Analysis Of A Star And Dyer's Star Theory - Miss Miller

There are many ways in which artists decide to reinvent themselves. Some of the reasons include:

• To appeal to a wider audience
• Get more publicity
• Show their real individuality
• Push boundaries on how far they can go without creating bad publicity
• Cause controversy
• To bee more relatable/more conventional
• Show their maturity and development
• Creativity - different genre
• Rise awareness/publicity
• Previous bad press and to improve it

This shows the change in some artists majorly as by reinventing themselves they are able to grow or possibly change in the music industry. This allows the artist to show their true selves and show how they are developing as an artist. This can also create a sense of competition between artists as they are in competition with each other for publicity. Goodwin is one theory on how artists reinvent themselves. This can be from elements such as close-ups to show how their image has changed, visual relationships between the lyrics and the visuals, narrative based, whilst also possibly going against Goodwin's theory of regular performance with close-ups, and using the demands of the record label, this theory is both subverted and used through music videos where artists want to recreate themselves. The main focus is Richard Dyer's Star Theory which the term 'star' refers to mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience. He believes that a 'star image' is not a real person, it is someone that is constructed, out of a range of materials (eg advertising, magazines etc as well as films (music) ) .
He thinks that there as main focusses and common values to music stardom: -

• Youthfulness
• Rebellion
• Sexual Magnetism
• An Anti-authoritanan attitude (rebelling)
• Originality
• Creativity/Talent
• Aggression/Anger
• A disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and good behaviour
• Conspicuous consumption of sex, drugs and material goods.
• Success against the odds

He believes that stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings (what they become through their social values). They depend upon a range of subsidiary media, TV, Radio, Internet - in order to keep up with their image for themselves which can be marketed to their audiences constantly. The star image is made up of meanings which are attractive to the target audience. Fundamentally, the star's image is incoherent, incomplete and open. Dyer says that this is because it is based upon two key paradoxes (image is always changing, always improving).

Paradox 1 - The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer (relatable yet inspirational)
Paradox 2 - The star must be simultaneously present and absent from the consumer (present for the audience eg - promoting new albums/singles, doing tours etc and absent when they are in the studio recording )

I have been specifically looking at the pop genre artist Miley Cyrus formally known as Hannah Montana. I have chosen to analyse her changing as an artist as I believe in the public eye her imagery and how she has changed as an artist has been so public and has caused many uproars and mixed opinions that I thought to show her change and how would be perfect for a reinvention artist.
She has had a lot of bad publicity with her new image, but she said that her wild

new look is just her going through ‘puberty’.""I think people think I really am a robot, that was made in Burbank in the Disney building.”"People are like, 'How do you make a transformation from a kid to an adult?' I'm like, it's called puberty, everyone's done it from the beginning of time. I'm just doing it and so you're zooming in on it and you're fascinated by it." She also added that after years of pretending to be someone else – she is finding it refreshing to be able to express her true self finally.
"Everything I'm doing with my videos, everything I'm doing with my music, I just want it to be really honest. I just feel like I've been a character for so long that now I just want all my performances all my videos to be really real." This quote here from Miley Cyrus just shows how people had already had a set image on her. This shows how the producer creates a 'character' to also create a niche/target audience. This gives a false image of the artist not allowing them have their own freedom, which eventually leads to them rebelling to their record label to create a new image.




The first music video I have analysed was Hannnah Montana (Miley Cyrus as a character) Supergirl. This was one of the music video's she performed as a character on Disney Channel. This music video describes her life as a popstar and how people want to be her as she is an inspirational character. The pop music video is performance based with some narrative due to the mis-en-scene , iconography used to match the lyrics. This links in with Goodwin's theory as she the lyrics match the visuals. We see her performing on a stage with extravagant pink outfits (pop convention) and the iconography used was when she sang "dry my tears" was a makeup brush. This may not be conventional to a pop music genre but the visuals match the lyrics and this is what Goodwin believed what should be in a music video. The use of the makeup brush when she sings "wipe my tears" was used here so that the female audiences can relate to her more. This is usually and stereotypically when a girl has been upset or hurt by something and to get over the situation or the problem that's happened and wipe away the tears with their makeup and move on, and that could be a hidden message behind 'Supergirl' as she maybe trying to connote that girls go through hard times but always overcome it eventually.
Another way in which this music video demonstrates one of Goodwin's points in his theory is that the music video demonstrates genre characteristics. For example her genre of music is pop and one of the conventions which is a characteristic is that she has a dance routine with backup dancers also. This shows her stage performance as an artist and her you can see she is following the conventions of her musical genre. This is used specifically as this creates a relationship with the audience as they are more intrigued with the artist as it makes them look like they are multi-talented , they can dance and sing. It also conveys the pop genre to be very entertaining and fun and usually about glitz and glammer.

Another way in which this music video demonstrates Goodwin's theory is that there is some intertextual reference throughout the entire music video. We see Miley Cyrus as her on screen character 'Hannah Montana, and this is where she is disguised as her pretend pop sta
r instead of showing her true identity. This makes us see that there are some intertextual references to her TV show Hannah Montana. This was used specifically as this would of been an idea from the producers in order to promote the TV show and to also promote Hannah Montana as an artist, but not Miley Cyrus. This made the audience feel that the character of Hannah Montana was true to reality and makes the audience believe that she really is a pop star. This is also used so that they can promote the character as something out of the ordinary.

In this particular video the genre is pop music. We can tell this by the many generic conventions it shows throughout, particularly with mis-en-scene costume and iconography, and editing such as lighting and also cinematography the use of camera shots/angles. Firstly, the use of mis-en-scene costume shows the artist wearing pink leather gloves, pink and white tidal patterned top, and ripped silver and white jeans. This in particular makes her look like a pop star for a particular niche audience of around the ages of 6-15years. The costumes here are very 'childlike' and this makes the clothing more realistic and relatable for the audience and they are able to interpret this in their own way. This also shows her vulnerability as she hides everything away and avoids any unwanted attention to her body due to her younger audience, she has adapted here to her c
haracter in which she performs as. This is conventional to a pop genre as the clothing is brightly coloured which will make her centre of attention when performing and also due to the clothing being very 'age appropriate' it makes it unconventional to a pop genre as stereotypically you see tight, revealing clothes but again this subverts the genre due to the niche audience. The pink leather gloves gives her a unique feel and is very conventional to a pop genre as it gives the artist a unique style. It lets the audience again feel like they can look up to her for inspiration with their looks. The use of cinematography the use of camera angles such as close ups are specifically used in this music video. This is conventional to a pop music genre as it promotes the artist and her image. This enables the audience to relate to the artist and create a relationship with them as they get to see personally what she looks like and this could inspire the audiences own image also, and this can help again with the promotion of the artist.

The image of Miley Cyrus here is one to be inspirational to her audiences. It is one that is very sensible to the audience in which they can take inspiration from and this will enable them to gather a better relationship with the artist if they feel they can aspire to be her. In relation to Dyer's theory of a stars image she relates to the first paradox especially where she is simultaneously ordinary and extra ordinary for the consumer. This is shown as her mis-en-scene costume is very relatable to the audience as it is a casual look with jeans, and glittery top and some nice white boots to match her outfit. This is quite ordinary in the fact that she uses day-day clothing which is fairly casual to the audience, but it is quite extraordinary as she jazzes it up with glitter and sparkly sequins which make her image more of a higher quality and makes her look more like a pop star despite having that casual look. However this shows that her image isn't as true to real life as they try to make it, she has been constructed through her clothing. This also shows that the incoherence of the artist ensures the audiences continually strive to 'compete' or to make sense of the artists image and this way the artist is still able to appeal to her audiences with her 'star' image. Another way in which this music video relates to Dyer's theory is in the music theory the performance of the artist seems to promise the completion of the image but it actually is always ultimately unsatisfying - this means that the audience is always left wanting more. We see this throughout the entire music video and her performing intrigues the audience in a way that afterwards they feel upset and desire more of her and this is one of the reasons why she may have included performance in her music video. This then results into the fans going away and are determined to continue consuming the star in order to carry on attempting to complete their image.

In this particular music video, although not being one of 'Hannah Montana's ' first music videos, here we see her as a young adolescent but still perusing the character she is portrayed as, we know that the target audience is specifically for a niche audience. This is due to the fact especially because her 'character' in which she performs as an artist was part of a television channel called Disney. So this essentially means the artist and especially in this music video is aimed for a niche audience, a specific audience aged around 5-15years. It is around this particular age as they wanted to cater for the younger audiences and make her songs appropriate for the younger generation. This was a large age gap so they were able to cater for all of the different age groups with her style, image, her songs and many of the different elements such as mis-en-scene, editing and other elements in order to make it more appealing for her target audience.

The messages and values within this music video especially through the lyrics 'Im super cute, super hot, living like a rockstar' portrays Miley Cyrus to be quite confident as a person and the image she is in. The message sends to the audience to be confident with your image and be confident in yourself and you can live the dream you wan, hence why she says she's living like a rockstar because she is very confident within her own image. Another message it tries to convey is that she is like everybody else, with the use of mis-en-scene costume, we see her in very casual clothing with a small glittery twist. The message being conveyed here makes her audience feel that they can be just like her as an artist and make them feel that she Is just as normal and relatable to the audience as they are to her. It make the audience appreciate the artist more and make them feel that she generally cares about making her audience feel more connected to her as an artist and more realistic.

The second music video I had analysed was Miley Cyrus's 'Can't Be Tamed'. This was one of Miley Cyrus' first music videos as her own artist without the portrayal of her being Hannah Montana - at this time Hannah Montana no longer was airing as he decided to take her music career further rather than perusing a character than was produced about her. Here Miley Cyrus has reinvented herself as she wanted to get rid of her initial character of Hannah Montana, and prove herself as her own artist and not one of those whom was created by the producers. She wanted to show her individuality and her creativity as an artist and that she was able to do this by changing her image into a more sexy/inappropriate/sensible way.
The genre of Miley Cyrus now was still pop, this showed that she still wanted to show her initial roots as an artist and also show her own style of the pop music genre. There are many ways in which this music video links in with Goodwin's theory. For example again, the music video demonstrates the genre characteristics for example she has a dance routine and also backup dancers. This is essential in a pop music genre as it keeps the audiences entertained and is conventional to a pop music genre as it makes the music video more interesting to watch and also it portrays the artist to be more intellectual with her music as she is able to do more things at once by multitasking she is able to show the audience that she is the same as how she used to be but in a different way. However the dancing was more sexually explicit that in which it involved a lot of body contact with the other sexuality and also it was more aggressive an powerful unlike how it used to be. This shows she is reinventing herself as she is showing how powerful she is as an artist through the way in which she performs now on stage.
Another way in which the music video relates to Goodwin's theory is that he believes there should be a balance of narrative based video and performance based video. In this particular video, the narrative is through the way in which she performs. We see her as she performs like a bird/eagle and she acts like she is something else. This could connote that although she is in her own human form, she feels like she has to be something else for the public and her audience (just like how she was for Hannah Montana). This narrative shows that she as an artist is a true performer and that by performing as something else she can be very controversial and diverse. This is conventional to a pop music genre as you need to see some narrative to have something for the audience to follow and also performance so that the audience can connect with the song of the artist.

In this particular music video Miley Cyrus is following the typical conventions of Pop music video. It is very conventional with the way it is as it follows many of the different conventions to a pop music genre. For example, mis-en-scene costume for example, is very conventional to a pop genre. It is fairly revealing as it shows most of her legs make her look seductive and sexy to the audience, it makes her look very feminine as well due to the costume being very well fitted to her body. This portrays the artist to be very conscious about what she looks like but this also portrays her due to the colours of black that she is wearing that she is a very fierce artist now and that nobody should mess with her. It is conventional as the clothing is revealing yet sensible at the same time, although it gives her a more appealing and more objective look it also shows tha
t women in pop music genres have to make themselves look appealing to the audience so that they can appeal to the wider audience.
Another way in which she follow the conventions to the music genre was the use of a dance routine and backup dancers. This is essential in a pop music genre as it keeps the audiences entertained and is conventional to a pop music genre as it makes the music video more interesting to watch and also it portrays the artist to be more intellectual with her music as she is able to do more things at once by multitasking she is able to show the audience that she is the same as how she used to be but in a different way. However the dancing was more sexually explicit that in which it involved a lot of body contact with the other sexuality and also it was more aggressive an powerful unlike how it used to be. This shows she is reinventing herself as she is showing how powerful she is as an artist through the way in which she performs now on stage.
However she also subverts the some conventions of the genre as we usually do not expect to see the use of animals in a pop genre. Although if they were to be involved they would be possibly in the background, here she is actually the animal, she is the bird/eagle (in black) as she shows off her wings and is in a cage at the beginning of the music video. This isn't conventional to a pop genre as although however it is in the performance it makes her unique and shows off her individuality.

In relation to Dyer's theory of a stars image she relates to the first paradox especially where she is simultaneously ordinary and extra ordinary for the consumer. She also follows Paradox 2 as she can be simultaneously present and absent from the consumer. Firstly, she has changed her image In a way to portray herself as someone more sexy, and more of a pop star, again this is shown through the change of her image such as her costume, I more voluptuous and revealing , something in which wasn't in the first video where she was Hannah Montana - also it can be ordinary as despite having leather and lyrca on she looks like somebody who is about to go out, somebody who is ready for a night out with the dark makeup and messy hair, here her hair is more natural as in she has been rid of the bright blonde locks Wig and shown her true identity. However she is extraordinary as she shows her performance side with extravagant dance routines and ability with editing as she shows off computer-generated wings. This is relatable to the audience as they feel more connected and more fascinated with Miley Cyrus as she is able to show her true image to the audience and show her personality through many different elements , this makes her more appealing to the audience and inspirational and relatable.
We know that Dyer's theory is within this music video with Paradox 2 also as for a period of time Miley Cyrus was not apart of the music industry as she was reinventing herself from Hannah Montana, she was in the studio recording and this links to Dyer's theory as she was not present to the consumer she was to the producer, but the consumers were still left with the image of Hannah Montana in their heads.

Essentially the target audience would be for a much older generation compared to the last video I had analysed. This would be for a niche audience for youngsters around the ages of 16-24 as the video contains sexual references not with the lyrics but with the visuals as she is dressed rather provocatively, and this is all about showing off her new identity as an artist so that she can reinvent herself. Before she followed Dyer's theory of which she had to depend on subsidiary companies such as the media, tv and internet in order to keep her image of Hannah Montana up which should be marketed to their audiences. However now due to new 'star' image she is able to not only rely on the subsidiary companies to promote her new identity, but also rely on fans also to help draw in more attention to the new public figure. The specific target audience now allows the artist to reach out to a larger fan base and the image may gain her more fans in the sense that she now is more appealing to a older audience and this could be beneficial for her in many ways. As he image has subtly change the audience may respect her in the fact she has not copied other artists and taken inspiration to the fact she is being her own individual.

There are many messages in which happen in her music video. It sends to the audience to be confident with your image and be confident in yourself as she flaunts around in clothing more explicit than compared to her original image beforehand. It also shows with her lyrics that 'I can be a little bit crazy' this connotes that now her new image has changed her personal identity can now slowly start to reveal itself, that in which she found difficult before. Another way in which she shows message is where she uses editing with the black wings as they cover her face and body whilst the paparazzi take photographs of her performing or just walking around. This could connote that she feels se gets a lot of unwanted attention and feels like she has to hide away her true inner artist.



The third and final music video I looked at for Miley Cyrus was 'We Can't Stop'. This was her most drastic change throughout the years and caused very big outcry as her personality had changed, her image completely and drastically and the lyrics and her performance changed from subtle and sweet to dramatic and sinister. In this video she has changed drastically as we see her singing about drugs, sex and partying, this is very different to what she used to have when she first started as a pop star, despite being a character she started to show her inner personality which shocked many people, but this major change of image and reinventing herself by shaving all her hair off, dying it white and having her signature tounge poking out all of the time, it gained her more fansglobally and this worked in her favour.
This music video links very well with Goodwin's theory as just like the others the music video has a visual relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. This is essential to a pop music genre as it enables the audience to create a relationship with the artist and the song as they are able to see what the lyrics actually mean and some of the consequences of what she is trying to communicate within her song. Another way in which Goodwin's theory is used was the demands of the record label will inclue the need of lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work, this is evident as this enables Miley Cyrus to promote herself in a way which can show her new identity as an artist. It makes the audience connect with her more as they are able to see her new image up close and judge her for who she is an artist rather than just what they see on the outside.



There are many generic pop conventions to this music video whilst she also subverts them also. One way in which she does this is is the clothing. Throughout the entire video it is very revealing and this particular mis-en-scene element shows how her innocence as an artist has slowly faded away as she has become more of a popular artist with the audience. This revealing clothing makes her image very different as we see her in a very tight white leotard. The colour white connotes innocence but we see her 'twerking' in this video and we as the audience take this as she is mocking the stereotypes of her innocence , her character beforehand and taking that and destroying it by showing that the white may signify innocence and purity but she makes sure that the audience know that this has nothing to do with it. Another convention of the music videos is the scenery. Stereotypically we see this pop genre setting in a club but she slightly subverts this and has a party in a mansion. This shows that and is essential to a pop genre as it shows the audience that the artist knows how to have a good time, and by havng a 'house party' it is more relatable to the audience as they are more subjective and related to these particular parties as due to the audiences age they may not be old enough to get into clubs. This lets the audience created a relationship with the artist as they are able rto see that despite her image change she still wants to make her music videos relatable to her niche audience and show them that she still is a realistic figure in the world of the music industry.



Dyer;s theory is acceptable to this music video as common values of music stardom is 'sexual magnetism' which is used by the different change of outfits which show off her body, firstly she wears tight leather clothing and high heels. This shows that due to the promiscularity of her music video and her clothing it shows that she is rebelling against the artist she used to be and wants to show people how diverse she is as an artist ; - that she is able to show her diversity of pop music .

In relation to Dyer's theory of a stars image she relates to the first paradox especially where she is simultaneously ordinary and extra ordinary for the consumer. She also follows Paradox 2 as she can be simultaneously present and absent from the consumer. Firstly, she has changed her image In a way to portray herself as someone more of an idnividual and completly retro, and more of a pop star, again this is shown through the change of her image such as her costume, Is more voluptuous and revealing and some people may of taken affence by it.

The video represents the artist as someone who is trying to break the boundaries of any pop star. She does this with her lyrics, her costume, and especially her body langauge and the way she dances. Here the artist cannot be view as a product as although she may of revealed a different side to her, it is not one of the producers, she is showing her true personality and this is why she wanted to recreate herself as people only saw her for the Disney character, they didn't take her seriously, and to become a more of a serious artist within the public eye she had to reinvent
herself as how she thought she should be potrayed. The artist is not ordinary but is definatly extra ordinary. This is in relation to her mis-en-scene elements such as body language and costume, for example, when she licks and 'makes out' with a sledge hammer and also the tight leotard showing alot more of her body than usual shows how extraordinary she is as an artist in ways how she felt that she needed to push the boundaries. The video places fans possibly against hegemony as her star image shouldn't be in the postion to the consumer to relate to dominant and influencial social values. This is because she sings about the use of drugs and sex and how she/people cannot stop all of these things that they desire, and they shouldnt't be part of social values and shouldn't be promoted as it can effect peoples lifes majorly and may offend some of her younger viewers.

Essentially the target audience would be for a relatively older generation compared to the last video I had analysed. This would be for a niche audience for young adolescents around the ages of 17-25 as the video contains sexual references and drug relation (drug use/abuse), and this wouldnt be appropirate for a yougner audience as they wouldn't/shouldn't of been exposed to this before and it could be influencial to them as they may not understand unlike a older audience would do. 

Before she followed Dyer's theory of which she had to depend on subsidiary companies such as the media, tv and internet in order to keep her image of Hannah Montana up which should be marketed to their audiences. However now due to new 'star' image she is able to not only rely on the subsidiary companies to promote her new identity, but also rely on fans also to help draw in more attention to the new public figure. The specific target audience now allows the artist to reach out to a larger fan base and the image may gain her more fans in the sense that she now is more appealing to a older audience and this could be beneficial for her in many ways. As he image has subtly change the audience may respect her in the fact she has not copied other artists and taken inspiration to the fact she is being her own individual. Although she may not be able to appeal to all audiences some may take her new look as a confidence booster and it may influence some of the audience.
Altough her new image may have changed it has inspired many young fans to be like her, despite a lot of her songs being about drugs and sex they look more at her image which is the most aspiring aspect of her.

I believe that the artist has made these certain changes as she wanted to sho the world her true identity. She has hidden behind the character from the Disney show for many years and was just a product and I feel that without this she wasn't going to seem any different to they streotypes of the 'stars' that want to become artists on television shows. Although this new image may have given her bad publicity as he started to show her true personality, it however gained her more publicity promoting her as a new upcoming artist and gained her more fans. This research has helped me decide what artist I want to use for my own music video as  it has shown me how diverse all artist's musiv videos can be , problably not as much as Miley Cyrus' but it enables me to get a better understanding of the codes and conventions of different music genres and change them and subvert them in my own way whilst following them to an excellent music video.

The research has helped with deciding an artists aswell as a target audience and the importance of artist image as it has given me guidance on many different elements within music videos and how artists have tried to reinvent themselves to show how they can be diverse artists and get even bigger audiences. I believe that by combining the research we have done on different artists and elements seen in music videos I believe we will be able to create an artist that is reliable relatable stylish and somebody who can connect with a wide global audience of a range of different ages. We have come to the conclusion that the artist we are replicating and trying to change is Ellie Goulding and the song 'Burn' as  she is an indie/pop genre music artist and we want to try and make an artist like her but more relatable to different audiences, the target audience is around the ages of 13-21 due to the narrative of natural relationships being put into it and due to our artist being around the same age as we want our audience to connect to the artist.





The research has