Richard Dyer

Stars and Stardom

• In order to understand the relationship between the music industry and its audiences, it is important to consider the role of music star
• The term ‘star’ refers to the semi-mythological set of meaning constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience

Some Common Values of Music Stardom

• Youthfulness
• Rebellion
• Sex magnetism
• An anti-authoritarian attitude
• Originality
• Creativity/talent
• Aggression/anger
• 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 Dyer

· Dyer has written extensively about the role of stars in film, TV and music.

· Irrespective of the medium, stars have some key features in common:

· A star is an image, not a real person, this is constructed(as any other aspect of fiction is)out of a range of material (e.g. advertising, magazines etc as well as films music)

· Stars as commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings

· Stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media- magazine, TV, radio, the internet – in order to construct an image is made up of a range of meanings which are attractive to the target audiences.

· Fundamentally, the star image is incoherent, that is incomplete and ‘open’. Dyer says that this is because it is based upon two key paradoxes.

Paradox 1

• The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer

Paradox 2

• The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer.

The star Image

· The incoherence of the star image ensures that audiences continually strive to ‘complete’ or to ‘make sense’ of the image.

· This is achieved by continued consumption of the star through his or her products

· In the music industry, performance seems to promise the completion of the image, but it is always ultimately unsatisfying

· This means that fans will go away determined to continue consuming the star in order to carry on attempting to complete their image.

· Finally, the star image can be used to position the consumer in relation to dominant social values (that is hegemony).

· Depending upon the artist, this may mean that the audience are positioned against the mainstream (though only to a limited degree, since they are still consumers within a capitalist system) or within the mainstream, or somewhere in between.