About this album

Loud is the fifth studio album by Barbadian recording artist Rihanna, first released on November 12, 2010 by Def Jam Recordings. The album was recorded between February and August 2010, predominantly during Rihanna’s Last Girl on Earth Tour and filming for her first feature film Battleship (2012). Rihanna was executive producer on the album and worked with several record producers, including StarGate, The Runners, Polow da Don, Tricky Stewart, and Alex da Kid, among others. The album featured several guest vocalists, including Drake, Nicki Minaj and Eminem, who is featured on the sequel to “Love the Way You Lie”, “Love the Way You Lie (Part II)”, where Rihanna sang lead vocals. Britney Spears appears on the remix of the single version of “S&M” , although she is not on the album version.

The album differed from Rihanna’s previous release, Rated R (2009), which featured a prominently foreboding and angry tone with dark themes and incorporated elements of hip hop, rock, and dubstep music genres. Loud features up-tempo and pop genres, ranging from dance-pop to Electro-R&B, and marked her return to her dancehall roots, which was prominent on her earlier albums Music of the Sun (2005) and A Girl like Me (2006). The album also incorporates rock in “California King Bed” and reggae in the Caribbean inspired “Man Down”.