Star Image – Miley Cyrus

Richard Dyer’s Star Theory

• Richard Dyer said that a star is an image created by music companies through advertising, magazines, music videos etc, and not a real person. His theory is that they are made simply to make the company money, by being advertised for a specific audience.

Miley Cyrus

• Dyer’s theory can be used for many artists, for example, Miley Cyrus. Miley Cyrus is not just known for her music, but also her outfits and for her explicit performing. She began her career on the Disney Channel show Hannah Montana, and her audience was much different to the one she has today. She was not a pop star, but a pop performer as she would sing pop music on the show and with her own album.

1. How do you become a pop star?• Toward the end of the show Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus began to make a

change in her image and her music, mainly with her album ‘Can’t Be Tamed’. And now she has changed her image much more with the release of her album ‘Bangerz’. Now that Hannah Montana has ended, she changed her record label and changed her music style as well, which has now made her into a pop star instead of just a pop performer.

2. Stars as constructions.• Miley Cyrus is constructed as an artificial image. The

way she dresses and acts when she performs is not “real” but is constructed by herself and her management. Miley Cyrus has many unique selling points, one is mainly her change from a Disney Channel pop performer to an explicit pop star. Her music video ‘We Can’t Stop’ is explicit and has been parodied, which advertises her more. She began to wear clothing at concerts such as bikinis, attending parties with other celebrities, and is advertised a lot more now that her image has changed. Her representation is iconic now that she has made a change. Though she has been changing over the years, beginning with ‘Can’t Be Tamed’, she has made a change that has made her much more famous than she was before, her most iconic representation is her use of ‘twerking’, and her explicit clothing.

3. Industry and audience.• Pop stars make the music industry money. The more famous they

are and the more fans they’ve got, then the more money their record label makes. They make the star into a popular image created by them to make them more money. Miley Cyrus does this by changing her audience, through her music and image. Though she changed record labels, her new record label gave her a new image and gave her a new style of music in order to make her more into a pop star, and therefore give her more fans, which makes the label more money. Miley Cyrus is made to be more of a pop star by using music and fashion trends that are popular and liked by fans. Her music was changed from rock/pop songs and ballads to more hip hop/RnB oriented songs, which gave her more fans, making her record label more money.

4. Ideology and culture.

• Miley Cyrus represents many attitudes. She is known for partying, smoking and drinking, and believes that they are fun things for her fans to do. Her Facebook and Twitter accounts are mainly for promoting her tour and album so that more people go to her concerts and buy her album, though she often posts things to do with her family and herself on Twitter of what she is doing.

5. Character and personality.

• Miley Cyrus has her own character and personality, which Dyer’s theory says is to make the record label money. Miley Cyrus started out as a ‘real’ person when she was a pop performer, but because of star transformation she became less ‘real’, and more of what people like or could be attracted to in a sexual way. Miley Cyrus’ character and personality has always been a thin and pretty girl, but she was originally a fun pop Disney girl who wouldn’t do anything bad or explicit such as smoking or partying. Though now that her image has changed, she is still known for being thin and pretty but is also known for having a much more explicit personality and is known for things such as partying, smoking and drinking.