How Popular would Rihanna be if she still released music?

[Killa 17,001]

Sometimes not releasing Can do One favours

Needed me, love on the brain, Diamonds etc. Are still being played, She still makes headlines and Is followed around. This way its like She never left off her succesful era.

Her last attempt with the black panther was a pretty big flop. But It was brushed off. An album full of flops might have been different. As soon as you start tò flop theres a media campaign ready to bring you down. 

[The Ew from Judas 1,124]

Rihanna Is one of those performers where-like-we all know her and we all know her work. For me, she’s someone who I feel is always kind of relevant and not relevant at the same time. I’m happy to see her when she pops up, but other than that I’m not really seeking her out

[Alfonso 1,533]

I think that if the song is good or it’s viral (something like what happened with work) she would probably get another hit (besides the early hype of coming back after so long). I would think that if she was coming back they would do a surprise drop or an early album announcement with preorder and single release close to it, to try to get as many sales as possible before the albums actually out.  

I don’t really see her playing the pop star game anymore, so I would be surprised if she did multiple videos, performances or a tour.

I have always considered Rihanna a “singles” artist. Not all of her singles are great but she has many which are amazing and this where she succeeds the most (and it’s probably why she’s still so popular nowadays).

[Alfonso 1,533]

41 minutes ago, Killa said:

Sometimes not releasing Can do One favours

Needed me, love on the brain, Diamonds etc. Are still being played, She still makes headlines and Is followed around. This way its like She never left off her succesful era.

Her last attempt with the black panther was a pretty big flop. But It was brushed off. An album full of flops might have been different. As soon as you start tò flop theres a media campaign ready to bring you down. 

Lets not forget four five seconds; that song was terrible  

[Tyler1992 2,252]

If Rihanna went the semi-regular programming route with music I think we would see low points, or more spotlighting of 

She was incredibly prolific from 2005-2012, with an album release every year and a hit single every year (minus 2014) until 2016. She is incredible finding the hit songs and

I think time has forgotten that she was never a major album seller, never a huge touring force, or the most energetic performer.

[Mirrion Rizzons 10,695]

11 hours ago, holy scheisse said:

Oh ya you’re right then she’s had successful albums after albums. I bet she would still have had successful albums and collabs ppl seem to universally like her across lots of demographics. I think gen z would be into her too they grew up with her everywhere as kids 

Lots of younger gen z / gen alpha actually don’t know a lot about her  we’re so old 

[Mirrion Rizzons 10,695]

9 hours ago, faysalaaa said:

Rihanna was heavily criticized After the Good Girl Gone Bad album, and it ended after she released Unapologetic. Ofcourse all that criticism also came with alot of success, but she was never respected as an artist. I think Anti really made people respect her as an artist, but she stopped after that, so im not sure where she would be today.

See the only controversy I remember was the incident with that man… but again was never her fault and the public never perceived it that way, I feel like the most controversial thing she did was just be sexy 

[Teletubby 143,802]

if she was still releasing music, it wouldn't be as successful. she always was a singles artist. back in the day, record labels and radio had more influence on what becomes a hit. it's much harder now. 

her singles didn't translate into album sales, she only had 2 albums that debuted at #1 on BB200.
none of her albums debuted with more 240k and at the sam time Taylor already had 3 albums with 1M units on release week.

[faysalaaa 3,983]

7 hours ago, Mirrion Rizzons said:

See the only controversy I remember was the incident with that man… but again was never her fault and the public never perceived it that way, I feel like the most controversial thing she did was just be sexy 

Im not talking about controversies, but people mocked her for not having talent or being able to sell an album. Every performance she did was mocked, and she was called a singles artist (an artist that can only sell singles). Not to mention all the hate from comparing her to Beyonce, and that she cant be Beyonce, and her affair with Jay Z.

[Mirrion Rizzons 10,695]

48 minutes ago, faysalaaa said:

Im not talking about controversies, but people mocked her for not having talent or being able to sell an album. Every performance she did was mocked, and she was called a singles artist (an artist that can only sell singles). Not to mention all the hate from comparing her to Beyonce, and that she cant be Beyonce, and her affair with Jay Z.

I guess so, but at the same time it was always more of a stan thing rather than a GP thing. I remember my sister and dad saw her once and said she was the worst performance they’d ever seen, but didn’t really change their opinion on her much, and they remained fans of her music 

[HermesG 1,481]

Her niche was (is) kinda crazy huge. Gays, straight, girls, boyz, everybody wants something from her.. so... 

[faysalaaa 3,983]

2 hours ago, Mirrion Rizzons said:

I guess so, but at the same time it was always more of a stan thing rather than a GP thing. I remember my sister and dad saw her once and said she was the worst performance they’d ever seen, but didn’t really change their opinion on her much, and they remained fans of her music 

Yeah true but people that loved her never really respected or appreciated her as an artist, they just loved her singles, which reminds me of Katy Perry. These kind of artists eventually end up being irrelevant by time. If Rihanna continued music, im not sure where she would have ended up?

[Emily 987]

I find it weird how Katy and Rihanna have double/triple the amount of Instagram followers as gaga 

[StrawberryBlond 14,577]

I think people overestimate how popular she'd be because they're stuck in a 2016 time warp where she's concerned. Yes, she was a big hitmaker in her heyday, but a break of that magnitude is always a massive risk no matter how successful you are. How many singers can you name who took a 9+ year break and were able to come back with major success? I literally can't name one. The closest anyone came to that was Justin Timberlake, who took a 6.5 year break between 2006 and 2013. And he really only had 1 really successful single out of those 2-part albums and he was only able to that once, with every album after that failing miserably. Sade took an 8 year break between 1992 and 2000 and had a successful selling album but not singles and only did a US tour. She then took a 10 year break from 2000 to 2010 and again, could do semi-decent album sales, but not singles. Tour did quite well. But Sade was always an album seller, not a single seller, she only has 2 top 10 hits in the US and her songs aren't part of the pop zeitgeist. 

Popstars rely on relevance to be successful. Rihanna never had the album sales or Grammy wins or touring power to be able to survive a break this long. Every few years, she throws her fans a bone with a feature on another artist's song or a song from a soundtrack but it drops after the debut week and everyone moves on from it and she retreats again. I think she probably sees all these big names absolutely killing it right now as well as all the new names coming up and feels very intimidated. She's so successful with her make up and lingerie lines that she can afford to just stay on the sidelines though. Most singers need to put out music as they have nothing else going on.

If she comes back, this new album will have to be her magnum opus and she'll have to have really improved as a live act (which I highly doubt if her SB halftime was anything to go by), or she stands no chance. Her big selling point used to be her youth, her biggest demographic was the youth market. But now she's completely irrelevant to younger gen z and gen alpha. They know who she is but don't care, they just know her as "the make up lady." I don't know anyone under the age of 25 who cares about Rihanna, it's just her generation who's still bumping her old tracks, generations before and after don't know her. And it is the younger generations that decide a lot of the charts now. This isn't me saying this to be hateful either. Gaga released Joanne the same year that Rihanna released Anti and I gotta be honest: if all she'd given us in all those 9 years was the SB halftime show, The Cure, Hold My Hand and Sweet Sounds Of Heaven, I'd be saying she'd be totally done. I don't know why we give Rihanna so much grace or think she'll be different.

4 hours ago, Mirrion Rizzons said:

I guess so, but at the same time it was always more of a stan thing rather than a GP thing. I remember my sister and dad saw her once and said she was the worst performance they’d ever seen, but didn’t really change their opinion on her much, and they remained fans of her music 

I do know that the last time she performed in Sunderland in 2013, the reviews on Ticketmaster were overwhelmingly negative. She had a date at the same stadium booked for her Anti tour in 2016 but it ended up cancelled (I don't think that's a coincidence) as did her stadium date in Cardiff. She only sold out half her stadium date in Glasgow and it looked it was less than half full in Wembley. She used to be massive in the UK but she really deteriorated. I don't see people suddenly wanting to go see her again with super high stadium prices these days when they weren't willing to go see her 9 years ago when she was relevant. And she's not had any hits in all those years. 

[Mirrion Rizzons 10,695]

19 hours ago, StrawberryBlond said:

I think people overestimate how popular she'd be because they're stuck in a 2016 time warp where she's concerned. Yes, she was a big hitmaker in her heyday, but a break of that magnitude is always a massive risk no matter how successful you are. How many singers can you name who took a 9+ year break and were able to come back with major success? I literally can't name one. The closest anyone came to that was Justin Timberlake, who took a 6.5 year break between 2006 and 2013. And he really only had 1 really successful single out of those 2-part albums and he was only able to that once, with every album after that failing miserably. Sade took an 8 year break between 1992 and 2000 and had a successful selling album but not singles and only did a US tour. She then took a 10 year break from 2000 to 2010 and again, could do semi-decent album sales, but not singles. Tour did quite well. But Sade was always an album seller, not a single seller, she only has 2 top 10 hits in the US and her songs aren't part of the pop zeitgeist. 

Popstars rely on relevance to be successful. Rihanna never had the album sales or Grammy wins or touring power to be able to survive a break this long. Every few years, she throws her fans a bone with a feature on another artist's song or a song from a soundtrack but it drops after the debut week and everyone moves on from it and she retreats again. I think she probably sees all these big names absolutely killing it right now as well as all the new names coming up and feels very intimidated. She's so successful with her make up and lingerie lines that she can afford to just stay on the sidelines though. Most singers need to put out music as they have nothing else going on.

If she comes back, this new album will have to be her magnum opus and she'll have to have really improved as a live act (which I highly doubt if her SB halftime was anything to go by), or she stands no chance. Her big selling point used to be her youth, her biggest demographic was the youth market. But now she's completely irrelevant to younger gen z and gen alpha. They know who she is but don't care, they just know her as "the make up lady." I don't know anyone under the age of 25 who cares about Rihanna, it's just her generation who's still bumping her old tracks, generations before and after don't know her. And it is the younger generations that decide a lot of the charts now. This isn't me saying this to be hateful either. Gaga released Joanne the same year that Rihanna released Anti and I gotta be honest: if all she'd given us in all those 9 years was the SB halftime show, The Cure, Hold My Hand and Sweet Sounds Of Heaven, I'd be saying she'd be totally done. I don't know why we give Rihanna so much grace or think she'll be different.

I do know that the last time she performed in Sunderland in 2013, the reviews on Ticketmaster were overwhelmingly negative. She had a date at the same stadium booked for her Anti tour in 2016 but it ended up cancelled (I don't think that's a coincidence) as did her stadium date in Cardiff. She only sold out half her stadium date in Glasgow and it looked it was less than half full in Wembley. She used to be massive in the UK but she really deteriorated. I don't see people suddenly wanting to go see her again with super high stadium prices these days when they weren't willing to go see her 9 years ago when she was relevant. And she's not had any hits in all those years. 

to be fair in the UK Take That had a comeback like 10+ years later and we're arguably just as big if not bigger for a solid few album cycles.

 

Also, I was born in 2002 so most people around my age grew up with her in the same way we did for gaga, katy, etc, so nostalgia at least would play a huge part for people my age.