Rihanna's image and music have evolved significantly over her career. Her early music videos, like "Pon de Replay", portrayed her as innocent and playful to appeal to young girls. Later videos, such as "SOS" and "Disturbia", showed a more mature and sexually appealing image through more revealing clothing and sensual dancing to attract male viewers. Her album "Good Girl Gone Bad" signified this transformation to a desirable woman. Rihanna has continued changing her image, like the edgier style in "Russian Roulette" reflecting her personal growth. This strategic shifting of her persona has been commercially successful and helped establish Rihanna as a leading recording artist.

1. Star Image & Development - Rihanna
Robyn Rihanna Fenty (born February 20, 1988), better known as Rihanna, is a
Barbadian recording artist. She moved to the United States at the age of 16 to start a
career and become a recording artist. Her first single was ‘Pon De Replay’, from the
album ‘Music of the Sun’.
In this video her image is very ‘boyish’; she is
first seen wearing a shiny gold top, which
shows off her stomach with baggy jeans. Even
though her stomach is showing, her hair is
long which covers her shoulders and chest,
making her seem less vulnerable. Showing her
stomach can be appealing for the male target
audience also known as the ‘male gaze’.
As the video goes on, she is wearing a dress,
which is coloured light blue, representing calmness. Her hair is tied
into two ponytails, which could represent her being innocent
and angelic. However, the dress she is wearing is quite short and has slits by the side,
which can also appeal to the male audience.
As this video was her first video, it features a
lot of close ups of her face to establish the
artist. Throughout the whole video, she is
dancing, but not in an extremely seductive
way. This could be because it was her first
video, and she wanted to seem innocent and
fun to grab the target audience of younger
girls, so they could idolise her.
Another music video from rihanna was SOS, from her second album ‘A Girl Like Me’.
In this video there are more close ups of her dancing with a man, more seductively.
Rather than her first video, this video features more close ups of her body to make
her more appealing to the male audience. She is shown wearing more revealing
clothing which could represent her becoming a ‘woman’.

2. Her next album ‘A Good Girl Gone Bad’ featured
some of her top singles. The title of the album
itself shows a difference to her when she was
first released. Her video for ‘Disturbia’ was a
complete change from her first single ‘Pon De
Replay’. In this music video her hair is cut
extremely short, exposes her neck, shoulders and
chest. The video is more dark and eerie and her
costumes are more provocative. Her body language, clothing and
make up are more raunchy and arousing for the male target
audience. The video and also the title of her album suggest that she is no longer an
innocent girl, but has now become a desirable woman.
For Rihanna’s upcoming music video “Russian Roulette” her image has once again
changed for her new album “Rated R”. Her looks have changed to emphasis the
change in her character mentally after the incident between herself and Chris Brown,
to show the public that she has grown a lot since the last album and since the
incident. For instance, Rihanna’s front cover for “Russian Roulette” has an image of
her being dressed in barbed wire, the meaning for this is to reflect the pain of her
personal life and using it as an influence for her new album. The new hairstyle also
indicates the new direction in which Rihanna is taking herself and new album to, as
the blonde hair shows her edgier and wilder side. Finally, her new style also exposes
her aggression and emotions that she is currently experiencing.
Her constant change has lead to a very successful development of her and her music,
which has resulted in her winning more awards such as favourite female artist and as
well as increasing her number ones and album sales. The music director has
purposely changed her image as they want her to be sexier in order to appeal men as
sex sells, plus it shows an independent women which would appeal to modern
women.

3. Rihanna’s Discography
2005-2006 2007-2008 2009-2010
Good Girl Gone Rated R
Music of the Sun
Bad
“Russian
“Pon de Replay” “Umbrella” Roulette”
“If it’s Lovin That “Shut Up and “Wait Your Turn”
You Want” Drive”
“Don’t Stop the “Hard”
Music”
“Hate That I Love “Rude Boy”
A Girl Like Me
You”
“SOS” “Take a Bow”
“Unfaithful” “Disturbia”
“We Ride” “Rehab”