The document discusses the construction of a band's "star image" through their promotional materials. It analyzes how the band Faulkes portrayed qualities like youthfulness, originality, creativity/talent, and success against the odds in their pop promo video, CD covers, and posters. These materials aim to position the band as simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for audiences while also keeping them present and absent to drive continued consumption of the band's image and products.

1. Introduction A ‘star’ is an image- not a real person- their image is constructed out of the surrounding media for a purpose. To attract and appeal to an audience. For this reason exactly we constructed our bands star image around a more ‘organic’ structure, and therefore attempted to appeal to a more focused target audience with more individual needs. Using a range of materials, for example advertising and magazines, a band and their record label will try be successful, stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings and they depend on this subsidiary media so they can construct an image for themselves which can be marketed to their target audience.

2. Star Image The star image is made up of a range of meanings which are attractive to the target audiences. For our band I think that the following are relevant, and we have tried to convey these meanings in our Pop Promo, CD covers and Promotional Poster: Youthfulness. Originality. Creativity/Talent. Success against the odds. Sexual Magnetism.

3. Youthfulness The two people in our band, Melena and William, are both relatively young being 20/21, straight out of art school and beginning to start their lives. This comes across in both their clothing and the way they act in their video. We chose to dress them in quite on-trend clothing, because we knew from the start that we wanted them to appeal to a more youthful audience and with many teens/young-adults taking a huge interest in fashion today, this was a major stand-point for us. We put some quite elaborate stage make-up on Melena’s face which again drew attention to the fact that they are young and playful, up for experimenting with their looks.

4. Originality We wanted to illustrate to our audience that this band had something quite original going for them, with the combination of clothing, their instruments and the set we wanted to create something that the audience would be drawn to because they hadn’t really seen anything like it before. However, creating something new and innovative in terms of our pop promo proved more difficult then we thought. We then thought to just accentuate one part of the band ‘originality’ to create the sense that they were different. We thought the use of more performance shots which showed our artists being original in terms of their music and talent would prove more effective.

5. Creativity/Talent Part of ‘Faulkes’ star image was the fact that they met in art school and then went on to create their band. We wanted this to play a massive part in their pop promo so their creativity was highlighted to the audience. Again reinforcing the Organic nature of the band. All of our concept shots were created around this idea of ‘Faulkes’ being ‘arty’. Our boat scene was created entirely out of false means, the waves, boat and sky were all artificially and theatrically created. We did this as so to tap into the audiences senses and hopefully bring this concept idea to life within their imagination. Again with the Bike sequence we wanted to emphasise the bands creativity and used moving photographic images in the background that would show this. Also the background that we created would portray this very effectively as it is an actual piece of art that one of our group members created.

6. Success against the odds Faulkes would be considered lucky to have made it in the music industry, being young and coming from Sweden they are breaking into the British Music Industry through small means. Relying purely on their organic musical talent and exotic star image. The public may relate their Swedish routes to the success of ABBA a Swedish band from the 70’s who shot to fame through their win in the Eurovision song contest. Faulkes are an unlikely band to have made it to fame and their fans will appreciate where they have come from and how they got there. Sweden is known for its eco-friendly attitude and with this being a trend among Britons at the moment they will be able to relate our band to this attitude.

7. Sexual Magnetism For Faulkes, sexual magnetism wasn’t a major thing that we felt they had to have in order to attract their audience. However there was a slight promiscuity in the way in which Melena was dancing an occasionally flashing her midriff. This wasn’t really intentional, nor it is a necessity for the band, but both Melena and William are attractive people and will therefore draw in both a male and female admirers. You could argue that this slight provocative-ness is not enough for it to be noticed, but after debating we decided that it is in fact these slight hints of flirtation that will entice and audience, after all the song is actually about a relationship between a man and a woman be it a good one or not.

8. Richard Dyer Richard Dyer developed a theory whereby he stated that the ‘Star Image’ is incoherent. It is incomplete and open, he says this is because it is based upon two key paradoxes: The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer. The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer.

9. Paradox 1 “ The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer.” What Dyer means by this paradox is that the star must have both a normal, relatable side to them, whereby the audience can feel similarities between them and star. But then they must also have that something extra, something special about them that normal every-day people don’t have. An ‘extraordinary’ talent or image etc that the general public wouldn’t normally be able to attain. For Faulkes this is highly applicable, they have what everybody else could have- they are wearing quite normal, fashionable clothing and playing standard instruments. These are the ordinary things that their audience would be able to go and buy in an attempt to imitate them. However, when we look beyond their physical appearance we can see that they have an extraordinary element too. This is to do with the artistic feel to their set and how they have incorporated their art school talent into their music. Also their attitude towards their music, in the video they are quite relaxed and seem to be taking a more calm approach to their music. This sort of attitude in ‘celebrity’ is often quite desirable. Then we see their kookiness come through in how they have customised their outfits- For example Melena’s exaggerated make-up.

10. Paradox 2 “The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer.” This paradox is very much based on the idea that the Band would want to leave their audience wanting more and more. For Faulkes this was another vital guideline in which we aimed to succeed in. We have used this idea of keeping the audience wanting more in all of our media- the pop promo, the CD cover and the promotional poster. As is often the case these boundaries are kept in place through the use of direct address, as with Faulkes and in in their video we used this convention to make contact with the audience but then also had the power to take it away so the public are left alone. Also though creating an imaginary place in our concept sequences the audience would be aware that they will never be able to go there and therefore will be aware of the stars absence. Whereas in the performance sections it is very similar to being at a gig of theirs so they would be able to connect with these scenes and feel the sense of presence.

11. Star image continued… This incoherence of the star image ensures that audiences continually strive to ‘complete’ or ‘make sense’ of their image in their own minds. To keep this continually process up, the audience must also continually consume the star though his/hers products e.g. buying the CD, a Magazine with them on the cover, or their latest t-shirt. In the music industry, the bands performance seems to promise the completion of this image- however this is ultimately always unsatisfying. This means that fans will go away determined to continue consuming the star in order to carry on attempting to complete their star image.

12. Finally the star image can be used to position the consumer in relation to dominate social values (that is hegemony). Depending upon the artist, this may mean that the audience are positioned against the mainstream (though only to a limited degree, since they are still consumers within a capitalist system) or within the mainstream, or somewhere in between. Faulkes attempts to go against the mainstream social values, they reject the dominant patriarchal hegemony of the music industry by having Melena (a female) as their lead singer. The band also has a softer image then most in the music industry, they do not use the fact that they have a woman as there lead artist as an opportunity to sexually exploit her. Unlike many female artists these days who have become commercial exhibitionists, accentuating their sexuality at any given moment e.g. Lady Gaga, Britney and Madonna. Faulkes have a more subtlety towards this and do not construct their image around the male gaze. Faulkes could be seen as positioned in-between the mainstream as they project an image of individuality and originality but also conform to the mainstream with the kind of ‘TV bard’ music that they write and produce. However they do have an extra edge in they way that they promote and organic, eco-friendly image. With this issue of ‘recycling’ being an controversial issue in recent times, it has given them a competitive advantage and we have used this when making their CD cover and Poster.