RICHARD DYER RESEARCH

A N D R E W TH O M A S - P

E M A G B I

Born in 1945 Richard Dyer is an English academic who owns a professorship in Film Studies at King College, London.

STAR THEORY Richard Dyer’s star theory can be split into four things

and these are the elements that shape a star, star:- Construction- Ideology- Commodity - paradox

STAR CONSTRUCTIONRichard Dyer presents the star construction as how the

personality of the star is developed in their introduction. This is illustrated as how the star may be in there everyday life and how the star has to present themselves through their music.

For example, rapper chief keef a hard-core rap artist became famous through his different and ruthless type of music which is different to the normal r and b rap. He talks about his life and how he lives and makes money on the streets with his peers and how do to gang violence one could die any second. He presents through his video shoots, interviews, photos from magazine etc. and as you can see this is his personality towards his fans. Perhaps he may be more laid back and easier to approach in his day to day life.

STAR IDEOLOGYThe Star’s ideology is perhaps illustrated as their motto and

from this their music is shaped around. Their ideology is something that appeals to specific social groups, and becomes a reason why their fans copy the star and use their music to inspire them in their own day to day life.

For example, fans of ‘Tink’ may listen to her music as it normally about the struggle of love and how a lady should not give up on themselves due to mistake that could have resulted in a downfall in their relationship.

STAR COMMODITYThe commodity is how the star sell’s itself apart from its music.

This can be shown through t-shirt, perfume, drink, etc. The merchandise may have something to do with the stars personality and may attract the social groups that are most attracted to the star. For example P Diddy and his vodka Cîroc he promotes his drink in his music videos and make fellows rappers drink the drink and they may show this in magazines, their social media, etc. and this is how the rapper uses itself to create a profit because as fans look up to them they would want to have it as well.

STAR PARADOX

Richard Dyer also explains that there has to be a paradox of the star, meaning that the star must be:

- Both ordinary and extraordinary - ordinary being something that the star’s fans (general public) can relate and extraordinary being something that separates the star from the general public and makes them unique, this could be a sense of humour or a certain talent.

- Both present and absent – the star could be present through its merchandise, social media, something that allows someone to feel some sort of connection with the star but absent in the fact that the star is out of reach and not always tangibly with the fan and this how a star obtains its image.