Diamonds! Lucky Strike indeed.

By now, you’ll probably have heard Diamonds, the latest track from Rihanna. It has a Sia gloss, a tenderness established in Farewell and a hook that – while not as ecstatic as We Found Love – will tumble out of your speakers firmly into your head. But what does it mean for the industry? Rihanna is one of the world’s biggest pop stars but she won’t take a break. Which is unusual. Her contemporaries take time off to reord albums (Rihanna must have mastered the hotel-room record session), release perfumes or star in films. And given its success (bar a health scare), there’s something to be said for making the most of a (five-year) moment. Will others follow in her steps? Perhaps, even if not aping her recording frequency style. In a society where celebrity and pop music are intimately wrapped, it’s more likely that a constant PR stream will fill any void without music.