Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Saturday, 9 October 2010
Richard Dyer-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. Some common values of music stardom include youthfulness, rebellion, sexual magnetism, anti-authoritarian attitude, originality, creativity/talent, aggression and disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour. Dyer has written about the role of stars in film, TV and music.
Stars have some key features in common such as a star is an image not a real person that is constructed out of a range of materials. Stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media e.g magazines, TV, radio and the internet in order to construct an image for themselves which can be marketed to their target audiences. The star image is made up of a range of meanings which are attractive to the target audience. Fundamentally, the star image is incoherent; Dyer says that this is because it is biased upon two key paradoxes. The first is the star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer and the second is that the star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer. The incoherence of the star image ensures that audiences continually strive to complete 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. 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. Depending upon the artist, this may mean that the audience are positioned against the mainstream or within the mainstream or between. Richard Dyer made a star image quote which is: “In these terms it can be argued that stars are representations of persons which reinforce, legitimate or occasionally alter the prevalent preconceptions of what it is to be a human being in this society. There is a good deal at stake in such conceptions. On one hand our society stresses what makes them like others in the social group to which they belong. This individualising stress involved a separation of the person’s self from his/her social roles and hence posses the individual against society. On the other hand society suggests that certain norms of behaviour are appropriate to given groups of people, which many people in such groups would now wish to contest. Stars are one of the ways in which conceptions of such persons are promulgated.
Stars have some key features in common such as a star is an image not a real person that is constructed out of a range of materials. Stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media e.g magazines, TV, radio and the internet in order to construct an image for themselves which can be marketed to their target audiences. The star image is made up of a range of meanings which are attractive to the target audience. Fundamentally, the star image is incoherent; Dyer says that this is because it is biased upon two key paradoxes. The first is the star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer and the second is that the star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer. The incoherence of the star image ensures that audiences continually strive to complete 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. 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. Depending upon the artist, this may mean that the audience are positioned against the mainstream or within the mainstream or between. Richard Dyer made a star image quote which is: “In these terms it can be argued that stars are representations of persons which reinforce, legitimate or occasionally alter the prevalent preconceptions of what it is to be a human being in this society. There is a good deal at stake in such conceptions. On one hand our society stresses what makes them like others in the social group to which they belong. This individualising stress involved a separation of the person’s self from his/her social roles and hence posses the individual against society. On the other hand society suggests that certain norms of behaviour are appropriate to given groups of people, which many people in such groups would now wish to contest. Stars are one of the ways in which conceptions of such persons are promulgated.
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