Stars and Stardom

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.

Common values of music stardom: 

• Youthfulness
• Rebellion
• Sexual Magnetism
• An anti-authoritarian attitude
• Originality
• Creativity/talent
• Aggression/anger
• A disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour
• Conspicuous consumption, of sex, drugs and material goods
• Success against the odds   

The star I have chosen to focus on in my blog post is Katheryn Elizabeth "Katy" Hudson (born October 25, 1984), better known by her stage name Katy Perry, an American POP singer and songwriter.

Katy Perry is signed to the music label Capitol Records. Capitol is a major American record label that is part of the Capitol Music Group and is a wholly owned division of Universal Music Group. An advantage of Perry being signed to such a large record label which have recorded and released material by artists such as The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Coldplay is that they obviously have key insight into what creates and shapes a successful star image, which has been shown via Perry's success. Another advantage of Perry being signed to Capitol Records in creating her star image is that the label has the money to advertise her image and music through a variety of mediums. This idea is expressed in Richard Dyer's theory into the role of  stars. Dyer argues that a star is an image, not a real person, that is constructed out of a range of materials such as advertising, magazines etc as well as films (music). 

Katy Perry  also fits into some of the common values found in music stars. 

Youthfulness (she is 29) 

Expressed through her clothing choices and video themes such as her latest video for 'This Is How We Do':

Sexual Magnetism and Originality

Expressed through her promiscuous and low cut outfits and actions in videos such as California Gurls:

Now I will apply my artist and her videos to Richard Dyer's features of music videos and stars. 

Dyer argues that the star image is incoherent and says this can be based upon two key paradoxes. 

PARADOX 1 - the star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer. Examples from Katy Perry:

ORDINARY: 

EXTRAORDINARY:

Katy Perry fits into PARADOX 1 as she is ordinary to her audience as she has done 'normal' things throughout her life such as marrying to comedian Russell Brand, but is also extraordinary to her audience as she has achieved many things in her life such as doing world tours, selling millions of albums and being a role model to many fans.

PARADOX 2 - the artist must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer.  

Katy Perry is present for the consumer (her audience, fans) as she releases new music and plays numerous concerts around the world. Her latest album, Prism was released on October 18th 2013 showing that she is a current pop music artist. Perry is also present for the consumer as she appears on many magazine covers and also does radio interviews. 

Katy Perry on the front of magazine 'Marie Claire' in January 2013.

Katy Perry on the front of a Spanish magazine

Katy Perry on the front of a GQ magazine from February 2014

 However, the artist is also absent for the consumer as Katy Perry's last single release was released 21st April 2014 called 'Birthday' which means audiences are left in anticipation for her new releases as she has not released anything for five months. 

As mentioned in Dyer's theory:

• The incoherence of Katy Perry's image means that audiences constantly strive to complete/make sense of the stars image. 
• This is then achieved by continued consumption of the star through her products. 
• In the music industry, performance seems to promise the completion of the image, but it is always ultimately unsatisfying.
• This means that fans will go away determined to continue consuming the star in order to carry on attempting to complete their image.
• Finally, the star image can be used to position the consumer in relation to dominant social values (that is hegemony).
• Depending upon the artist, this can mean that the audience are positioned against the mainstream, within the mainstream or somewhere in between.

Some of the music videos featured in this blog post: