Dyer theory suggests media makes the artist and the star is the images made out of different things e.g. magazines, films. For example, artists who are open to the public and fans through platforms such as radio, television and internet, if it wasn’t for these then their music wouldn’t be as widely heard and they wouldn’t be artists. Stars are commodities (products) produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings. This means that for them to be ‘stars’ they were on covers of magazines and featured in movies. As the Dyer theory suggests ‘stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media (magazines, TV, radio...) in order to construct an image for the target audience.’ This means that an artist has to act and present themselves in a certain way to attract a certain type of audience. For example Beyonce may be seen in a magazine such as Cosmopolitan in a sexy dress. This may be to attract a male audience as she looks seductive or female teenagers/ young adults as they may aspire to look like her.
Character & Personality
A star begins as a "real" human, possessing gender & race characteristics, and existing against a socio-historic background. The star transformation process turns them into a construct, but the construct has a foundation in the real.We tend to read them as not-entirely-fictional, as being are very much of their time and culture, the product of a particular generation. Stars provide audiences with a focus for ideas of 'what people are supposed to be like' (eg for women, thin/beautiful) - they may support hegemony by conforming to it (thin/beautiful) or providing difference (fat/still lovable).
Here are some common values of music stardom: youthful, rebellion, originality, creativity/ originality etc. Not all stars carry all these common values. For example Susan Boyle is original and creative but not a rebel, although Paramore can be seen to carry all these values.
Much of the discussion of stars in celebrity magazines is about how stars compare to the current hegemonic ideal, and how we compare to the stars.
Dyer says:
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 the one hand, our society stresses what makes them like others in the social group/class/gender to which they belong. This individualising stress involves a separation of the person's "self" from his/her social "roles", and hence poses 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 (eg the struggles over representation of blacks, women and gays in recent years).Stars are one of the ways in which conceptions of such persons are promulgated.
Richard Dyer — The Stars (BFI Education 1979)
A pop star's persona, therefore, as depicted in terms of character and personality, is a fragile thing which needs constant nurturing, and is the product of constant discourse between the star and his or her audience.
Richard Dyer star theory is a theory which defines a star and ideas behind a star. The term ‘star’ is semi-mythological (half true) persona and set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience. This means that a star is presented as an artist but we as an audience don’t know them as a person. The stars do this so people would want to buy their products. For example we know Beyonce as an artist but we don’t know who she is as a person.
We are choosing to oppose this theory in our music video as we want to present the artists (the characters) in our video as 'every day' people rather than 'stars' and therefore allow the audience to relate more effectively with them and the storyline.
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