In The Quantity Ones, I’m reviewing each single #1 single within the historical past of the Billboard Scorching 100, beginning with the chart’s starting, in 1958, and dealing my manner up into the current. E book Bonus Beat: The Quantity Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the Historical past of Pop Music.

The arc of pop-music historical past is lengthy, nevertheless it bends towards freakiness. Perhaps you suppose that’s progress, or possibly you don’t; that’s simply the way it goes. Pop music has all the time been about intercourse; intercourse has been the first engine behind the music because the introduction of recorded sound. For many years, singers and songwriters needed to disguise intercourse behind euphemism and implication, however by the ’70s, you might sing about “makin’ love” on the radio with out worrying an excessive amount of. And in 2011, somebody might write a tune about being into S&M and simply name it “S&M.” So long as the tune in query got here from an enormous star, and so long as it had a remix with one other massive star, the “S&M” tune might go all the way in which to #1.

There have been loads of songs about S&M earlier than “S&M.” The Velvet Underground performed round with that imagery way back to the late ’60s. In 1982, the former Quantity Ones artist then often called John Cougar reached #2 with “Hurts So Good,” and there are solely so some ways to interpret that one. (It’s a 7.) Two years later, Depeche Mode had a minor hit with a tune that was straight-up known as “Grasp And Servant.” Within the early ’80s, Weapons N’ Roses and Madonna, two artists which have been on this column, each went heavy on BDSM imagery — GNR on 1991’s “Fairly Tied Up,” Madonna on just about each monitor from her 1992 album Erotica. Rihanna didn’t invent something.

At completely different factors, Rihanna has instructed completely different tales about whether or not her tune “S&M” is definitely about S&M. When she was on the point of launch her 2010 album Loud, Rihanna instructed Spin that the tune was metaphorical, not sexual: “It’s extra of a factor to say that individuals are going to speak about you; you’ll be able to’t cease that. You simply must be that sturdy particular person and know who you might be in order that stuff simply bounces off. And I assumed it was tremendous badass.” A number of months later, although, Rihanna appeared on the duvet of Rolling Stone. Within the accompanying profile, Rihanna acquired way more particular concerning the tune and concerning the form of stuff that she was into:

Being submissive within the bed room is absolutely enjoyable. You get to be slightly girl, to have anyone be macho and accountable for your shit. That’s enjoyable to me… I wish to be spanked. Being tied up is enjoyable. I wish to hold it spontaneous. Generally, whips and chains will be overly deliberate — you gotta cease, get the whip from the drawer downstairs. I’d reasonably have him use his arms.

If these altering interview solutions appear slightly contrived, it’s as a result of they’re. When Rihanna was on that Rolling Stone cowl, she’d already reached #1 with “What’s Ny Identify” and “Solely Woman (In The World),” the primary two singles from Loud, and she or he was on the point of launch “S&M” as a single. Rihanna had a job to play. To promote a tune like “S&M,” you must persuade the world that you simply imagine what you’re singing. And I don’t know, possibly Rihanna did imagine what she was singing; she was all the time good at conveying freakiness when the tune known as for it. However it’s arduous to argue that “S&M” is “evenly autobiographical,” as Rolling Stone claimed, when you think about that she didn’t have something to do with writing it.

“S&M” got here from a bunch of Rihanna’s common collaborators. The buzzing, hammering Euro-dance monitor was produced by the Norwegian duo Stargate, Rihanna’s most prolific companions, and by Sandy Vee, the French dance DJ who co-produced “Solely Woman (In The World)” and Katy Perry’s “Firework” with Stargate. The one that wrote the lyrics and the vocal melody, who turned that beat into “S&M,” was Ester Dean, the singer and songwriter who labored on a lot of Rihanna’s largest hits. At any time when she talks about “S&M,” Ester Dean appears each excited and embarrassed; she is aware of that she acquired away with one thing there. Dean instructed Billboard, “I wrote it, Father forgive me, on a Sunday.” In a 2019 Songland, video, Dean says that she had Britney Spears in thoughts for the tune, “after which Rihanna was like, ‘Tss, no you didn’t, you wrote it for me.’”

It is smart that Ester Dean was considering of Britney Spears. Britney first burst onto American consciousness with “Child One Extra Time” in 1999, and loads of folks heard masochism at work within the “hit me, child” hook. Songwriter Max Martin didn’t imply it that manner; English wasn’t his first language. However authorial intent is all the time the least necessary factor in this type of dialog. We hear what we wish to hear in pop songs, and the depth of Britney’s supply invited folks to leap to conclusions.

Primarily based on what Ester Dean says, “S&M” was the second time that one in every of Rihanna’s #1 hits was initially written for Britney Spears; the primary was “Umbrella,” the tune that really pushed Rihanna to famous person standing. The thought of Britney recording “Umbrella” is among the all-time nice what-if eventualities in pop historical past. “S&M” doesn’t increase related questions, since “S&M” wanted Britney concerned to succeed in the highest. However we’ll get there.

“S&M” isn’t actually a tune about alternate types of sexual expression. It’s a titillation tune, one that matches with plenty of the light-bondage stuff that was floating round within the zeitgeist of that second. (The primary Fifty Shades Of Gray guide got here out just a few months after “S&M” hit #1.) The lyrics are each clumsy and winkingly foolish: “I could also be dangerous, however I’m completely good at it! Intercourse within the air, I don’t care, I really like the odor of it!” Past the one line about “chains and whips excite me,” Rihanna by no means even will get into specifics. It’s extra about “meet me in my boudoir, make my physique say ah-ah-ah.”

It’s not remotely shocking that Rihanna sells the hell out of “S&M.” She’d been belting out massive hooks over clanking, mechanized Stargate dance-pop beats for years, and “S&M” hits the dead-center of her consolation zone. All of these hooks are completely fashioned on Ester Dean’s “S&M” demo, however as all the time, Rihanna elevates the monitor along with her supply. The humorous factor about “S&M” is that Rihanna sings about submission whereas radiating whole dominance. She places a lot brio into boilerplate riff-blurts — “na na na na na, come on!” — you could’t even ask whether or not she’s in management. It’s apparent.

My favourite factor about “S&M” is that it’s fairly convincing in its sleaze. Rihanna doesn’t have to sing about particular X-rated eventualities. She will simply make broad gestures at sexual starvation and let your creativeness fill within the blanks. The thudding, squelching beat evokes photographs of darkish golf equipment, and Stargate and Sandy Vee even make a direct connection to a previous era’s goth-club anthem. On the finish of the monitor, when Rihanna is simply chanting the letters “S” and “M,” they swipe the synth-riff from the Remedy’s 1983 banger “Let’s Go To Mattress.” (The Remedy have been simply within the different column for the primary time. Their highest-charting Scorching 100 hit, 1989’s “Lovesong,” peaked at #2. It’s a 9. The Remedy didn’t get a writing credit score on “S&M.”)

Rihanna launched “S&M” as a single shortly after the dual chart-topping reigns of “What’s My Identify” and “Solely Woman (In The World),” and she or he gave the tune an enormous push. J. Cole, nonetheless an up-and-coming rapper who hadn’t but reached the tortured-star stage, rapped on a remix. (Cole’s highest-charting lead-artist hit, the 2021 21 Savage/Morray collab “My Life,” peaked at #2. It’s a 7.) For the “S&M” video, Rihanna labored with future Queen & Slim auteur Melina Matsoukas, who’d already directed her “Impolite Boy” clip, amongst others. The video is a riot of colorfully sexy imagery — Rihanna wrapped in plastic or rocking fetish gear, restraints, ball gags, intercourse dolls, dumped-over trash cans.

Melina Matsoukas has mentioned that the “S&M” video is absolutely about Rihanna’s relationship with the press, and there’s loads of proof for that clarification in there. She wears attire fabricated from newspaper headlines, or she’s wrapped in plastic whereas photographers encompass her. She’s in an workplace, reclining a desk, whereas varied outstanding drag queens, all taking part in reporters, cluster round. At one level, Rihanna walks Perez Hilton on a leash, and he pretends to pee on a fireplace hydrant. (It’s not enjoyable to be reminded of that man’s existence.) On the identical time, you might learn all these touches as Rihanna getting off on displaying sexuality on probably the most public levels she will discover.

“S&M” was an enormous out-of-the-gate hit, nevertheless it spent just a few weeks caught at #2 behind Katy Perry’s “E.T.” (You would make the argument that “E.T.,” the alien-sex tune, was even freakier than “S&M. One thing was within the air, whether or not or not you liked the odor of it.) So Rihanna did the apparent factor essential to push “S&M” all the way in which to the highest. Simply as Katy Perry ensured the chart success of “E.T.” by getting Kanye West to rap on a remix, Rihanna introduced in a star of equal weight for a brand new model of “S&M.” She acquired Britney.

In 2011, everybody who made hit singles was taking part in the sport. A remix would carry extra radio spins and extra iTunes gross sales, and it will assist with a tune’s chart placement. In tabulating the Scorching 100, Billboard would rely each the remix and the unique, so long as they have been sufficiently related. The model with the higher numbers could be the one which appeared on the chart. Within the case of “S&M,” the Britney remix was the larger model within the one week that the tune sat at #1. That’s too dangerous, because the Britney model doesn’t make “S&M” a greater tune.

In concept, it’s cool to have Rihanna and Britney Spears, two dominant pop stars from completely different micro-generations, on the identical monitor. Britney had simply scored her personal sexy chart-topper with “Maintain It In opposition to Me,” and she or he was a lot snug with computerized Euro-club beats. However Britney Spears was additionally deep into her conservatorship period when she appeared on the “S&M” remix. She’d misplaced all management over her profession, and never in a enjoyable or attractive manner. Her look on the remix feels like precisely what it’s, which is a chilly and calculated enterprise resolution.

Britney Spears acquired a writing credit score for the “S&M” remix, so she presumably had a hand in crafting her verse, which will get extra straight specific than something on Rihanna’s unique: “Powerful, I don’t scream mercy/ It’s your flip to harm me/ If I’m dangerous, tie me down/ Shut me up, gag and sure me.” However Britney sounds completely numb and clean. She’s going by the motions, and it reveals. She doesn’t have something like Rihanna’s command, and the Auto-Tune on her voice is extreme sufficient to be distracting. Britney and Rihanna have been clearly by no means in the identical room after they recorded their components, and the outcome sounds pasted-together. Within the Britney remix, a frisky tune change into a weirdly miserable one. I believe “S&M” is a reasonably good tune, however the Britney remix drops it two full factors in my estimation. (Unique-flavor “S&M” endures because the definitive model of the tune. “S&M” is now quintuple platinum, whereas the Britney remix stalled out at gold.)

Earlier than the Britney model of “S&M” got here out, Rihanna went on Twitter to ask who needs to be on the remix — a painfully contrived stunt that was clearly simply supposed to hype up the Britney model that was already within the works. Calling in to New York’s Z100 after the remix got here out, Rihanna mentioned, “Britney by no means does options. It was actually wonderful that she actually needed to be a part of this tune.” Britney by no means made a video for the “S&M” remix. A number of weeks after the monitor reached #1, although, Britney and Rihanna lip-synced and awkwardly choreographed model of “S&M” on the Billboard Music Awards. It was the one time they’ve carried out it collectively.

As I write this, the “S&M” remix was the final time that Britney Spears appeared on a #1 hit — a shrug of an ending for her historic run. We acquired into twists and turns of Britney’s later profession within the “Maintain It In opposition to Me” column. Rihanna, in the meantime, was nonetheless within the midst of a monster hit streak. With “S&M,” she turned the youngest artist ever to rack up 10 chart-topping singles. Rihanna pulled that feat off by stunt-collaborations and options and remixes, however she was nonetheless simply 23 years outdated which she hit that landmark, which is loopy to consider.

Rihanna’s subsequent two singles weren’t smashes. As an alternative, they have been style experiments, and so they didn’t do very properly on the charts. The ability ballad “California King Mattress” solely reached #37, whereas the snarling dancehall murder-jam “Man Down” topped out at #57. Nice songs, although. An excellent higher Loud monitor did turn into an enormous hit. “Cheers (Drink To That),” an anthemic ingesting tune constructed on an Avril Lavigne pattern, went all the way in which to #7, a triumphant conclusion for the the Loud album cycle. (It’s a ten.)

Regardless of three chart-topping hits and a handful of different nice songs, Loud was not an enormous album. It went platinum in 2011, and it’s triple platinum now, principally due to streaming. On the album charts, Loud by no means acquired previous #3. On the time, Rihanna was a dominant singles artist, however she was nonetheless a singles artist. She didn’t prime the Billboard albums chart till she was nearly able to step away from music fully. In a manner, then, Rihanna was nonetheless on the rise in 2011. We’ll see a lot extra of her on this column.

GRADE: 5/10