This document analyzes Rihanna's 2010 album Loud through its album cover and music poster. It discusses several techniques used in the visuals, including large bold text, high key lighting, direct address of the viewer, and Rihanna posing in a seductive manner employing the "male gaze." It also analyzes symbolic meanings behind color choices like red representing passion and the use of chiaroscuro lighting to make the text stand out. Overall, the document examines how the poster portrays Rihanna and discusses theories around audience interpretation of the imagery.

1. Rihanna – Loud
Jordan Nettley

2. Rihanna – Loud posters Rihanna’s seventh album, Loud was
released on November 12th 2010,
has sold over 6.4 million copies.
Typography
Both the album and music poster
feature large text, The name is in
bold and is evidently bigger than
the name of the album. Also a
basic/white font is used to
ensure the artwork is not over
complicated, works well with the
background colours and shows
purity in her work.

3. The album cover and poster use synergy with the use of the male gaze theory. Rihanna poses in a seductive
way (and her poster also uses ‘direct address’) for her audience. The camera lingers on the curves of the
female body, and events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a mans reaction to
these events.
Relegates women to the status of objects. The female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily, by
identification with the male.
Some women enjoy being
‘looked’ at e.g. beauty
pageants.
The gaze can also be directed
towards members of the same
gender for several reasons,
not all of which are sexual,
such as in comparison of body
image or in clothing.

4. -Red:
The colour Red stands out a lot in
the two pictures. Red symbolises:
Fire, blood, energy, war, danger,
strength, power, determination as
well as passion, desire, and love.
Red is a very emotionally intense
colour.
I feel this can relate to Rihanna’s
pose in this Poster, she shows that
she’s presenting the passion, desire
and love. The title ‘Loud’ may also
emphasis the representation of the
colour red.
-Lighting:
This poster features high key
lighting. High key lighting
reduces the amount of
contrast because of the such
song lighting. This creates a
happy, joyful impression in
the picture.
-Representation:
Women in the music industry seem to
push themselves to be noticed more and
more. In this case Rihanna and like other
female artists portray themselves in
revealing outfits, pose or even perform
in a sexual way in order to do this.
This music poster, Rihanna poses in a
sexual manner, with perfect skin – with
the colour of her hair and lips promoting
passion, desire and love.

5. Lighting:
Chiaroscuro lighting means
there is a high contrast between
light and dark in the picture. It is
used to create depth and
volume. This can relate to
Rihanna’s Loud poster, as the
dark colour at the bottom of the
poster is allowing the bold,
bright white text to stand out –
of which this text promotes her
tour and her album.
The bright, high key lighting at
the top of the poster creates a
happy, joyful impression. Direct
address is also included in this
poster – used to create the male
gaze theory as well as Rihanna
connecting directly towards her
audience.
Morley’s Theory:
Morley’s Theory explores that audiences
tend to fall into three groups based on
their interpretation of the text. These
groups are; Preferred Reading, Negotiated
Reading, Oppositional Reading.
Preferred Reading: The preferred reading
would be the main use in this music
poster. Rihanna and her media produces
will hope audiences will take from the text.
The media producers will hope that the
audience will notice ‘Coming to a city near
you’ and also notice the location of where
to get the tickets. The poster also contains
‘With special guests’ – persuading the
audience to buy tickets for Rihanna’s
concert.