Richard Dyer's star theory
June 11, 2017
Richard Dyer is a media theorist, and he stated that a star is a construction and not a real person. The star's management creates their image, which is shown through TV, adverts, magazines etc. I'm using the Spice Girls as my example. They're a manufactured girl band created by Heart Management to rival the popular boy bands of that time who dominated the pop charts (Take That and East 17). After releasing their hit song 'Wannabe', the Top of the Pops editor unintentionally came up with the girls' iconic nicknames - baby, posh, ginger, scary and sporty - that became an important part of their marketing and their image.
Each girl had her own individual style, but the whole band can be credited for starting fashion trends, such as Buffalo platform shoes and the two mini bun hairstyle. Their styles remained consistent throughout their career, and even in their revival they wore replicas of their iconic outfits. Their main ideology was 'girl power' which became their slogan across their marketing.
Stars are produced to create a profit from merchandise related to them. The Spice Girls had a vast collection of merch, from polaroid cameras to stationery to shoes. They toured worldwide and sold merch at their concerts for fans to buy. Again, their styles were consistent through their products, so there's a link between them that's easily recognisable to fans. Dyer calls stars 'commodities', which the music industry can exploit to make money from, so the selling of merch is a way of doing that.
The Spice Girls even had their own movie "Spice World", which was another way to make money whilst promoting the band at the same time. The movie helped construct the girls' personalities and ideologies, showing them as both ordinary and extraordinary to the consumer. they're ordinary because they seen like normal, dun-loving, likeable girls, but they're extraordinary because they possess talent, and can sing and dance. They were also both present and absent. The lack of social media when they were popular meant that they were not likely to have a huge online presence, but they appeared regularly on TV. doing interviews and performances, and in magazines.
Their website has a fairly outdates format for a site nowadays, but their logo is on of the first things you see as it's big and bright. One of the main things on the page is the Viva Forever musical with the Spice Girls' music (stopped running in 2013). This was great for their career because even though they had been on a hiatus, they came back with their greatest hits and then the musical, which brought them back on the scene, and could again be used as a commodity to make more money and 'renew' their career. The 'book tickets' button is bold and clear, as is the 'buy their greatest hits' button, so the money making elements are highly visible. The girls' social media is there too at the bottom, showing their online presence.
This music video for 'Wannabe' is a typical representation of a girl group, as it shows them as fun, energetic, girly and cheeky.
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