Friday, 7 October 2016

Thursday, 6 October 2016

Richard Dyer's Star Theory

According to Richard Dyer, the term 'star' refers to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience. These performers usually have the following characteristics; - Youthfulness - Rebellion - Sexual Magnetism - An anti-authoritarian attitude - Originality - Creativity - Talent - Aggression - Success against the odds He also suggests that a star is just an image, not a real person, that is constructed out of a range of materials, and they are commodities that are produced and consumed in the industry. Although there a plenty of artists out there that I feel relate to this theory, there are many respectable artists out there who people can admire for not being 'produced and consumed' and are not semi-mythological. One of these respectable artists is "A Tribe Called Quest". They are a hip hop group originating from Brooklyn, New York and are known for bridging the gap between jazz and rap. With a moderate amount of explicit content, ATCQ members Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Q-Tip and Phife Dawg used their music to inform and educate whilst bringing a sense of class to everything they produced. Yes they were youthful, yes they were incredibly talented and yes they were original, but they weren't particularly rebellious and they certainly weren't eye candy, either. One artist that does adhere to these criteria is Justin Bieber. Nowadays it is impossible to get away from him, mainly because of his appeal to on social media, particularly to the female gender. He broke through out of nowhere, he is apparently talented, and although he is not rebellious, I would say he is a star because of his marketability and youthfulness. Unlike ATCQ, there is barely any explicit content and this has enhanced his audience size.