The Theory of Stardom - Star Image Analysis

Geoff Dyer's Theory of Stardom

1. The star is a real person.
   They have things about them that make them "real" and relatable, e.g. if they come from a large family of middle-class background
2. The star is a performer of public roles
   The primary encounter we have with a television or music star is through the roles they play
3. The star is a persona
   Involves merging the real person with the roles they play
4. The star is an image
   Image is the most contemporary as it's always changing. People only see the "mediated" version of a star

Mediated - the person in the media that we see, e.g. in music videos, television appearances, promotional events.

An example of this would be ex-Disney Star Miley Cyrus, who has transformed her image in a similar cycle to this theory.

1. The star is a real person

• In "7 Things", Miley can be seen as relatable to the younger audience due to her heartbreak which she sings about in the song
• The video features multiple young girls who look as upset as Cyrus does, so the audience can relate to her even more and feel as if she's a real person.
• As well as this, the girls featured in the video are all in the center of the shot which shows the audience that they're equal to Miley due to their shared heartache. 

• In the video, she's seen crying at one point which causes the younger fans to sympathise with her as they feel as if they can feel her pain.

2. The star is a performer of public roles

• Miley Cyrus starred in Disney programme "Hannah Montana" for a period of time and with that came over 40 different songs, including those from the Hannah Montana movie. 
• These songs are in the point of view of Cyrus' character, Miley Stewart and so the teenage girls who are the same age as the character feel as if they're able to relate to it more than any other age group, e.g. with her song, "Nobody's Perfect"

• In her first appearance in the sitcom, she's viewed as an everyday teen with a crush on a boy in her school and the audience can relate to this.

• Cyrus performed as Miley Stewart for 5 years and so reached out to and grew up with a large group of preteens and teens at the time which brought about her success.
• The audience may feel as if they've grown up with her as well.

3. The star is a persona

• Miley Cyrus toured multiple times in real life as Hannah Montana in order to constantly appeal to her fans and boost her star image.

• Then later on in Cyrus' career, she took on the role of Ronnie Miller in 2009 film, "The Last Song," which is about a girl who falls in love. This is a similar plot-line to a majority of the subplots in Hannah Montana

• As well as this, her character visually looks similar to Cyrus' character of Miley Stewart.

• With this role came the song, "When I Look At You," which is a song that's very different to her usual pop genre music.
• She's seen as more mature in both the music video and the film to appeal to a wider audience

4. The star is an image

• Once Hannah Montana finished, Miley Cyrus took a break to focus on her music and reinvented herself. 
• Before, she was America's Sweetheart who did as she was told and her role as Hannah Montana reflected that. When she reinvented herself, she had a new style, new music, new hair and so on.

• She became detached from her previous young audience and became a star instead of a person. This was through her behaviour and image which sparked controversy among fans and parents. 

• Now, the fans can mainly see the mediated version of her, which includes the star they see in the music videos and at events due to her new team having to ensure that she looks completely different from her previous 'self'.

People involved in transformations like this include:

• Management
• PR companies
• Music video directors
• Songwriting and production
• Wardrobe and make up

Music Video Analysis - Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin's Theory of Music Videos says that:

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics 
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work
5. There is frequent reference to the notion of 'looking' and particularly voyeuristic (the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviours and actions considered to be of a private nature) of the female body
6. There is often intertextual reference 

Video Analysis: 

Robbers - The 1975 (indie) - concept/narrative. 
This video proves Adam Godwin's theory due to it's lyrics and music matching the visuals. For example, there are constant references to violence and guns, "If you never shoot you'll never know," and "Well now that you've got your gun," in which the leading actor, Matt Healy, has a gun and uses it later in the video, as well as getting shot himself. Then when the lyrics "You find out everything's going wrong," are heard just before he gets shot, their planned robbery goes wrong, showing a foreshadowed relationship with the visuals and the lyrics.

Finally, during the end, the characters speak the lyrics, "You look so cool," to one another which matches the lyrics to the video.  As well as all this, the song title relates to the actions in the video as they are seen robbing a bank, so therefore are referred to as "Robbers," which is the title of the song. These all prove his theory of the music and lyrics' relationship with the visuals as well as the video demonstrating the indie/rock genre of the band, song and video.


The motifs of Matt Healy, the frontman of the band and this video, are clearly shown with multiple close ups and shots of him drinking, smoking and doing drugs which he does frequently in real life. This includes the people/characters around him also being associated with these habits as well, including love interests and band members, so this is portrayed in the video which ultimately
makes it seem more realistic.
As shown in the screenshots of the video, the love interests in the video are constantly associated with or are doing drugs, smoking or drinking. Cigarettes and alcoholic drinks are constantly passed around by the band, which is a common prop in the video since the band themselves are constantly seen with them in real life.

There's little voyeurism when Matt Healy and his love interest are being intimate in their room and the camera cuts to them for a no longer than a second, which makes it feel as if we're watching them. But other than that, the male and female lead are seen as equals as they are both constantly showing their body parts, e.g. her legs or his torso. This partly goes against the theory as the male isn't superior to the female and when the voyeuristic moments take place, it feels as if we're looking at both of them, not just her.

The concept of the song was inspired by the 1993 novella and film, True Romance (the idea of an ill-fated robbery with a dangerous romance) which then lead onto the video being made about the song and the robbery. This means that there's a form of intertextual reference to the book and film in this video which in turn proves Godwin's theory. But other than that, there are no other references to other media texts throughout the video so it only proves the theory a little bit as only the concept of the song and video were based from it, nothing else in them does.

Music Video Analysis - Bad Blood, Taylor Swift

5 key elements of a music video:

1. Media language - effect of camerawork, editing, lighting, sound and mise-en-scene 
2. Genre - how does the video link to the music genre?
3. Audience
4. Narrative
5. Representation - how is the artist represented? 

Media Language in Taylor Swift's Bad Blood Video

Mise-en-scene

• Lighting is constantly dark but light enough to see Taylor and her friend's faces
• Location is in various places in various places in London which references typical science-fiction locations in media texts (an urban city)

• The costumes and make up are all dark colours so it's as if they're trying to blend in with their environment; it matches the revengeful elements of the song
• As well as this, (with the exception of one character), all of the character's costumes look similar which indicates that they're all on the same team

• Despite their dark costumes, they all have feminine qualities, e.g. Taylor applying her lipstick at the beginning

• There's lots of emphasis on the sound of their heels clicking on the ground as they're training
• They all have a weapon of some sort which doesn't reflect the pop genre of the song but matches the narrative of the video

• At the beginning, one of the female characters has a cigar which is a prop commonly used by men in power. This makes Lena Dunham's character seem powerful and enforces the women empowerment message of the video.

Editing

• Lots of CGI added to complete the music video and give it the effect of a Hollywood blockbuster film, e.g. explosions in the background 

• The use of slow motion has been thoroughly used throughout and mainly on Taylor's screen time to prolong the amount of time she's shown for. It also succeeds in creating an action-adventure effect on the audience.
• Taylor is always in the shot, even when the focus is on someone else, e.g. when she's kicked out the window, the audience is able to see her face in the reflection of the glass. This puts emphasis on Taylor and her image.

• The triumph of editing makes the characters seem as if they know what they're doing throughout, even though their screen time is relatively short. 

Camerawork

• Establishing shot of a city to introduce the genre of the film as well as the location.

• Constant close ups of Taylor and the other character's faces to introduce both their image and their character
• Taylor is almost always in the shot as this promotes her artistry to her fans. It also puts emphasis on the fact that she's the star of this video.
  

• Tracking shots at the beginning of her body which objectifies her body under the 'male gaze'. This proves Godwin's theory of music videos as it comes under voyeurism .

Genre

• Like action-adventure films, it's quite a glossy video with a big budget and is reliant upon high quality editing.
• It's atypical for a music video since it closely resembles a film instead of a 'normal' music video.
• However there are performance elements which brings it back to it's pop genre.

• As well as this, there's a discreet emphasis on her costume and make up which is common for pop genre videos.
• Like with most pop genre videos, the artist gets the maximum amount of screen time which is apparent throughout the video with roughly 2 minutes and 50 seconds screen time, while her characters have up to 15 seconds each.

Audience effect

• The audience (especially teenage girls and young adults) will feel somewhat empowered after watching the girls be the superheroes for once.

• Also feel part of the team since the audience is introduced to everyone in the video. This enhances the communication between Taylor and her fans.
• Moments of tension for the fans to see Taylor's new edgier image that involved violence - something she's never been associated with.

• The audience enjoy it as a mini-movie, not just a music video.

Narrative

• The audience can see Taylor and her friends' faces so they know to trust them, whereas you don't see the faces of the other side so they know that they're bad.

• The audience are able to see what's happening through signs and symbols, e.g. the weapons they're holding represents a fight. Since they're on the same side, the audience can decipher that they're in training and not fighting each other.

• Can see intertextuality; there are links to the Hunger Games, Divergent, Tron and multiple more.

The bike from Tron (pictured above) and the bikes from Bad Blood.

• She's representing other women and female empowerment which reflects the current zeitgeist.

Representation

• The representation of the girls being shown as physically strong and violent is atypical.
• Despite the strong image, there's still typically feminine elements to their characters, e.g. Taylor applying her lipstick and the dramatic sound of their heels on the hard ground.
• There's lots of eye contact with the camera which is Taylor confidently addressing the audience directly.

• The girls are seen as strong as men as Taylor and Selena are seen fighting them in the beginning. As well as this, 
• Taylor shares a split screen with Kendrick Lamar at the beginning and later on, is in front of him in the shot they share together. This represents her power.

Conventions of a Music Video

Although the conventions of a music video vary depending on the genre, they all have basic conventions in common.

Camera Shots:

• Close ups of the artist

• Establishing shots 
• Short takes
• High or low angles 
• Medium/long shots to show band or artist's outfit

• Occasional extreme close up of artist's face to put an emphasis on feature

Camera Movement:

• Tracking shots
• Pan (to establish location)
• Wide shot

• Whip pan
• Focus pull
• Crane shot
• Tilt
• Zoom and reverse zoom

Editing

• Jump cuts from artist to other focus point
• Fast paced editing to add energy and to create the need to view the video more than once
• Text on the screen to introduce artist, song, character or location

• Jumping patterns
• Musical editing - cuts to the beat of the song

Post-production digital effects

• Change the colouring of the video, e.g. to enhance a colour, to add a filter etc.
• Slow motion
• Split screens 
• Computer Generated Imagery (CGI)

Mise-en-scene

• Costumes and make-up tend to reflect the genre of the song or artist
• Body language - the female body tends to be sexualised, but generally it's quite raw 
• Location, e.g. a city, beach, in a studio. 
• Casting done to reflect the genre of the song

Lighting:

• Low key lighting for sad or slow songs

• High key lighting for an upbeat song

• Theatrical lighting, e.g. spotlights
• If in studio, bleach lighting to make the artist appear more attractive
• Highlights the importance of some features of a video
• Creates a particular mood or atmosphere relative to the song and it's genre
• Quite commonly, the video will be in low key lighting but the audience can always see the artist or character's face, e.g. in Bad Blood by Taylor Swift