Calvin Harris feat. Rihanna - This Is What You Came For

I'm often interested in the relation between marketing and the product in question. The goal is to bring in as many consumers as possible while maintaining a trust with those consumers so negative feedback doesn't cause the publicity to backfire. So it's interesting when such marketing feels disingenous, though not in any way that actually affects anyone.

What comes to mind for me is Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". A beloved children's book which has twice been adapted into a major feature film. The first one was directed by Mel Stuart and the second one was directed by Tim Burton. But there's a very easy way to disambiguate between the two because the films don't have the same title. The 1971 adaptation was actually titled "Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory", which was essentially because the film was bankrolled by The Quaker Oats Company who were using the film as a promotion vehicle for a new chocolate bar. The film had an underwhelming box office result on initial release and the chocolate bar failed. The story of the development of the film is actually a bit depressing; it started with Mel Stewart's daughter asking him to make a film out of the book she loved, and Dahl was going to even write the screenplay. Then beaurocracy takes over and we have actors turned down for roles for not being famous enough, and Dahl taken out of the picture with a story that alters from the book put in place. Roald Dahl hated this film.

The thing that's always intrigued me is that the changes in screenplay put in scenes that particularly relate more to Charlie. Namely the fizzy lifting drinks scene*, but then the whole Slugworth side-plot, while actually orchestrated by Wonka (apologies for the 45 years later spoiler alert), is separated from him for the majority of the film. Meanwhile, when Tim Burton directed it, the most apparent addition to the film is an interspersed backstory for Wonka relating to his father. When you consider the two, it seems silly on the surface that the titles aren't switched.

This is how I feel about "This Is What You Came For". It's the second publicised collaboration between Calvin Harris and Rihanna (well 3rd really), and they're subject to the same situation as the Wonka films. Crediting for songs often concerns behind the scenes discussion and tends to relate to who has the most ownership over the song, or has the most stock in it. In this case it's simple, "We Found Love" obviously wound up on Rihanna's album (and later Calvin's but it was more just a tack on at that point, being a year late), and I assume "This Is What You Came For" will end up on a Calvin Harris album and not a Rihanna one, which makes sense thematically as this doesn't really sound like Rihanna's current musical direction, and timing-wise, I'd sooner expect a new Calvin Harris album off the back of this than a Rihanna album.

This is also convenient because it feels like the most effective way to market the two tracks at the relative times. Flashback (ayy) to 2011 and Rihanna's having one of her many imperial phases on the charts, while Calvin Harris is only just starting to mobilise beyond the UK Charts. There's no doubt in my mind that "We Found Love" would have gotten less attention at the time if the crediting were reversed, at least certainly so in the US.

Go to 2016 and roles are slightly reversed. Rihanna is of course still very dominant on the charts, but Calvin Harris has clearly come a long way in that regard to the point that he can take a claim for the top. Particularly as streaming takes a bigger chunk of the market, and Calvin is particularly dominant on the format. When he releases a new single, it shoots towards the top worldwide. This is not foreign to Rihanna of course, but her recent release strategies have seen random singles chucked out frequently. Some are successes, some are not. And it's so frequent that I feel a new Rihanna single isn't quite as buzzworthy as it might have been before. So I feel like from a marketing perspective, it makes the most sense to put Calvin Harris's name at the front of this.

BUT, when you listen to the songs it just doesn't add up to me. "We Found Love" is practically characterised by its larger than life electronic breakdowns, the kind that I feel Calvin has been trying to re-create the magic of ever since (looking at you "Blame"). Rihanna almost feels like just another instrument in the song. Most of her singing has very little pitch modulation, and a lot of it has her staying silent while Calvin Harris does his thing. "Where Have You Been" which he's not even credited on is much of the same in that regard.

This is all absent in "This Is What You Came For", which sounds like it's ready to pounce on a massive drop, but retreats at the last moment to a more relaxed state. And here's the thing: Rihanna's there the whole way. There's no instrumental breakdown in the chorus or bridge, the vocals are there from start to end. 'you-u-u-u-u' might not be substantial, but it's there. I've even found it to be the most likeable thing in the song, just hitting a nice spot to groove on.

In short it's acceptable but doesn't feel like a Calvin Harris song.

*I often wonder how many people think that part is actually in the book. It's even been subject to parody which makes it believeably fit in