Star Profile - Rihanna

Rihanna’s real name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty and she was born on the 20th of February 1988. She began her music career in 2003 when she met Evan Rogers through mutual friends in Barbados where she was born. She is one of the best-selling artists of all time by selling more than 30 million albums and 120 million singles worldwide. She is also famous for being in a relationship with Chris Brown who had beaten her in 2009. This may have influenced her future videos.

Umbrella was one of Rihanna's first highly successful songs and released in 2007. JAY-Z is also in the song which could be one of the reasons the song became so successful. In this video there are themes of exhibitionism but they aren't too extreme as the focus is on Rihannas dancing and her art. She is slightly sexualised in this video but not as much as other artists do.

In this video Rihanna wants to show off her singing and dancing abilities while also giving a sexy vibe. She would want to do this in order to appeal to both men and women. She would want to do this in order to get people interested in her and boost her music career further as this is one of her first songs.

There are also a lot of shots of her face so that she is creating an image for herself and so people know what she looks like. She may also be using this to promote herself and boost her other jobs such as acting. By using herself in the music video she is also taking advantage of star power.




Man Down was released in 2011 and has a very different music video to Umbrella as this music video has a narrative. In the narrative Rihanna shoots a man and the song is based around a man being shot.

In the music video the focus is heavily on Rihanna and her surroundings. She is not sexualised in this video but there is a big focus on her face giving the video star power. She is the main character in the narritive within the video and as a result gets the most screen time. Her surroundings which happen to be Jamaica also play a big part as the area has its own personality as Rihanna's character knows everyone she meets.

Rihanna's character is assaulted in the video and that is why she shoots him. This has been viewed as controversial as people don't think it is appropriate to show sexual assault in a music video. They also think it is also promoting taking the law into your own hands and killing criminals.

This video was criticised as people think that it has a subliminal message of Rihanna wanting to shoot Chris Brown for what he had done for her. There is no proof that Rihanna wanted it to convey this message but people have tried to make links to her past.




Pour it up was released in early 2013 and is very different from the previous two music videos as Rihanna is highly sexualised and there is a lot of exhibitionism as she is wearing very revealing clothing and dancing very sexually how women would at a strip club around a pole.

There are many shots of her body and face and most of the shots of her are of her chest and bottom regions. She is highly sexualised and unlike the other two videos she is dancing in a sexual manor with open crotch moves and shaking her bottom.

Her outfits have also changed dramatically as she is now wearing clothes which show a lot more flesh and also look like a strippers costume. The video has been made for the male gave as there are a lot of women dancing sexually in not much clothing. The video doesn't have an arty theme like previous and Reihanna used to treat her music videos like a piece of art.