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    Rihanna and her music videos; too many, too often?

    The figures behind the most prolific star in pop

    May 03, 2012 by David Renshaw
    Rihanna and her music videos; too many, too often?

    Did everyone enjoy Rihanna's new video for 'Where Have You Been?' earlier this week? No worries if not, there will be another one along in two months.

    Well, 1.4 months to be precise as that is how often Rihanna has released a new official music video since 2010. According to our calculations, a new video has hit YouTube less than every six weeks following the official unveiling of 'Rude Boy' on February 10th 2010. Since that point Rihanna has been on a non-stop charge to becoming the most recognised and succesful female artist in the world. 

    Obviously, she was well on her way before 'Rude Boy' but, as her first video of 2010, it seems like the best place to start. Straight after 'Rude Boy' we got the slightly underwhelming 'Rockstar 101' (May 25th) and 'Te Amo' (June 14th) before the career defining double whammy of 'Only Girl (In The World)' and 'What's My Name' (Oct 13 and Nov 12 respectively).

    Rihanna - What's My Name

    2011 was Rihanna's busiest year to date and, by our working, she must have spent the majority of that time on the set of one video or another. Overrall the 'Loud' album involved six music videos with four of those coming in 2011. 'S&M' kicked the year off with an online reveal date of Feb 1st followed by two videos in May for 'California King Bed' (9th) and the reggae murder anthem 'Man Down' (31). Throw in 'Cheers (Drink to That) on August 26th and we know why our subject was gagging for a beverage.

    However, RiRi ended 2011 with the start of another album campaign and hit us with the epic 'We Found Love' video (Oct 19), a song that would go on to become one of her biggest hits. Additionally, fans of a Clockwork Orange imagery and East London locations got a treat when Rihanna launched her last video of 2011 on December 23rd and shared 'You Da 1' with the world.

    That's six videos in 2011 alone, fact fans.

    Rihanna - We Found Love

    Onto the current year and 2012 hasn't seen Rihanna slow down one bit. Considering that we're slightly exhausted just writing this we can't begin to fathom what living it is like. Still, the Bajan beauty's love of a director's clipboard continued this week when we got the premiere of the dance-heavy 'Where Have You Been' promo (April 30). This takes us up to twelve videos in just 26 months, an average of one video every 2.1 months.

    However, you forgot all about Rihanna's other love didn't you? Yes, collaborations. In the same period of time she has hooked up with everyone from Coldplay to Kanye West as well as Nicki Minaj, David Guetta and Eminem. All of these singles have come with accompanying videos (bar Coldplay, due in a matter of weeks) and take our average from 12 videos in 26 months to a monster 18, averaging out at one video every 1.4 months.

    Considering that this period has also involved singles with Jay-Z ('Talk That Talk') and Chris Brown ('Birthday Cake') which come without videos and Rihanna is basically making everyone else look plain lazy.

    So essentially, what we're saying here is; Rihanna, feel free to take a break if you fancy it. You've certainly earned it.

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