Dyer's star theory

This theory refers to how celebrities and stars are constructs of certain institutions with the main aim of which to be for financial gain by targeting a certain target audience and or age group. This theory can be broken down into three certain categories
-Audience and institution
-Constructions
-Cultural belief

Construction of personas:
Dyer's states that stars are constructed so that audiences can seemingly relate to them and it is generally not what you see being what you get, for most of them have certain 'personas' so that audiences may like them. Stars are there to be consumed and made money from. These stars are made to fit the expectations of an audience, one of these is that they should all be desirable. This can link to Mulvey's theory of the male gaze theory as being someone who is a musical star and or celebrity comes with the burden of having to keep up with the expectations of others. These stars have to keep up with the latest fashion trends and stay relevant on social media. I would like to, with my band, have the persona which is likable for audiences in order to make them more successful as an indie band. De staat are represented positively in the media, due to the fact that they have as younger target audience so need to stay as positive role models and don't have to uphold a so called 'bad boy' reputation. 

A star's beliefs may be similar to that of an audience member which can make them seem similar and draw comparisons to the two. This can be seen with The Jonas brothers who wore purity rings. The reason that many stars attempt to have a widespread ideology is due to the fact that they need to reach a wider audience and create a larger fan base. When we come to creating our band, we will then attempt to replicate Dyer's star theory as it will mean that the band that we create will be more popular and will overall be seen in  a more positive light. We can see this loyalty to their fans by De staat's song "With Doctor" as Torre Florim includes the audience and makes himself seem like one of them showing that they're equal as seen below.This can be seen within the indie rock style due to the fact that The Arctic Monkeys in their lyrics make it apparent through their portrayal of teenage mischief and adolescence that they are trying to make it different for a younger target audience so that they can relate. As a group I'd like to have my group portray teenage problems as well as mischief in order to target the main audience of indie rock which is teenagers. Last year I didn't look much at what target audiences want to see so that was my downfall, so this year I will look deeper into what they want to see in order to make my band more succesful.


We can further see how the band Imagine Dragons relate to their audience by showing off they're normal people too and that they care about their fans, being positive role models by taking photos with them as seen below:

Dyer stated:
"In these terms it can be argued that stars are representations of persons which reinforce, legitimate or occasionally alter the prevalent preconceptions of what it is to be a human being within society. There is a good deal at stake in such conceptions. On the other hand, society suggests that certain norms of behaviour 

Dyer says

. On the other hand society suggests that certain norms of behaviour are appropriate to given groups of people, which many people in such groups would now wish to contest (eg the struggles over representation of blacks, women and gays in recent years).

Our band De Staat act like normal people rather than living a lavish lifestyle which is commonly seen throughout the pop genre, while the indie rock genre tends to keep things more subtle, due to the fact that their target audience is that of a middle class to working class audience, and living a rock star lifestyle with a big house and flashy cars won't appeal to such a target audience. When it comes to making our band/ artist, I think that I would make them appeal to the lower classes of society due to the fact that having them appeal to this class fits in with the stereotypical style of the indie rock genre which is so commonly successful. Imagine dragons are a good example of an indie rock band that doesn't correspond with Dyer's statement above as they keep to themselves and are never in the negative press so keep to themselves and their respective families. Respectively, Imagine dragons are seen on twitter to spread positive messages as seen with Dan Reynolds tweet:

As Dan appeals to the smaller proportions of society by talking about mental health and promoting it, this fits into Dyer's star theory as many others have the same ideals as him and for him to speak out on it represents him as a role model as well as someone that audiences can sympathize with.

The tour poster in question can be seen to appeal to an Asian market, due to the fact that there is a Chinese dragon, with the water dragon being representative of Chinese culture as the water dragons were seen as the symbols of Asia, while the juxtaposing fire dragons moved to the western world. It still pays homage to a wide audience which is located in Asia, even though the tour was occurring in San Francisco. It appeals to their niche audience due to there being a link to inhabitants of the San Francisco area, creating a bond and out a link between the band and the audience through the use of the iconic bridge in the background. The colour scheme being of a light blue, connotes tranquility as well as something being soothing. This could be the ideology that they are attempting to introduce to their audience, which is linked to that of positive feelings and their links through Dyer's theory as to them being someone to look up to and share the same feelings towards certain ideas and topics.