Rihanna, Russian Roulette

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ2nCGawrSY

Rihanna’s new single “Russian Roulette” seems dark and bloody. The song has a bit of a creepy vibe to it—from Rihanna’s heavy breathing on the track to the gun noises at the beginning and end. Yet most part of it is soft and slow as Rihanna is utilizing the dark scenes to story tell a love affair. The symbolism in that video was very subtle and cleverly hidden. Her analogy between love and Russian roulette makes the lyrics and video meaningful and powerful. Love is a battlefield and you need to take risks and one is very likely to get hurt or killed, just as one is at high risk of death once he/she starts playing Russian Roulette. The track starts with Rihanna softly singing: "Take a breath/ Take it deep/ Calm yourself/ He says to me/ If you play/ You play for keeps/ Take the gun/ And count to three." The Russian roulette metaphor continues in the chorus, in which she sings, "And you can see my heart beating/ You can see it through my chest/ I said I'm terrified, but I'm not leaving/ I know that I must pass this test/ So just pull the trigger." The song's character seems scared that the man speaking to her will always have power over her: "Say a prayer to yourself/ He says close your eyes/ Sometimes it helps/ And then I get a scary thought/ That he's here means he's never lost." The specific stage sets of this song, the color tones of costumes as well as background sounds indicate risk and death and it seems to me that female figures are more controlled by males. In this case, Rihanna is trapped in a sealed room with fueled with gas.Before the song ends with a gun being cocked and fired, Rihanna sings, "As my life flashes before my eyes/ I'm wondering, will I ever see another sunrise?/ So many won't get the chance to say goodbye/ But it's too late to pick up the value of my life." Her voice soars into the chorus one last time. When it comes to love, we are not sure what is going to happen in the future, what we can do is “take a breath, take it deep”, and get into this dangerous game. We have realized we might get hurt but this game can be so fruitful that we sometimes just cannot resist the temptation to get involved in. So now the game starts, and what we can only do is to wait and see if we have passed the test.