Richard Dyer's Star Theory - Notes

Stars as Constructions:

• -        How nowadays, pop stars are not people who have worked their way up through the music business and have tried extremely hard to get their music out there, they are manipulated and changed by their managers to look a certain way and do things a certain way.
• -       Pop stars try to follow the natural trend that occurs in fashion ect so that people still think they are new and edgey.
• -       Shows such as XFactor and Pop Idol create pop stars that are given everything and are made to fit only certain expectations of the market and also believe in only singing perfect notes and having a professional showbiz personality instead of real passion for the music, such as you would see in Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Ideology and Culture:

• -      Stars tend to try and have their own opinions on certain subjects that interest them which they spread to their fans through the use of social media and interviews, they also encourage them to have their say on the topics the bring up as it makes them more interesting and seem more educated.
• -       Stars try to also create trends through fashion or hairstyles which their fans can copy, a good example is Justin Bieber with his haircut, it became a craze and people knew (especially guys) that girls loved the hair.
• -       People are constantly trying to scrutinise against stars through media such as radio, TV shows, magazines and websites.

Industry and Audience:

• -       Stars are created by music industries to make money out of people, they try to give them as much likeability as possible as the fans are the means of keeping the music industry together.
• -       Certain markets don’t buy into the hype about bands as they feel they are buying into a photocopied media.
• -       Such a vast range of genres to make music for
• -       One way to tailor to different genres is have multiple stars for the multiple genres to gain the money or have a long-lasting star, these are more bands that establish a brand and cater for audiences for many years, bands such as U2 and Oasis.
• -       Stars are churned out too quickly and not built up, meaning they have less time as stars.
• -       Such a large jump from the young stars aimed at teens and ‘Golden Oldies’ aimed at people who have been around a bit longer.