Star Image

Star and Star Image

• In order to understand the relationship between the music industry and its audiences it is important to consider the roles of music stars
• The term 'star; refers to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience

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, that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials (e.g. advertising, magazines etc as well as films

- Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings

• Stars are reliant upon a range of subsidiary media - magazines, TV, radio, the internet - in order to construct an image for themselves which can be marketed to their target audience
• The star 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:

- Simultaneously the star is present in our lives and absent. 

Common Values of music Stardom:

• youthfulness
• rebellion
• sexual 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

The star Image:

• The incoherence of the star image ensures that audiences continually strive to 'complete' or to 'make sense of' the image
• This means that fans will go way determined to continue consuming the star in order to carry on attempting to complete their image