Richard Dyer: Star Theory

Who is Richard Dyer?

• Who is Richard Dyer?• • Richard W. Dyer was born 1945 and is an English academic who

specialises in cinema. As of 2006 he is Professor of Film Studies at Kings College London.

• • ‘Stars’ which was written in1979 was Dyers first full-length book. He develops the idea that the viewers perception of a film is heavily influenced by the perception of its stars, and that publicity materials and reviews determine the way that audiences experience the film.•

• With this thesis in mind, Dyer analysed critics writing, magazines, and advertising and the films themselves, to explore the significance of stardom

Star Theory

• The terms "pop performer" and "pop star" have become interchangeable• The study of stars as media texts/components of media texts demands that the

distinction be made between those who are simply known for performing pop music and those who are known for being pop stars, who have an identity or persona which is not restricted solely to their musicianship.

• One of the reasons so many pop performers are described as pop stars is that they are quickly promoted to this status by their management.• This is easily done courtesy of a few judiciously placed stories, a famous boyfriend/girlfriend, attendance at premieres/parties and a feature in HEAT magazine.

• HOWEVER, a true pop star does have a lasting significance, and has "brand awareness" amongst a wider market over a period of time.• Many of the so-called pop stars populating the top forty currently have not made a sufficient sociological or cultural impact to be classified as true stars if we return to Richard Dyers’ definition.

Stars as constructons

• Stars as Constructions• Stars are constructed, artificial images, even if they are represented as being "real people", experiencing real emotions etc.• It helps if their image contains a USP — they can be copied and/or parodied because of it. Their representation may be metonymic — Madonnas conical bra in the early 1990s, Bonos Fly sunglasses, Justin Biebers haircut.

• “A star is an image not a real person that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials (eg advertising, magazines etc as well as films [music]).” Dyer, 1979

• Yet that construction process is neither automatic nor fully understood. Record companies think they know about it — but look at the number of failures on their books.• TV programmes such as The X Factor show us the supposed construction process, how an ordinary person is groomed, styled and coached into fulfilling a set of record company and market expectations.• This is not true stardom, which must happen through a combination of factors. None of them labelled X.

Industry and Audiences

• Stars are manufactured by the music industry to serve a purpose — to make money out of audiences, who respond to various elements of a star persona by buying records and becoming fans. Record companies nurture and shape their stars — as the TV talent show processes have shown us. They tend to manufacture what they think audiences want, hence the photocopied nature of many boy bands.

• However, there are mass markets out there who are not convinced by the hype and don’t want to spend their money on blandness. The record industry also has a duty to provide bands/artists who are perceived as real (for real, maybe read ugly or unpolished) for these audiences. Stars can also be created by this route. Pop stars, whatever their nature, are quite clearly the product of their record company — and they must be sold.

• Historically, the industry has provided us with a range of commodities all with different appeal.• One way to achieve this is by producing new stars of different types playing constantly mutating genres of music - there's always something and someone fresh to choose from. Another way is to produce a star with long-lasting appeal, who, once their brand is established, can cater to a fan audience for decades (in the way U2 or the Rolling Stones have done).

• Unfortunately, these methods are oppositional. The conveyor belt approach to new stars means that talent isn't developed, and a stars value may be very short-lived. A star may only be significant or relevant for two years, or two albums.

Character and 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).

• Other stars construct “characters” into which they create an identity to appeal to their target market. These characters may be outlandish and outspoken and can become an ‘icon’ to their fans who believe in their message or identify with the character in one way or another.