{"id":2255602,"date":"2026-01-29T01:27:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T01:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2255602"},"modified":"2026-01-29T01:27:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T01:27:17","slug":"rihanna-released-anti-10-years-ago-she-still-rules-pop-and-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/rihanna-released-anti-10-years-ago-she-still-rules-pop-and-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Rihanna Released ‘Anti’ 10 Years Ago. She Still Rules Pop and Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tFor all of the overwhelming nostalgia for 2016 that has defined these early weeks of 2026, very little of this collective cultural reminiscing has mourned the reign of Rihanna<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s not for lack of rationale. A decade ago, for anyone who\u2019s forgotten, Rihanna was a dominating force. \u201cWork\u201d spent nine weeks at Number One. \u201cThis Is What You Came For\u201d reached Number Three. \u201cNeeded Me\u201d became Rihanna\u2019s longest-running Hot 100 hit, lasting 45 weeks. \u201cKiss It Better,\u201d \u201cSex With Me,\u201d and \u201cLove on the Brain\u201d were slow-burners, but so undeniable they felt ubiquitous.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo why aren\u2019t we feeling sadder today, as Anti<\/em> \u2014 her career-defining opus, on which but one of those aforementioned records appeared on \u2014 celebrates its 10th anniversary, with no follow-up album in sight? Well, because grief requires absence. Something has to be missing, regrettably different, or out of reach, and Rihanna has never been any of those. By remaining strides ahead, she has ensured that she will always be leading the moment rather than chasing it.<\/p>\n

\n\tOur first introduction to Rihanna, the propulsive debut single \u201cPon de Replay,\u201d was a near-immediate hit in 2005. Then there was \u201cSOS\u201d in 2006, \u201cUmbrella\u201d in 2007, \u201cDisturbia\u201d in 2008, \u201cRun This Town\u201d in 2009, and \u201cOnly Girl (In the World)\u201d \u2014 plus \u201cRude Boy,\u201d \u201cS&M,\u201d \u201cWhat\u2019s My Name?\u201d and <\/em>\u201cLove the Way You Lie\u201d \u00a0\u2014 in 2010. In 2011, \u201cWe Found Love\u201d and its accompanying music video became a feast for the Tumblr age. \u201cDiamonds\u201d joined her collection of Number Ones the following year (she has 14 to date). When she broke her seven-year streak of yearly album releases in 2013 \u2014 yes, we count Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded <\/em>\u2014 she still dominated radio with \u201cThe Monster\u201d and \u201cStay.\u201d That isn\u2019t even everything.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRihanna was pop<\/a>\u2019s puppetmaster even when she wasn\u2019t recording the songs herself. In 2013, Miley Cyrus released the pivotal single \u201cWe Can\u2019t Stop\u201d and Selena Gomez broke out with \u201cCome and Get It.\u201d Both were originally intended for Rihanna, who already had her fill of hits on Talk That Talk <\/em>(\u201cYou Da One\u201d) and Unapologetic <\/em>(\u201cPour It Up\u201d). <\/em>Even Usher\u2019s 2010 hit \u201cDJ Got Us Fallin\u2019 in Love\u201d was among the 200 songs she had cut for Loud<\/em><\/a>. Major Lazer wanted her on \u201cLean On,\u201d released in 2015, but they were a little too late. She\u2019d already done the EDM thing with \u201cWhere Have You Been\u201d four years prior. Everyone else was just catching up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tIt would be unfair to claim that pop has been roaming aimlessly without Rihanna for the past decade. Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa, Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and more have become reigning figures in the post-Anti <\/em>years. Still, the genre remains obsessed with impressing \u2014 and at times imitating \u2014 her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRihanna has the best taste out of anyone,\u201d Ed Sheeran told The Tonight Show<\/em><\/a> <\/em>last year. \u201cEvery single album that I\u2019ve ever done, I\u2019ve always gone, on the side, \u2018Let\u2019s try and write a song that we can pitch to Rihanna.\u2019\u201d That\u2019s how \u201cShape of You\u201d and Justin Bieber\u2019s \u201cLove Yourself\u201d began. Carpenter once cited \u201cConsideration,\u201d the SZA collaboration that opens Anti<\/em>, as an inspiration, telling <\/em>Teen Vogue<\/em><\/a> in 2018, \u201cI look up to her so much \u2026 She\u2019s always doing something that we never expect.\u201d In 2023, songwriter Evan Bogart told Rolling Stone <\/em><\/a>he has used AI songwriting tools, particularly voice clones, to cut demos that sound like Rihanna in order to make them more appealing for other artists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the blueprint and the standard, Rihanna hasn\u2019t generally responded to these siren calls from the rest of the industry. She\u2019s not someone who has had to compete for accolades this past decade, or been driven by flattery and validation. That would be antithetical to her status as a premier trendsetter and tastemaker. She\u2019s too cool for it. Pop, in her absence, has become bound to an unceasing supply and demand chain: Fans constantly demand more and more, often with little regard for the quality of what is delivered, and artists respond by selling them a dozen different versions of their latest product.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tRihanna might be loyal to her fans \u2014 occasionally appeasing them with brief updates about R9, an album that could very well remain a figment of everyone\u2019s imagination, in interviews promoting literally anything but music \u2014 but she isn\u2019t beholden to them. Last year, someone left a comment on her Instagram reading, \u201cWe want an album forehead.\u201d Rihanna responded four hours later, writing, \u201cListen Lorenzo! You ain\u2019t cute enough to be calling me by my black name you dizzy fuck!\u201d Remember, this is the same Rihanna who once told Ciara<\/a>, \u201cGood luck with booking that stage you speak of,\u201d and a tabloid<\/a>, \u201cYour pussy is way too dry to be riding my dick like this.\u201d Plenty of pop stars have been driven offline by their fans\u2019 entitlement. Not Rihanna.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s obvious to note that Rihanna has also remained at the forefront of culture because of the extramusical empire she built beginning in 2017. Fenty Beauty, which pushed competing brands to formulate more inclusive products after it launched with a 40-shade foundation range, could be valued at somewhere between $1 billion to $2 billion, according to Reuters<\/a>. The brand has been name-dropped on records by Grande (\u201cHighlight of my life, just like that Fenty Beauty kit\u201d), Bieber (\u201cAin\u2019t no need to beat your face in Fenty\u201d), and Doja Cat (\u201cI could be the CEO, just look at Robyn Fenty\u201d).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2021, valuation for the lingerie brand Savage x Fenty reached $1 billion. That same year, its accompanying <\/em>fashion show <\/em>featured runway appearances from artists like Carpenter, Erykah Badu, and Troye Sivan, plus performances from Normani, Jazmine Sullivan, Daddy Yankee, and more. The Savage x Fenty Show<\/em> \u2014 which hasn\u2019t aired since 2022, when Johnny Depp was regrettably featured in the show \u2014 stood out because it put a spotlight on the range of bodies Victoria\u2019s Secret wouldn\u2019t cast in its own fashion show. Once again, Rihanna was leading the charge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, the business of Rihanna is only supplemental, a money-making aside that hasn\u2019t completely eclipsed the musical legacy some assume she has abandoned. She never actually left it behind. While Anti <\/em>has been sitting comfortably on the Billboard<\/em> 200 since 2016, racking up more than 500 nonconsecutive weeks on the chart, the Hot 100 has seen the singer make recurring appearances over the years. In 2017, she hit Number Two alongside DJ Khaled on \u201cWild Thoughts\u201d and Number 14 alongside Kendrick Lamar on \u201cLoyalty.\u201d Another Top 40 hit followed when she joined N.E.R.D. on \u201cLemon\u201d later that year, rapping, \u201cMothafucka, we ain\u2019t finished\/I told you we won\u2019t stop.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tShe meant that. More than two decades into her career, Rihanna remains one of the most intriguing figures in pop, and in culture at large. Just last year, the Good Girl Gone Bad<\/em> deep cut \u201cBreakin\u2019 Dishes\u201d debuted on the Hot 100 more than 18 years after its release thanks to a TikTok surge. In 2023, she received her first Academy Award nomination with a Best Original Song nod for \u201cLift Me Up,\u201d a luminous ballad from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. <\/em>That same year, Rihanna headlined the Super Bowl LVII<\/a> halftime show and revealed her second pregnancy during the career-spanning set (she now shares three children with partner A$AP Rocky).\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tTen years is a long time, even longer through the distorted lens of music consumption in the streaming age. Britney Spears and Frank Ocean, for example, haven\u2019t released LPs since 2016, either. For Spears, Glory <\/em>is a drop in the bucket of her legacy, and that\u2019s OK. Ocean\u2019s Blonde <\/em>is a modern classic, not unlike SZA\u2019s Ctrl<\/em>, which she followed with SOS <\/em>five years later. It was worth the wait. It almost always is when musicians can successfully escape the grip of the pressure and expectations that build in their absence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn two years, we\u2019ll be celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill<\/a><\/em>, a singular musician\u2019s one-and-done solo album. It\u2019s as important now as it was back then, its influence endlessly tangible. It should be appreciated, then, that the years that have passed since Anti <\/em>have only reinforced its illustrious reputation. Rihanna has always known when to switch gears and move on. She\u2019ll know exactly when it\u2019s time to return with a new plan for pop. In the meantime, turn up the volume on \u201cDesperado\u201d and listen closely. \u201cYou need me,\u201d Rihanna sings. \u201cThere ain\u2019t no leaving me behind.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.rollingstone.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For all of the overwhelming nostalgia for 2016 that has defined these early weeks of 2026, very little of this collective cultural reminiscing has mourned the reign of Rihanna.\u00a0 It\u2019s not for lack of rationale. A decade ago, for anyone who\u2019s forgotten, Rihanna was a dominating force. \u201cWork\u201d spent nine weeks at Number One. \u201cThis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2255603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[21940,24581],"class_list":["post-2255602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-pop","tag-rihanna"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Rihanna-Released-Anti-10-Years-Ago-She-Still-Rules-Pop.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2255602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2255604,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255602\/revisions\/2255604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2255603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2255602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2255602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2255602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}