Hurtwood Media A2 - Star Image

A star is an image, not the real person themselves, that is constructed out of a range of materials - for example the magazines, music videos advertising etc...

         >The Star is a Construction<

It helps a great deal if their image consists of a unique selling point, which may be copied/mimiced in a positive or negative way. This may be represented within a particular genre, so for a musical artist this genre could be pop or rap due to the type or music they produce and they way they present themselves.

Record companies produce stars for profit purposes only not for an artistic merit, their main goal and priority is to make money out of them. They pick and choose artists who they know are easy to build upon and then sell to the public easily through their costume, public appearences etc....

Some common values or music stars are:

• Originality
• Rebellion
• Youthfulness
• Origininality
• Sexual magnestism
• An anti-authoritarian attitude
• Aggression/anger
• Creativity/talent
• A disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour
• Conspicuous consumption of sex, drugs and material goods
• Success against the odds

Richard W.Dyer is a English academic specialising in cinema and was born in 1945. He started at the University of Warwick then in 2006 he became a Professor of Film Studies at 'Kings College London'. His work is described as ''Emphasising the aesthetic and historical specificity of cultural texts'.

His theory suggests that a 'stars' construction takes several forms:

    The star is....

1. A Construction
2. A Commodity
3. A Idealogy

 The star image is made up of a range of meanings which are attractive to the target audiences, ultimately the star image is disorded and incoherent  that is incomplete and 'open'.

According to Dyer this is based on Two Paradoxes.

Paradox 1

The 'star' must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer. This is because the 'star' themselves is ordinary so the public and consumer can relate to them. For example the way that they dress, not all artists dress in just expensive designer clothing, they mix it up by wearing high-street clothing as well and so the public can relate to them in this way as not everyone can afford the same luxiouries. A star being 'extra ordinary' enables the consumer something to asipre to being, for example how stars advertise themslves on the front of magezines and also performing in font of millions of people. This of course is extraordinary as the consumers aren't able to do this kind of stuff and live in this kind of way, its unimagible for a 'normal' person.

Paradox 2

The 'star' must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer. Because they are present the consumer can feel closer to the artist. A way that this is done is through the use of youtube and being able to post videos online for the public to use at anytime, also through the access to personal webpages. The 'star' being absent means that the consumers rarely see them in real life but they are able to access information about them and their lifes through modern day technology.