Research into Chosen Artist

We selected Rihanna as our chosen artist as she is a pop, RnB artist , which reflects a similar interest in her music, she appeals to people our age therefore we would be able to develop a further understanding of how to appeal to people our own age when producing a music video. Rihanna is a controversial artist and therefore evokes interest with in the music industry, to a certain extend she can be seen as a role model as she represents a dominant successful independent feminist artist, this appears relevant us our group is made up if four females.

Originally Rihannas name was Robyn Rihanna Fenty, she was born on the 25th February 1988, and was born and raised in Barbados. Rihanna had a troubled childhood and was affected by her fathers drug addiciton and parents turbulent marrage.
Rihannas career began when she met record producers Carl Struken and Even Rogers through mutal friends. Rogers soon expressed an interest in Rihannas talent, asking her to perform for him singing classics such as 'Hero' and 'Emotions' which impressed the producers, soon signing her to Syndicated Rhythm Productions, who assigned her a lawyer and manager. They flew her to New York where she recorded demo taps which were then distributed to various record labels around the world in 2004 in order to promote herself.  By 2005, February the president of CEO of Def Jam Recordings Jay-Z requested to meet Rihanna to audition and meet the industry executive  L.A Reid, singing various songs such as Whitney Houston's version of 'For the Love of You'. She was signed a six album record deal with Def Jam records, that same day and later moved from Barbadoes to New York to live with Rogers and his wife.

In 2009 Rihannas career she was a victim of domestic violence as images were leaked of her attack from former boyfriend Chris Brown, he had a restraining order against Rihanna but this was brought down to 'level one' allownig them to attend award ceremonies together. Rihanna returned to her music after the assault, collaborating with artistss such as Jay-Z. Some would argue that Rihannas assault sparks controversy, in order to gain publicity.


SALES
Rihanna has currently sold more than 25 million albums and over 60 million digital sales worldwide
  Her life experiences and upbringing have been greatly influenced through her music, as ironically drug use is evoked through her music videos and expressed positively, in order to have a good time and go wild. 'We found love' is an example of this s it promotes wreckless behaviour and was therefore censored, her most recent single 'Diamonds' has not yet released a music video, but has been released as a single, the cover again has a relation to drug use promoting rebellious behaviour.

Influences

Rihanna has said to name Madonna as her idol and biggest influence throughout her music, as Rihanna states Madonna as a 'great inspiration for me', especially on my earlier work'. Rihanna has explained how she was successful in reinventing her clothing style and music with success every time, remaining a real force in entertainment across the whole world. This is something Rihanna is working towards and has proven to be successful in throughout her current career, as he image and genre of music has evolved completely, she is also still proven to be successful, at the same time perhaps capturing a broad demographic as well as keeping her original fans.
Through Rihannas childhood Maria Carey also had a great influence as she covered 'Hero' in a school talent show, she was one of the first artists Rihanna felt that Rihanna felt she could relate to.  However Rihanna is compared to Beyonce, due to various RnB based genre music and talent through dancing. Beyonce has been said to have inspired Rihannas career after watching Beyonce perform as part of Destiny's Child.

Rihannas music is strongly influenced by Caribbean music which include Reggae and dance, which has originated from her background as she listened to reggae music growing up, but began to explore diverse genres when she moved to the United States, as she was exposed to many different types of music, this is reflected through her musical achievements so far, exploring genres such as:

•    R&B
•  POP
•     DANCE
• REGGAE/HIPHOP- Songs such as 'Rude Boy' the music video are said to have been inspired by her Jamaican roots.

Bob Marley is said to be another idol to Rihanna due to his decent, and is one of Rhianna's 'favourite artists of all time'. Singer, song writer and musician Bob Marley generally has a huge influence on Caribbean artists and people living there as he is considered the most widely known and revered performer of Reggae music. He also represents the traditional lifestyle of the Caribbean culture. Strongly influenced by the issues which surround him on his homeland, highlighting  realistic political and cultural issues to relate. Rihanna is said to have built a shrine in her home dedicated to Marley which would show her appreciation, respect and admiration towards the artist. She has also covered his 'Is This Love' song.
On the other hand due to looking at these idols for inspiration, Rihanna has identified herself and is now seen as a style icon to other artists such as Rita Ora.


Image 

 After Rihannas second studio album release back in 2006, Rihanna was beginning to be criticised by the musical works and media for appearing too similar to Beyonce through her style, sound and music material produced during this time.

 With rumoured media claiming that Jay-Z had even fashioned her in order to be successful in replicating Beyonce's image. Due to the attention drawn to this situation Rihanna expressed her views openly about the situation to Look magazine during an interview 'Beyonce isa great artist and I feel honoured to be mentioned in the same sentence, but we're different performers with different styles', clearly the public had not received or understood this varied image yet. Coincidently however her third studio album 'Good Girl Gone Bad which was released in 2007 which appeared to have reinvented her image physically making a statement by chopping her hair hair into a short bob. This new image allowed her to tactically steer away from remaining as simply a teen pop sensation, which evoked innocence. The title 'Good girl gone bad' reveals to everyone that there is a change in character which was emphasised through her dancing and styling, an example of this was through 'Umbrella'. This allowed Rihanna to develop a diverse persona as she had already been identified as similar to Beyonce, but could now use this as a compliment by expressing herself as a rebellious, sexualised character which would allow her to be separated and identified as an individual, with different features. 
Rihanna is now known for reinventing her image for every new album which is conveyed through different hairstyles, introducing and preparing the audience for a new or surprising album. An example of this would be for Rihannas most recent album release due on the 19th November 2012.