Richard Dyer 'Star Theory'

To understand the role/relationship between music and the industry we first need to understand the roles of music stars. 

The term 'star' refers to the semi-mythology set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell to the loyal audience. 

So why do some people stay stars and some fade off?  

some people may not like the fame, so they choose to fade into the background to avoid the fame they face. there are many common values of music stardom, these are: 

• youthfulness
• rebellion 
• sexual magnetism 
• an anti-authoritarian attitude
• originality 
• creativity/talent 
• aggression/ anger 
• a disregard for social values relating to drugs,sex and polite behavior 
• conspicuous consumption of things like sex and drugs. 

What makes a star? 

• someone who people look up to 
• someone who people view as iconic 
• someone who has a lot of money 

Dyer has written extensively about the roles of stars in film,TV and music. Irrespective of the medium, stars have some key features in common: 

• A star is an image, not a real person, that is constructed out of a range of materials. 
• stars are commodities.   

stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media - magazines, TV, radio, the internet- in order to construct an image for themselves which can be marked top their target audiences.  Richard Dyer said that fundamentally the star image has to be incoherent (needs to be incomplete and open.)

•  The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer.
•  The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer.  

An example is George Michael, he did a interview based in his fame in the early 90's and he said he hated the control he had over the audience, the fact that so many people were hanging on his every word scared him and ultimately caused him to have a nervous breakdown. 

David Bowie  

• David Bowie adopted different personas such as 'Ziggy stardust' and 'Jean Genie.' he was able to change his looks and his music in some cases and his following would follow he wouldn't loose his audience.  He even had different colored eyes, after a incident when he was younger  and he kept that idea because it made him himself.  David Bowie is a star because people know him for more than being a singer, they know him for being  more than a singer. he knew he was going to die, he was ill with terminal cancer, so 2 days before he died he released a new album.The album had been recorded a year before. This was because he wanted it to be a parting gift for his fans, he also didn't want people to say how great he was because he had died he wanted them to sat it because of his music.   
• He made a video for one of his songs called 'Lazarus' and as we look in the lyrics he is talking about his death "i'm so high it makes my brain whirl" we can infer he is on about the pain killers. Also in the video we see him in a bed and he looks like he is possessed in a sense through the way he is moving and acting suggesting he is knowing he is going to die also it could be inferred that he is on his death bed. It has been suggested that Bowie finished off his star persona before he died.  
• He would not release a album for years and then come back with not only a new album but a a new look or persona at the same time and it almost made it a brand of 'David Bowie'.  
• People suggest that David Bowie's death leaves his star still incomplete, even his final album has provoked conspiracy theories and although he referenced his own death it is actually more oblique than that.