Stars and Stardom

In order to understand the relationship between the music industry and its audiences, it is important to consider the roles of music stars. The term ‘star’ refers to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience. A star is ultimately an image which exists further than what they do, and in this respect, there is a vague sense of basis in truth.

Richard Dyer has written extensively about the role 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 produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings

Stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media – magazines, TV, radio, the internet – in order to construct an image for themselves which can be marketed to their target audiences. The star image is made up of a range of meanings which are attractive to the target audiences.

Some common values of music stardom:

• Youthfulness
• Rebellion
• Sexual magnetism
• An anti-authoritarian attitude
• Originality
• Creativity/talent
• Aggression/anger
• A disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour
• Conspicuous consumption of sex, drugs and material goods
• Success against all odds

Fundamentally, the star image is incoherent, that is incomplete and ‘open’. Dyer says that this is because it is based upon two key paradoxes.

Paradox 1

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

Paradox 2

The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer

The incoherence of the star image ensures that audiences continually strive to ‘complete’ or to ‘make sense of’ the image. This is achieved by continued consumption of the star through his or her products. In the music industry, performance seems to promise the completion of the image, but it is always ultimately unsatisfying. This means that fans will go away determined to continue consuming the star in order to carry on attempting to complete their image.

Finally, the star image can be used to position the consumer in relation to dominant social values (that is hegemony). Depending upon the artist, this may mean that the audience are positioned against the mainstream (though only to a limited degree, since they are still consumers within a capitalist system) or within the mainstream, or somewhere in between.