per era, from a sun-kissed island princess to a sexy R&B pin-up to the dark avenging angel to the irreverent, 'no-damns-given' star of any show she attends. Rihanna has more than secured her place in musical history and so have her albums, but with regards as to which is the top of the pile, plenty of people have their own differing opinions as to which secures the top spot. Here's my own listing...