Richard Dyer's theory

Stars and Stardom:

To be able to fully understand the connection between the music industry and its audiences it is vital to know and recognise the roles of music stars.

The expression ‘star’ means a semi-mythological person, this is normally used for music performers so that it could help generate more sales and gain a larger audience as the audience feel as if they can connect to the performer by the way they present themselves by seeming ordinary but at the same time being extraordinary.

According to Dyer a star is a person who presents themselves as an entertainer so we can buy their products but we don’t know them personally.

Some common values of music stardom-

•  Youthfulness
• Rebellion
• Sexual Magnetism
• An anti-authoritarian attitude
•  Originality
•  Creativity/talent
•  Aggression/anger
• A disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour
•  Conspicuous consumption, of sex, drugs and material
• Success against the odds

Dyer believes all stars have similar values in common:

A star is a created image formed by the media through advertising, magazines, videos ect, thus not being a real person.

Stars are commodities produced and consumed (absorbed, sold) on their strength of their meanings.

Media:

Stars rely on a range a range of media such as magazines, TV, radio, internet ect to build an image for themselves which can be marketed and sold to their target audiences.

Star image is made up of many meanings which appeal to their target audience for example Beyoncé’s sex appeal targets male audiences through sexual magnetism.

Artists need media for appeal; they use them to create their image.

Fundamentally the star image is incoherent (imperfect), giving meaning that the star is still incomplete and can still take on other aspects and subcultures. Richard Dyer says this is because it based on two important paradoxes.

Paradox 1-

The star at the same time must be ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer for example Emienm comes from a low class and low status background though now is a well-known artist who is of high-class this making seems ordinary because of his background but extraordinary at the same time because of his rich lifestyle.

Paradox 2-

The star at the same time must be present and absent for the consumer for example the audience will always have the chance to see the artist in media but hardly or never in real life.

Paradox 1 – Jennifer Lopez

Ordinary: Mum

Extraordinary: Wealthy 

Paradox 2 – Jennifer Lopez

Present: Youtube

Absent: You rarely or never see them in person

Star image:

The incoherence (incompletion) of the star’s image makes certain that audiences frequently attempt to ‘complete’ or to ‘make sense of’ of the stars image by visualising their image through media to gain an understanding of who they are and what their values are.  This is normally gained by the consumption of the stars products. 

In the music industry, performances seem to promise the completion of a star’s image, though it almost ultimately proves unsatisfying through the concept of how the artist performs for example artists tend to forget lyrics, acts, make mistakes and speak on stage, which damages their image not developing it.

This will ultimately lead the fans to go away further more consuming the star in order to carry on attempting or rediscovering their image. This means that fans will go away determined to continue consuming the star in order to carry on attempting to complete their image.

Lastly, the star image can be used by the record label to position the consumer in relation to dominant genres (hegemony). Depending upon the artist, this may mean the audience may see to go against the mainstream (though only to a limited point as they are still consumers within a capitalist system) or within the mainstream, or somewhere between. For example Punk music would seem to go against Hegemony as it is dark and stand for their own values while Michael Jackson has followed the genre characters of pop for 30 years appealing to all. 

Punk classed as against Hegemony

Michael Jackson – Pop considered to be with Hegemony

“In these terms it can be argued that stars are representations of persons which reinforce, legitimate or occasionally alter the prevalent preconceptions of what it is to be a human being in this society.  There is a good deal at stake in such conceptions.  On the one hand, our society stresses what makes them like others in the social group/class/gender to which they belong.  This individualising stress involves a separation of the person's "self" from his/her social "roles", and hence poses the individual against society.  On the other hand society suggests that certain norms of behaviour are appropriate to given groups of people, which many people in such groups would now wish to contest (eg the struggles over representation of blacks, women and gays in recent years).  Stars are one of the ways in which conceptions of such persons are promulgated.”

Richard Dyer (Stars, BFI, 1981)