For Rihanna, there’s no easy way to talk about violence

For Rihanna, it’s never easy to talk about the “demons” that give her sleepless nights. Take the stripped-down alternative version of her hit collaboration with Eminem, “Love The Way You Lie,” about lovers stuck in a destructive and abusive relationship, and sung from a woman’s perspective. For the Barbadian songstress, there’s no easy way to talk about violence.

Just the same, she stresses the need for relevant issues “to be addressed seriously,” regardless of how uncomfortable it makes people feel. She’s at it again in “Man Down,” the reggae-tinged R&B tune from her fifth studio album, “Loud,” about a girl who avenges the sexual assault she suffered at the hands of her abuser.

Initially, some music channels balked at playing the controversial video – which opens with a man being shot in the head! But, Rihanna, who was attacked on the eve of the 2009 Grammys by former boyfriend, Chris Brown, insists that victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence need a voice, too: “I wanted to zero in on a very serious matter that people are afraid to discuss openly. If I can speak for many victims whose voices aren’t heard, then I win twice!”

Viability

All too often, violence and drug use are utilized to pump up a hip-hop or pop tune’s “cool” factor and hit-making viability – so, from time to time, it’s refreshing to hear songs that don’t merely glorify or “romanticize” them. Some recording artists sensationalize the issues tackled in their songs to drum up interest for (and boost the sales of) their albums.

True, separating the wheat from the chaff isn’t easy, but the earnest and well-meaning ones manage to hold up to scrutiny. The public and the media need to be consistently vigilant against opportunists who take advantage of people who can’t readily protect themselves. Let’s “revisit” a number of recordings that tackle different instances of violence and abuse.

Disturbing depiction

Reeking with irony and metaphor, Suzanne Vega’s 1987 single, “Luka,” is a disturbing depiction of child abuse and the culture of silence inherent in domestic abuse: “My name is Luka/ I live upstairs from you/ If you hear something late at night/ Some kind of trouble, some kind of fight/ Just don’t ask me what it was/ They only hit until you cry/ After that, you don’t ask why/ It’s not your business, anyway.”

Bessie Smith’s “Outside Of That, He’s Alright With Me” cheekily sings about the cycle of violence a woman goes through: “He blacked my eye, I couldn’t see/ Then, he pawned the things he gave to me/ But, outside of that, he’s alright with me.”

In Lisa Stansfield’s “All Around the World,” it’s the woman who goes overboard: “I let myself go/ I said so many things, things he didn’t know/ I did too much lying/ And I was oh so bad/ I don’t think he’s coming back.”

Blues classic

Ida Cox doesn’t put up with abuse and learns to fight back in the blues classic, “Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues”: “Poor women sit around all day and moan/ Wondering why their wandering papas don’t come home/ I go home and put my man out if he doesn’t act right/ You never get anything by being an angel, child!”

Another memorable tune is Sarah McLachlan’s “Shelter,” about a girl who prays for solace and protection for abused children and other helpless “creatures”: “Give them shelter from the coming storm/ But, there’s no place to hide/ I can’t sleep, haunted by their faces/ It hurts so much to see them helpless/ There’s so much left unanswered/ For so many innocent lives/ They closed the door and are letting nobody in/ And only the strong will survive!”