base talk Is The Weeknd the Male Equivalent of Rihanna?

[Strawberry Bubble]

He has the hits, the charisma and the "cool factor". What do you think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Saturday at 05:03 PM by Strawberry Bubble

[Mariya Takeuchi]

Rihanna doesn't have the talent so no  She's the female Elvis

[Eternium]

Rihanna was significantly more organic. 

[Namiskine]

The Weeknd is not a makeup mogul so no

 

[Princess Aurora]

No

[TouchinFree]

Yes. The Weeknd is quite successful and makes amazing music. 

[Dialamba]

Rihanna is kinda more global and she has the it girl statue. The Weeknd is generally well liked but Justin pre-2020 was kinda giving more Rihanna than Abel. 

[Cheers]

No. Rihanna is better and switches it up unlike the Max Martin doll.

[fridayteenage]

he's cool?

 

[Relampago.]

I knew everyone would say no but the answer is: he's pretty much the closest thing. 

 

Overall kinda cool, has wide appeal, a ton of hits, consistent success, branching out fairly easily into different genres/sounds, etc.

 

There are some obvious differences like Rih's career being longer, being a fashion icon and her having multiple successful business ventures but as far as their music careers are concerned, yes, they are very alike. There's a reason they're my 2 faves.

[Da Vinci]

Rihanna sweetie...

[Relampago.]

5 minutes ago, fridayteenage said:

he's cool?

 

This was one misstep he made but it's been mostly forgotten. 

 

Rih wasn't even really "cool" until around the UA era. I feel as a stan since 2007, there's been a lot of revisionist history around Rih's career. The Navy was in the TRENCHES for a long time. Rih was constantly made fun of for being a "wh*re" and "untalented" by the GP, not to mention the tasteless domestic violence jokes, and the backlash she got for going back to Chris for a bit. Stans made fun of her for not selling albums or tours as well as her peers. Anti and parts of the UA era (Diamonds, Stay showing vocal improvement and Pour It Up showing she was an urban format darling off her name alone) really changed a lot of the narratives around her career. 

 

None of this is meant as shade at all, because like I said, she's been my #1 since 2007 when I was only 9 years old but I vividly remember how everyone would lash her and never take her seriously for anything she did and I feel people have forgotten that since she was finally fully "cool" once Anti came around.

[Punky Rooster]

Both are top tier and outdo most of your faves, so they are good to compare.

[modeblock]

on a hits basis, yes, but Abel is also a writer / releases a lot so in that aspect he's more the male Taylor 

 

we used to think it was Edward but he's a flop now so 

Edited Sunday at 02:46 AM by modeblock

[My Tears Ricochet]

Weeknd cool?

[Strawberry Bubble]

On 6/22/2024 at 7:34 PM, Relampago. said:

This was one misstep he made but it's been mostly forgotten. 

 

Rih wasn't even really "cool" until around the UA era. I feel as a stan since 2007, there's been a lot of revisionist history around Rih's career. The Navy was in the TRENCHES for a long time. Rih was constantly made fun of for being a "wh*re" and "untalented" by the GP, not to mention the tasteless domestic violence jokes, and the backlash she got for going back to Chris for a bit. Stans made fun of her for not selling albums or tours as well as her peers. Anti and parts of the UA era (Diamonds, Stay showing vocal improvement and Pour It Up showing she was an urban format darling off her name alone) really changed a lot of the narratives around her career. 

 

None of this is meant as shade at all, because like I said, she's been my #1 since 2007 when I was only 9 years old but I vividly remember how everyone would lash her and never take her seriously for anything she did and I feel people have forgotten that since she was finally fully "cool" once Anti came around.

tthis is soooo true. I remember it all too well lol.

 

The navy was almost non existent before Loud

[Kiss It Better]

i've been saying this since 2016

[Gerardo]

It was definitely Drake before… well yk, so rn yeah he would be closest, although if Justin B had kept being more active/consistent I would say he's even more similar to Rihanna 

[Feanor]

Bieber is more fitting imo.

[Mark Rih]

On 6/23/2024 at 2:29 AM, Relampago. said:

I knew everyone would say no but the answer is: he's pretty much the closest thing. 

 

Overall kinda cool, has wide appeal, a ton of hits, consistent success, branching out fairly easily into different genres/sounds, etc.

 

There are some obvious differences like Rih's career being longer, being a fashion icon and her having multiple successful business ventures but as far as their music careers are concerned, yes, they are very alike. There's a reason they're my 2 faves.

I feel like other than all of this it's their voices. They both have such a distinctive, sultry tone which goes perfectly with upbeat pop music. It's the main reason why I stan for both

 

 

[Moonlight Nation]

On 6/23/2024 at 12:06 AM, Cheers said:

No. Rihanna is better and switches it up unlike the Max Martin doll.

The way this dumb label is statistically incorrect but the OXOHs keep parroting it... 

 

The Weeknd has 14 songs with over 1B streams on Spotify. Let's see how many of them involve the Swedish legend:

 

1. "Blinding Lights" (Max Martin production ✅)

2. "Starboy" (no contribution from Max 🚫)

3. "The Hills" (🚫)

4. "Die For You" (🚫)

5. "Save Your Tears" (✅)

6. "Call Out My Name" (🚫)

7. "I Feel It Coming" (🚫)

8. "Can't Feel My Face" (✅)

9. "Earned It" (🚫)

10. "Save Your Tears" remix (✅)

11. "Creepin" (🚫)

12. "Stargirl Interlude" (🚫)

13. "Reminder" (🚫)

14. "I Was Never There" (🚫)

 

As you can see, 4/14 songs had involvement from Max Martin - one of them being a remix of a song already featured here. For comparison 8/14 from Ariana Grande's 1B club were Max Martin productions. Not to mention that "Dawn FM" - the project with most contributions from Max - ended up being The Weeknd biggest underperformance post-breakthrough.

 

Katy Perry would make a better case as a 'Max Martin doll' considering 12 of her 14 Hot 100 top 10 hits were co-written and co-produced by him, but even then I'd never label her as such because it's a disservice to what she brought to the table as a hitmaker and songwriter.

 

It's also very rich to use this accusation to discredit him over Rihanna when for the most part of her career she was mainly a vessel for others' creative ideas. Not coming from a place of snark, since I genuinely love her music and believe she's the definitive hitmaker of the 21st century. But until Anti she was never as actively involved in the creative process of her music compared to her peers, let alone someone like The Weeknd. Songs like "Umbrella" and "We Found Love" were shopped around until Rihanna's team got a hold of them, "Diamonds" had her heavily emulating the singing style from songwriter Sia. It was her distinctive voice and effortlessly cool persona that made her stand out and make any type of song hers, which is commendable regardless.

 

 

On 6/23/2024 at 2:34 AM, Relampago. said:

This was one misstep he made but it's been mostly forgotten. 

 

Rih wasn't even really "cool" until around the UA era. I feel as a stan since 2007, there's been a lot of revisionist history around Rih's career. The Navy was in the TRENCHES for a long time. Rih was constantly made fun of for being a "wh*re" and "untalented" by the GP, not to mention the tasteless domestic violence jokes, and the backlash she got for going back to Chris for a bit. Stans made fun of her for not selling albums or tours as well as her peers. Anti and parts of the UA era (Diamonds, Stay showing vocal improvement and Pour It Up showing she was an urban format darling off her name alone) really changed a lot of the narratives around her career. 

 

None of this is meant as shade at all, because like I said, she's been my #1 since 2007 when I was only 9 years old but I vividly remember how everyone would lash her and never take her seriously for anything she did and I feel people have forgotten that since she was finally fully "cool" once Anti came around.

Goodness, thank you so much for this comment!  Rihanna always had a cool aura about her, but as you said, it took until fairly late in her career for that to be widely acknowledged by the general public + music enthusiasts. Not to mention her current inactivity from music has allowed for the intense nostalgia to kick in, making way for the aforementioned revisionist history. You know what they say: you only appreciate what you had until it's gone.

 

As for The Weeknd, it's telling that even in the most embarrassing period of his career, he somehow still managed to score two decent streaming hits with "Popular" and "One Of The Girls" - both off the soundtrack of that wretched show. Similar to how Rihanna's baffling shock-value move with the "Birthday Cake" remix ft. Chris Brown somehow managed to become a moderate hit on the Hot 100. This also makes a good argument in favour of Justin Bieber too, since despite all the mockery he got for "Yummy", "Intentions" off the same album still became a respectable hit.