Richard Dyer developed the Star Theory to analyze how pop stars are constructed images rather than real people. Pop stars have carefully crafted personas designed to attract audiences and generate revenue. Rihanna exemplifies this as her persona evolved from "good girl" to "bad girl" through her explicit music videos and relationships. She attracts large audiences by collaborating with other stars and changing her image to keep fans engaged. Pop stars like Rihanna are manufactured by record labels to create trends that maximize profits from music, concerts, and merchandise.

1. Richard Dyer’s Star
Theory
By Mohammed Mehbobur Rahman

2. Richard Dyer
Richard dyer was born in 1945; he is a professor in the field of film department as well as an English academic. He
specialises in the representation of sexuality, race and gender; he also specialises in the field of cinematography,
his biggest accomplishment was creating the ‘Star Theory’.
In media terms, popstars and pop performers are not the same thing; the difference between the both is that a pop
performer is someone who performs pop music. However, a pop star is someone whose identity/persona is not
restricted to their music. Through promotion of the artist and an uprise in status, pop performers can easily
become pop stars. This can be done in many ways, from publicity stunts like attending premiers/parties; being in
the news or magazines or from things like dating other famous artists/actors. A strategy like dating other artist is a
way of two markets merging together: Actors like Tom Hiddleston dated the pop star Taylor Swift; both stars
promoted each other and their status went up. This created more audiences and the pop star gained more
attention from her music video as it was about her break ups between famous artists/actors.

3. Rihanna’s relation to Richard Dyer’s Theory:
Robyn Rihanna Fenty uses her middle name for her stage name; she was born on
the 20th of February, 1988 in St michaels, Barbados. She is both song writer and
singer as well as being a part of the acting career starring in movies like
Battleship. The first record label she ever signed with was for Def Jam Records.

4. Stars of Construction
In the eyes of the audiences audiences, stars are shown to be real. However,
they’re really artificial constructions. Firstly, Rihanna was constructed to start off
her career as a ‘good girl’. Gradually, her innocent persona began to change and
she revealed her ‘bad girl’ image; this is constructed by her objectifying herself in
her videos and during premiers, exposing herself and being in intimate
relationship with people like Chris Brown.

5. Stars of construction continued
Stated by Richard Dyer: “ A star is an image not a real person that is constructed
out of a range of materials such as marketing, advertising and also films/music
videos.
Every POP stars have individual USP; this is what makes them get recognized by
audiences and it is like a trademark for artists to become more famous. Rihanna’s
USP is her persona; even in videos the phrase ‘good girl gone bad’ is used. Other
examples of artists having USP are artists like Nicki Minaj and her bizarre hair and
clothes.

6. Industry and Audience
Stars are manufactured by companies in order to create revenue by them
performing in concerts, making videos and selling merchandises. As there is a
high demand, consumers want more so companies will need to come up with new
ideas and maybe new artists. They forge artists into POP stars with new music
styles in order to create a new trend: Psy is an artist who created such a big trend
which was the Gangnam Style back in 2012; his music video went viral and
people started to copy him and share videos on video of them doing the Gangnam
Style.
Rihanna attracts more people due to her collaborating with other famous artists.
She is always changing her appearance and persona. Keeping her audience
satisfied and not bored with the same thing.

7. Ideology and culture
Now, the ideology and culture that artists hold are different compared to how it was 20
years ago; many people look up to artists and see them as role models. Any fashion
trend or anything that makes artists look different will be copied by their audience.
Magazines and social media are key marketing strategy the heavily influences the
mass audience. Artists like Kanye and Taylor swift frequently tweet on twitter; this is a
method of publicity stunt and this creates a buzz and this could lead to any potential
media product. For example, Akon was badly reflected on by the media as he was in
the club with an under age girl; he then made a song called ‘blame on me’, this got
popular and everyone’s view of Akon changed and he was seen a bad person
anymore. Rihanna is an artist who already had many followers; her fame and
popularity grew when she went out with Chris Brown and both artists would collaborate
with each other. However, when she was beaten up by Chris Brown, more people
started to have sympathy for her and she gained more audiences after she became a
solo artist again.

8. Character and Personality
Before an artist ever becomes a star, their personality and character are realistic
and it is as close as it can get of them showing their true identity. They are
average people who generally have the same beliefs and views. However, when
they become stars, everything changes and their lifestyle is completely different.
The way they appear can be manipulated by the company and can be altered to
make artists look close to perfection with things like plastic surgery or makeup.
Rihanna has changed her style drastically and she has taken a lot of step to
becoming an idol; she wear less clothes to expose more of her body to show her
figure which in the eyes of the audience is ‘perfect’.