Stars and Stardom - Dyer's Theory

The concept of stars and star image was first developed by an academic who works at Warrick university in the 1970's called Richard Dyer who was a theorist.

He went on to say a famous quote from his book called Stars (the mythology of stardom) he analysed the appeal of different stars to the audience and came up with the notion that stars are 'bought and consumed on the strength of their meanings'. What they symbolically represent to the audience and what they stand for. E.g. they project an image and the audience chose which bits they consume or reject.

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. The image of a star needs to develop over a period of time - in order to keep the audiences interested. E.g. Miley Cyrus changed as he fans grew up with her. Same applies with Justin Bieber.

Some common values of music stardom: -Youthfulness -Rebellion -Sexual magnetism -An anti-authoritarian attitude -Originality -Creativity/talent -Aggression/anger -A disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour -Conspicuous consumption, of sex, drugs and material goods -Success against the odds.

2pac was youthful, he offered rebellion for his music, he always had his top off making him have sexual magnetism. Aggression and anger clearly against authority and the police. Obsessive consumption of drugs and died in a shootout. Also success against the odds as he grew up in a poor background and made it to the top.

Stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media - magazines, TV, radio, 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 target the audiences.

Richard Dyer - Fundamentally, the star image is incoherent that is incomplete and 'open' Dyer says that this is because it is based upon two key paradoxes. The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer -The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer.

The Star Image The incoherence of the star image ensures that audiences continually strive to 'complete' or to 'make sense 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.