Star-text and Star evolution - Fans and Marketting : Rihanna

Although Rihanna’s fans are not as loyal as the fans of the more legendary artists such as Madonna, or even Beyoncé, who seems to be on the path of being legendary in a few years or decades, they are fans who like songs or albums which are at that moment ‘hot’, and may get bored after a while. While there may be a handful of dedicated fans, there have not been many stories of fans crying (or fainting) as Rihanna appears on stage (like fans did for Michael Jackson), there are those who mouth the lyrics to her songs during a concert.
When Rihanna first started out, she could have been a ‘one hit wonder’ without her transformation (thanks to her stylist and management team). Rihanna’s fans evolved as Rihanna did, they moved forward as she did. Rihanna became more popular because her music became more known and started charting highly. Her fans also grew as her sense of style changed and was featured more on magazines, becoming a somewhat inspiration to other girls. Girls, who are her fans mostly, as teenage girls in particular, were more affected by Rihanna’s assault by Chris Brown. Seeing as many are subjected to violent relationships though feel they cannot do much being so young. This assault may have been a blessing disguise as the unintentional publicity, had fans pour support to her, she was the victim in the situation. Talk show hosts such as Oprah and Tyra Banks had also reached out to her, and she was payed for doing interviews with Diane Sawyer (Good Morning America).
To separate Rihanna from the other artists coming out at the time of her debut (or early years), her label and management team had to change Rihanna both musically and appearance wise to make her stand out from the rest. This would have captured the audience’s attention more instead of dismissing her as just ‘the rest of them’. As Rihanna became a fashion icon, she influenced many of her fans, which gave her an advantage in terms of acquiring new fans from her distinct look. Many of these would be women and young adults/teenagers.
Rihanna’s mentor and collaborator Jay-Z had made Rihanna gesture (left) the ‘Freemason sign’ or diamond hand which is a triangle shape to promote Jay-Z’s recording label, ‘Roc-A-Fella’, although many see this as an Illuminati sign often associating them with the cult. Therefore, Jay-Z using Rihanna (in his ‘Run This Town’ video) to promote his fashion line is a form of synergy. Not only was she promoting his label, she was also promoting herself ahead of the release of her album 'Rated R'. Rihanna is known to promote Nokia, as seen in Rihanna’s earlier videos, she promoted the Nokia 3250 in her ‘Unfaithful’ video. Later in November 2009, Rihanna partnered up with Nokia to promote her album ‘Rated R’ and Nokia’s new X6 phone. The promotion included live streaming of Rihanna’s London (Nov 16th) concert on to the X6. “We are thrilled to be working with her [Rihanna],” said Liz Schimel, the global head of music at Nokia. “She’s excited about it personally: she’s a very innovative, cutting-edge, fresh, young, exciting global celebrity, and she has enormous pull around the world. She’s truly a global superstar.”
Rihanna also appeared on The X-Factor live shows in 2009 to promote her album and single 'Russian Roulette' from the 'Rated R' album.
To further promote 'Rated R', Rihanna had a photo shoot taken showing herself in a dark, monochromatic light. Her minimal clothing highlights the album title, 'Rated R' which also creates voyeurism (circled images) as she is topless in some pictures showing a sense of vulnerability as the viewer looks at her.

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