Rihanna The

Medusa Construct:
Diamonds

Matthew Taylor

Rihanna
is signed to a major record label, Def Jam
Recordings, which is an American record
label, focused predominantly on hip hop and
urban music.

Medusa Monster to
Rihanna
Medusa was one of the Gorgons, three
monstrous sisters with magical powers. She
was so wicked that just looking at her turned
people to stone.

How is Rihanna portrayed

by the cover of the GQ
front
cover?
She I shown
as having
snakes coming out of her
head like the Greek
mythological creature
Medusa this could
suggest that she has a
personality like her as
when men look at her they
are turned to stone and
become fixated in her.
As we can see she has a
python occupying her neck
area which could be
showing how she is
powerful as she can take

 The fact that she is naked shows again

how she may have the power as she
has the confidence in her body.
The scopophilla comes through the
naked body and her mouth acts a
secondary part to the fetishistic
scopophilla.
She is clearly a confident lady as
compared to the Robert Downey Jr front
cover of Esquire, where he is dressed as
a smart, hardworking and upper class
male showing dominance through what
he is wearing and how he is standing
compared to her.

Goodwins Theory
Goodwins theory based on 8 main principles
1. Links between Lyrics and Visuals
2. Links between Music and Visuals
3. Intertextual reference
4. Genre characteristics
5. Notions of looking (scopophilia)
6. Voyeurism
7. Demands of the record label
8. Performance based, Narrative based or concept
based music videos.

 The close-up shots of Rihanna break up the

scenes within the music video so that the
attention is always on her. It also makes the song
very emotive and engages the audience.

Links between Lyrics and

Visuals
The lyrics I saw the
light inside of you
matches this shot of
the horse looking up.
These kind of close-ups
make the lyrics very
personal and keeps the
audience engaged with
what they are seeing.