Disturbia

"Disturbia" is like a horror movie set to song, with Rihanna in a state of anguish as something sinister overcomes her. The title is not original: In 2007, a year before the song was released, there was a movie called Disturbia about a serial killer hiding in plain sight.

This dance-pop track was co-written by Rihanna's boyfriend at the time, Chris Brown, who also contributed backing vocals. The other co-writers are Andre Merritt and Robert Allen, who together with Brown comprise his songwriting team, the Graffiti Artists. The trio also penned Brown's hit "Forever."

Contrary to early reports that credited the music video to fashion photographer David LaChapelle ("Dirrty," "I'm With You"), the clip was actually directed by Rihanna's longtime collaborator Anthony Mandler. In the nightmarish video, Rihanna is imprisoned in a creepy facility where she endures several methods of torture, including being kept in a cage, tied to a bed, crawled on by tarantulas, dragged to a gas chamber, and nearly burned at the stake. During the bridge, she performs a "Thriller"-inspired routine with her dancers, which she emulated during her performance at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. Mandler credits the singer with the dark concept, which marked a pivotal moment in her career. "'Disturbia' was probably the biggest moment because that was the first time she let the world see what was inside her," he told Vanity Fair in 2013. "I think she probably paid for a lot of it herself. And she said, 'We're doing whatever I want. You can't tell me anything.' And I said, 'No problem.' When I saw it together, I knew it was something special. It scared the shit out of the label. I think there was a conversation at one point about shelving it. It was one of those moments when she was kind of smarter than everyone else."