The pop star Tina Turner thought sounded “too tacky”
Tina Turner always knew that there was a certain power behind rock and roll. Despite going through the kind of horrors no woman should ever have to face, she always knew that her moments onstage were where she could feel totally free to be herself, whether that was telling off someone not treating her right or turning songs like ‘Proud Mary’ inside out. It may have seemed like reckless abandon half the time she performed, but she knew that her music always had to have something going on behind the scenes.
After all, rock and roll had been going through many changes before Turner even got started. Her first major releases with Ike Turner had been made before The Beatles set foot on American soil, but given that the first pioneers of rock and roll like Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly had started to either fall out of style or be lost to history, Turner proved to everyone that she was the female counterpart to Elvis Presley whenever she walked onstage.
But throughout her history, Turner knew that she would never be able to sing material that she couldn’t stand behind. ‘River Deep Mountain High’ was already a fine song without her voice on it, but there was no point in doing a cover of a song if she couldn’t twist it in her own way. By the time the rest of the world started following her lead, though, many female pop stars had already started pulling from what she could do.
Janis Joplin and Grace Slick had already been breaking down doors for females in rock and roll, but all the way through to the modern age, the biggest names in rock and R&B have been more than happy to sing Turner’s praises. Beyoncé has built up an empire by following Turner’s lead, and even people like Lizzo wouldn’t have hit the big time without Turner coming first, but Rihanna almost occupies a different space when it comes to pop stars.
Despite having a healthy respect for rock and roll, Rihanna’s voice was always much cleaner than what every other R&B singer was doing. She could belt to the heavens when she wanted to, but her music seemed to be more concerned with creating a vibe half the time rather than smacking the listener in the face. And as far as Turner could see, the lyrics weren’t exactly helping her case as an entertainer.
Turner certainly had a great deal of respect for what Rihanna could do and the amount of work she put into her craft, but she could never get past the lyrics in her songs, saying, “When I am at home, I like New Age music. In my car, I have to get in the mood for music. I like listening to Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones [and] Dido. I also like Rihanna, but her text is a bit too tacky.” Then again, what Turner sees as tackiness is actually one of Rihanna’s greatest strengths.
There might be a handful of her songs that might seem a bit too basic for some people to take, but given her global appeal, it’s much easier for people to get onboard with a song centred around one basic emotion rather than having to hear an entire story. A song like ‘The Best’ might work well for Turner, but sometimes a tune like ‘Stay’ can strike a chord because of how open to interpretation it is.
Does that mean that one is better than the other? Absolutely not. Turner had been brought up trying to sing specific songs designed to take people on a journey, but Rihanna is from a different generation, and those listeners are more likely to listen to a song that makes them feel something rather than one that tells them a story.
