Why U So Obsessed With Bella?

It took me roughly 4 hours to read the second half of the New Moon book, because I was paying a lot more attention into it (as the climax was building with the Volturi [which happens to be the scene I was looking forward to the most]).

I think the biggest tragedy of the story is Jacob.

After finishing reading Twilight, I thought, okay, very interesting to see Edward and Bella together.

But now I think that the Edward-Bella relationship is very unnatural and unrealistic, and that thus makes me a "Team Jacob" member.

I still think Edward was first attracted to Bella because of her bodily scent. Whether it was a metaphor or not, it was not based on emotions but based on natural pheromones, so Edward is like an animal. And I think Edward is over-obsessed with Bella. After the Volturi scene, when they speak together once they've returned back to Forks (shortly before the voting at the Cullens' house), Edward keeps expressing the fact that he is unable to live without Bella.

This kinda shows that Edward is very dependent on Bella not because her presence satisfies Edward, not Bella's personality or anything, because Edward never fell in love with Bella's personality.

And Bella is obviously very horny and is pretty superficial, because she wishes to be transformed into a vampire as soon as she can, dreading that she would be 30 years before she gets changed, making her 10 years + older than Edward. She wants to be a teen while she is transformed.

Look at Mariah Carey, who married Nick Cannon, who was 10 years younger. To her, looks and age do not matter.

And now, look back at Bella, who is utterly superficial and wants to be of the same age as Edward and is already unhappy that she is merely one year older than Edward (who has the appearance of 17). Bella's very appearance-based.

I think the Edward-Bella relationship is not deep at all. It's merely based on obsession.

However, Bella and Jacob's friendship was built into potential romance, which is a lot more realistic, and Jacob is definitely someone Bella can count on, unlike Edward, who is insecure and irritable all the time.

That's why, Team Jacob. (Now I understand and agree why majority of the podcasters in Imprint are also Team Jacob. Edward is too unrealistic, though in truth, Bella is the worst.)

Anyway, my favourite Volturi vampire among the highest three is Aro. Caius is boring. Marcus too.

New Moon Again

I've read the first 299 pages of the Twilight sequel, New Moon, and I actually think, Stephenie Meyer captures the emotions of the story really well.

I was playing my Mariah Carey songs playlist as I read the first half of the book, beginning with Through The Rain, the first track of Charmbracelet. After the Charmbracelet album completed playing, the next album was The Emancipation of Mimi, and it was super co-incidental that while Mine Again was playing, I was reading the scene when Bella was talking to Jacob for the first time since he got "mono", since they hung out with Mike Newton at the movies.

I was most impressed by that scene because you can really see the contrasting difference between Bella and Jacob's friendship before and after what would be revealed as Jacob's beginnings as a werewolf.

Bella and Jacob were actually really good friends, continuously making jokes of each other's age, sharing an interest in re-building motorbikes and practically hanging out together with so much to talk about and so much to laugh.

And then, when Jacob suddenly disppears (his father coming up with a bad excuse that he's got mononucleiosis), he and Bella meet again again in a very long time, but the friendship has changed drastically. Jacob's eyes are really fierce, and his tone towards Bella makes him sound like a stranger. And Bella's just helpless because she has no idea what's going on with Jacob, who idiotically refuses to tell her.

I just see a parallel of these two contrasting friendships with the actual world, because one moment we are best friends with a particular individual, and then many months or probably the year later, we don't talk anymore, and sometimes, the only thing we ask ourselves is, "how did we get here".

Anyway, I've not yet explained what Mariah's Mine Again song has to do with that Jacob-Bella scene.

"Maybe you could be mine again. Maybe we could make that dream for real, like way back then."

The song's simply about the protagonist wishing everything could revert back.

The Twilight Saga is not cleverer than Harry Potter, but it does successfully capture intended emotions and amplifies them all over its pages. However, this is most probably because Twilight is written in first-person while Harry Potter is a third-person perspective.

Okay, why do I keep comparing Twilight to Harry Potter? I've already established that they are different. I do enjoy tremendously the fact that the Twilight movies stay very very very close to the books. The dialogue in the films are taken straight out of the books (although with minor edits, which is perfectly understandable), and the scene progression is similar.

In comparison with Harry Potter (sorry that I'm doing it once again), Twilight seems more faithful. The major Harry Potter plot is retained in the HP movies, but because the Potter universe is so massive, several sub-plots were condensed or removed in the films, and the dialogue in the Potter films are also pretty different from those in the books. It's alright, but I do prefer if the books and the movies were very closely related.

P.S. My reading rate is approximately 100 New Moon-sized pages in 1 hour, which means it will take me probably 2 and a half hours to complete the book and move on to Eclipse, which I am most excited to read since the movie's releasing in a matter of months.

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Ignore the boy standing at the back, the girl at the top-left and the girl all the way at the bottom, and you will see the young Christina Aguilera when she was in the Mickey Mouse Club.

You might have already guessed that the boy behind Christina is yes, Justin Timberlake, and the girl all the way below would grow up to become the (in)famous Britney Spears.

Isn't it cool that three of today's biggest pop stars used to start out in a televion show entitled The New Mickey Mouse Club?

Christina's mom is American, and her father is Ecuadorian, making her an Ecuadorian American. If you visit the Ecuadorian American page on Wikipedia, you'll find that Christina is the most prominent one of them all. Cool, eh?








1998: Reflection & RCA Records
After the cancellation of the new Mickey Mouse Club, Christina and her mom sought to find an appropriate record label in order to turn Christina into a star. She already had an incredible voice for a young age and was very influenced by several pop divas including Mariah Carey (she covered Vision of Love during a talent show).

Disney was looking for someone to perform the song Reflection for the upcoming Mulan soundtrack, but no to avail, largely because Reflection was a ballad that required a big voice. Christina managed to hit a high note and got the job to record Reflection, thus making it her first professionally recorded song.

While Reflection did not impact the world massively, it was nominated for the Best Original Song award at the Golden Globes. It also led to Christina being signed to RCA Records (which would later also sign stars such as Avril Lavigne Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert and Ke$ha).

1999: Genie in a Bottle & Christina Aguilera
Christina worked on her first self-titled album while former Mickey Mouse Club co-star, Britney Spears, signed to Jive and became a pop phenomenon. Britney's first single, ...Baby One More Time reached #1, and so did Britney's debut album. This motivated Christina to really succeed as well, and soon enough, the first single, Genie in a Bottle was released.

Christina proved to be even more successful than Britney when Genie in a Bottle stood at #1 for five weeks (compared to ...Baby One More Time's mere one week at #1). Christina's debut album also topped the Billboard 200, resulting in the media naming Christina as Britney's rival, since both of them had a #1 debut single and album.

However, while Britney would not experience any #1 single for almost a decade, Christina collected more #1's as the months went by. What A Girl Wants (originally entitled What A Girl Needs) was re-recorded and released as a single. Christina wanted to prove that she was not a one-hit wonder, and wanted the world to hear the extent of her vocal power, since Genie in a Bottle gave no high notes.

2000: Subsequent #1 singles & Mi Reflejo
Two weeks after the beginning of the new millennium, Christina scored her second consecutive #1 single when What A Girl Wants jettisoned to #1. As its preceding chart-topper, Smooth by Santana and Rob Thomas, first began its #1 run in 1999, What A Girl Wants is considered to be the first #1 song of the new millennium.

Christina released I Turn To You as the third single from her self-titled debut album. A cover of the Boyz II Men original, it was a pop ballad which differed from the teen nature of her first two singles. I Turn To You was Christina's third Top 5 single when it peaked at a good #3.

Meanwhile, the media began showering a darker light on Christina when they gave negative comments to some of Christina's fashion outfits. At the same time, rapper Eminem released a song, The Real Slim Shady, which accused Christina of performing oral sex on television host Carson Daly. It upset Christina, who first tasted the bad side of the business.

To end 2000, Christina also re-recorded and released Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You), giving it more upbeat hip hop influences from its typical pop original. The song was a success, becoming Christina's third #1 single when it topped the Billboard Hot 100 on October 2000. The song's music video also sparked a series of ever-changing looks Christina would experience for the rest of her career (the music video featured Christina with red streaks of hair).

In 2000, Christina also brought home the Grammy award for Best New Artist, and released her first Latin-language album, Mi Reflejo, featuring songs from her debut album re-recorded in Spanish. The album was a Top Latin album and was certified 6x Platinum.

2001: Lady Marmalade
Christina joined Lil Kim, Mya and Pink to record a cover version of the Patti LaBella original, Lady Marmalade, which was a chart-topper in the US.

The song would serve as a soundtrack single from the Moulin Rouge film. In the recording, Christina was the last of the four to be heard. It was also the first song where Christina belted.

The song returned back to the #1 spot thanks to the Moulin Rouge version, and won a Grammy award for the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals in 2002. Meanwhile, Christina collected her Latin Grammy award for winning Best Female Pop Vocal Album for Mi Reflejo.


2002: Dirrty & Stripped
Tired of being the usual pop singer she felt the world looked at her as, Christina wanted to break the boundaries put on her and show everyone her inner self. She named her upcoming album Stripped, and in the opening track, Stripped (Intro), she sings, "no hype, no gloss, no pretence, just me, stripped." The track also features short recordings where reporters speak of Christina as Britney Spears' rival.

Christina spearheaded the Stripped project with Dirrty, an intense dance and hip hop collaboration with Redman. The song was evolved from the Redman original, Let's Get Dirty (I Can't Get In da Club). Dirrty would be most iconic for its music video, which featured Christina in a very different side, losing her sweet teenage image for a more sexually-appealing woman who had just entered adulthood.

Everyone was taken aback by Christina's shocking new image. The video had seen her dancing in a littered underground club wearing revealing clothes and flashing her red underwear. The video culminates with her dancing in the waters of a bathroom.

The song and music video were negatively received in the US, all unready to accept Christina's new image and career choices. Dirrty became Christina's worst-charting single as a lead artist, only peaking at #48. However, it enjoyed tremendous success elsewhere, becoming a Top 10 hit in more than ten countries and topping both the UK Singles Chart and the Ireland music chart.

Due to the failure of Dirrty in the US, the next single, Beautiful, written by Linda Perry, was rush-released. It returned Christina back to the top when it peaked at #2. The song also topped the charts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Romania and the UK and Ireland again.

2003: Stripped World Tour
Christina chose a pop rock song as her first of three singles in 2003. Fighter, co-written and produced by Scott Storch, was the last music video among the Stripped singles to see Christina in blonde hair. The video itself used moths as a metaphor for metamorphosis and development.

Dying her hair black, Christina released two more singles from Stripped, entitled Can't Hold Us Down (featuring Lil Kim, whom she collaborated with on Lady Marmalade) and The Voice Within. Can't Hold Us Down, a women-empowering song, peaked at #12. The music video for The Voice Within was filmed in one continuous take.

Christina collaborated with fellow pop star and former new Mickey Mouse Club member Justin Timberlake on the Justified/Stripped Tour, which was later re-done as a solo, Stripped World Tour when Justin Timberlake pulled out.

When 2003 ended, Christina had already collected the third Grammy award in her career. Beautiful won the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

2004: Tilt Ya Head Back

Christina would develop herself artistically from 2004 and 2005 before returning in 2006. She dyed her hair once again, and recorded a collaboration with Nelly for his album, Sweat.

The song, entitled Tilt Ya Head Back, first saw Christina donning a classic appearance that later be seen in 2006. Meanwhile, the song did not perform well in the US, merely peaking at #58. It was claimed that Nelly's record label had believed Christina was overshadowing Nelly on the track and quickly began promotion on another single, hence resulting in the mediocre performance of Tilt Ya Head Back.


2005: A Song For You

2005 was another quiet year for Christina. A Song For You, covered by Herbie Hancock featuring Christina, was released in August. It was nominated for the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals award at the Grammys.









2006: Back To Basics
Christina's first era was her youthful, teenage self back in 1999 and 2000. Her second was the Stripped phase, which featured a very revealing side of the artist. In 2006, Christina began her third era.

Inspired by art, fashion and especially music of the 1920s, 30s and 40s, Christina had spent the past few years working on an R&B, soul, blues and jazz album, Back To Basics, which she describes as having a modern twist.

The album was first promoted through the lead single, Ain't No Other Man, which performed tremendously well. It peaked inside the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 and was a Top 10 and Top 5 hit elsewhere.

Back To Basics was finally released, and debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200. The album consisted of two CDs, the second of which would spawn the next two singles.

Hurt, which bears similarities with Grammy-winning pop ballad Beautiful, intended to re-create similar success. Hurt entered the Top 20.

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Jasper Sais Quoi

I finished reading Twilight at 10pm+ on March 30, which was the third day of reading it. I already wrote down my opinions in the article, Tantalizing Twilight, when I read half the book, and this is written after completing the whole book 100%.

I already knew the story because I watched the movie, and doing a story summary is actually boring, so I'll just list down some stuff that I thought.

There are like too many question sessions. Once or twice is good. Thrice is... okay. Fourth time is lame. Fifth time is irritating. Sixth time is "STOP IT!" But Stephenie Meyer decided to use this question games to reveal about the history and information of vampires. There could be better ways, but I do realise that the book is written in first-person under Bella's perspective, so she knows nothing about vampires and can only source information out from no one but Edward.

Probably the most romantic part is when they hang out together inside Bella's room. The series of scenes that occur before the one where they go meet the parents and before the baseball game. Ahhh, the series of scenes after driving back from that forest and seeing Edward in his sparkling skin under the sun. I think that's the most romantic part, if I'm not wrong.

Bella definitely is louder in the books than she is in the movies. Damn you, Kristen Stewart.

I like how faithful the movie stayed to the climatic part of the book, when after the baseball game, those three bad vampires come (technically, two, since Laurent is not bad), and thanks to the wind, James smells out Bella, and then they quickly flee, and then Bella is brought away to hiding by Alice and Jasper, and then the call from James and the trick using the video tape.

I thought it would be greatly different, but it wasn't.

However, as the book was in Bella's perspective, we don't get to read any fight scene between James and the Cullens. The fight between James and Edward in the movie was boring. I only started getting jumpy after Emmett, Jasper and Alice came.

I thought my favourite vampire was Alice, but actually, I think Jasper is the coolest, partially because of his power, but mostly because he's mysterious and he has an excellent portrayal by Jackson Rathbone in the movies. In the New Moon movie, when he's in school wishing Bella happy birthday, you can see the temptation in Jasper's face just pouring all over the television screen. Jackson Rathbone did really well portraying Jasper. Because of that, I think Jasper's my favourite vampire in Twilight.

There was a poll cast before, and Alice was the most favourite Cullen, followed by Jasper.

Meanwhile, it's interesting how Carlisle believes a vampire's exclusive power is determined by his/her biggest strength in his/her human life. If I became a vampire, I have no idea what my exclusive power might be, because I don't see myself with any biggest strengths.

Maybe I'll be like Caius, with no exclusive power. That sucks.

At the same time, I can see my friends having exclusive powers if they were ever Twilight vampires.

I intend to read the other three books over the course of the next few weeks, if I have the time, because Twilight was great. The movie, however, was a pure disappointment.

Not Myself Tonight (& Maybe Tomorrow Too)

I officially became a big Christina Aguilera fan and mentally inducted her into the list of my biggest favourite celebrity crushes, both in 2009. I learnt a lot about her music last year, and previously, with the release of Keeps Gettin' Better, an electronic single from her 2008 greatest hits album, I found out her upcoming fourth album will be an electronic, dance, futuristic album that is the complete opposite of her 2006 album, Back to Basics, which was inspired by the 20's, 30's and 40's.

In 2009, a working title that was announced for the fourth album was Light & Darkness, and it was also rumoured the album should be out that same year. Unfortunately, there was no confirmation regarding Light & Darkness nor the release date, and even worse, there was no hype or news about Christina's fourth album.

Then, this year began, and Christina had given the title of the album during a New Year's celebration interview. It was entitled Bionic, and I was blown away by the title itself. It was slated for a March release, but shortly after, it was re-announced that the album would have an April release. If I remember correctly, it was also announced that Glam would be the title of the lead single.

A few weeks ago, Xtina-Web.com's Twitter account posted a message that the Christina Aguilera website has been revamped. My jaw dropped and I quickly went in to find out that there was a countdown timer and that "BIG NEWS" was going to be released.

It so happens that the news was slated to be released in noon based on the EDT time zone, which so happens to be 12 midnight in Singapore's time zone. So, for two consecutive school nights, I stayed up just to see what news was going to be released.

The first news came out last week, giving the lead single title, Not Myself Tonight (not "Glam"), and the album artwork. I liked it was very very very very anxious to find out more! =D

The second news posted was the full lyrics, and I read it and was super-surprised to find out it included the line, "and if you don't like it, fuck you", because it was only two days before that I shouted out those last two words in class and was heard by my teacher, very unluckily. Hahha! Co-incidence or fan-fate?

Few days later, the site was edited again with a new countdown timer announcing the premiere of Not Myself Tonight, and I was going to die of a heart attack, though I had hoped they would've released the song to the Internet on the second day of news.

Anyway, an 18-second snippet was released a few days before the actual complete track. I wasn't overwhelmed by it, but I loved the line, "cause I'm doing things that I normally won't do-o-o-o-o-o".

Meanwhile, Bionic has been announced to release on June 8, 2010. It's exactly 70 days from now, and I am looking forward to that date! =D

Today, on March 31, 2010, 6am of Singapore (which is March 30, 2010, 6pm in New York), the song was finally released in complete track! I wanted to wake up very early in the morning and turn on my computer just to access Christina Aguilera.com just to listen to the track, but I didn't in the end.

In school, my friend Fiona told me that the song title was a trending topic last night on Twitter. Is it true? Does it mean that Christina's still hot? I'm not underestimating her and her international fanbase, but because I am a Mariah Carey fan (whose name did not enter the trending topics during her birthday a few days ago), I'm a little unconfident about whether my favourite artists are still popular amongst people my age.

My other friend, Rita, used her cellphone to access the Internet and found a Youtube video with that song for me to listen to it! Yahoo! And now, I've come back home, and I finally listened to it very properly!

Firstly, I must admit that this song did not meet my absolutely high expectations. However, the same thing happened with Mariah's Obsessed last year. The first times I heard it, I wasn't 101% satisfied.

However, that is because I am a big fan of theirs and I know their songs very well. I can name a whole list of favourite Christina songs that I've listened to hundreds of times each, so I'm very sure Not Myself Tonight will become one of my favourite songs of this year.

After all, Obsessed later became my most-played 2009-released song of last year, so I just have to get used to the song thanks to my overly high expectations of this incredible artist.

I see similarities of this song with Madonna's Sorry, because there's an interlude in the beginning of the song with spoken words. I also find the exhalation sound at the end of the song similar to the exhalation sound effects in Madonna and Britney Spears' Me Against The Music (also found at the end).

What parts of the song do I like? The messages and lyrics of the song!

"I'm out of character, I'm in rare form, and if you really knew me, you know it's not the norm."

Recently I've been feeling quite out of character compared to my behaviour in the past few years.

"Cause I'm doing things that I normally won't do-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo. The old me's gone. I feel brand new, and if you don't like it, fuck you."

So far the line I can sing along to the best (because it was in that 18 second snippet), and the line with the best melody.

"Not tonigh-gh-gh-gh-gh-gh-gh-gh-gh-gh-gh-ght!"

Cool effects! But it'll be strange when she performs the song live and belts that note out for real without any computerized effect.

There's a instrumental only part after 2:15 which I really like a lot. It sounds very Eurodance.

I am a little confused though. I read that Christina's gonna tone it down for this fourth album and not do so much of what has been classified as oversinging. I thought she would belt less, but she still belts a lot in this song, which is actually what I want, because it won't be easy for me to get used to a Christina song without belting, such as Save Me From Myself, which I did not like the first time I heard.

I've been listening to this song consecutively for a really long time, it's definitely going to be my most-played song of the week, and probably next week as well.

Meanwhile, I hope that when this song releases, it will enter the Billboard Hot 100's Top 5, because it's been eight years since Christina's had a Top 5 hit (the last being Beautiful in 2002, which peaked at #2). Two years ago, Keeps Gettin' Better debuted at #7, which was great.

This year will be a Christina-dominating year for me!

Tantalizing Twilight

I've always listened to MuggleCast, the Harry Potter podcast, and I found out the main host of MuggleCast had another podcast, Imprint, which is Twilight-themed, so I listened to one of its episodes.

I found the topics discussed a lot weaker and shallower compared to the immensely deep analyses they give to the Harry Potter kingdom, which further supports my belief that Harry Potter has, is and will forever be bigger and better than the Twilight saga.

Yet strangely enough, I continued listening to other episodes and soon enough, I got pretty much influenced to buy the New Moon DVD. I remember it was Thursday last week and I just had an unpleasant Wednesday after-school, so I wanted to enjoy my Thursday after-school. I went to buy the New Moon DVD at the nearest shopping mall and a whole take-home pack of peach yoghurt.

I had a bad experience watching the New Moon movie in theatres last year. Me and the two friends I was with all agreed that the movie was crap. However, the second time I watched in on DVD, I thought it was slightly better (although it remains equally slow-in-progression).

I remember sometime this time last year when I bought the Twilight book, because practically everyone was reading it, and I was wondering what was so nice about a typical romance novel between a human and a vampire.

I had watched the Twilight movie online. So-so. I watched it again on VCD when my brother rented it. A little more than so-so, but not captivating at all.

I spent quite a bit of today reading 57% of the book (hahaa, I stopped at the end of Chapter 13, then counted the pages read).

The book is 10 000 times better than the movie la! I think the book itself deserves the credit and accolades it received, because it truly managed to capture the romance and the tension and the atmosphere that it intended to.

The movie, on the other hand, did a filthy job on it. These are the differences that i found:

In the book, Bella is a girl. Like, literally, she is a girl. Not the girlish girl, but you get to see that she does have her girly side and she's more outspoken and she has a more-lively relationship with her father, Charlie.

However, in the movie, Bella seems to be a non-girl and seems barely interested to talk to her father, and she seems really boring and sleepy and colourless and seems to keep everything to herself. She speaks in monotone and it irritates viewers like me. The only time she ever goes up the solfege is when James' venom is acting on her.

Who's to blame? Kristen Stewart for her crappy portrayal, or someone in the production of the film.

In the book, Edward has a fun side. He laughs, he makes fun of Bella. In the movie, however, he's the dreamy romantic that will ensnare you.

In the book, you get to see the development of the relationship between Edward and Bella. You get to see them start off as Biology partners, and then they evolve from frequent disagreeing conversations to Question games and then the hidden flirting inside all of them blossoms into a romance that you can believe in.

In the shitty movie, it's merely a chronology of scenes snipped out from the book, and then you suddenly find yourself seeing Edward and Bella embracing with each other, leaving yourself the question inside your head: "Huh, when they did ever fall in love?"

You don't get to see a realistic development in the movie because it's like, it starts off with Edward avoiding Bella, and then the Prophase-Anaphane, and then the carpark incident, and then the part where Bella gets ambushed in the alley, and then it later progresses into the meadow.

Now I can understand how and why Bella and Edward fell in love. The movie failed to portray that, so now I think sometimes the movie is the epic phail inside of the book, although I enjoy movies a lot.

And speaking of why they fell in love. I don't want to get stoned by any Twihard fan, but technically, I say, technically, Bella fell in love with Edward because she found him goodlooking. It was a love-at-first-sight thing. And that's because Edward's a vampire with enhanced good looks. So technically, if Edward was not a vampire, Bella wouldn't have fallen in love with him.

Then again, Edward would have been dead if he was not transformed into a vampire.

Also, Edward was enticed by a scent Bella gave off which Edward loved. Okay, it's probably a half-metaphor in the book, but if I took it literally, Edward likes the way Bella smells. HAHAHAHAHAHA. And he wouldn't be able to pick up Bella's scent if he was not a vampire with enhanced senses. So technically, Edward wouldn't have fallen in love with her if he was not a vampire.

So in overall, Bella and Edward would not have been together if Edward was not a vampire.

I'm gonna read the remaining 43% of the book when I have the time, because there's a lot of additional mathematics practices that I need to go through first.

I do struggle with the first-person technique of writing the books, because sometimes I pause and think, who am "I", and I remind myself, "ohh, Bella" before I can continue. And there's a lot of dialogue in this style:

"Hello."
"Hi."
"I want to buy some chicken."
"What type of chicken?"

There's no ' said Edward ' or ' said Bella ' in these paragraphs of ongoing conversations, so I get quite mixed up on who said what, probably because I don't pay 100.00% attention when I'm reading the book, and that's probably because I'm listening to music (listened to the whole Mariah Carey debut album while I read. Its love songs are appropriate for the book).

And after finishing Twilight, it's very highly likely that I'll buy New Moon. But one concensus to end: the books are 10 000 times better than the movies. (number not to scale)

P.S. I think I differ from my fellow readers of my age in the sense that, I do analyse what I read instead of just bothering to find out what happens next and then closing the book once I've found out.

Rihanna 101

I published a pretty decent article of Mariah's 20-year career on her 40th birthday anniversary, and I thought, Rihanna only has a 5-year career so far, so it would be really easy to make a Rihanna article with the same concept. This also means I'm going to do a Christina one, although that would be slightly different because I'm preparing a collection of posts to build up to her upcoming album release.

But for now, it's a Rihanna post. Her birthday (February 20) has already past, so I have no appropriate reason to publish a Rihanna career-overview article. However, as I write this, the current #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 is Rude Boy by Rihanna, so I'm gonna give the excuse that I'm writing to commemorate Rihanna's success just five years!

Meet Rihanna. This is her when she's in her teens, I suppose. It's not fair to say she looks ugly, because everyone in this world looks less good-looking without makeup. Besides, which school photograph of you looks nice anyway? I'm sure you hate your face in the annual school yearbook.

Rihanna was born on February 20, 1988 in Saint Michael's, Barbados.

At the age of 15, she was in an amateur girlband with two other girl friends. They attended an audition for Evan Rogers, a record producer, and she received the most attention by Rogers himself.

Soon Rogers made a four-song demo tape with Rihanna, and that demo tape was distributed and reached the hands of Def Jam records, which signed her and prepared her to become a star.







2005: Pon De Replay & Music of the Sun
Rihanna took three months to work on her debut album, entitled Music of the Sun. She decided to release her first single, Pon De Replay, which proved successful.

The beat-driven dance/reggae song rose up the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at #2, being blocked from #1 by We Belong Together by Mariah Carey. As We Belong Together was a gigantic hit which later became the Song of the Decade, it was a big achievement for Pon De Replay to have peaked at #2.

Rihanna released her album soon after. It went to #10 on the Billboard 200 and sold 500 000 copies in the US and another 1.5 million around the world totalling 2 million in worldwide sales.

To end the year, Rihanna's second single, If It's Lovin' That You Want, was promoted, and it was Top 40 hit, though performing poorer than its predecessing single. The overall vibe for Rihanna's first album was very reggae and Caribbean-based due to Rihanna's origins from Barbados.

2006: SOS & A Girl Like Me
To start off the second year in Rihanna's music career, she adopted a more modern, feminine, mainstream-pop feel. Rihanna worked on her second album and was prepared to release it merely 8 months after her first one.

The new album, A Girl Like Me, was led by the lead single, SOS, which is my favourite song of all-time. The 4-minute long track is a dance-pop song which samples the synth and bell hooks from Soft Cell's Tainted Love.

The song was a smash success and topped the Billboard Hot 100, giving Rihanna her first ever #1 song and thus being more successful than her debut single, Pon De Replay. SOS also was #1 on the United World Chart, accounting for music charts around the world. The song was Top 10 is numerous countries.

After SOS had worked its musical magic, Rihanna finally released A Girl Like Me. The album was better received than her first and went Platinum (selling twice of Music of the Sun) in the US. It charted at #5, five positions higher than Music of the Sun.

Rihanna followed up with Unfaithful, a piano ballad which is also the first Rihanna song that I ever heard. It became the singer's 3rd Top 10 hit when it rocketed to #6 in the US. The single was also successful in many other countries. However, the third single from the album, We Ride, was a commercial failure as it failed to chart in the Hot 100.

To complete the A Girl Like Me era, Break It Off, a collaboration with dancehall performer Sean Paul, was released. At a peak position of #9, it was Rihanna's fourth Top 10 hit.

2007: Umbrella & Good Girl Gone Bad
In what would be known as Rihanna's first peak period in her career, Rihanna's third album, Good Girl Gone Bad, would experience phenomenal success. Rihanna explains the title as having broken out of her shell and ready to experience new things in life.

Rihanna changed her image, losing her long, brown hair for a short, urban black cut. Her Caribbean and reggae-influenced sounds were also converted into R&B and electro/dance anthems.

The 19-year old rising pop star unleashed her lead single, Umbrella, featuring a rap opening by Jay-Z, who was her mentor. Umbrella defined worldwide pop culture when it joined SOS as Rihanna's second #1 single, but overtook SOS as Rihanna's most successful song.

Umbrella was #1 in more than 10 countries and was Top 10 in every major country. It was #1 for 7 weeks in the US, tying with Beyonce's Irreplaceable for most weeks at #1 for that year, and was #1 in the UK for 10 weeks consecutively, making it the only song to do so in the whole decade of 2000 - 2009, and was the most successful chart-topper in the UK. The song topped several year-end charts.

After the success of Umbrella, Rihanna followed her style of releasing her album straight after her lead single. Good Girl Gone Bad debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200, becoming her highest-charting studio album. Subsequently, she released Shut Up And Drive, Don't Stop The Music and Hate That I Love You featuring Ne-yo.

Shut Up and Drive was #15, which did not match the incomparable success of Umbrella. However, Don't Stop The Music and Hate That I Love You were Top 10 hits, the former being a United World Chart-topper.

Rihanna was one of the most successful artists of 2007.

2008: Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded & Disturbia
The success of her third studio album saw a re-release under the title, Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded.

The re-release would spawn two singles under Rihanna's name, and a third single under Maroon 5.

Maroon 5 collaborated with Rihanna on a remix of If I Never See Your Face Again. It did not reach the Top 50 in the US but did fairly better around the world.

Meanwhile, Rihanna's existing two #1 singles were going to be joined by two more.

Rihanna's simple, piano-driven track, Take A Bow, was released as the first single from the re-release; fifth overall. It went to #1 for one week in the US and became her third #1 song.

As seen for the past three years, the very next single Rihanna releases after achieving a #1 hit will not perform better. However, Disturbia was different. It succeeded Take A Bow in Rihanna's singles chronology and was more successful than it, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for 2 weeks and entering the Top 5 in more countries than Take A Bow.

Disturbia was written by Chris Brown, a fellow singer Rihanna was dating. Intentions were for Chris Brown to perform Disturbia himself, although he realised it was more appropriate for a female to perform it and gave it to Rihanna.

The music video for the hit single saw a very different, dark side in Rihanna, contrasting her girly, virginal image from her earlier days. The video featured torture involving spiders, fire, sexual references with mannequins a Thriller-inspired dance, which sparked a new, dark persona and image which Rihanna would continue to use later in her career.

A collaboration with T.I. on the song, Live Your Life, would prove clever, as Rihanna gained her fifth #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 when the song topped the chart for one week nearing the end of 2008.

Rihanna also embarked on her first personal headlining, Good Girl Gone Bad Tour, which went to several countries including Singapore. 2008 was also the year where Rihanna won her first Grammy Award - Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group for Umbrella.

2009: Assault incident involving Chris Brown & Rated R
The first half of 2009, or rather, the first three-quarters of 2009, was not Rihanna's best time.

In February 2009, Rihanna and Chris Brown attended a Grammy party, where they were photographed to be a happy couple. However, the very next night, Rihanna did not turn up for the actual Grammy event at a last-minute pull-out.

It was later revealed that Rihanna was involved in a domesic violence case, having been assaulted by Chris Brown while riding his car back home from the pre-Grammy party. Ironically, Rihanna was set to perform Disturbia at the Grammys, which was written by Chris Brown himself.

The case hit the media and paparazzi very powerfully, and conditions worsened when Rihanna was seen back together with Chris Brown shortly after the incident, and a photograph of an assaulted Rihanna was leaked out from a police station.

People around the world criticized Rihanna for setting a bad example for girls, having returned to her violent boyfriend after being hit by him. It was a media firestorm and even became a topic discussed by Oprah Winfrey on her talk show.

Rihanna finally broke up with Chris Bron as 2009 continued. She silently worked on her fourth album, its music influences being very different from her first three albums. Before promoting it, she appeared as a starring video model for Kanye West's Paranoid music video and collaborated with him and Jay-Z on Run This Town, which ascended to #2.

The album, Rated R, dropped on November 2009. Rihanna's first explicit album, Rated R sold the most number of copies in one week for a Rihanna album, and was the highest-rated Rihanna album on Allmusic.com. However, it debuted at #4 behind rising singers like Adam Lambert, failing to match the success of Good Girl Gone Bad.

The first single, Russian Roulette, was a Top 10 hit when it skyrocketed to #9 after a prominent interview between Rihanna and Diane Sawyer discussing the events of the Chris Brown violence case. However, it was Rihanna's weakest-performing lead single, as SOS and Umbrella were #1 and Pon De Replay was #2.

The music video for Russian Roulette was equally dark as Disturbia, if not darker. It featured guns, Rihanna being shot at the neck while underwater and undergoing physical and mental agony inside a room which resembles that of an asylum.

Hard was released as the second single when 2009 was ending.

Meanwhile, Chris Brown saw an all-time low in his career when he released his studio album one week after Rated R. It debuted at #7 and was negatively reviewed, becoming 2009's worst reviewed album on Allmusic.com. While Russian Roulette was a Top 10 hit, Chris Brown's lead single was only a Top 20 song even after recruiting help from featured guests.

2010: Rude Boy & Rated R Tour
This year has brightened for Rihanna.

Hard, which features Young Jeezy, charted one position better than Russian Roulette, going to #8. Its music video was army-themed and saw Rihanna dancing in mud.

The third single from Rated R, Rude Boy, became the most successful single from that album when it topped the Billboard Hot 100 in March 2010, becoming the first Rihanna song to perform better than its lead single of the same album. Rude Boy goes back to Rihanna's roots and could easily blend into the track list of her first two albums.

Rihanna has won 2 more Grammys since due to her work on Run This Town.

2010 will see Rihanna embarking on her new, Rated R Tour. Rihanna is also rumoured to be working with British boyband, JLS, and comments have surfaced claiming Rihanna is working on her fifth album.

Now, Rihanna has successfully proven that she's back on top, as Rude Boy, being her sixth #1 single (joining SOS, Umbrella, Take A Bow, Disturbia and Live Your Life), makes her the female artist with the most #1 songs since the year 2000. That title is potentially threatened by fellow pop phenomenon, Beyonce, but Rihanna has bounced back from the darkness of 2009 and is definitely going to rule the charts and the music industry for another lengthy string of years!

Photo credits to RihannaDaily.com.