This is the album cover for
Rihanna’s latest album ‘unapologetic’.
From a first glance, we can already see
that Rihanna is portrayed heavily as a sex icon, giving that she is completely
naked, with nothing but words covering her body. This relates to Michael
Shore’s theory
that music video’s are just ‘an overload of male fantasies’ and
even though this is only the album cover, it gives us an idea of what’s to come
in the res of the album, and in any of the songs she releases from this album
and makes a music video for. Relating to Dyer’s star theory,
Rihanna seems somewhat constructed in order to make money, and to ‘sell
herself’ in a way. Her record label may have chosen to portray her in such a
sexualised way in order to promote her album, make more money and gain more
popularity for her (or her record label).
The words covering her body, are also
covering important parts of her such as her face, however it seems as if she’s
looking through the words and straight into your eyes (direct gaze). The word
‘unapologetic’ falls right over her private areas, as if she is trying to say
she isn’t sorry for coming across so sexualised towards the audience, and
therefore portrays her to be quite bold and wiling which could appeal to the
audience even more, especially a female audience as she seems to be so
confident about her body, as she also uses the words ‘happy’ and
‘fearless’ which may make a female
audience feel as if they should be as confident as she is.
The style of writing used is very
sketchy, and messy almost, which could portray a laid back ‘I don’t care’ kind
of attitude, which could be a sense of what’s within the album, songs to do
with having a good and being quite laid back with everything she does.
Rihanna’s short hair cut, dark lipstick
and tattoo subverts from the typical feminine stereotype and portrays a more
powerful, masculine character, also use of words such as ‘victory’ and
‘fearless’ also give off a more masculine personality. This again relates to
dyers star theory as
it seems as if she has been constructed in such a way to appeal to the
audience, as its different to your typical pretty, frilly, pink, feminine
character. This also links to the idea of stars representing a certain
ideology, and starting new looks/fashions for the audience to follow, providing
them with a focus of ideas of what people are supposed to look like
(stardom/star worship).
The industry seem to have constructed
Rihanna into something that the younger audiences can always relate to, as
since her career started, she may have been getting older, but her image
certainly isn’t, because the industry want her to continue to appeal to the
younger generation in order for her to continue to serve a purpose, e.g.
providing entertainment which results in making more money for the industry.
The step before self-actualisation on Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs is
self-esteem needs, which you gain from being confident, achieving things and
having respect form others. In this image alone, it’s as if Rihanna is trying
to send a message to her audience, to be confident and/or feel sexy and to not
feel bad or be sorry for it, and to have fun and be fearless. All of these
words written over her body seem like hidden messages to her audience to make
them feel loved, and to make them feel confident about themselves.
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