Richard Dyers star theory- Summer post 4

A pop performer and a pop star are very different things. There are many musicians who are known for the music they me and only for that. However there are some that are known for persona which is not restricted solely to their musicianship.  A performer can become a star through an outbreak of a story in a magazine or even by having a famous boyfriend can change you from a performer into a star. Stars are not real, they are artificial images, a product that their audience long to be but can never obtain. They are unobtainable however connectable. There are many examples which illustrate that pop stars are metonymic. Star image is something that can be constructed within an artist. However the construction is fictional.

Star image is also of age and is up to date which is why David Bowie doesn’t wear sci fi costume and why bon jovi don’t have long curly hair. There is no model fit for a construction of star image, each star has a unique construction that is put forward to attract an audience. This is the reason why the winners of shows such as x factor are not successful. They have been moulded into what the industry sees as the model star, however they have not given their audience any RTB. They therefore have no purpose in the industry as the purpose of stars is to make money out of audiences.

The industry has identified the range of audiences that it has to cater for which is why such a diverse and wide range of genres are prevalent in music today. However pop stars often have a very low expiry date, another way to produce a star is to give it a long lasting appeal. Groups such as the rolling stones, Bon Jovi and U2 were all made for this reason as they could cater for different audiences for decades and still retain fan bases over this time.

All pop stars have shared cultural values. They all promote a common ideology which is to keep their audiences interested through star quality. Stars have the opportunities’ to influence culture and may start a new fashion trend such as what happened after Duran Duran. Elvis is also a representative of how stars can conduct social change through music and their life of the stage.

Stars are constructed on what people are supposed to like, for my media product I would like to construct a star that has outstanding star quality and will instantly become unobtainable and provide audiences with a new culture. For my media product I will construct a star that stands out and is not the stereo typical pop star however a unique figure in the music industry.