Richard Dyer's Star Theory
Richard Dyer's Star
Theory brings to light the idea that icons and celebrities are constructed by
institutions for financial reasons
There are 3 sections
to Dyer's theory; commodity, construction and ideology. The construction aspect
highlights the issue that the star is created and marketed by management in
order to boost sales and to make the artist more popular for financial benefit.
Commodity tells us that the artist is only there to make money for the record
label and that they are sold for specific target audiences. Lastly, ideology
shows us that the artist is there to represent a certain set of values and
beliefs that relate to their target audience. The theory states that these 3
aspects are all for financial benefit of the record label.
Commodity:
The record label
shapes the star around their target audience and this is mainly to increase
popularity. This then leads to more sales and more money for the label - the
ultimate goal. Usually the record label sells a form of merchandise in order to
boost sales for the record label. One Direction is a group of boys that are
very similar and sell a huge amount of merchandise to their target audience,
raising more money for the record label.
Construction:
This is where the
star is built for an audience is not being their actual self. The main reason
for this is to attract a wide array of people to listen to their music or watch
their music videos. More often than not the star has a signature feature that people
remember them by, for example Lady Gaga's meat dress.
Miley Cyrus became
notably famous for cutting her hair, dying it, twerking and riding on a wrecking ball. She would not be doing this
in her private life making her two different people - a construction.
Hegemony:
When there is a
feature that we like about the star we relate to them and start to admire them.
This is called hegemony. This then develops from admiration into idolization,
and in some cases some people copy what the star has done in order to be more
like them. However, this can have a negative impact as some stars abuse drugs
and alcohol - some people who worship these idols then copy their actions.
Toby Sheldon was a
man who wanted to look like Justin Bieber and spent over $100,000 on plastic
surgery to look like him.
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