Rihanna is seriously working hard towards becoming a bona fide pop culture icon. Visually, she’s just as entertaining as Madonna and Prince were in their heyday. She’s always giving us something fresh to look at – whether it’s her sick fashion, crazy photos, or creative videos.

Today Rihanna delivers the freshness in the form of her newest video clip, “Rude Boy.” With the absolutely uninspired state of the music industry at the moment, it’s rare to see a video that’s actually visually interesting. But this one definitely delivers. The clip draws you in – the colors, the vibe, the clothes. It looks like Rihanna and video director Melina actually tried to do something different. And they succeeded. The pop art feel of the clip is awesome, and Rihanna’s dancing, while not groundbreaking, fits in well here.

This is the sort of clip that artists should always attempt to create, especially if they are one of today’s leading acts. Music videos are such a great vehicle for making a statement, and many artists have used the art form as a means to shift their image. Tupac’s “Brenda’s Got a Baby” showed the world he was socially conscious.  Janet’s “Love Will Never Do” let us all know that there was a gorgeous, sexy woman under that all-black Rhythm Nation military getup. And “Honey” transformed Mariah Carey from ‘fully-clothed pop diva’ to ‘damn-near-naked pop diva that plays with rappers’.

Frankly, there is absolutely no reason for any music video to be lacking. There’s too much technology, too much inspiration, too many resources in today’s world for artists to produce uninteresting or lazy videos. Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” was great, but when she tried to duplicate it two more times with “Diva” and “Ego”, the concept fell flat, and she looked as if she had run out of creative steam. I know we’re in a recession B, but creativity is free.   

Good job, Rihanna.  Watch “Rude Boy” above.