Music of the Sun

Background

Before signing to Def Jam Recordings, Rihanna was discovered in her home country Barbados by American record producer Evan Rogers. The two met in December 2003 through mutual friends of Rihanna's and Rogers' wife, while the couple was on vacation in Barbados, because of how Rihanna's friend had told Rogers' wife how the aspiring singer was always singing and performing. After meeting for the first time, Rogers' asked Rihanna to come to his hotel room, where she performed renditions of Destiny's Child's "Emotion" and Mariah Carey's "Hero". Rihanna's renditions impressed Rogers, who then took her to New York City, where she was accompanied by her mother to record some demo tapes which could be sent to record labels. She recorded the demo over the next year intermittently, due to Rihanna only being able to record during school holidays.

At the age of 16, Rihanna was signed to Rogers' and Carl Sturken's production company, Syndicated Rhythm Productions, who assigned her a lawyer and manager, before the completed demo tape were distributed to various record labels around the world in late 2004. The first to respond to the demo tape was Jay-Z, who had recently been appointed as president and CEO of Def Jam Recordings. Rihanna auditioned for him and music mogul L.A. Reid, in his office. Looking back on the audition and meeting Jay-Z, Rihanna explained in an interview how she felt before walking into the room, saying: "That's when I really got nervous..... I was like: 'Oh God, he's right there, I can't look, I can't look, I can't look!' I remember being extremely quiet. I was very shy. I was cold the entire time. I had butterflies. I'm sitting across from Jay-Z. Like, Jay-Zee. I was star-struck." During the audition, Rihanna performed Whitney Houston's cover of "For the Love of You", as well as "Pon de Replay" and "The Last Time", which were written and produced by Rogers and Sturken and would be included on her debut album Music of the Sun.

Jay-Z was initially skeptical about signing Rihanna after he felt "Pon de Replay" was too big for her, saying "when a song is that big, it's hard [for a new artist] to come back from. I don't sign songs, I sign artists". The audition resulted in Rihanna signing a six-album record deal with Def Jam Recordings in February 2005, on the same day of the audition, with Jay-Z saying "There's only two ways out. Out the door after you sign this deal. Or through this window ...", meaning that he was not going to let her leave without signing a record deal. After signing to Def Jam Recordings, Rihanna cancelled other meetings with record labels and relocated from Barbados to New York to live with Rogers' and his wife. Rihanna explained the concept behind the title of the album to Kidzworld, saying that the sun is representative of her native Caribbean culture as well as herself and that the album consists of music from her heritage.

Recording and composition

Rihanna worked with various producers for Music of the Sun and continued to work with Rogers and Sturken, who had previously written and produced "Pon de Replay" and "The Last Time" for Rihanna's demo tape. Although Rihanna stated that when she first heard "Pon de Replay", she did not want to record it, expressing that she felt the song was "sing-songy", but grew to like the song at the end of the recording process. In an interview with Kidzworld, Rihanna explained how the pair helped her develop her song-writing abilities, saying Rogers and Sturken, who had worked with recording artists including Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Kelly Clarkson.

Music of the Sun is a Caribbean-influenced, urban dance-pop album. Its dance-pop songs are complemented by contentional R&B ballads. The lead single "Pon de Replay" was written by Rogers, Sturken and Vada Nobles, and was produced by the first two. "Pon de Replay" is a simple dance-pop song with dancehall beats and reggae vocal cadence. Lyrically, the song is about asking the DJ to play the protagonist's favorite song, as well as the fulfillment of dancing in a club. "The Last Time", written and produced by Rogers and Sturken is an acoustic guitar driven ballad, while "Now That I Know" is a stripped down string driven song. In addition to working with Rogers and Sturken for the majority of the album, Rihanna worked with production teams Poke & Tone of Trackmasters and StarGate. The former wrote and produced the second single released from the album, "If It's Lovin' that You Want", which Rihanna described as a "fun song". An R&B song, "If It's Lovin' that You Want" is a song about a girl telling a boy that he should make her his girl, because she has what the boy wants. A remix of the song entitled "If It's Lovin' That You Want – Part 2", which features rap vocals by Cory Gunz, was included as a bonus track on Rihanna's sophomore album, A Girl like Me (2006). Alongside Rogers and Sturken, StarGate co-wrote and co-produced "Let Me", which appears as the ninth song on the album. Music of the Sun contains a remake of Jamaican singer Dawn Penn's "You Don't Love Me (No, No, No)", and features dancehall recording artist Vybz Kartel.

Critical reception

Music of the Sun received generally mixed reviews from music critics. Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times viewed that the album's combination of dancehall and pop resulted in "[Pon de Replay being] one [of] the summer's biggest and most seductive club tracks", but felt that Rihanna sounds "stranded" without a beat to sing along to. Barry Walters of Rolling Stone found it lacking in replay value, ingenuity, and rhythm of the single with "generic vocal hiccups and frills" of US R&B inflecting upon her "Caribbean charm". Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine called the album a "glut of teen R&B chanteuses" and described the lead single "Pon de Replay" as "a dancehall-pop mixture that owes plenty of its sweat and shimmy to Beyoncé Knowles' "Baby Boy". Evan Serpick of Entertainment Weekly wrote that Rihanna's "vibrant vocals lift tracks like 'That La La La' and 'Let Me,' but this bland reggae/R&B debut is filled with chintzy production and maudlin arrangements that block out the Music of the Sun." Robert Christgau of The Village Voice rated the album a "dud", indicating "a bad record whose details rarely merit further thought."

In a positive review, Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic commented that the album presents Rihanna as "winsome rather than [a] wannabe," as well as how she managed to set herself apart from other urban dance-pop artists such as Ashanti, Beyoncé, and Ciara. Birchmeier further stated that "Music of the Sun descends into faceless slow jams after a while, overall consistency not being among its attributes, but thankfully it picks up the pace toward the end..... the result is one of the more engaging urban dance-pop albums of the year." Chantal Jenoure of The Jamaica Observer complimented the dancehall and hip hop composition on several of the songs, including "Pon de Replay", "Rush", "Let Me", "Music of the Sun" and "That La La La", writing that they make the listener feel "happy" and "carefree".

Commercial performance

In the United States, Music of the Sun sold 69,000 and debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200 album chart in the chart issue dated September 17, 2005. The album spent a total of 35 weeks on the chart. Music of the Sun debuted on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart at number six in the same chart issue, and spent a total of 44 weeks on the chart. After five months of release, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on January 1, 2006, denoting shipments of over 500,000 copies. By the time Rihanna debuted her third album, 2007's Good Girl Gone Bad, the album had sold 539,000 copies making it a slower selling album than the others in her repertoire. As of June 2015, the album had sold 623,000 copies in the United States. In Canada, Music of the Sun debuted and peaked at number seven on the Canadian Albums Chart in the chart issue September 17, 2005, but dropped out of the top ten the following week. After four months of release, the album was certified platinum by Music Canada for shipments of over 100,000 copies.

Outside of the United States and Canada, Music of the Sun failed to achieve a comparable level of chart success. In the United Kingdom, the album debuted and peaked at number 35 on the UK Albums Chart in the chart issue October 10, 2005. In its second week charting, Music of the Sun fell by three positions to number 38, and dropped out of the Official UK Top 40 the following week. On May 12, 2006, the album was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) denoting shipments of over 100,000 copies. Elsewhere in Europe, the album debuted on the Swiss Albums Chart at number 46 in the chart issue September 11, 2005, and peaked at number 38 four weeks later. In Austria, Music of the Sun debuted on the Austrian Albums Chart at number 61 in the chart issue September 18, 2005, and peaked at number 45 the following week. The album debuted and peaked at number 93 on the French Albums Chart in the chart issue September 24, 2005. In The Netherlands, Music of the Sun debuted and peaked at number 98 on the Dutch Albums Chart in the chart issue April 29, 2006, and spent one week on the chart. In New Zealand, the album debuted on the New Zealand Albums Chart at number 40 in the chart issue September 26, 2005. Between September 29 and October 10, 2005, Music of the Sun dropped out of the top-40 albums chart, but made a re-entry at number 40 on October 10, 2005. In its fourth week charting, the album peaked at number 26.

Singles

"Pon de Replay" was released as the album's lead single on May 24, 2005. The song peaked at number one on the New Zealand Singles Chart and number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and UK Singles Chart. An accompanying music video was directed by Little X and features Rihanna in a club environment. "If It's Lovin' that You Want" was released as the second and final single from Music of the Sun on December 2, 2005. The song failed to replicate the chart success which "Pon de Replay" experienced, peaking at number 36 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and inside the top forty of multiple other charts. An accompanying music video was directed by Marcus Raboy and features Rihanna in a beach setting.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits for Music of the Sun are adapted from AllMusic.