- published: 16 Feb 2015
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"Hard" is a song by Barbadian recording artist Rihanna from her fourth studio album, Rated R, which was released in 2009. The song was written by Terius Nash, Christopher Stewart, Rihanna, and Jeezy, with vocals performed by the latter two. Nash and Stewart produced it under their stage names, The-Dream and Tricky Stewart. "Hard" was released by Def Jam Recordings on February 19, 2010, as the second United States single from Rated R. It is a hip hop song and features military horns, hissing synthesizers, sharp beats and piano chords. Critics commended "Hard" for Rihanna's vocal performance and Jeezy's collaboration.
The song became Rihanna's thirteenth top ten hit on the US Billboard Hot 100, matching Beyoncé Knowles as the female artist with the most US top ten songs since 2000. It was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. An accompanying music video, directed by Melina Matsoukas, was filmed in Los Angeles in December 2009. In the video, Rihanna commands an army while clothed in stylized military costumes. Critics praised the video and noted a difference from her previous clips. After the video premiere, the song charted in Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Rihanna performed "Hard" at Jay-Z's concert at UCLA Pauley Pavilion and at the 2009 American Music Awards. The song was also included on the set lists of the Last Girl on Earth Tour (2010–11) and the Loud Tour (2011).
Hard or Hardness may refer to:
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing. A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs. The lyrics (words) of songs are typically of a poetic, rhyming nature, though they may be religious verses or free prose.
A song may be for a solo singer, a duet, trio, or larger ensemble involving more voices. Songs with more than one voice to a part are considered choral works. Songs can be broadly divided into many different forms, depending on the criteria used. One division is between "art songs", "pop songs", and "folk songs". Other common methods of classification are by purpose (sacred vs secular), by style (dance, ballad, Lied, etc.), or by time of origin (Renaissance, Contemporary, etc.).
A song is a piece of music for accompanied or unaccompanied voice or voices or, "the act or art of singing," but the term is generally not used for large vocal forms including opera and oratorio. However, the term is, "often found in various figurative and transferred sense (e.g. for the lyrical second subject of a sonata...)." The noun "song" has the same etymological root as the verb "to sing" and the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines the word to mean "that which is sung" or "a musical composition suggestive of song." The OED also defines the word to mean "a poem" or "the musical phrases uttered by some birds, whales, and insects, typically forming a recognizable and repeated sequence and used chiefly for territorial defence or for attracting mates."