Music Artist Case Study: Rihanna

Rihanna's rise to fame

Robyn Rihanna Fenty or as we know her 'Rihanna' was born on the 20th February 1988. She is a singer,actress, songwriter and fashion designer. Born in Barbados her career started when we she met with a recording producer in 2003 - at the age of 16 she had been signed by Ewan Rogers after meeting through mutual friends. After having several auditions in his hotel room she was flown to New York to record her demo tapes, these were then circulated and came to the attention of Jay-Z  (recently appointed CEO of Def Jam Recordings) who invited her for another audition infront of himself and another music producer. This performance made Rihanna's career as she secured a six-album record deal with Def Jam on the same day.

 

 Rihanna is well known for her ever-changing appeareance throughout recent years, her first single 'Pon De Replay' shows the dramatic difference between her first album and her current album particularly within the actual music she produced and her image.As we can clearly see Rihanna looks extremely  young and her debut album 'Music of the Sun' accentuates this innocence, the album is incredibly mellow and has strong reggae qualities with the songs lyrical content mainly being about love rather than sex as they mostly are on her most recent albums. Her second studio album (A Girl Like Me) released in April 2006 follows the same pattern with a very non sexualised almost pure album cover as shown below. Rihanna shows none of the dramatic apearance changes that will show in the later years of her career.

'Good Girl Gone Bad'

The title of Rihanna's third album speaks volumes for what her message for her audience was at this time. The innocent barbarian reggae sounds of her first album had now turned to an edgier, darker and more uptempo genre of music. She was now classed whole heartedly as an RnB/Pop artist. Five singles were released from this album showing Rihanna's new image had been a successful transition as she now was seen as more of a sexualised artist rather than the young virtuous female she previously was. She also made the decision to cut her hair into a sharp bob increasing the dramatic change in appearance. As shown in this album cover every thing about her is different even with the way that she is posing, many describe this as the turning point in Rihanna's career.

Rated R

Rated R was released in 2009 after the assault on Rihanna of her then-boyfriend Chris Brown. Critics described it as mature seeing as she had moved away from the pop genre and had explored rock, hip-hop and even some forms of dubstep all on her new album. This seemed like more of a fight back and a very strong image for Rihanna which was fitting with the conditions. She still however has a very strong sexual quality to her songs particularly with the single 'Rude Boy' as shown below. Her image is very very dark and powerful reflecting the strong impactful sound she is trying to achieve within 'Rated R'.

Loud

Interestingly on Rihanna's fifth studio album she reverts almost completely back to her first two albums, presenting caribbean tones to her music and adopting a softer vibe which slotted nicely back into the pop genre. This differed from her last album which came across extremely angry and sexual with the songs, she was now offering very romantiscised lyrics and story lines. This album proved to be another dramatic change in Rihanna's appearance and sound as she was now making a bold statement particularly with her long bright red hair. She expressed her need to make a happier uptempo album whilst still incorporating classic rock particularly shown below in her video for 'California King Bed'.