cureforbedbugs:

girlboymusic: Also, I never answered your question about how Unbroken : Demi Lovato :: Loud : Rihanna except we never even got a Rated R, so do YOU have any thoughts on that?

Cr4Bdgs: My thought is that actually the anomaly here isn’t Demi, it’s Rated R. Every other Rihanna CD (including Loud) is pretty scattershot. If anything, Don’t Forget and Here We Go Again are more consistent than any (other) Rihanna album.

More than many albums I can think of, Rated R seems to be a testament for the inherent instability/unpredictability of truly on-target pop experimentation in a darker shade. And Rated R itself doesn’t hold a candle in that regard to Blackout, say. If we don’t get that from Demi, which we likely won’t, it will mean that she’s about on par with every other mid-to-big-level pop star ever.

And then the next question I’d have would be, what exactly is the Blackout/Rated R phenomenon I’m identifying here, and who else has achieved it? And who has tried it and failed?

Not utterly sure what the phenomenon is that you’re identifying: an act does darkness really well but the commentariat doesn’t notice in a big way until the act does an album that signifies “DARK” in blazing dark letters?

(1) The Beatles/John Lennon (basically every Beatles album is Breakaway etc. and Plastic Ono Band gets to be My December/Blackout/Rated R; would help people’s memory if The Beatles Second Album, which I called “The Black Album” in an early Readers’ Poll, were re-inserted into history)

(2) Jefferson Airplane (Crown Of Creation gets to be My December/Blackout/Rated R)

(3) Sly & The Family Stone (There’s A Riot Goin’ On gets to be My December/Blackout/Rated R)

(4) Michael Jackson (everything after Thriller gets to be My December/Blackout/Rated R; and of course Thriller grins its dark grin as the great precursor; Vince Aletti, The Village Voice, December 14, 1982: “For those who want to dig deeper, there’s a decidedly paranoid undertow to three of Jackson’s songs (‘Beat It,’ ‘Billie Jean,’ and ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’—all his own compositions) that gives the album an unexpected tension, a provocative hint of darkness below the glittering surface”)