Richard Dyer Star Theory

Richard Dyer's star theory is the idea that icons and celebrities are manufactured by institutions for financial reasons. Dyer believes that stars are made to represent 'real people' who experience real emotions as we do. Stars are styled and created to appeal to their target audience, thus meaning that the industry make money from them. Richard Dyer's star theory is split into 3 sections: 1. audiences and institutions 2. constitutions 3. hegemony.

Audiences and Institutions:
Stars are purely made for the purpose of making a money. By increasing the brand identity it benefits the institution as they become a household name, meaning the daily sales increase. By being in more media platforms it means they're money rates go up. The institution also decides what the artist will dress like so that they're appealing to their target audience. For example, with Katy Perry being a pop star, her target audience is young teenage girls. Because of this, her style is bright, girly and bold. Her outfits within the music videos often represent her girly side, for example her song 'California Girls'.

Constitutions:

The constitutions side of his theory ties back in with the audience and institutions previously spoken about. Dyer proposes that a star is not a real person, but is groomed, styled and coached into fulfilling a set of record company and market expectations.

Hegemony:

Hegemony is also known as the 'culture section'. Dyer's idea is that the audience can relate to the star as they share a feature with that star. Some fans may start to mirror the behavior of their admired star. In some cases this could be a good thing as it might encourage them to take up a new hobby such as singing. However, with the good comes the bad, so if a fan were to be influenced by the likes of rappers such as ASAP Rocky, they may be influenced to swear more as it is promoted in their songs, the same goes for drugs as they are idealized. Stars represent shared cultural values and attitudes and promote a certain ideology. A star may initiate a fashion trend, which fans will then follow and promote. Now more than ever before, social networks give pop stars the the ability to share their own personal values outside of their music.

Indie Pop Artists

Dog is Dead is an five peice indie-pop band from Nottingham. The band started off in 2008 playing at venues in Nottingham. Venue owner of Rock City in Nottingham took over management of the band and they had a song feature in the tv show 'Skins'. This was an extremely good step for the band as there target audience would predominantly watch programmes such as Skins. Shortly after they were signed by Atlantic records. They have peformed at several festivals such as: Bestival, Leeds, Reading, Isle of Wight and Latitude. Dog is Dead are still rising, and could be stars of the future.

Indie/Pop Artists

Music Video Directors- Jake Nava

Jake Nava

Jake Nava is a music video and film director born in North London. Nava attended Westminster University and now lives in the United States; working for a production company. Nava has worked with a number of celebrities from Enrique Iglesias to Beyoncé. Nava directed Beyoncé's famous 'Single Ladies' music video winning 'Video Of The Year' award at the MTV America, BET and MTV Europe awards.

Nava has worked with Beyonce on numerous occasions, directing some of her most famous video numbers, another one of them being her famous single with Jay-Z 'Crazy in love'.

Music Video Directors- Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze, born October 22 1969, is an American director, producer, screenwriter and actor, whose work also includes directing music videos. Jonze is well known for his music video collaborations in the past with Fatboy Slim, Bjork and the Beastie Boys. Spike Jonze started dancing to Fatboy Slim's 'Praise you', which later was shown to the artist and became the music video for the song.

Some of his more recent work includes the likes of Jay-Z, Ludacris and Kanye West.

Music Video Directors- David Fincher

David Fincher

David Fincher, born August 28th 1962, is an American film and music video director. Fincher has won many awards and has also been nominated for awards such as the 'Academy Award Best Director'. Fincher has directed music videos for numerous stars over the years, some of them being Areosmith, Paula Abdul and Madonna. Madonna's video 'Vogue' was directed by himself, which received great feedback from critics.

A more recent video he has directed is Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z's 'Suit and Tie', once again receiving great feedback from critics, and also winning the Grammy award for best music video.

Music genre- RnB

The RnB genre combines a number of different elements, the main ones being jazz and blues music. RnB is most commonly associated with the most sung African-American urban music. An old example of an RnB song is R Kelly's "Bump N' Grind".

A more recent example of current RnB music is John Legend's "All Of Me".

Music genre- Country

Country music originated in the united States. A stereotype of country singers is that the singer is always wearing jeans, cowboy boots and cowboy hats. An example of a stereotype is Dolly Parton. Country music has developed since it first became a hit with society, with recent stars such as Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift appeals to a younger audience and mixes country style songs with pop music.

Music genres- House

House music is a dance genre, familiarly used with disco music. This genre has a heavy bass beat. This genre of music was commonly associated with secret underground parties and raves, often in abandoned warehouses. a recent house song is 'My Head Is A Jungle Remix'.

Music genres- Hip Hop

Hip Hop is best associated with the rap genre. Hip Hop is a US pop culture movement which originated in the 1980's. A recent Hip Hop video is Big Sean- I Dont F*** With You:

Music genre- Rock

Rock music originated in America in the 1940's. Rock is a genre of popular music. Rock is a genre which can be entwined with other genres such as folk, blues and most commonly pop. A well known rock song is Bon Jovi- Living On A Prayer:

A more recent rock song is Hozier- Take Me To Church:

Music genres- Rap

Rap:

Rap is spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics. Rapping is performed in time to an instrumental beat. Rapping is often associated with and a primary ingredient of Hip-Hop music. An example of a popular rap artist is Eminem.