Pop Music Writing #2: Umbrella

When I first set out to analyze Rihanna's 2007 mega-hit "Umbrella (feat. Jay-Z)", produced for her album Good Girl Gone Bad, I thought it was because the song was awesome. Which it is; but what became almost immediately interesting was not what was transcendentally awesome about it (e.g., producer "Tricky" Stewart's GarageBand [literally] beat and powerful chorus-backing synth pads, or Rihanna's perfectly understated vocals), but the realization that I had no idea what the song was about, and the later realization that, after analysis, I still don't know. At first there is an obvious (somewhat refreshing) ambiguity in the person to whom the song is addressed: is it a lover or a friend? A former lover? Maybe even a female friend? What then becomes apparent is that even though the lyrics are fairly straightforward from Rihanna's point of view, there is also a great deal of uncertainty about the status of her character: is she a strong woman lending a hand because a friend is in need? Is she needy herself? Could she even be overbearing in her offer? I still don't really know, but I'll show you what I've got. For this I will be analyzing parts of the video as well; I think it offers important clues, but that none of the conclusions I (may) come to are necessarily dependent on it.

The song (as well as the album) begins with a male presence. Jay-Z raps:

No clouds in my storms
Let it rain, I hydroplane in the bank
Coming down with the Dow Jones, we Rocafella
We fly higher than weather
And G5's are better, you know me,
an anticipation for precipitation. Stacked chips for a rainy day.
Jay, Rain Man is back with little Miss Sunshine,
Rihanna, where you at?

What you don't see in the written lyrics, but do hear and see in the song is Rihanna's first "eh, eh, eh's". She is revealed in the video sitting apart from Jay-Z, wearing all black with her black hair and a black hat drawn across most of her face, only shown in extremely short, fleeting shots; an intimidating figure. Setting her further apart are the women that surround Jay-Z in the video; dressed in hoodies and sunglasses, calmly nodding, they could almost be minions in Rihanna's army. What's made clear is that Rihanna is separate; as Jay-Z introduces her and her album, she makes her presence known by calling to him, making an entrance, like Bill Clinton at the 2000 Democratic Convention, only cooler. She is a force, and those "eh eh eh's" are piercing. This setup as a picture of strength, both in the video and in the song alone, is crucial. Over the course of the song we will see more and more instances that hint at the vulnerability of Rihanna's character, and the possibility that what she is saying is neither omniscient truth nor even personal conviction, thereby casting doubt onto the depth of her relationship with the addressee.

There is a question about just how representative Jay-Z is of the song's addressee. There's nothing in his rap that suggests need; in fact, what's stressed is his ability to cope no matter what. At this point, he seems to be more of an MC than a potential lover/friend for the singer.

Rihanna's first verse begins immediately after Jay-Z calls for her:

You have my heart
And we'll never be worlds apart
May be in magazines
But you'll still be my star

"You have my heart." This language seems a bit strong for a male friend, but does not necessarily indicate a lover. One often hears girlfriends referring to each other in ways akin to lovers, and it's not impossible that this could refer to a longtime male friend. (N.B., I'm assuming for the purposes of this analysis that Rihanna's character is heterosexual, because I see little to indicate otherwise.) She then refers to celebrity with "May be in magazines; but you'll still be my star." I am still unsure of whether she means that she is in magazines, or that the addressee is. The answer would produce very different readings. "I may be in magazines, but you'll still be my star" indicates that she is in a position of power, but it doesn't mean she has forgotten her commitment or friendship. This tone is more one of reaching out to help. "You may be in magazines, but you'll still be my star" is more vulnerable. The tone here is more of a proclomation of right, or ownership; though you are known to so many, I'll always claim you, or love you, or whatever. It at first seems more likely that she is referring to herself; we know she is a celebrity. But anyone that reads US Weekly knows that relationships between two celebrities are far from uncommon. This missing pronoun is one of many conspicuously absent clues to meaning throughout the song.

(To return briefly to the imagery found in the video: as Rihanna begins to sing, she has given up her stoic pose and is now dancing cautiously; we see her bare back, and she has also lost her ominous hat. These are the first clues to the vulnerability of her character, and they begin to [however slightly] cast doubt on the situation being described. As the video progresses we see Rihanna wearing fewer and fewer clothes [the peak is reached when she is covered with nothing but silver body paint]. While this is undoubtedly an effort at titillation, it also speaks to a progressing vulnerability.)

Next is the chorus, which we all know by now:

When the sun shines we'll shine together
Told you I'll be here forever
Said I'll always be a friend
Took an oath, I'm-a stick it out till the end
Now that it's rainin' more than ever
Know that we'll still have each other
You can stand under my umbrella
You can stand under my umbrella
Ella Ella Eh Eh Eh
(Under my umbrella)
Ella Ella Eh Eh Eh (etc...)

There's a lot to decipher in this seemingly somewhat simple stanza. If you're a male that went to high school, the word "friend" sticks out like a sore thumb; the legend goes that it is not a word a woman uses if she considers you anything more. What's more, the following line is positively dutiful. She's being loyal not necessarily to the addressee, but to an "oath"? It won't necessarily be pleasurable, she'll have to "stick it out" until the end? This doesn't seem like language used towards one you are longing for; it sounds more like she agreed to always be there for en ex, and she is reminding herself of that promise as much as she's reminding him.

Again, though, it's not necessarily a male. This language is less, well, "cold" when put in the context of a female friendship; here an oath is a dually shared promise. Sticking it out is not just a responsibility but the stuff of love. Now that I type that, could the last two sentences apply to a lover as well? Surely. But it hangs on the details of the relationship, purposefully absent, and again contributing to the lied's intrigue.

Throughout the song the chord progression remains the same (or a slight variation thereon). This "strophic" musical form is not uncommon among today's R & B singles; often what separates chorus from verse is merely words and an exaggeration of the general mood, with no difference in melody or harmony (e.g., No Doubt's "Hella Good", Smashing Pumpkins' "1979", Christina Milian's "I Can Be That Woman", Kanye West's "Love Lockdown", to name some I just thought of). This progression is, in the key of D-flat, IV - I - iii - vi - IV (the bolded chords are the downbeat of the measure; "V" is sometimes substituted for "iii", as they share two common notes). The obfuscation of the tonic is readily apparent here, and is added to throughout the work. Phrases begin and end not on the tonic, but on IV. There is not an authentic cadence in the piece; every move to I is the less definitive plagal cadence. Since it is established that the plagal cadence is the norm, an additional one further confuses what chord is really the goal when V is substituted for iii and we have then IV - I - V; a brief circle-of-fourths progression that, at least in the analytic music world, is known for it's ability to self-perpetuate (if it weren't for a chromatic half-step slide at the last minute, the chorus to the Beach Boys' "California Girls" would still be going on). As a final trick, during the "ella ella" section of the chorus, the bass note of the IV-I progression goes from G-flat to A-flat, creating a "6-4" chord on the tonic, the least stable inversion of the triad. These insistent railings against the idea of the piece settling on any sort of final cadence provide opposition to ideas of complacency, consolation, certainty, or even confidence. Indeed, the piece fades out at the end, acknowledging its own problem. Rihanna's character, the performer and presumably also the proprietress of the song, has provided a backdrop that radiates her lack of comfort with whatever situation she may be addressing.

At this point I'd like to go ahead and discount the notion that this song may be "about" a friendly intra-female relationship. If it is indeed intra-female, it is underscored by past or current feelings of hostility or doubt. An unashamedly affirming girlfriend song is not what I believe most people consider this to be anyway, and besides, they don't sell as well.

The chorus is made of two halves: the half previously discussed, and the "ella ella ella" part. Were the title of the song different, this would be a curious word (or half-word) on which to place so much emphasis. The first half of the chorus, musically and lyrically, is by far the most affirmed and confident she has sounded; this second half may well represent the backlash from such a statement. It is introspective and questioning; the word "umbrella" echoes in the protagonist's mind as she considers the weight of what she has just put forth. As mentioned before, the chord progression is altered to offer more uncertainty.

At first the uncertainty is tempered: a steady "eh eh eh", reaffirms the "umbrella", cruising along comfortably if warily on an unwavering D-flat (the tonic). As the second phrase (an accompanying harmony change) comes along, however, the "eh eh eh's" begin to falter, slipping down a half-step to C, and then via C to B-flat, barely making it back up to D-flat before the chorus ends (but as we know, the tonic chord is already long gone; a proper cadence is not reached).

Here the confidence of the first half of the chorus faces doubt and incertitude (thesaurus.com). Is this the result of a desire to move away from the person? A worry that she's been too forward? The myriad ways to interpret this (including even to reject the whole "doubt" hypothesis) keep the ambiguity alive.

The following verse provides more lyrics that could apply to a number of relationships.

These fancy things will never come in between
You're part of my entity, here for infinity

No reluctance is displayed here. She later states that "together we'll mend your heart." This sounds kind of like an art project... worked on with a friend. Or perhaps the "together" is a rekindling of an old relationship, or the start of a new one. During the bridge, which is accompanied by a mellow piano accompaniment, the background gets extremely amped up on the "more" of "I'll be all you need and MORE"; possibly a simple use of an old axiom, but the intensity of the accompaniment on and following the word "more" indicate that the "more" really is more. As in going the extra mile for a friend, or as in "more" than friends? As the song winds down, she repeats "come into me", or perhaps "come here to me", depending on what lyric site you google, or how you read her Barbadian accent. This is a significant difference, however; "come into me" has obvious sexual connotations that may reflect on the meaning of the entire song (as my sister emphatically argued, "the umbrella is her vag!!").

Since a popular consensus on a song's meaning is only ever really a fuzzy collection of what most people think, I put a survey to all of my facebook friends and undergrad students that wanted to take it. The choices for the song's addressee they had to choose from were current lover, potential lover, former lover that she dumped, former lover that dumped her, male friend, female friend, female friend she's had a rocky history with, or none of these. It shook out like this:

Current lover: 8
Potential lover: 6
Former lover she dumped: 1
Former lover dumped her: 1
Male friend: 3
Female friend: 2
Female friend, rocky history: 1
None of these: 7

The sample size is a bit small to analyze any meaningful trends, but the one thing I will mention is that of the four 14-17 year-olds that took the survey, three chose one of the "friend" options. This may not mean as much though, since it's likely that some of the undergrads that took the survey were 17-year-olds.

The respondees (who had not read this analysis) were also allowed to comment on their choice if they wished. Some of the more interesting responses:

So the song is about her and whoever, she's saying I'll always be there when times are shitty She talks about whoever having her heart which I guess could be considered non-romantic but more typically is a romantic metaphor Also because she talks about taking an oath which sounds like she's committed to that one person, I always figured she was singing to her husband

She is talking about herself. Or her soul

I chose "a current lover" over the other choices because of all the "ooh,baby" lyrics interjected throughout the song. I'd guess that most people probably don't call friends "baby." Other than that, I would've said "a friend," because the song seems to be about supporting someone you care about.

I believe this song is about best friends, either male of female. Although there are references that would connote to it being about a lover (i.e. "you have my heart" or "baby"), in my opinion, the focal point of the lyrics takes place in the chorus which is ambiguous about romance or friendship. Also, most of the references about love can be interpreted to be a strong love between best friends since there are no references to sex.

It's someone she's in love with but the love is someone asymetrical - attraction is traded in for human affection. It's about a friendship that has an unspecified core reaching toward love. While the lyrics and the video suggest more than just friendship, but the metaphor of "umbrella" suggests a strong personality (mother-like) that doesn't seem to expect much in return and seems to be in no danger to become dependend or addicted.

the lyrics just seem to be addressing a friend since there isn't much attraction in it. it also says that she'll "always be your friend"

I think Rhianna's character is addressing a person with whom she shares a very intimate bond with--not necessarily a lover (although it could be), but possibly a close friend or family member. Judging from its lyrics, I'd say that she is singing to a person with whom she used to be very close with, but this person and her have been separated life circumstances (jail, war, death, college, growing apart from old friends, etc.). What I mean by this is that Rhianna's character and the person she is singing to have been separated by something that they cannot control, most likely each character is trapped in a different stage of his or her life right now, and they are unable to be close to each other physically (like... not stand face-to-face with each other) at this moment in time. However, despite this lack of one-on-one interaction, she still feels a strong connection/bond with the subject of her song. It's like... the sort of love you feel for people you may have lost contact with, but still care deeply about their well-being. The person she is singing to is probably going through some rough times at the moment, and she is telling them to come stand with her "under her umbrella," a metaphor for her care/protection/warmth/love... kind of like when you use the phrase "she took him under her wing."

Because I read the lyrics and its obvious. [chose 'current lover']

It's pretty obvious. Odd survey. [chose 'current lover']

I include the last two not in an attempt at humor, but to simply argue that they are not wrong; to some it's just "obvious", and that's what the song means.

To me, however, it's simply ambiguous. Without committing to a category, I feel I've concluded that it is a male with whom there is either some romantic history or some complicated romantic potential. Aren't those things the most ambiguous anyway?