Dyer Star Theory

The Richard Dyer Star Theory highlights and suggests that celebrities and music icons are socially constructed and moulded by institutions for financial reason and gain. The Construction of these 'Stars' are marketed by management companies in order to increase sales and to make the artist more popular for financial benefit.

There are three sections to the Dyer Star Theory...

 

Commodity:

Commodity essentially shows that the artist has been manufactured by management and the record label that the certain artist is associated with and is being sold to a specific target audience that was selected for the artist. This can then mean the hairstyles, clothing, song lyrics all target a specific audience, to make a profitable business. This then means that the selected artist becomes increasingly popular, resulting in album, song, merchandise and everyday items that are associated with this artist being sold very successfully. A good example is Justin Bieber as he was been 'controlled' by management and his record label since a very young age on what to say, what to wear and how to act as an overall person to fit a specific target audience.

Purpose Tour Official Store Picture 

Construction:

As I have previously mentioned. the celebrity or star is created and constructed with an image already  in mind of what the celebrity is already going to look like, what their interests are etc. This allows for the artist or celebrity to attract a large following as the looks and interests for example will be thought out to appeal to a large majority of people. By doing this, it attracts more attention to the music, the music videos, the record label which then leads to making a lot of money. This could be shown through the fact that the artist has been given a persona or a certain look to turn heads in the media world. An example of this is Lady Gaga as she is world renowned for wearing extravagant and unusual dresses such as the meat dress.


Telegraph Pictures

Ideology:

This means that artists, icons and celebrities are can be told how they view the world, what political stance to take to make sure that the majority is not offended, who to like in the music industry etc. This means that a lot of fans get caught up in their idols ideologies, meaning that obsessions start to develop and the creation of super fans happen. This can result is fans copying their favourite artists actions or even looks in some cases, by getting plastic surgery for example to gain the same facial and body features. For example, Toby Sheldon was a man who wanted to look like Justin Bieber and spent over $100,000 on plastic surgery to try and attempt to look remotely like him.