Richard Dyer theory -representation

Richard Dyer developed the theory of the idea that the viewer's perception of a film is heavily influenced by the perception of it's stars and that the publicity materials and reviews determine the way that audiences experience a media text.
With this  idea in mind, Dyer analysed the critics, magazines, advertisements and the films themselves, to explore the significance of 'stardom'.

Quotes from Richard Dyer;

• "Star's are commodities that are produced by institutions"
• " A star is a constructed image, represented across a range of  media and mediums"
• "Star's  represent and embody certain ideologies"

Dyer also states that  a star  is an image, not a real person they are constructed, as any other aspect of fiction is, using a range of material and methods e.g. advertising, magazines and featuring in films and music products.

Icons and celebrities are constructed by institutions for financial gain and target one specific audience/group of people to make profit

Star's create a persona that is desirable to a target audience but is not actually a true presentation of themselves.

Desirable female celebrities

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 4 key components;

1. Star's as constructions
2. Audience and industry/ institution
3. Ideology and culture
4. character and personality

Star's are constructed , artificial images even if they  are represented as being 'real people'. In fact star's are reconstructed versions of themselves for a reason - to get money from the audience.•Stars are manufactured by the music industry to serve a purpose — to make money out of audiences, who respond to various elements of a star persona by buying records and becoming fans.
Record companies nurture and shape their stars  as the TV talent show processes have shown us. They tend to manufacture what they think audiences want, hence the photocopied nature of many boy bands, teen bands
The institution want to make money out of their constructed stars and create constructs of stars they believe an audience want to copy. 

Stars represent shared cultural values and attitudes that promotes a certain ideology about themselves as an artist and what they want an audience to see what they believe in.

By having dominant desirable ideologies it allows the audience to see their star qualities and make them more desirable. Conveying their beliefs and opinions out side music and film helps a celebrity create a star persona. Stars promote their ideologies within culture to make them a consumerable house hold name. Audiences tend to copy or idolize ‘stars’ so promoting their own beliefs makes them more desirable.

Dyer says stars provide audiences with ‘ideas of what people are supposed to be like’ and because of this audiences feel the need to conform to these constructions.
A star creates a character based on themselves and what they feel the audience want to consume they promote an image what they feel is desirable for an audience.
Dyer states they are constructs of what an audience wants to consume. They are a construction of them selves Stars are characters that create personalities to present to an audience. Audience consume this idea and the character these stars re-present to an audience. 

Hegemony

Star's represent shared cultural values and attitudes to promote a certain ideology and this is also what makes them a 'star' by having such a powerful influence on an audience. Examples of this would be Katy Perry making her target audience believe she loves them by calling them her Kitty-Cats.

Star's provide audience's with 'ideas of what people are supposed to be like'' Star's create character based on themselves. They are constructs of what an audience want to consume

Star's use motif's and logo's to represent themselves as a 'brand', these are usually used as iconic things that symbolise a singer or a band. These are used so that as soon as the audience see the motif or the logo they instantly recognise who that logo/motif belongs to. For example the Red Hot Chilli Pepper's use their logo on their albums and include in their music videos.

Paradox

Dyer suggests that there are two paradoxes and that the star is both ‘ordinary’ and ‘extraordinary’. He states the star needs to be like us to be able to relate to the audience but also offer something that we do not have in order to deem them special enough to be stars.

How does this theory imply to my chosen music video?

 My chosen music video follows some of the conventions of this theory, such as the band being superior and desirable to us as the audience. When watching the video we can see that the camera angles are always from a low angle so that we are looking up at the band performing the song, however we only see the band performing through certain parts of the song. The music video  starts off with the narrative then it jumps in-between the narrative and the performance. N/P/N/P/N/P/N/P/N/P/N/P/N being the sequence of the music video. The logo of green day appears on the drum set behind Billie J. Armstrong (main singer) which we can see in every camera shot of Billie singing. This is so that the audience instantly know that they are Greenday. Greenday has the expectation of the audience to act rebellious however the normal behaviour we have associated with Greenday is jusrt an act which is connoted with their genre of music.