Meow, the gloves are off and the catfight has begun!
I have to admit to being one of those obnoxious people who doesn’t pay much attention to what’s going on with pop music. When Rihanna’s new video for “S&M” came out I couldn’t be bothered with it, but recent news that she had been slapped with a lawsuit by David LaChapelle for it, finally made me curious, and I have to admit I was shocked with it (and not with the parts that got it banned in 11 or whatever countries).
In his lawsuit LaChapelle claims that Rihanna’s video copied the “composition, total concept, feel, tone, mood, theme, colors, props, settings, decors, wardrobe and lighting’ of his work“.
While it’s true that there can be a thin line between inspiration and imitation (and I have before delved into close examination at the inspiration for videos for Nine Inch Nails and Madonna) a line has to be crossed somewhere and quite frankly I think this has definitely crossed that line, however thin it may be.
Behind the scenes gossip has already emerged, that the mood board for the video was comprised of a great number of photos from LaChapelle and that another music video director (rumored to be Joseph Kahn, thanks to this particular tweet) had initially been contacted with the main guideline being that it was supposed to be a LaChapelle-esque video. After his refusal, the label eventually hired Melina Matsoukas.
LaChapelle had previously worked with Rihanna in the video for Disturbia and claims there are no hard feelings:
“This is not personal, strictly business. Musicians commonly pay to sample music or use someone’s beats and there should be no difference when ‘sampling’ artist’s visuals. I really like Riri – we’ve actually worked together before. I think about her everytime I’m caught in the rain without my umbrella.” (this last line is priceless!!)
What really puzzles me in this mess, is why do this, after all, Rihanna is probably one of the few pop stars who could actually afford his fee, so why choose the lame cop out, it’s not like he was dead and couldn’t do it.
As LaChapelle himself stated in his Twitter: “The next time you make a David LaChapelle music video you should probably hire David LaChapelle“.
Also, “Riri” can’t catch a break these days. The new Kanye West video for “All of the lights“, has already been accused of copying Gaspard Noe’s seizure inducing opening credits for “Enter the Void”.
And now after all this blah blah blah, here’s the video:
A few select LaChapelle photos (some of which have actually been used in the lawsuit):
So what say you? Yay or nay?!
UPDATE: Rihanna and LaChapelle have since the original publication of this post settled out of court with an undisclosed amount.
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Unfortunately, I actually have to disagree with you (and LaChapelle) as much as I don’t really want to.
Being on the edge of fetish – having played and shot in that area, Rihanna’s video over all uses very generic imagery from the scene. The rubber mask, the ropework, The puppy play, all are very common and more mainstream fetishes. If you look through Photo books featuring fetish/bdsm imagery you’ll see those images.
LaChapelles imagery is actually a twist on traditional Fetish. And while inser the similarity in the room set ups and the color schemes, over all, her video is very much a look at me being shocking, not very creative or inventive… I can see where she may have gotten her inspiration from his imagery, however, as far as copying it – not so much.
Had he done her video, it probably would have been FAR better!
I guess what “gets me” is that while the whole s&m thing has been done before as you yourself so well mention, is that they chose to stick so closely to what is clearly LaChapelle’s usual vision with use of the bright colors (that pink room for instance is pretty much a copy of the one in the photo) and the tongue n’ cheek attitude
Yeah – I agree, like I said, it’s definitely apparent that they used his style for inspiration, (why she didn’t hire him is a question in itself) but overall, I feel it’s pretty generic. (even the pink masks are pretty popular in the fetish photography world)
Personally, I have dislike the video AND the song. : / lol
Personally I dislike both too, can’t be sure if even having David actually directing it could save that disaster since I’m quite sure the music brass would want to tinker it endlessly until it became a washed up version of his original work
just read your last 2 video posts as well. It’s quite obvious that this video was DLC inspired, when I saw the video I thought it was DLC.
I’m not really seeing it. The film-maker might have started with a LaChapelle influence, but anyone in the creative industries will tell you that that’s not uncommon. I think most people who design have riffed off other people’s work. What noone wants to do is plagarise or imitate other people’s work… and there’s a line between taking an idea and making it your own, and ripping someone off. I think in this case they’ve obviously started by looking at LaChapelle’s work, and probably other fetish and saturated-colour artists. Then I think they’ve done a pretty good job of making it their own. Rihanna’s not the best actress, but they’ve found a rich vein of humour and they’ve milked it. Nothing seems to be a direct rip, though you can see LaChapelle in some of the shots (such as the newsclipping dress). I think it’d be a sad day if puppy-play or rubber costumes… or redheaded women… became enforcable “LaChapellesque”.