Richard Dyer is the man behind the Star theory in which he states that Artists are developed and constructed through artificial images such as advertising, television, film, magazines and music. Dyer argues that instead of this artificial image and brand of the artist, consumers prefer to see the artists convey their true emotions and use their unique selling point in order for them to be successful.
Richard Dyer moves forward to suggest that:
- Stars are manufactured to be a money making tool for their record labels by appealing to a target audience.
- As a result of record labels being so money hungry, they are forced to appeal to different audiences and therefore are forced to market a range of different artists to cater for both 'niche' and 'mainstream' markets.
Richard Dyer further argues that Artists or stars become trendsetters who are imitated by audiences and people that follow their image and music. This includes hairstyles, items of clothing and jewellery. Artists may also have some religious beliefs and cultural values that audiences may pick up on if shared by the artist. Furthermore, the introduction of the internet now means that audiences have greater access to the personal lives of the artists and can more keenly follow their trends and new things introduced by them depending on how into the artists they are.
Argues that stars support hegemony, presented as 'real' people, they are almost a "glorified version of us." Leadership or dominance over a specific state or social group. Gramsci argues the theory of cultural hegemony which describes how states use social institutions to maintain power in capitalist societies
Construction
Music videos are often constructed in relation to genre and each different genre has specific characteristics within them. These different genres often have signifiers relating to race and gender identities. Does a particular video reinforce the challenge of particular stereotypes?
Britney Spears
Britney raises interesting issues regarding female representation in Pop. She was originally perceived as a female adolescent role model. However, she was manufactured in a male dominated industry which placed restrictions and stereotypes on femininity.
In the early years of Britney's career, she was often presented to the audience as a girlie iconography; bedroom culture, dolls, dressing up and hanging out with friends. Teen pigtails completed this image and her videos would often have similar looking dancers who also convey this image and are part of her gang."
It is debated whether this video is empowering or whether it is seductive. It is undeniable that features of the music video conform to the theories of Laura Mulvey and the male gaze where Britney is the centre of attention and the school girl look may be appealing to an audience where she is not wearing a tie and her buttons are undone on her top. However, in comparison to other music videos, the sexual representation of women is minute and does not fully give itself to the theory of Mulvey and the male gaze. The lyrics to the song and the performance placate the theories of Goodwin where he states that there are characteristics within the music videos that relate specifically to genre and in this case it is performance to Pop. Overall, I do not believe that one could say that the video is either fully empowering to women yet nor can they say that there is no explicit representation of Britney and the dancers within the video.
The Bottom of my Broken Heart
Again we see Britney's video address the themes and happenings of a young adolescent girl's insecurities which shows vulnerability and from this depiction of her, she is seen as a role model to young girls who are facing situations like first love and the representation of Britney is subject to the stereotype of young women. This shows how the media are portraying Britney as a star with the intention of supporting young girls with their problems in order for them to buy the music for profitable reasons, depicting Britney in a "real" way as Dyer would argue.
This is another example of Britney appealing to her young adolescent audience where she is showing the insecurities and anxiety of the girls in the process of changing from a child to an adult.
Oops I did it again
This video from Britney's the first one that differentiates from the impressionable and insecure teen depiction as seen before. The mere content of the song shows that Britney is not that "innocent" anymore and is changing her image. The Mulvey male gaze theory is exulted with the use of tight skinned out fit so the sexual features of the star are shown more predominantly. Dyer's theory of hegemony and sexual exploitation couples the idea of Mulvey's patriarchy within the media which regulates perspectives within society. There are many close ups on the sexual body parts of the female dancers and Goodwin's theory is embedded within the content of the video where the females are performing choreography in a studio based location. This then challenges the idea of her being inspirational for a young teen audience and is suggestive that Britney is being sexually exploited by the male directors and thus will be perceived like this when received by her audience.
Overprotected
It can be argued whether this video is empowering to women in contrast to her slightly more sexualised image post the teenage girl depiction of Britney as an artist appealing to young adolescence. However, it is undeniable that there are features of Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze. The message of the song is empowering as it suggests that you should not be put down by people who say that you can't do something or by people who try to control your life. Despite this, Britney is sexualised and placates a male audience as she is portrayed and depicted as an object of erotic desire often seen in tight outfits with high flesh ratio and a strong portrayal of sexual movements. Goodwin's theory is conformed where she is performing choreography with a group of dancers within a Pop video.
Hold it against me
This video is a strong contrast to the videos prior to it as it has different characteristics to those videos and takes a different approach and is sending a different message to her audience. The song and video are both in conjunction with each other which allows it to conform to Goodwin's theory of illustrative videos where the lyrics interlink with the content on screen. To further this, there are screens within a screen showing features of Britney's old music videos which shows that the video is strongly related to the genre of Pop. Britney is reflecting on her career and the video is effective in depicting Britney's regret about some of the past things she has done throughout her career. The mise en scene is used to portray this accompanied by camerawork where the low angle shot flirts with the purity of the grand white wedding dress that Britney is wearing. This suggests that she is trying to persuade the audience that she is pure and to see past the image she has been shown to be like through the media.
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