Star Theory - Richard Dyer

Star Theory - Richard Dyer

Promotion

Richard Dyer has beliefs that music artists were given an image when they were singing their songs. The image that they were given was not one that they have naturally made for themselves, but one that has been artificially designed for them by people behind the scenes. He believed that these artists were manufactured in way of which would appeal to specific target audiences, in a way of making money. Record Labels would therefore have lots of artists signed to them, and would artificially manufacture them in a way that would appeal to a variety of different audiences. There would be artists that would appeal to mainstream audiences, and "niche" audiences.  Dyer believes that images such as: Advertisements, Films, Magazines and Music are designed specifically in a way which creates a specific image for that artist. For example, the kind of music that the artist sings, and the lyrics of the song would give the artist an image depending on what the lyrics were. He also believed that audiences preferred artists who made their own natural image, and were being true to themselves rather than being given an image by people behind the scenes. He also believed that if an artist promoted themselves as being "real", then that can be one of their major selling points. 

Culture

Richard Dyer also believed that artists also created trends of which their audiences followed while they were consuming their music. Artists become trendsetters and their fans often copy their clothing styles and hair styles that their favourite artist. This was evident when The Beatles first come on the scene as most of their fans often copied their hairstyles. Audiences often shared religious beliefs with their favourite artists. Also, due to the rapid increase in the use of internet and social media, audiences have more access to their favourite artists personal life.

Celebrities also support hegemony. Hegemony is when one social group is dominant over the others.  However, they like to presented as real human beings, but just more special or glorified then regular audiences. One of the theories based around hegemony which is quite popular is Cultural Hegemony. Gramsci is most famous for this theory, and this theory states how states use cultural institutions to maintain power in capitalist societies.

Representation

The music industry is able to create and promote different artists who specialise in different genres as they are able to appeal to different target audiences. For example, if a particular artist was singing pop music, the music industry would give that artist the representation of being a pop star and they would actually be able to look like a pop star and be able to appeal to the audience that is interested in pop music. An example of this is Britney Spears.

Deconstruction Britney Spears

When Britney Spears come on the scene, it was very unusual as the music industry was dominated by male artists, and there wasn't many popular and influential female artists in the music industry. Her identity was placed within a male dominated industry and it was thought that it would be really hard for her to break out and become a big star. However, she was able to do this, because of the rarity of females in the music industry. Because of the lack of females, Britney became so popular with the teen girl audience because she was seen as some kind of role model for them, and was dressed by the music industry in a way that appeals to this audience. She was also able to raise femininity issues in her music videos of which teen girls were able to relate with.  In her early days, she was able to appeal to the really young female group, (10-15-ish) by her music videos and image. She was given a really girly image, almost Barbie like. She had a lot of young female traits in her videos such as bedroom shots, dolls, pink things, going out with friends etc. She also has the iconic look of the pigtails. She also appealed to this audience by performing basic, easy to learn dance moves that her audience could copy in order to be apart of her "gang".  Below is the video of which displays her pigtails look and the way she appeals to female audiences. In regards to Laura Mulvey's theory, she is seen to be the object of erotic desire and she wears a crop top, and some kind of sports bra which is able to show off her body to the audience. It is an exploitative video.

The video "From the Bottom of my Broken Heart" is a good example of Britney being able to raise issues to do with femininity because she sings about having a broken heart, and this could be a problem that teenage girls could be facing at that kind of age.




The video "I'm not a girl, not yet a woman" can be seen as both an exploitative and an empowering kind of video. It could be seen as empowering because she's singing about how she's not a girl anymore, and she's ready to grow up and be mature. Also, the strong lyrics and strong vocals also reflect this statement. On the other hand, with her clothing that she is wearing, this video could also been seen as exploitative because of her revealing her body. With Britney showing off her body, this could be seen as exploiting her to her male audience which would agree with Laura Mulvey's theory.





In this video, Britney acknowledges that she has been wearing skimpy clothing in her videos, and the whole storyline of this music video is about how news reporters want to interview her about her choice of clothing and how it could be seen as controversial. However, this music video is strange in the way that the title of the song is called "Overprotected" as the media wants her to wear clothes so that she doesn't expose her body, but in the music video, she is seen to be still wearing skimpy clothing and is still able to wear tight clothing and be able to show off her body. She doesn't want to be told what to wear by the media, so she still chooses to wear the clothing that she wants which is an empowering message to women.




The last video I am going to be discussing is the song "Hold it Against Me". The music video is very strange in the way it seems like Britney is fed up of all of the images that she has been given in all of her previous videos and just wants to be known for her own personality instead of being given images by the music industry. This is because in the video, she is standing in some kind of room, with loads of computer screens around her. On these computer screens, are images of Britney when she done all of her previous music videos and all of the images that she has been given in this time. During the video, she gets lots of paint and decides to shoot it at the screens indicating that she's fed up of these images that she has been given, and just wants to be known for her own personality.