Star Theory

Dyer's Star Theory

The star theory was designed to show what stars do what they do for the public eye and reasons for this. Star theory is designed for popular culture. The term ‘Stars’ refers to the set of meanings constructed around music artists in order to sell their music to a mainstream/loyal audience. The industry shows that the more mainstream you are to an audience, the more money you will earn in your career. Quoted from Richard Dyers book, he mentioned a couple of things which the star must be. This was quite interesting as they contradict themselves;

“The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer”.
“The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer”.

This means that not only should a star be an inspiration and amazing in audiences eyes, they should also relate to the audience in a personal manner. Also, the audience should feel connected to the star's music whether they can see them present in a music video or not.

A Performer may or may not be famous, but can perform music. Whereas a pop star has an image which is completely constructed to an audience. An artist which is a performer and not a star is someone like Token, he is not known very well but he is an amazing dancer and works great with the camera. In this industry, it’s not always about the talent because if a star isn’t attractive, an audience won’t be as interested as someone who can look attractive on a screen. For example, Selena Gomez is an attractive artist who makes music but can’t sing as good as the likes of Whitney Houston.

Stars as Constructions:

Stars are constructed and have an artificial image. This helps if their image has a unique selling point. Film stars have their image based on roles they have in films. Music stars have more of an advantage over film stars because they are freer in expressing themselves, which could be dangerous at rhe same time. For example, being too explicit or controversial in their music vided can offend audiences, making them lose their fan base. X Factor is a prime example of showing us the supposed construction process. This shows how an ordinary person can groomed, styled, coached and formed into a ‘Star’ or a record company and build their market expectations.

A prime example is the band one direction. They came into the X factor competition as solo artists in 2010 and was put together as a boy band. The five boys didn’t know who each other were, they were complete strangers. They were put into a band to create a cute, attractive, jolly boy band who will attract a huge teenage fan base who are mainly girls. They blew up in the UK and was constructed into extremely attractive young boys who appeal to young teenage girls.

Industry and Audience:

·     Whatever their nature, are quite clearly the product of their record company – and they must be sold.

·      Record companies identify what sells. They produce the same thing over and over again and they always have someone fresh to choose from. For example, Selena Gomez’ image in this present moment was constructed because her career on Disney channel was dying. She needed to gain attention to create a brand new image which will attract audiences and make her unique and recognizable, so she can gain money.

      Ideology and Culture:

Stars are represent attitudes from their own beliefs and cultural values, and promote a certain ideology they believe in and agree in. Audience interest in these values enhance their ‘star quality’ and create their own star persona.

Social networks give pop stars to the opportunity to establish their own values outside their music.

For example, in Kanye west’s music video ‘Diamonds are forever’, he represents the mining in Africa for diamonds, gold and other extremely expensive pieces of earth which are valuable to the world. The fact their hard work isn’t recognized and they don’t get valued and paid enough for their work with and sacrifice to the potential dangers of mining, he wanted to express his views on that through his music video and did this very well.

Character and Personality:

The star is a construct, but the construct that has a foundation of realism. Stars provide audiences with a focus for ideas of ‘what people are supposed to be like’.

Stars must support hegemony (dominant cultural ideology) by conforming to it (thin/beautiful) or providing difference (fat/still loveable).

For example, Logic represents realism in both his lyrics and visuals of his music videos. In his music video ‘1-800-273-8255’, he represents realism in mental illnesses and suicide. He mainly shows the realism of people who struggle to express their sexuality in the current society. 

Do artists/bands have control over their star image?

In my opinion, I believe for a star to be successful in the long term, they need their image to be constructed by a manager figure. For them to build their career and gain a secure/loyal audience, at the beginning they have no power over their image in order to be successful and become as famous as they want to be. Once a star has been in the industry for a while and has secured a large fan base, they can have their star image in their own hands and make their own identity because they have the power.