Blog 8:Star Theory; Richard Dyer

Richard Dyer's theory is that artists such as Madonna and Britney Spears are created for artifical uses. These uses range from media consumptioon to erotic desire and product placement. Any means that will mark the artist and everyone directly involved more money. Dyer also stated that audiences much prefer 'true artists's. These are artists who dont have a fake profile that they show to the media or put on as part of their record label with their producers. When the artist is happy and themselves to their fans they are more likely to product better music and get better publicity. This is called being a 'real' artist, this is also a selling point and encorages people who dont like to follow the trends to buy the music or buy into the media.

Promotion -Inductury and Audiences
Dyer also believe that 'stars' are manafactured only to make big money for record labels. Managers can be very controling over the artists image and the types of audiences they attract. For example, One Direction attract the 10-16 year old age group where the same record label may have another artist/group in place to pick up any of that age group '1D' dont attract.

Propmotion -Ideology and Culture

The most popular artists are a big hit in the fashion industry. They quickly become trendsetters and will be most known for their style or imagne that will be mimicked by their fans in hope to be more like them. These cases can become dangerous as fans try to copy possible bad habits of the arists.The internet is a huge part of this as it is so easy to access a artists look. For example, Miley Cryus' new image is questioned by the media all over the world. The inapproprate outfits she wears can be mimincked by her younger views, some only the age of 10/11. She is also known for the 'miley buns' which is a less threatening trend.

Promotions - Stars supporting Hegemony
Many starts support the ideas about hegemony. They use their ideology as the presentation of 'a glorified version of normal people'. The pararazi are constatly seen trying to analyse every little aspect about their lives for us to see as the views/audience and to make more money. Cultural Hegmony describes how cultural instiutions can maintain power in such a capitilist society.

Artists representation in music videos

The music inductry, but more specificaly the record compaies create artist profiles after their own unique genre. For example, different genres such as Rnb, punk, rock, pop will all have their own signature 'thing' that will appear in their music videos. Rock/heavy metal bands more often than not have lots of hair. They use this as part of their performance on stage and in music videos. The record labels can have the final say in how an artist acts in their music videos.

An example of this 'aritst profile' in a music video is superstar, Britney Spears. In all of Britneys vidoes she is aiming for a certain target audence. She uses her dance and body language as a tool to  attract young teens. The catchy songs will (and did) become a huge trend and everyone soon knew the most popular songs. However, she also uses her sex appeal to appeal to a male audience which supports Laura Mulvey's ideas about the 'male gaze'.

Looking closer at Britney spears we start in her early years when Britney herself was only a teen during 'Baby one more time' where she is seen acting younger than she is and , in my opinion, acting like a child wanting to be a woman. Throughout her journey as a star we see her wanting to become a woman and what it measn to be a woman/young girl. The mise-en-scene in thi smusic video shows how young she is. They use something very innocent and make it into something of a sex appeal. This conforms greatly to Mulveys idea of the male gaze and that we are all seeing her though the male eye.

The next stage in her life is when she is slightly older. In her teens all the videos she made were created around being with friends, the colour pink, revealing clothes, lots of skin showing, and pigtails. This all surrounds the ideas of teen iconography. As she devloped as all girls do, so did her music. Her image from her teens seems to be something that is constantly on her mind in nearly all of the videos she makes in the future and they all have a connetion. A good example is another song called 'Im a Girl Not Yet a Woman' which talks about her becoming an adult and how she struggles with growing up. This realtes to the audience she is targeting which are teens, even though she is now an adult by refecting she is realting to them.

As she entered her late 20's she was getting lots of media attention as all superstars do. She did some very random things like shaving her head and being seen at strange bars, at which time she wanted to 'break free' from the life she had known, being controled by her managers. The song 'Overprotected' where she answers the media after they spoke about her being half naked, about how much clothing she was seen wearing and weather she was a real role model to her fans. In the song she shows her power and much like before, shows herself as a independent woman who empowers all other women.

We now see a change in her attitudes and this refects in her music videos from being a 'teen princess' to a powerful woman idol.