While I don’t think much of Rihanna as a musical talent, I do think highly of her as a visual artist. She’s a pretty girl and she makes interesting music videos, and that seems to be enough for millions of people. Rihanna’s like Lady Gaga without the voice – and both Gaga and Rihanna learned from Madonna that one of the best ways to promote your music is to make an interesting video, even if “interesting” means “tacky” or “trashy” or “what just happened?”. I kind of liked Rihanna’s video for “Rockstar 101” even though the song sucked. Hard. Anyway, RiRi’s new single is “S&M”. Because Rihanna is still working some crap out, I think. And she’s still playing with the dynamics of violence and power and sexuality. But I’m not sure what I think about the imagery in “S&M” – presenting it as flashy, nearly child-like Pop Art just feels wrong. Oh, and Perez Hilton is in it. Ugh.

Yeah, the Perez stuff… so, he’s Rihanna’s bitch? That makes sense. The part that bothered me the most was Rihanna dressed up in colorful, child-like outfits while tied up and preening for the camera. I mean… lots of her fans are kids, right? Ugh.

Screencaps from the video.