Blog 8: Star Theory - Richard Dyer

Star Theory - Richard Dyer

Stars As Constructions:

Richard dyer believes that artist such as Madonna and Britney Spears are created for all artificial uses such as media consumption through product placement, advertisements, erotic desire and any means that will make them (the artist) and their record producers money. Richard dyer also stated that audiences prefer it when an artist portrays his or her true emotions and feelings through the artist profile without following the artificial stereotype that their managers and record labels advice them to do but instead do what they want and what would make them happy as an artist. This is known as being a "Real" artist, being a "Real" artist is also a selling point on its own and it encourages people who do not like to follow the mainstream flow to buy this artists music or general media. 

Promotion - Industry and Audiences:

Richard Dyer also believed that stars are manufactured for the soul reason to make money for their record labels, managers and generally anyone that is used to control them and their image. As a result of this record labels have to cater their different artists to appeal to different target audiences and ages, for example One Direction appeal to mostly 10-16 year old whereas that same record company might also have someone else to appeal to that of an older age group.

Promotion - Ideology and Culture:

Artists will become trendsetters. This idea states that any popular artist that is made popular under a particular style or image will be mimicked by that of their audience as their followers will try to copy them and everything they do in their hopes to be like them. It may even get so extreme that audiences
even change their religious beliefs because of their artists religious preferences. Sources such as the internet and other ways that technology can be used allows audiences to be up to date on anything and everything that their artist does and therefore allowing them to obsess over them further.

Promotion - Stars Support Hegemony:

Stars support hegemony, this is by their use of ideology and the presentation of a "glorified version of normal people" they are seen as leaders by portraying their dominance by the means of paparazzi's constantly glorifying them and trying to analyse every aspect of their life in order to make money. There is also a theory of Cultural Hegemony this describes how states can use cultural institutions to maintain power in capitalist society's for example.

Artists Representation in Music Videos

Music industries and more specifically record companies create the artists profiles under their own unique genre, for example rock, pop, rap, RnB, etc. each genre/category has their own signatures of which appear in almost all of the music videos that fit under this category of music genre. Because of this record labels can decide whether they want their music video to conform or contrast to that of the music video genres overall idea and use this to promote the video. 

An example that we can use for an artist profile in a music video is that of the superstar sensation Britney Spears. Britney spears videos for all of her songs all depict to the same target audience. Her empowering body language and overall catchy songs from her (a woman's) perspective appeal to that of the teen girl market very well. However the extent of the sex appeal within the video suggest appeal to a male audience, this shows Laura Mulveys idea of the male gaze. From this piece of information we can say that Britneys career is built around a male controlled industry. 

We also see features of pop videos that are typical of the , girl group/teen girl style music video such as catchy choreography and synchronized dance moves along with the image of childish pigtails in her hair.

Deconstructing Britney Spears: 

This was a music video that Britney Spears released very early in her career as one of her first majorly popular songs. As for her image in the video i would definitely say that the music video, and more specifically the mise-en-scene within the video is very exploitative in oppose to it being empowering. This is because she is playing the character of a bored, blond, not too bright school girl and is wearing this characters costume in not the most decent way as it has been turned into a crop top and an incredibly short skirt leaving little to the imagination. This again conforms with Laura Mulveys theory of the male gaze as this video was obviously set up by her dominantly male corporation leaders and as well as that it was definitely made for her male audience specifically, while still trying to appeal to other audiences at the same time. 

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During Britneys early years her videos made her surrounded by teen iconography, such as meeting with friends, tight clothing, pink, revealing clothes, pigtails etc. This developed into how people saw her, in other words her image. Britneys image reflecting teen life and all the dram that comes with it correlates extremely well with the songs she released for example her song "I'm Not A Girl Not Yet A Woman" details her struggles growing up as well as general teenagers struggles everywhere, thus appealing again to her teenage audience but this time more to teenager in general instead of just the male audience. 

Unlike our other Britney examples this one seems very indecisive on what it is trying to do, by this i mean that it has elements of being both exploitative as well as empowering. This is done by the very strong and heartfelt lyrics that were made to appeal to female audiences and encourage them to achieve well in life, the lyrics also make the song more enjoyable which contributes to its popularity. However there are scenes during the video where we see Britneys typical lack of clothing or modified clothing to suit her "Style" such as the cowboy like outfit in the beginning. This conforms with earlier Britney such as "Oops I Did It Again".

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Moving on to Britneys much later career, the song "Overprotected" was made as her response to a news report that she saw about her not wearing as much clothes as she should in public places. Because of this the song "Overprotected" is a very powerful song and it is seen as empowering to women of all ages and for this reason it is very popular to its specific target audience which in this case is women in general. 

In conclusion when it comes to gender debates, Britney Spears songs are seen as polysemic texts, meaning they have more than one meaning and can be perceived in many different ways. We have seen Britney Spears career evolve from the early "Teen Princess" through to a half naked woman who does performances souly for male audiences or only to appeal to male audiences.