Richard Dyers- Star theory

Hi everyone, today I'm going to be talking about Richard Dyers star theory. Richard Dyers is someone who has written about the roles of stars in film, TV, and music whilst also saying that 'stars' all have common key features. The theory that Richard came up with can be split into 3 area's, these are:

1. The star as a construction
2. The star as a commodity
3. The star as an ideology

Construction: Richard states that 'stars' are constructed and that they are not really real people. He says that they are constructed through things such as music videos, magazines, and advertising etc. He believes that the actual person and the star are 2 completely different things. For example, some people think that what Miley Cyrus does now is just an act and that it is just to make her more famous (e.g. wearing not much clothing and dancing more controversially than she would have before).

Commodity: He believes that stars are produced to basically create money (for example by selling perfume, t-shirts and other pieces of merchandise). He also states that record labels make their 'stars' have some similar characteristics so there will be trends that come about, therefore making the record label more money. (an example of this are boy bands such as One Direction and The Wanted who are quite similar with the way they act and perform.

Ideology: He states that stars will represent certain social groups/views so will therefore create certain ideologies. For example, he says that fans of the star will usually want to copy their style and be more like them.

He says that stars have a certain 'star quality'

Lady gaga for example is someone who a lot of people would refer to as a star, or a pop star. She basically is thought to have the 'full package which makes up a star. For example she wears different outfits, she sings, she can act and she is generally just a great performer.
Some common values of music stars include being youthful, rebellious, sexual magnetism, originality, being creative and talented, sometimes aggression, drugs, sex, and bad behaviour, and finally success against all of the odds...

However, someone like Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys would be someone to e less likely looked at as a 'star'. This is because he seems to be more of a reserved person and doesn't perform and act in a way in which some other artists considered 'stars' do.

The term 'star' refers to a semi-mythological set of meaning constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience.

There are 2 Paradox's of a star, these are:

Paradox 1- The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer (for example, ordinary in a way in which they can relate to the star, but extraordinary so that the audience sees something different in them which makes them a 'star'.

Paradox 2- The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer (meaning that the star is present in the fans lives such as on social media platforms, but absent as they are still out of reach and people still want to know more about them).

The star image:

The 'star image' makes the audience constantly strive to 'complete' or 'make sense' of the image this is achieved by the continued consumption of the star. This means that fans of the star will go away and be determined to continue consuming the star, this is in order to carry on attempting to complete their image.

The star image can be used to position the consumer in relation to the dominant social values, which is called 'hegemony'.