"Stars are commodities that are produced by institutions. A star is a constructed image, represented across a range of media and mediums. Stars represent and embody certain ideologies."
Dyer developed the idea that the viewers perception of a film is heavily influenced by the perception of its stars. Publicity materials and reviews determine the way that audiences experience a media text. With this idea in mind, Dyer analysed critics writing, magazines, advertising and the films themselves, to explore the significance in a stars profile and their effect on the audience.
He concluded the following points:
A star is an image not a real person therefore they're constructed.
Icons and celebrities are constructed by insitituions to target audiences for finical gain. Their aim is to sell the star to consumers by creating a persona which is desirable.
He believes there are four key components to build his Star Theory:
1. Stars as constructions
An artificial image is created even if they are represented as being 'real people' he still believes their character will have unique selling points in which it helps their character as being recognised and people can copy/parody these characteristics.
For example Lana Del Rey in her first album wore big flowers in her hair and in many photo shoots she was wearing these, therefore when people went to see her perform many girls copied this and wore flower headbands.
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| Credit to Flop Of The Pops, showing what fans wore to Lana Del Rey's show which took place in a cemetery. |
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| Photo Shoot earlier in her career |
Dyer says how pop stars have a advantage over film stars as they are more consistent. They are much more able to present themselves through not only interviews but their work. In music videos their personalities can come across and in their performances. However for film stars they will be mostly viewed through their films in which they will play different characters. Their ways to show their own personality
is through interviews, social media and tabloid news. Generally only dedicated fans will follow or spend the time to read these unlike people who are fans of pop stars in which their character is consistent.
2. Audiences and industry
He says stars are manufactured by the music industry to serve a purpose (financial). Record companies nurture and shape their stars into what they think audiences want and will consume. They try to create identities and ideologies which people can photocopy and remember.
3. Ideology and culture
The stars have hegemony over the audience and star means they determine what is seen as important in terms of cultural values. Stars represent shared cultural values and attitudes to promote a certain ideology. They have a powerful influence on the audience who want to 'copy' the constructed and fake image. By creating dominant and desirable ideologies this allows the audience to see their star qualities which make them more desirable. By creating these personas stars aim to promote their ideologies within a culture to become consumable house hold name.
4. Character and personality
Dyer argues that stars create characters with ideas of what people are suppose to be like therefore the audience will feel they need to conform to these characters. However the characters created are not their 'real identity' but a fake construction of what the star believes is what the audience want to consume.
Although in the music video I am analysing the artist does not make an appearance, I can still see how the band applies to the star theory by looking at other music videos which they feature in and how the band is portrayed on social media and in the news as a persona for the audience to consume.
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| Zero, Yeah Yeah Yeahs Lead singer, Karen O |
The Slideshare below shows how Richard Dyer's theory applies to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
I also researched live performances by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs as I was interested to see Karen's performance from reviews and pictures I'd seen online. This performance in Glastonbury 2009 perfectly captures the image that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs build up as a rebellious, quirky group. During the performance Karen O has the microphone in her mouth, we can see her make-up is running and hair sweaty, a lot of stars like Beyonce are always labelled looking 'flawless' on stage however we can see for Karen this isn't her main priority, she wears what she wants and doesn't seem to care how people take that. At the end of the guitarist Nick breaks his guitar which is commonly associated with grunge, rock and roll band-behaviour showing how this is part of their image as an act of rebellion.
This second live performance is in 2015, Karen was pregnant at the time of the recording, as a comparison to the last live performance we can see how she isn't quite as 'wild' and it is a much calmer performance. Perhaps due to it being a slower pace of song or the pregnant, or perhaps her character has changed slightly.
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