Richard Dyer Star Theory Essay

A pop stars social status within today’s society means they are seen as figure heads by ‘fans’ and this means they have a great influence on their audience, often resulting in them replicating their fashion style, hairstyles, tattoo’s, make-up etc. According to Richard Dyer’s ‘Star Theory’ there should be a distinguishable difference between a ‘pop performance’ someone who creates music however are not always classed with the famous ‘star’ title and someone who is a commodity constructed by management team with a particular persona, however are not actually ‘real’ people. Dyer believes that the title of a pop performer and a pop star have becomes synonymous and interchangeable. He also states the process; Stars as construction, industry and audience, ideology and culture, character and personality and fandom.
 

  As stated by Dyer in Stars, pop stars are constructed, artificial, even if they are represented as being ‘real people’ experiencing real emotions etc. We can see this construction process happen with many stars however an extremely relevant example would be Miley Cyrus. She started as a young country singer on a Disney channel and now has been completely changed. She now has a new image which is meant to be a wild new young Miley. She cut her hair and style, changed her music and who she is working with for example associating with trap rapper Juicy J and doing semi-nude shoots with Terry Richardson. Not forgetting her extremely raunchy performance with Robin Thicke at the VMA’s in which she was extremely sexual on stage. However this opened her up to a wider audience for either good or bad reasons, whatever anybody thought of her she was being talked about everywhere! Miley’s fans and people that are not even normal fans of Miley have taken on aspects of her image, many girls have copied her hair style and fashion sense.
 

                Another pop star that has an impact on their audience in many ways is Kanye West. When Kanye West performed in a leather skirt and Givenchy there was a sudden change in many peoples fashion style. Givenchy prints and skirt front trousers had suddenly found their way into many fans wardrobes. His fandom, which is a subculture of people that have a common interest in the same topic, in this case Mr West have a fascination with going to extremes of believing Kanye is a God, which was heavily influenced by his Yeezus album in which he is on a crucifix. In an interview he even says himself ‘I am God’ and many of his fans believe this themselves. He also uses ‘illuminati symbols’ in videos which causes controversy but many of his fans believe in this ‘satanic lifestyle’ and even changed their opinions on religious figures due to his opinions.

 

Overall pop stars have a heavy influence on their fans due to construction of the stars and how they are presented to their audience in a way that they are seen as a ‘real person’ in order to allow their audience to have an emotional response therefore creating a solid fan base.