2. Richard Dyer’s Star Theory
• Richard Dyer said that a star is an image
created by music companies through
advertising, magazines, music videos etc, and
not a real person. His theory is that they are
made simply to make the company money, by
being advertised for a specific audience.
3. Miley Cyrus
• Dyer’s theory can be used for many artists, for example, Miley
Cyrus. Miley Cyrus is not just known for her music, but also
her outfits and for her explicit performing. She began her
career on the Disney Channel show Hannah Montana, and her
audience was much different to the one she has today. She
was not a pop star, but a pop performer as she would sing pop
music on the show and with her own album.
4. 1. How do you become a pop star?
• Toward the end of the show Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus began to make a
change in her image and her music, mainly with her album ‘Can’t Be Tamed’. And
now she has changed her image much more with the release of her album
‘Bangerz’. Now that Hannah Montana has ended, she changed her record label
and changed her music style as well, which has now made her into a pop star
instead of just a pop performer.
5. 2. Stars as constructions.
• Miley Cyrus is constructed as an artificial image.
The way she dresses and acts when she performs
is not “real” but is constructed by herself and her
management. Miley Cyrus has many unique
selling points, one is mainly her change from a
Disney Channel pop performer to an explicit pop
star. Her music video ‘We Can’t Stop’ is explicit
and has been parodied, which advertises her
more. She began to wear clothing at concerts such
as bikinis, attending parties with other celebrities,
and is advertised a lot more now that her image
has changed. Her representation is iconic now
that she has made a change. Though she has been
changing over the years, beginning with ‘Can’t Be
Tamed’, she has made a change that has made her
much more famous than she was before, her most
iconic representation is her use of ‘twerking’, and
her explicit clothing.
6. 3. Industry and audience.
• Pop stars make the music industry money. The more famous they
are and the more fans they’ve got, then the more money their
record label makes. They make the star into a popular image
created by them to make them more money. Miley Cyrus does this
by changing her audience, through her music and image. Though
she changed record labels, her new record label gave her a new
image and gave her a new style of music in order to make her more
into a pop star, and therefore give her more fans, which makes the
label more money. Miley Cyrus is made to be more of a pop star by
using music and fashion trends that are popular and liked by fans.
Her music was changed from rock/pop songs and ballads to more
hip hop/RnB oriented songs, which gave her more fans, making her
record label more money.
7. 4. Ideology and culture.
• Miley Cyrus represents many attitudes. She is
known for partying, smoking and drinking, and
believes that they are fun things for her fans
to do. Her Facebook and Twitter accounts are
mainly for promoting her tour and album so
that more people go to her concerts and buy
her album, though she often posts things to
do with her family and herself on Twitter of
what she is doing.
8. 5. Character and personality.
• Miley Cyrus has her own character and personality, which
Dyer’s theory says is to make the record label money. Miley
Cyrus started out as a ‘real’ person when she was a pop
performer, but because of star transformation she became
less ‘real’, and more of what people like or could be
attracted to in a sexual way. Miley Cyrus’ character and
personality has always been a thin and pretty girl, but she
was originally a fun pop Disney girl who wouldn’t do
anything bad or explicit such as smoking or partying.
Though now that her image has changed, she is still known
for being thin and pretty but is also known for having a
much more explicit personality and is known for things
such as partying, smoking and drinking.
