Rihanna Shows Off New Death Metal Logo at VMAs
It’s become par for the course for pop personalities to rip off metal logo and shirt designs, because let’s face it, our shit is cooler than theirs. We had Beyonce rip off Venom, Justin Bieber rip off Pentagram, and Japanese fashion designers Avalone rip off Mortician.
The latest case? Rihanna ripping off old-school Sepultura. At last night’s MTV Video Music Awards, the singer performed a medley of her less family-friendly tracks such as “Bitch Better Have My Money” with this new logo flashing behind her:
Which, to me, is a pretty hard rip-off of the original Sepultura logo, with maybe sort of a Mark Riddick glaze:
Meanwhile, all of Rihanna’s dancers were rocking shirts with her name in various degrees of metal-ness:
I’m not sure I’ve seen any of these people at Vitus.
Social media, of course, went nuts about the whole thing:
I'm Rihanna being a death metal band now
— gone ! (@birthsbysleep) August 29, 2016
https://twitter.com/evcon/status/770096450692931588
If I saw this out of context, I would think Rihanna was the name of a sick death metal band.#VMAs pic.twitter.com/6XxNO1Kiga
— Jeff Michael ???? (@ZeoVGM) August 29, 2016
Honestly, with Rihanna, I’m less cagey about this sort of thing. Her music’s always been kind of dark and melancholy with overtones of violence, and she’s courted fashion that could be deemed ‘metal’ — she’s worn Priest shirts, Krokus shirts, and this:
So not pissed, exactly, just frustrated. Because here’s what I want to impress upon these pop stars: YOU CAN MAKE METAL MUSIC. You guys have the budget, the time, and the access to the highest caliber of musicians. Why settle for wearing the T-shirt or copping the logo when you can get behind it by making killer metal music? C’mooooon.
Anyway, keep your eyes out for every non-metalhead you know rocking the Rihanna metal logo on a T-shirt.
[via the cultural assassins at Metal Injection]
