Richard Dyer’s Star theory applied to pop stars

“A star is an image not a real person that is constructed (as any other aspects of fiction is) out of a range of materials (eg advertising, magazines etc as well as films [music]).” - Richard Dyer

Meaning, a star's image is created via the process of construction and by the means of advertisements, social media and events. Furthermore, stars become recognised by different platforms through merchandising their profile; such merchandising suits the means of profitable operations in regards to industries. Whereby, stars become a commodity. In addition, stars become influential to fans, whereby stars may represent social groups or cultures and encourage fans to share similar views; creating ideologies where stars act as the ideologists.

Richard Dyer’s Star theory applied to pop stars (continued)

Richard Dyer produced the book known as ‘Stars’ within the year of 1979. Which, within the book developed his ideas of viewers having certain perspectives of films; claiming that such perceptions were encouraged via publicised figures (stars), also reviews and public resources influence how audiences experience films. After founding such theory, Richard Dyer met the means of investigating magazines, advertising methods, films and critical writing in the form of reviews; to obtain an understanding of the relationship between popular figures and their influence on audience perception in context to films.

It is notable that a popstar has a significance to other marketing over time, such as brand association and recognition. Whereby, many of the current artists featuring within the top margin of music charts do not posses such qualities; which questions whether they are Pop stars in consideration of Richard Dyer’s Star theory.

Artist(s) that suits the ideals of a pop star figure

One Direction, are an English and Irish male pop group which become successful due to their televised performance on the show: The X Factor (2010); placing third position in the competition and later signing to Simon Cowell's record label: Syco Records of a £2 Million contract. An increase in publicity was gained via social networking on an international scale, based on their performance whilst on the show. However, during the competition, the group was not known of until the stage of “bootcamp”. Whereby, in past stages all members were solo performances, yet all members didn’t qualify for the category labelled “boys”. Alternatively, Simon Cowell merged all five performances to create a group known to be “One Direction”, which secured a placement in the “groups” category, leading to their third placement finish in the competition.

In future moments after the competition, the group participated within the X Factor Live Tour where the group had performed for 500,000 people across the United Kingdom. Concluding their tour, the group continued to create their debut album “Up All Night” in various locations including London, Stockholm and Los Angeles. Which, the album included their debut single “What Makes You Beautiful”; claiming rank one in the UK music chartings (2011), later evolving into Sony Music Entertainment’s most pre-ordered music single in history. Notably the singles “Gotta Be You” and “One Thing” also claimed positions within the top ten UK music chartings.

Artist(s) that suits the ideals of a pop star figure (continued)

In addition, One Direction’s debut single “What Makes You Beautiful” also secured rank twenty-eight within the ‘Billboard Hot 100’; ranked as the highest debut single of a British act since 1998. Furthermore, their debut album achieved as the UK’s fastest selling debut album of the year (2011), claiming positions of top ten within sixteen countries music chartings, thriving within the ‘Billboard 200’ charting and lastly the debut album accumulated five-hundred-thousand sales in a digital form within the USA (selling three-million copies via August 2012).

Moreover, One Direction become titled as the first British group within the USA chart history to secure first position via their debut album (becoming introduced to the Guinness World Records in result). Without doubt, One Direction’s popularity had enlarged significantly since their release of their debut album and notice within the USA and UK. Presently, One Direction demonstrates similar attributes in which have accumulated many awards; obtaining five BRIT awards, three NME awards, two Kids’ Choice awards, four MTV Music Video awards, winning twenty-seven awards from twenty-nine nominations via Teen Choice awards and additionally two American Music awards from their two nominations of the titles ‘Favourite PoP/ Rock Album’ and ‘Favourite PoP/ Rock Band’.

Artist(s) that suits the ideals of a pop star figure (continued)

Furthermore, it is inevitable that One Direction is considered to be an association of pop stars. Nevertheless, the group has acted as idealist figures, encouraged via their numerous charity involvement such as: BBC’s Children In Need (2011), Comic Relief (2013), money raised towards the Autism Action and Temporary Emergency Accommodation Mullingar charities (2012), Cancer Research (in the act as ambassadors of the charity) and the Stand up to Cancer campaign also. Such involvement has provided One Direction with a positive image, becoming foreseen as idealistic models to audiences; encouraging their audience span to increase via their positive moralities which provides their audiences with a likeability perspective of them.

In addition, the implication of social media has allowed One Direction to seem fan-endorsed via utilising Twitter as a communication platform; accumulating ten-million followers by February 2013. Such means of social media has constructed another image of the group, being socially interactive; showing an interest and caring attitudes towards their fans. Which, is portrayed as a positive image, hence strengthens their likeability as a group. Moreover, One Direction is inevitably a commodity; which are branded to merchandise such as clothing, jewelry and accessories for profitable purposes. Which, allows stars to be utilised as a source of awareness in relation to brand identity. From an institutional perspective, is highly profitable as promotion encourages an increase in sales; further allowing fans to make relations between merchandise and artists, known as brand association. Which, in turn accumulates a larger audience span to the artists.

Artist(s) that suits the ideals of a pop star figure (continued)

Controversially, the image of One Direction has more recently been obscured upon a member's lack of participation in their Asian tour on March 19th. Whereby, member ‘Zayn Malik’ was known to be airborne and to return to his family in the UK. Such actions were in response to images that highlighted himself and an unseen girl, located within Thailand; becoming a popular topic within social networking. Further on, member ‘Zayn Malik’ left the group, after being removed from the group's Asian tour on March 25th; said to be the cause of the stress Zayn Malik was experiencing. Evidently, the groups exclusion of Zayn Malik caused the image of One Direction to alternate, negatively. Where, sudden views of the group become of a disappointment.

This is evident as fans begun to reach out to Zayn, in act of changing his thoughts to re-join the group. In which, Zayn Malik seemed to be the social connection between the group and fanbase, so much so, one individual stated that her world had “stopped turning”(Daily Mail). In addition, such event accumulated of around 4,600 tweets per minute on Twitter; inclusive of a self-harm related hashtag, that became trending on a global basis. It was apparent that teenaged fans of the group begun posting pictures of the arms, but slashed; encouraging other fans to recreate the same harm. Such acts were implicated to forcefully make Zayn Malik re-join the group, yet their attempts were unsuccessful.

Artist(s) that suits the ideals of a pop star figure (concluded)

In conclusion, it is clear that One Direction is a constructed image, where their image is similar to other existing and pre-existing bands, whose image is also determined by the media and is based upon their actions. It is notable that both positive and negative events within the group are socially highlighted via social media, yet the group is generally perceived as being idealistic figures. Inevitably, their fan base population alone grants them a ‘PoP Star’ status, in which much of their fans clothing style and hair style is recreated to become of the same likeable image. Evidently, the group's actions are perceived as ‘trend creating’, encouraging fans to create ideals of them or otherwise respond with actions. In summary, One Direction is an association of ‘PoP Stars’ whose image is generally positive, likeable and influential to fans.

Richard Dyer’s star theory in relation to my own production

Richard Dyer’s theory explores stars as a constructed image. Discussing the processes of how an image of a star is created, how a star is perceived and accumulates an audience and how a star's appeal is situated to the audience of the music genre they perform to.

In relation to my proposed productions of various media texts(music video, magazine poster and digipak), the means of construction can be implemented to achieve the popularity and likeability aspects of my artist; becoming a constructed star. In consideration of advertisement and marketing in relation to social networking, my artist can be proposed to be an influential figure to those of the youth classification(target audience) and who shares similar interests with him. Such image can be created via social media and networking for instance, whereby various media texts of the artist will encourage people to create ideals of him; the artist will be artificially glorified. Moreover, will focus upon audiences that maintain an interest of the Hip Hop music genre. Furthermore, the ideals of a music artist becoming a commodity can be implemented to achieve brand-recognition and larger audience spans. Which, provides a sense of engagement for audiences of the artist. Brand-recognition, can be used as a device to analyse the artist's influence on publicity also.

In summary, Richard Dyer’s star theory provides an understanding of how stars are and can be created through various media texts and platforms, which he defines stars to be constructed rather than born. Furthermore, is suggestive that a star's image can be dampened and should be maintained via conveying the artist in ways that conforms to publicities desired image of them.