Stars as Embodiments
Richard Dyer also argues that stars can be seen as merchandise which is extremely profitable for companies. This is especially true in the famous example, One Direction. One Direction's target audience of young girls from 10-18 are prone to buying products which represent their loyalty to this band. The members of One Direction's faces can be spotted on millions of products world wide, and this is another reason why the band is so successful. The members of this band attempt to retain their youthful image to keep their target audience's interest.
Many, many stars have their own types of merchandise and open their own product lines which will definitely be successful because of their wide audience base who will want to purchase these products to be able to align themselves with their favourite artist and such. These products have amazing reach in their variety as it can come in all forms of products whether it is perfume, clothes, games, posters and make-up.
Stars that are constructions are stars which are constructed by the music industry to suit a certain gap in the market. However, these constructions tend to be of poor quality as they are often recycled with the star or band only having a short career then hiding in obscurity. The reason that they are so easily recycled is because the images of the artists are artificial and fake, making it easy to parody and copy. This is very easy to spot in the example to the left. This band known as Little Mix can be easily identified as artificial due to their overly-bright costumes and overly exaggerated smiles which are intended to gain the trust of an un-suspecting audience member. While not being unsuccessful, they are also not too successful.
Stars can become embodiments of a certain type of culture, and more than one artist can represent one type of culture.
A good example of this is the popular 2000's punk-rock band, Green Day. Green Day embodies the punk culture and this is where audiences who identify with this culture would go. This is because everything about Green Day represents this as the costumes in many of their music videos are black and have black accessories denoting darkness and anger, the band members even go on to wear black make-up to re-enforce the image of Green Day being a punk-rock band. The lyrics and sounds in their music videos can also be seen as connoting punk culture as they demonise the government and society which they live in, showing the bleakness of their lives. Even the strong, volatile colours used in the music video represent this as the colours and lighting that is used aren't usually seen as 'happy' or 'glad' colours but rather grimy and dirty to again embody the punk culture to speak out to a certain audience and have a sense of their own independence.
However it is important to realise that stars can embody more than just cultures and actually embody ideologies. Katy Perry is a good example for this as in her music videos she regularly empowers women and promotes their own independence. Early on in this music video we can see Katy Perry having her heart broken by her boyfriend who flirts with other women despite already being in a relationship with her. Katy sees this and transforms herself and joins the American army. We can see several shots of the hard work and training that Katy Perry has to endure. Then there are other shots of other women in the army, triumphantly walking through the desert having completed their training. Through this Katy Perry embodies the ideology of empowering women as she shows them to be strong and independent, capable of doing whats seen as a 'man's job' such as joining the army and serving in a foreign country.
Stars as Merchandise
Richard Dyer also argues that stars can be seen as merchandise which is extremely profitable for companies. This is especially true in the famous example, One Direction. One Direction's target audience of young girls from 10-18 are prone to buying products which represent their loyalty to this band. The members of One Direction's faces can be spotted on millions of products world wide, and this is another reason why the band is so successful. The members of this band attempt to retain their youthful image to keep their target audience's interest.Many, many stars have their own types of merchandise and open their own product lines which will definitely be successful because of their wide audience base who will want to purchase these products to be able to align themselves with their favourite artist and such. These products have amazing reach in their variety as it can come in all forms of products whether it is perfume, clothes, games, posters and make-up.
Stars as Constructions
Stars that are constructions are stars which are constructed by the music industry to suit a certain gap in the market. However, these constructions tend to be of poor quality as they are often recycled with the star or band only having a short career then hiding in obscurity. The reason that they are so easily recycled is because the images of the artists are artificial and fake, making it easy to parody and copy. This is very easy to spot in the example to the left. This band known as Little Mix can be easily identified as artificial due to their overly-bright costumes and overly exaggerated smiles which are intended to gain the trust of an un-suspecting audience member. While not being unsuccessful, they are also not too successful.
The factory which produces these 'recyclable' stars is often Simon Cowell and the X Factor. Many young artists who appear on X Factor have dreams of becoming stars after winning the competition but many do not stay as stars. It is a well known fact that winners of the X Factor will be signed by Simon Cowell, a music industry mogul, and have an album in your name. However these albums are often not that popular because the X Factor is viewed for many reasons besides actually wanting to hear music.
Stars as Personalities
Stars can also be identified as personalities. This is strongly visible in stars such as Ed Sheeran whose lyrics tell as story that can be happy or sad. Ed Sheeran has a certain type of cult around him, especially on online media websites such as Facebook and Tumblr. On these sites there are numerous videos of Ed being kindhearted to his fans, approaching un-suspected fans in public them preforming a duet in public adds to this image of Ed having a personality in which the audience are able to like. It is also known that Ed used to be a street performer and came from humble beginnings as just an ordinary person. Again things such as these add to his personality or what the audience perceives to be his personality and support him for it.
