Pre-lesson reading on Audience

Summary of Richard Dyers star theory

Taken from www.mediaknowall.com
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 Madonna's conical bra in the early
1990s, Bono's 'Fly' sunglasses, Britney's belly, Justin Bieber's bangs. Pop
stars have the advantage over film stars in that their constructed image
may be much more consistent over a period of time, and is not dependent
on the creative input of others (e.g. screenwriters writing their lines).
Dyer proposes that:
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]).
Industry and Audience
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. Stars are the cogs around
which a plethora of record company gears find themselves turning. 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, teen
bands etc. However, there are whole 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.
Dyer says:
Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their
meanings.
The music industry is well aware of the range of audiences it caters to, the
perky pre-school Tweenie fan to the ageing hippy, and it does its best to
keep us all happy. 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

(important for the younger audience). 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).

Ideology & Culture

Stars represent shared cultural values and attitudes, and promote a
certain ideology. Audience interest in these values enhances their 'star
quality', and it is through conveying beliefs ideas and opinions outside
music that performers help create their star persona. A star may initiate a
fashion trend, with legions of fans copying their hairstyle and clothing.
Stars initiate or benefit from cultural discourse (e.g. via their Twitter feed),
and create an ongoing critical commentary. Now more than ever before,
social networks give pop stars the opportunity to establish their own
values outside their music. Lady Gaga tweets frequently about LGBT
issues, and expects her Little Monsters to engage with that discourse just
as much as she expects them to listen to her music.
Stardom, and star worship in general is a cultural value in itself. Ideologies
drawn upon include materialism and sexuality. Whole sites of institutional
support (eg radio & TV shows, magazines, websites) are devoted to star
scrutiny, and it seems we can never get enough information.
Stars also provide us with a focal point for our own cultural thinking
particularly to do with Youth & Sexuality.
Character & 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).
Much of the discussion of stars in celebrity magazines is about how stars
compare to the current hegemonic ideal, and how we compare to the
stars.
Dyer says

In these terms it can be argued that stars are representations of persons

which reinforce, legitimate or occasionally alter the prevalent
preconceptions of what it is to be a human being in this society. There is a
good deal at stake in such conceptions. On the one hand, our society
stresses what makes them like others in the social group/class/gender to
which they belong. This individualising stress involves a separation of the
person's "self" from his/her social "roles", and hence poses the individual
against society. On the other hand society suggests that certain norms of
behaviour are appropriate to given groups of people, which many people
in such groups would now wish to contest (eg the struggles over
representation of blacks, women and gays in recent years).Stars are one
of the ways in which conceptions of such persons are promulgated.
Richard Dyer The Stars (BFI Education 1979)

Pop stars, establish their character and personality through songs and
performance and will strive for immediate star identity with a first album.
They appear to have more control over their persona in that many of them
write their own songs, and that their body of work develops,
chronologically over time, along with society. Pop stars don't do aberrant
costume dramas or science fiction movies which take them out of place in
time and space and confuse their audience. They produce 45-74 minutes
of music which gives a clear indication of their interests, moods, appetites
and lifestyle at a particular point in time; audiences read music=person,
and will base their understanding of the star's persona on the sentiments
expressed by their songs. This understanding may be very personal and
intimate, the star's music can infiltrate every corner of a fan's life. Albums
are continually read and re-read as texts think of the 100+ times you
might listen to a track, whereas films tend to be watched once or twice
only.
Because a pop star's persona is constructed on the basis of a narrow text,
continually re-read and reassessed, this may lead, in many cases, to
second album syndrome, when an artist is unable to sustain their
persona over a period of time (largely because they got rich off the back
of the first album and bought all the houses cars etc they'd ever wanted)
and they are unable to create a consistent account of their character and
personality in their second major release. The rootspring of their persona
then disappears, or becomes confused.
A pop star's persona, therefore, as depicted in terms of character and
personality, is a fragile thing which needs constant nurturing, and is the
product of constant discourse between the star and his or her audience.