"The term 'star' refers to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience"
Identified values of music stardom
Dyer has throughly explored the role of stardom in film, television and music identifying the image of stars, connections between the industries and the response from audiences.
Dyer is currently a professor for film studies at Kings College London. He has written a catalogue of books which assess stardom, society and media industries which provide research and theroies into the evoloution of stardom in the music industry.
Features of a star
Irrespective of the media the star has found fame in, the features of a 'star' are as followed :
- A fictional image constructed by the artist's materials
-The commodities are produced and consumed on the impact of their meaning
-Subsidary media must be used to develop the image of a star and make them marketable
-The meanings the star is built on must be attractive to a target audience
Dyer goes on to suggest that a star is based upon two paradoxes allowing them to be 'open', he notes that these are :
- To be both ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer
- The star should be present yet absent for their audience
The star image
Dyer suggests 'The incoherence of the star image ensures that audiences continually strive to 'complete' or to 'make sense of' of the image. This is achieved by the continous consumption of the celebrity through their existing products.
Dyer continues his study into the star image and observes the following :
'In the music industry, performance seems to promise the completion of the image, but it is always ultimately unsatisfying.'
Because of this the audience will set out to consume more of the star's products in order to develop their understanding of the image and try to find the compleition of the image portrayed by the star.
The position of the audience will be manipulated dependent on the image of the star, the image portrayed by artists can be used to position audiences in 'relation to dominant social values'.
As the consumers are part of a capitalist system this is limited meaning the audience can only be placed in the mainstream, against the mainstream or in the grey area.
Stars can be seen in this way as representations of people who alter or empahsise preconceptions of society. For example, it is stressed in society to stick to the staus quo and 'fit in' where you belong (based on social groupings,gender,sexuality etc).
Dyer continues, desrcibing the contrast to this and the role of stars and their images, in accepting or denying society's expectations.
'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.'
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Dyer's theory reinforces the importance of translating a clear image in my music video which comments on the artist's persona and outlook onto popular culture and society as a whole.
I will ensure when planning to research the band and genre who's song I will use for my video to successfully depict their 'star image' in the visuals and narrative of my music video.
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