Best Love Songs (Ever) II
What’s your favorite love song? This Valentine’s Day the Multimedia Storytelling students tell us why they think their favorite song does the job best. Visit their class blog for more stories at https://usfhivemind.wordpress.com/
‘Work’ Is Hard, Love Is Harder
A little over a year ago, Rihanna dropped her eighth studio album Anti and took listeners by storm. She boasted four singles including “Work” with Drake as a feature artist. “Work” was pretty much “the song” for months following its release. It played on radio stations and in every club, filling our heads with its alliterative hook. It was one of my favorite things to come out of 2016, critics and mainstream music-hating elitists be damned. And I’ll take it a step further: “Work” is the best modern love song. Ever. Print it.
The production is a masterful blend of the Reggae, RnB and Dancehall genres, giving the song a unique and stylish rhythm. These elements make a captivating beat that ingrained itself in people’s minds, possibly overpowering the lyrics. The blood pumpin’ and the booty shakin’ vibe in “Work” hides a somber narrative between the speaker and her lover.
I listened to “Work” at the best and the worst of times. When I needed a boost or felt low, “Work” was there to pull the weight. The lyrics reflect my own relationship between my priorities and desires, my obligations versus the ones I love. What can I say? Rihanna gets me. Rihanna refers to that lifestyle in the song with the hook. You hear the word ‘work’ over and over again. It symbolizes her never-ending shift as a contemporary artist and ultimately a celebrity. Does the work ever really end?
Nowadays we’re all just so caught up in our lives, our own commitments, our own “work,” that we have no time for the things we love and the people who love us… In the song, Rihanna sings “What can I say? Please recognize I’m tryin’, babe! I have to work, work, work, work, work, work.” Rihanna feels sorry and reassures her lover that she’s still trying for him in spite of her complicated schedule. It really reflects the fear of being too busy for someone. A fear we’ve all had. Especially with someone we love…
There’s a story between Rihanna and Drake within the track. They’re two lovers yearning for each other without any time to spend together. Drake reinforces that narrative saying: “Yeah, okay. You need to get done, done, done, done at work, come over. We just need to slow the motion. Don’t give that away to no one long distance, I need you.” Not only is Rihanna conscious of her busy schedule, but Drake (having had the longest celebrity crush on her) begs her to cut down on the “work” and make time for love, make time for him.
Because the two artists are always working — writing, recording, performing, selling their images and themselves as products — they don’t have time for the people that matter to them. That’s what poor Drizzy Drake is sad about. He just wants her to come home from work and show some love. Don’t we all have that one person we want to see walk through our door after they’ve finished their 9-5?
And that’s our modern love story. Though work is important, your life doesn’t end in a cubicle, or a taxi cab, or a recording booth. Your life ends surrounded by people you love, especially that special someone. In 2017, that’s something many of us have forgotten. If we commit ourselves to a life of, in RihRih’s words, “work work work work work,” the work becomes pointless because we never get to spend time with the people we worked for. The song, while making me shake my ass, reminds me of that. Its repetitive lyrics are a reflection of the monotony of modern industry, reflecting our own love story of strife between our responsibilities and the people we care about.
