Good Girl Gone Bad
Good Girl Gone Bad is the third studio album by Barbadian singer Rihanna. It was released on May 31, 2007, by Def Jam Recordings and SRP Records. Rihanna worked with various producers on the album, including Tricky Stewart, The-Dream, Neo da Matrix, Timbaland, Carl Sturken, Evan Rogers and Stargate. Inspired by Brandy's fourth studio album Afrodisiac (2004), Good Girl Gone Bad is a pop, dance-pop and R&B record with 1980s music influences. Described as a turning point in Rihanna's career, it represents a departure from the Caribbean sound of her previous releases, Music of the Sun (2005) and A Girl like Me (2006). Apart from the sound, she also endorsed a new image for the release going from an innocent young woman to an edgier, more mature look.
This article is about the album by Rihanna. For the song by Cobra Starship, see Good Girls Go Bad. For other uses, see Good Girl Gone Bad (disambiguation).Good Girl Gone Bad
Critics gave generally positive reviews of the album, praising its composition and Rihanna's new musical direction, though some criticized the album's lyrics and inconsistency. The album received seven Grammy Award nominations and one win in the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration category for "Umbrella" at the 2008 ceremony. The album debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart and sold 162,000 copies in its first week. Certified six-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), it sold more than 2.8 million copies in the United States. The album reached number one in Canada, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. As of June 2017, the album has sold over nine million copies worldwide.
Good Girl Gone Bad spawned five singles, including the international hits "Umbrella" and "Don't Stop the Music"; Rolling Stone placed the former at number 412 on the magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. To promote the album, Rihanna embarked on her first worldwide concert tour and third overall, the Good Girl Gone Bad Tour. The album was reissued as Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded in June 2008 with three new songs, including the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one hits "Take a Bow" and "Disturbia". It was followed by Rihanna's first remix album, Good Girl Gone Bad: The Remixes, in January 2009, which featured remixes from Moto Blanco, Tony Moran, the Soul Seekerz and the Wideboys.
Composition[edit]
A dance-pop,[21] pop and R&B album[22] influenced by 1980s music,[12] Good Girl Gone Bad is a departure from the Caribbean sound of Rihanna's previous two records.[23] Lyrically, the album is close to some teen pop records, "where sexual-ism and consumerism supersede personal connection."[24]
The LP opens with the lead single "Umbrella", an R&B song performed with drums and thundercloud synths. Dorian Lynskey of The Guardian compared the singer's vocals to the voices of Ciara and Cassie.[25] The second track, "Push Up On Me", features echo electro claps and surging synths.[26] "Don't Stop the Music" is a dance-pop and techno song[27][28] that contains rhythmic devices used mainly in hip hop music.[27] The song samples the line "Mama-say, mama-sa, ma-ma-ko-ssa" from Michael Jackson's 1983 single "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'".[27] The fourth song is "Breakin' Dishes"; Peter Robinson of The Observer called it a "wronged-woman bonanza, packed with hooks, chants and flashes of lyrical brilliance."[29] "Shut Up and Drive" is a new wave[30] and pop rock[23] song, influenced by 1970s and 1980s musical styles,[23] sampling New Order's 1983 single "Blue Monday".[23] The collaboration with Ne-Yo, "Hate That I Love You", is a folky R&B song; Nick Levine of Digital Spy compared it to Ne-Yo's singles "Sexy Love" and "Because of You".[31]
The seventh track on the album, "Say It", samples the 1990s song "Flex" by Mad Cobra; it consists of silky and warm groove and features island-oriented music characteristics.[26] "Sell Me Candy" features jumbled and noisy production with chaotic beats.[26] The ninth song, "Lemme Get That", has boom-bap beats and is produced by Timbaland.[26] "Rehab" is an old-styled R&B track with a groove that is built around tambourine shakes, acoustic guitar swirls and a subtle backbeat. Doug Rule of Metro Weekly noted similarities among the structures of "Rehab" and Timberlake's 2002 single "Cry Me a River".[32] "Question Existing" is an "eerie, smoky, destitute, emotional, and a sonic sidestep."[33] Tom Breihan of Pitchfork Media described the opening lyrics of the song as inspired by "puerile psuedoporn".[24] The album concludes with the title track "Good Girl Gone Bad", which is played with an acoustic guitar and click tracks.[33]
Commercial performance[edit]
In the United States, Good Girl Gone Bad debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 162,000 copies in its first week. It became Rihanna's then-best start album entry.[110] The next week, it fell to number seven with 81,000 copies sold.[111] The re-issue sold 63,000 copies in the first week and helped Good Girl Gone Bad jump from number 124 to number seven on the US Billboard 200 in its 55th week.[112] It was certified six-time platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA);[113] by November 2013, both Good Girl Gone Bad and the reissue had sold 2,800,000 copies in the United States alone. As of 2015, it is her best-selling album in the country.[114] The album debuted atop of the Canadian Albums Chart and became Rihanna's second number-one album in the country.[115] It was certified quintuple platinum by Music Canada, denoting shipments of more than 500,000 copies.[116]
Good Girl Gone Bad debuted at number one on both UK Albums Chart and UK Hip Hop and R&B Albums Chart with sales of 54,000 copies in its first week.[117][118] It became her first album to top the chart, and stayed on the chart for 177 weeks.[38] It was certified six times platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI)[119] and sold over 1,904,347 copies in the country, as of 2016.[120] It ended at number 10 on the UK 2007 year-end list and number six on the 2008 year-end list.[121] As of March 2015, Good Girl Gone Bad is the 46th best-selling album of the millennium in the United Kingdom.[122] In Ireland, Good Girl Gone Bad debuted at number three on the Irish Singles Chart on June 7, 2007.[123] After four weeks on the chart, it reached the top.[124] The album peaked at number one on the Swiss Hitparade chart and stayed on the chart for 91 weeks.[125] In Australia, it peaked at number two[126] and was certified triple platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), denoting shipments of over 210,000 copies.[127] To date, the album had sold 9 million album units worldwide.[117]
Before its physical release, "Umbrella" achieved the biggest debut in the six-year history of the iTunes Store in the United States, breaking a record previously held by Shakira's 2006 single "Hips Don't Lie". Following its digital release, the song debuted atop the Hot Digital Songs chart, with first-week sales of more than 277,000 units. The single became the highest digital debut in the United States since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking downloads in 2003, surpassing Timberlake's "SexyBack" 250,000 sales record in 2006.[128]
Legacy[edit]
According to Biography.com, Good Girl Gone Bad inspired Rihanna to transform her image from a "teen pop princess" persona into a "fully fledged superstar and sex symbol".[129] People magazine noted that Rihanna follows the likes of recording artists Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson and Christina Aguilera "when she sheds her innocent image for an edgier look and sound".[130] Jay-Z also spoke about "Umbrella" and stated that the song represents an artistic growth for Rihanna, "If you listen to the lyrics to that song, you know the depth and how far she's come."[129] Da'Shan Smith of Billboard commented on Good Girl Gone Bad's impact for Rihanna's career on the tenth anniversary of the album's release: "The Good Girl era became a universally recognized moment where RiRi solidified her position as an international superstar, her signature bob haircut and newly seductive stage persona captivating fans and press."[131]
Regarding the commercial impact of the album, Entertainment Weekly's Margeaux Watson wrote, "For a pop star who was once dismissed as being incapable of yielding more than one hit song per album, Rihanna's newfound staying power is nothing short of remarkable–and proof that there's room for more than one diva in this game."[132] Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic concluded that it was Good Girl Gone Bad that made Rihanna a "full-fledged international pop star with a regular presence atop the charts".[133] Nick Levine of Digital Spy described the album, as the closest thing to a Thriller that 2007/08 is likely to produce.[134]