Stars & StardomBy Charlotte Frazer

Richard Dyer: What he proposes He proposes that stars have multiple key

features in common: A star is an image, not a real person, that has

been constructed from a range of materials Stars are commodities, produced and

consumed on the strength of their meanings They depend upon a range of subsidiary

media; magazines, TV, radio, the internet etc They are made up of a range of meanings that

are interesting to their target audience

The Paradoxes:-

1: The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer

2: The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer

Star Image: The incoherence of the star image ensures that

audience's continually strive to try and make sense of it

This can be achieved through the use of the artist’s products

Performance seems to promise the completion of the star image, but it is ultimately unsatisfying

Audience’s will carry on consuming the star in order to carry on attempting to complete their image

Depending upon the artist, it means the audience’s can be positioned against the mainstream or somewhere inbetween

Miley Cyrus

Name: Destiny Hope Cyrus (Miley Cyrus)

D.O.B: 23/11/1992 Nashville,

TennesseeGenre: Country, Pop,

Rock, R&BRecord Labels: Hollywood,

RCA

“Life is all about having a good time”

Record Label: Advantages/Disadvantages Hollywood – Advantages: It’s parent company is ‘Disney

Music Group’ which is a large media conglomerate; therefore, allowing artist’s to have a bigger budget. It gains large recognition from backing the likes of Demi Lovato, Bridgit Mendler and Selena Gomez.

Disadvantages – It has a rather niche market due to it supporting mainly ‘Disney Stars’, therefore, the target audience would be aimed at younger children from age 8 – 13.

RCA – Advantages – Their parent company is ‘Sony

Music Entertainment’, this is another huge media conglomerate which will enable its artist’s to have a large budget. It was founded in 1901 which shows that it has been highly successful as it is over 100 years old. It is the second oldest recording company in US history. Artist’s include: David Bowie, Chris Brown, Kelly Clarkson, Kasabian and Avril Lavigne.

Common Values: Miley has always had an

element of incoherence as her image never appears to be organized and lacks clarity for her audience. She has continued to change her style in clothes, music and the style of her hair. These changes that escalate keep the audience interested in her, as no one knows what she’ll do next.

At the start of Miley’s career she came across as redundant as her music could be predicted and it didn’t resemble artist’s such as Rihanna or Madonna. However, she has emerged into an entropic artist as everything she currently does is unpredictable. For example, dancing with teddy bears is unpredictable and had no relevance to the song, ‘We Can’t Stop’.

Miley has recently campaigned for ‘Protect the skin you’re in’ for cancer. This creates a juxtaposition within her star image as it goes against her wild antics. The products (T-Shirts) are encouraging the audience to carry on consuming her image in order to gain a sense of completion for her image.

Application of the Paradoxes:- Ordinary and extraordinary:- with Miley’s ever changing

appearance, she delves from the ordinary to extraordinary continuously. As she grows into a young adult, she has explored her extraordinary side more and more. She has explained that she wanted to get away from her childhood star days or being in Hannah Montana. She’s growing within the industry – which increases her audience consumption.

Present and Absent:- Miley has been present and absent in a number of ways. She changed her career path from music to pursue an acting career, which she later regretted. For a short while she took a break to explore where she wanted to be in the industry. Although it is argued she is absent from her ‘old’ self, she has just grown like any other artist and has stated that she has now discovered her true self.

What kind of Star Image do I want to create for my artist/band? Due to the genre of the song I have chosen,

my artist will have to portray an alternative, country appearance.

It is common for my genre to be fairly redundant; therefore, I think I will portray my artist to be redundant as it would enable the audience to relate to him more.

The image of my artist will connote a laid-back, relaxed feeling. I will achieve this through his style (clothing) and the digi-pak for my music video.

The Image of Alternative Artist’s:-

Many of the artist’s appear to be wearing shirts; especially ones with a chequered design. This connotes a relaxing, realistic and laid-back feeling that the audience could easily relate to.

The colours range from: black, red to neutral – most of them are natural tones that resemble an alternative, country feel.

I will use similar ideas in order to create my artist’s image.