Featured Artiste: Rihanna

Robyn Rihanna Fenty (born February 20, 1988), known by her stage name Rihanna  is a Barbadian recording artist, actress, and fashion designer. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados, her career began when she met record producer Evan Rogers through mutual friends in late 2003 and recorded demo tapes under Rogers's guidance. Her demo tape was sent to several record labels, and she subsequently signed a contract with Def Jam Recordings after auditioning for its president, rapper Jay-Z. Rihanna's debut and second studio albums, Music of the Sun (2005) and A Girl Like Me (2006), peaked in the top ten on the Billboard 200 chart. Both albums spawned the Billboard Hot 100 top two hit single "Pon de Replay" and her first Hot 100 number-one "SOS".  ( taken from :Wikipedia)


Rihanna is undoubtedly a popular artiste she is a constant chart topper, an Instagram favorite and a Twitter trailblazer.
 Rihanna entered into the music industry as a 'good girl' earning her way into being a household name with songs such as If It's Loving that You Want and Pon De Replay . She was the Caribbean girl that made it 'big' internationally. RiRi, as she is affectionately called changed that all by her third album she broke out of her former self and wanted to be recognized as a 'bad gyal' . 

Her 2007 album 'Good Girl Gone Bad' was her transition documentary basically she told the StarPheonix :"So far, the new music is going in a different direction. Not on purpose, but I just want to hear something fresh and mostly uptempo. I think that's where I want to go on this one. You feel different every album, and [at] this stage I feel like I want to do a lot of uptempo [songs].I basically took the attitude of the bad girl and I really got rebellious and just did everything the way I wanted to do it—I didn't want to listen to anybody. I didn't consult with anybody. I just want to have a little more fun with my music and be a little more experimental in terms of my image and my sound. I just reinvented myself."Album after album, track after track Rihanna's popularity and fan base grew and so did her influence. 

Many have commented on her influence, some negative and some positive ( sorry i couldn't find a link for her positive influence). The list of negatives thrown at her are aplenty, make a quick search on Google and you will see for yourself. After scanning through the blogs which discussed Rihanna specifically ,we found that there is indeed much to agree on.

A high percentage of Rihanna's music is  sexually themed ,some of those include  Rude Boy ,  Sand M , Te Amo to name a few. The effect of sexually explicit songs on the minds of young impressionable minds is great, lets be real here. These stars are portrayed as ideal and that is where they get their influence. Rihanna was named one of the top 100 most influential persons in the World, for what reason? Her influence through music, her following.She is a trend setter of this generation  Many teens look up to her and model her explicit behavior, as her and other pop stars have watered down over-sexuality as a norm . . The words they use are the words the impressionable swear by take for example an excerpt from her song S and M :
 'Feels so good being bad (Oh oh oh oh oh)
There's no way I'm turning back (Oh oh oh oh oh)Now the pain is my pleasure 'cause nothing could measure (Oh oh oh oh oh)"
She glorifies sex the music video was an extra to her message by  portraying an orgy type environment. How does this affect the audience ?

• Makes it a societal norm to be hyper sexual and explicit.
• Decreases or erodes values of young women.
• Reduces men's respect for women.
• Fosters  a 'loose' generation.

Media is everything in this age and it's influence is grand. Be careful of how you consume it. See you next week when we feature another artiste or television series.

Alternative Response out !