Music Magazine Research

1. Music Magazine
Research and Planning
Sandra Galas

2. Richard Dyer
• Richard Dyer was born in 1954. Since 2086 he
is an English academic, holding a professorship
in the Department of Film Studies at King’s
College London.
• He is specialised in cinema, queer theory, and
the relationship between entertainment and
representation of race, sexuality and gender.
• His first book called “Stars” from 1979. Inside
the book he developed the idea that the audience
is influenced by the perception of its stars.
• He has analysed critics’ writing, advertising and
magazines to explore the importance of
stardom.
• His Star Theory is the idea that celebrities are
constructed by institutions for financial gain and
target a specific audience.

3. Richard Dyer Theory
His theory is divided into five areas:
• The star as a construction – it means that the star is
not a real person, as its constructed through
advertisements and music videos.
• The star as a commodity – they are created to make
profit of related products such as posters or clothes.
Record labels create similar stars such as One
Direction and The Wanted.
• The star as an ideology – stars will represent a certain
social group therefore they create certain ideology.
This will make the fans often copy their style and
share similar views. For example many fans of
Beyoncé will follow her style and share similar
views.
• The star should be both ordinary and extraordinary –
the star has to understand and follow the audience to
relate to them. However, with extraordinary talents it
will make them be role model by the general public.
• The star should be both present and absent – the star
has to be present in our lives through social media or
involved in chat between friends but also be absent in
our lives meaning that they are not actually there.

4. How it relates to music
industry?
• Stars are created by the music
industry to serve for a purpose,
which means to make money out of
audience. There are various
elements of a star persona by
buying records and becoming fans.
• All record companies shape their
stars. They tend to manufacture
what they think their audience
want, hence the nature of many
bands or teen bands.

5. Examples of His Theory
• Rihanna is an example of Richard Dyers idea of a
star – she is known for her identity which doesn’t
relate to her singing career. She used to be a pop
performer and not having an identity past her own.
The nation transformed her into a pop star after her
album “Good Girl Gone Bad”. When she had a
celebrity boyfriend, she became present in most
magazines cover and attended many famous parties
and premiers. People did recognise her not just for
her music but for her image. She became a huge
identity after 7 years.
• Richard Dyer believes that a true pop stars last
significance if they make sufficient sociological or
cultural impact. One of the examples is that
Rihanna has a charity which made an impact on
sociality. The charity is called “The Believe
Foundation” in 2006, their aim is to aid 10,000
people in need of bone marrow transplants, but
they also want to recruited and register donors.

6. How will you apply this
theory?
How will your star in the music video show star persona, represent age/
gender/ sexuality?
My star will be representing age by wearing natural and soft makeup and hairstyle to suit teenager life stage.
She will be a young adult, starting her career in pop music industry and YouTuber recording covers, meaning
that she was interested in music since young age. The gender of my magazine would mainly be targeted at
female, but I’m aiming for both gender. In my questionnaire most people answered that they expect a female
posture to be direct gaze, sexualised and showing body. However, I decided that my star will show some her
body parts but still respect herself and bringing up the old fashion from 90’s.
How will your star persona appeal to your target audience?
Star persona is really important for the music industry, as it helps them to gain more money when recording a
new album or make items that represents your band so that your fans could get them. My star persona will
appeal to my target audience by respecting herself and showing high quality of hard work.
How will your star persona show music genre conventions?
My star persona will show the music genre conventions by wearing fashionable clothes that links to dance pop
music. I’ve been inspired by Q Magazine cover where Cherly Cole uses direct address and slightly opens her
lips to represent confidence and sexuality.